LinHES Forums :: View topic - My First MythTV PVR, questions on setup

IMO, your system is serious overkill for an SD system, yet lacks the HD capacity and tuners for an HD system. If you really are just going to use it for SD, pull 1GB RAM and use it somewhere else until you go HD. Maybe not even then. I have a 3-tuner HD system, and I'm fine on 1GB RAM.

Unless you're building from junk, I can't imagine anyone in the US building an analog system. Your PVR-150s will be obsolete:
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 11:59:59 PM

Fortunately, most of the rest of your system is ready for HD, even if you aren't. And MythTV is the BEST way to handle HDTV, IMO.

As for SD card, from what I hear you saying the SD would not improve the performance of this system due to the fact it has so much RAM/CPU...
What is your suggestion â€¦..
1) Do not install SD and remove 1gig Ram
OR
2) Remove 1 gig ram IF installing SD Card

to make it look nice and semi blend in with VCR/DVD/Tivo, on top of the TV, seeming as the ladies donâ€™t like seeing a huge honking computer box sitting next to the TV

one question, when I go in to the MYTH information it tell me that 95% of the RAM is being used, is that just a Linux thing? Like it will fill the RAM no mater how much I have inside?

No need to pull the UDMA drive -- you can add SATA and run them both. Here is how I am set up:

1. IDE primary master drive (400GB) has root and /myth.

2. IDE secondary master is my DVD burner.

3. SATA 1 (500 GB) is my extra drive.

You can use LVM to make the /myth partition and the sata drive look like 1 massive disk. See the LVM article in the knoppmyth wiki for details -- http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=LvmHowTo

Marc

if I follow the steps on that page will it remove my current recordings?

rowdan wrote:

You can do HDTV with that CPU, and only half the RAM that you have on it. Leaving it there won't hurt, but you could pull it out and enjoy it on some other machine. Even when you go HD, you really only need 1GB.

SD would be a bad idea for swap as it has a limited amount of read/write cycles, yes I know this number is large and has been increasing, but I don't really think it's appropriate.

Author:	rowdan [ Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:06 pm ]
Post subject:	My First MythTV PVR, questions on setup
Ok so I set up my first Myth TV PVR a few weeks ago..... Code: Micro ATX Case 2 GIG PC6400 800MHz RAM AMD 64 x2 3200+ CPU 64 Meg PCI-E LP Video [i]W/TV out[/i] 200 Gig UDMA 100 Hard drive PVR-150 PVR-150 Ok so now I have been thinking about possible upgrades I want to install 1) SD Card reader so I can put in a 2-4 Gig card to move the swap/ram stuff to it 2) adding more storage space, IE SATA HD Q1a) is trying to run the swap/ram files on a SD Card a good idea, and / or will give me a better performance? Q1b) assuming I do go this route, is a USB reader or, or should I search for an IDE card reader? Q2a) the MoBo I am using has the SATA capability, is it wise to run the file system/ OS on a UDMA and then use a second drive SATA to add more storage? Or should I just remove the UDMA and reinstall to a SATA? Q2b) Assuming I add a SATA to the existing UDMA, how would I go about doing this with out loosing data already recorded? Is there a option in the setup or maybe I need to use the Linux term. ?? And if there is any feed back about what I currently have and/or how i might improve my current system.......

Author:	thornsoft [ Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:39 pm ]
Post subject:
IMO, your system is serious overkill for an SD system, yet lacks the HD capacity and tuners for an HD system. If you really are just going to use it for SD, pull 1GB RAM and use it somewhere else until you go HD. Maybe not even then. I have a 3-tuner HD system, and I'm fine on 1GB RAM. Unless you're building from junk, I can't imagine anyone in the US building an analog system. Your PVR-150s will be obsolete: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 11:59:59 PM Fortunately, most of the rest of your system is ready for HD, even if you aren't. And MythTV is the BEST way to handle HDTV, IMO.

Author:	rowdan [ Sun Apr 29, 2007 5:56 pm ]
Post subject:
Well I am building from some bits of junk but mostly HOT deals I can get extremely cheap, as for HighDef vs. Analog, as I said this is my first system I put together specifically Dedicated to PVRing, so at this time it is analog only, also keep in mind my first consideration for this system is to make it look nice and semi blend in with VCR/DVD/Tivo, on top of the TV, seeming as the ladies donâ€™t like seeing a huge honking computer box sitting next to the TV.... so my First consideration was using a Micro-ATX case.... this case is a about the same size as the Tivo and requires either LP(Low Profile) PCI cards or requires the use of USB devices.... so after the size consideration I then looked at what I want to do with it, FIRST step is to replace my Tivo currently set up as my primary PVR.... then after I have it up and running and the Tivo is no longer in the picture I have thought about making a more powerful system that can be placed in a closet some where to be the Primary Backend

Author:	rowdan [ Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:14 pm ]
Post subject:
thornsoft wrote: IMO, your system is serious overkill for an SD system, yet lacks the HD capacity and tuners for an HD system. If you really are just going to use it for SD, pull 1GB RAM and use it somewhere else until you go HD. Maybe not even then. I have a 3-tuner HD system, and I'm fine on 1GB RAM. Unless you're building from junk, I can't imagine anyone in the US building an analog system. Your PVR-150s will be obsolete: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 at 11:59:59 PM Fortunately, most of the rest of your system is ready for HD, even if you aren't. And MythTV is the BEST way to handle HDTV, IMO. Sorry for double post, I forgot to address the other items here.... The PVR-150s are the only card I have found that come LP, I added 2 to give me a "Dual Tuner" As for SD card, from what I hear you saying the SD would not improve the performance of this system due to the fact it has so much RAM/CPU... What is your suggestion â€¦.. 1) Do not install SD and remove 1gig Ram OR 2) Remove 1 gig ram IF installing SD Card

Author:	thornsoft [ Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:35 pm ]
Post subject:
rowdan wrote: As for SD card, from what I hear you saying the SD would not improve the performance of this system due to the fact it has so much RAM/CPU... What is your suggestion â€¦.. 1) Do not install SD and remove 1gig Ram OR 2) Remove 1 gig ram IF installing SD Card You can do HDTV with that CPU, and only half the RAM that you have on it. Leaving it there won't hurt, but you could pull it out and enjoy it on some other machine. Even when you go HD, you really only need 1GB.

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Author:	thornsoft [ Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:38 pm ]
Post subject:
rowdan wrote: to make it look nice and semi blend in with VCR/DVD/Tivo, on top of the TV, seeming as the ladies donâ€™t like seeing a huge honking computer box sitting next to the TV See mine: http://www.thornsoft.com/Misc/hometheatre/images/t_100_3290.jpg The Myth box is the 2nd black box from the top, same size as the HT receiver. As you can see, wifey doesn't mind. More pics, showing the whole project of building the oak stereo rack: http://www.thornsoft.com/Misc/hometheatre/

Author:	rowdan [ Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:45 pm ]
Post subject:
Ya, I donâ€™t know why I did not think of using a HTPC Case, but as I said Iâ€™m still in the learning stage and am open to suggestions, as for ram, my gaming box could probably make better use of the extra RAM, however before I pull it I do have one question, when I go in to the MYTH information it tell me that 95% of the RAM is being used, is that just a Linux thing? Like it will fill the RAM no mater how much I have inside?

Author:	nigelpearson [ Sun Apr 29, 2007 6:58 pm ]
Post subject:
rowdan wrote: one question, when I go in to the MYTH information it tell me that 95% of the RAM is being used, is that just a Linux thing? Like it will fill the RAM no mater how much I have inside? Basically, yes. If you run the "top" command, it will show something like: Code: Tasks: 79 total, 2 running, 77 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie Cpu(s): 2.0%us, 2.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 95.7%id, 0.0%wa, 0.3%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st Mem: 513276k total, 494664k used, 18612k free, 197260k buffers Now, first glance would say that on my machine, 494K out of 513K is being used, but look at the last figure - 197K buffered. This is an extra cache that Linux is using to speed up access to some things (like commonly accessed files). I suspect on your multi-gigabyte-RAM monster that figure is very large. It doesn't help system speed that much. Halve your RAM, and it will still perform very well.

Author:	rowdan [ Sun Apr 29, 2007 10:57 pm ]
Post subject:
OK so now what about Hard Drive? I currently am using a 200Gig UDMA100 drive but my MoBo can handle SATA, should I remove the UDMA drive? Or just add a SATA to whatâ€™s there?

Author:	marc.aronson [ Sun Apr 29, 2007 11:58 pm ]
Post subject:
No need to pull the UDMA drive -- you can add SATA and run them both. Here is how I am set up: 1. IDE primary master drive (400GB) has root and /myth. 2. IDE secondary master is my DVD burner. 3. SATA 1 (500 GB) is my extra drive. You can use LVM to make the /myth partition and the sata drive look like 1 massive disk. See the LVM article in the knoppmyth wiki for details -- http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=LvmHowTo Marc

Author:	rowdan [ Mon Apr 30, 2007 12:12 am ]
Post subject:
marc.aronson wrote: No need to pull the UDMA drive -- you can add SATA and run them both. Here is how I am set up: 1. IDE primary master drive (400GB) has root and /myth. 2. IDE secondary master is my DVD burner. 3. SATA 1 (500 GB) is my extra drive. You can use LVM to make the /myth partition and the sata drive look like 1 massive disk. See the LVM article in the knoppmyth wiki for details -- http://www.knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=LvmHowTo Marc VERY NICE..... One question thought, I already set up and had the knoppixmyth iso do a default format of all partitions, if I follow the steps on that page will it remove my current recordings?

Author:	thornsoft [ Mon Apr 30, 2007 6:08 am ]
Post subject:
rowdan wrote: if I follow the steps on that page will it remove my current recordings? You need to copy them somewhere safe first. Actually the whole /myth directory. Then copy it back, and you're back in business with a huge drive. I've got twin 300MB drives mounted this way.

Author:	bruce_s01 [ Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:31 am ]
Post subject:
thornsoft wrote: rowdan wrote: As for SD card, from what I hear you saying the SD would not improve the performance of this system due to the fact it has so much RAM/CPU... What is your suggestion â€¦.. 1) Do not install SD and remove 1gig Ram OR 2) Remove 1 gig ram IF installing SD Card You can do HDTV with that CPU, and only half the RAM that you have on it. Leaving it there won't hurt, but you could pull it out and enjoy it on some other machine. Even when you go HD, you really only need 1GB. SD would be a bad idea for swap as it has a limited amount of read/write cycles, yes I know this number is large and has been increasing, but I don't really think it's appropriate. As for the memory, I have 3 SD tuners (2xDVB-T and 1 PVR-x50) and I'm heavily into swap with 1 Gb of memory (from top): Code: Tasks: 236 total, 2 running, 232 sleeping, 0 stopped, 2 zombie Cpu(s): 0.3%us, 1.3%sy, 98.0%ni, 0.0%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.3%si, 0.0%st Mem: 1033068k total, 1010576k used, 22492k free, 20684k buffers Swap: 1959920k total, 1122656k used, 837264k free, 349508k cached Just for info: Code: uptime 14:32:16 up 30 days, 11:45, 1 user, load average: 1.25, 1.23, 1.22 Bruce S.

Author:	thornsoft [ Mon Apr 30, 2007 7:50 am ]
Post subject:
bruce_s01 wrote: SD would be a bad idea for swap as it has a limited amount of read/write cycles, yes I know this number is large and has been increasing, but I don't really think it's appropriate. Whoah.. Now I realize that maybe nobody is on the same page here? I wasn't thinking that SD == flash memory, but maybe that's what he's talking about? To OP: none of my comments apply to flash memory, I was assuming SD== "standard definition TV and tuner cards thereof".

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Author:	marc.aronson [ Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:08 am ]
Post subject:
I believe he was talking about flash memory for swap, etc. I agree w/ thornsoft that it doesn't seem like a change that would improve performance and I am also concerned about the limited number of write cycles. I do not think that your config will have performance issues, but when considering performance, the main issue I have seen is I/O bandwidth when doing hidef recordings concurrent with I/O intensive background jobs. Here are some hints and tips, but given that you are doing only std-def, you probably don't need to do this: 1. Use XFS instead of EXT3 for the /myth partition, as XFS is way more efficient at deleting large files. 2. Reduce the number of days of guide data that you download from 14 to 9. This will reduce the volume of I/O that occurs every time the scheduler runs. (The schedule runs frequently) 3. Make sure you don't have any extraneous sources defined. 4. Store your recordings on a separate drive from the drive that has the /root partition. This way I/O to the database can run concurrently with I/O for recordings. In your case, you could keep /myth on the IDE drive and move the /myth/tv directory to the SATA drive, which I believe results in each drive having it's own bus. Of course, then you would need to find something to do with all that left over storage on the IDE drive. Perhaps your music and photos can go there. 5. Periodically optimize your database using these steps: Code: 1. Make a database backup using mythbackup. 2. /etc/init.d/mythtv-backend stop 3. /etc/init.d/mysql stop 4. Disable any watchdog scripts you may be running. 5. cd /var/lib/mysql/mythconverg 6. myisamchk -r .MYI 7. myisamchk -a .MYI 8. /etc/init.d/mysql start 9. /etc.int.d/mythtv-backend start Marc