MythTV

[Sabz5150]

Well, I've finally collected the hardware to start up a decent Myth setup. I've installed and blown away the system enough to get a good feel for how it handles and all the quirks of getting it installed.

All in all I'm rather impressed, its features are incredible for those willing to put the time into getting it running smoothly. It's the choice for ultimate control over your media content.

Anywho, here's the backend setup:

-Athlon64 3000+ 2.0GHz processor
-256MB o' shitty DDR200 RAM (best I had for the time, this will be a gig of DDR400 soon)
-geForce FX5200 video card, 128MB RAM
-2x Hitachi DeathStar 250GB drives in RAID0 for video storage
-1x Seagate 250GB for music & emulator/rom storage
-Gigabit NIC
-Hauppauge PVR150 tuner with hardware encoder (I'll add a PVR500 to this for a total of three tuners & encoders)
-Standard/Substandard DVDRW drive
-CoolerMaster CMStacker case
-2x 400W PSUs

For those who have never seen a CMStacker case... that thing is *MASSIVE*. 11 5.25 bays, dual PSU capable and the sumbitch has casters!

Needless to say, room to grow

The frontend(s) will be the laptops and a Duron 800 miniATX system in the smallest case I can manage. All in all, if you're looking for a PVR system and MCE won't cut it... Myth is the answer.

 

[CRX-YEM]

nice, I've always wanted to build a MythTV setup, what flavor of linux is it running on ??? I'd like to see how this goes keep us updated.

 

[TurboMirage]

what is the point of "MythTV"?

 

[Sabz5150]

nice, I've always wanted to build a MythTV setup, what flavor of linux is it running on ??? I'd like to see how this goes keep us updated.

Gentoo, AMD64.

what is the point of "MythTV"?

Imagine a Tivo that is accessible from any system on your network. Now, add to that the ability to rip complete DVDs (with all the menus and special features), include all of your emulators, downloaded videos, music, toss in a weather monitor, news reader, transcoder for burning recorded shows to DVD, a web interface for scheduling (and watching recorded shows!), all with a very nice UI for attaching a frontend to your TV and you've got about 60% of what a MythTV system can do.

That system is merely the backend that handles all of the tasks. You can have as many frontends as you wish.

 

[TurboMirage]

oh, so it can do everything my laptop can except in a huge non-mobile package

 

[Sabz5150]

oh, so it can do everything my laptop can except in a huge non-mobile package

Show me your 750GB tri-tuner laptop

 

[TurboMirage]

dont need three tuners, and i dont have cable but i have full input and output/recording capabilities and burn to dual layer DVD from a source...

ive also got about 600GB of external storage if i need it, a pair of 250gb hdd's and my laptop 100gb hdd.

 

[Sabz5150]

dont need three tuners, and i dont have cable but i have full input and output/recording capabilities and burn to dual layer DVD from a source...

ive also got about 600GB of external storage if i need it, a pair of 250gb hdd's and my laptop 100gb hdd.

Ah but then it isn't as portable

The backend isn't supposed to be portable. It's massive for a reason... a multi-terabyte reason. The frontends can be anything from the PC attached to the high def flatscreen in the living room or a laptop. Heck, one guy put a frontend in his car and used his cell service for net access. That's a slick little setup IMHO.

What you have is excellent for your needs, serving up content for yourself. The idea of Myth is to serve content to an entire home or building. It's a Tivo on every performance enhancing drug known to man.

 

[TurboMirage]

its plenty portable when i plug them in via usb2. i can have all that storage in my laptop bag. i could also make everything network accessible from everywhere if i plug them in on my desktop in my office.

 

[Sabz5150]

its plenty portable when i plug them in via usb2. i can have all that storage in my laptop bag. i could also make everything network accessible from everywhere if i plug them in on my desktop in my office.

Ya still lack the network accessible live TV via tuners.

 

[TurboMirage]

thats fine as i said i do not have cable television in my home. its a waste of money.

ive got an old k-world tuner to pop onto any machine if i want to. its usb.

 

[Sabz5150]

thats fine as i said i do not have cable television in my home. its a waste of money.

ive got an old k-world tuner to pop onto any machine if i want to. its usb.

For those of us who do however...

 

[TurboMirage]

if i want to watch a show ill demonoid it

 

[CRX-YEM]

Sabz, do you think that a
Tyan S2462 MB w/dual AMD MP 1600+
2GB ram
geForce FX5200 video card
800GB (LVM)
would be a good base to work off of??

 

[Sabz5150]

Sabz, do you think that a
Tyan S2462 MB w/dual AMD MP 1600+
2GB ram
geForce FX5200 video card
800GB (LVM)
would be a good base to work off of??

Absolutely. More than enough ram and drive space out the ass. The processors will only matter when it comes to transcoding into divx or when ripping/burning DVDs if your tuners have hardware encoders. Get a Hauppauge 150 for single tuner or a 500 for dual. The hardware encoders coupled with the FX5200's hardware mpeg decoder will keep your processors' load extremely low.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Cool stuff. I have no need for a PVR setup... at least not yet. My TV computer's specs are much more humble- but it will be silent.

 

[Sabz5150]

New goodies were acquired!

Finally snagged my 2nd tuner. That one also has a broadcast HD tuner on it. So the backend now has two analog cable tuners and one digital HD tuner. Starting to get sharp

First frontend box. Quiet. Tiny. Should do the trick.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Mine's going to be silent because of the water...

 

[Sabz5150]

Mine's going to be silent because of the water...

Can't go wrong with watercooling

Funny enough, the backend server is quieter than the frontend system. It's almost dead silent except for the occasional ticking from the drives. I've gotta do something to shut that frontend system up for minimal scratch.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Dynamat, water cooling, larger slower fans...