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Another series of newbie questions
http://forum.linhes.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=17326
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Author:  stiev3 [ Sun Nov 25, 2007 1:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Another series of newbie questions

I'm planning out a myth backend/file server system for my home network. My ideal outcome is a system that will accept media from any networked system and serve it out in addition to its role as a pvr.

I have relatively no experience with the PVR end of things. My list of questions is as follows:

1)
My cable provider (Cox) has provided me with a motorola set-top box for digital cable. I will be upgrading to their HD set-top receiver in short order, which I assume will be another motorola set-top. In regards to IR blasters, it's my understanding that if I wanted to record one HD stream, and watch another real-time stream at the same time, I would need to ask for 2 HD set-top boxes from Cox. I would then need 2 serial ports available, and 2 IR-blasters taped to the fronts of the boxes, correct? To expand my 1 serial port mobo to 2, I'm looking at usb>serial adapters.

2)
How many tuner cards would I need if I wanted to have myth handle 3 total streams simultaneously: 2 HD and 1 SD.

3)
Which tuner(s) would be recommended? I do not plan on using any antennas. Just want to record what comes out of the set-tops and the SD cable. If this isn't enough info to make a recommendation, what info is needed?

4)
Would this sort of hardware be able to pull off my goal?:

Backend:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 2.2GHz LGA 775 65W Processor
MB: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
Ram: 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
HDD: 2x500GB WD 7200Rpm SATA

Frontend:
CPU: Same as above
MB: GIGABYTE GA-73UM-S2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7150 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Ram: 1GB
HDD: none(attempting a diskless minimyth install using boot from flash device)

Any help is appreciated.

Author:  ceenvee703 [ Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:42 pm ]
Post subject: 

Unfortunately I have bad news right at your question #1.

You cannot record a HD signal from an HD cable box unless the HD cable box has a FireWire (IEEE 1394) port AND if that port is active. AND even then it may only let you record a subset of the channels that you're getting on the cable box.

If you record via Firewire, you can also channel-change via Firewire (no need for IR blasting) and you don't need a tuner card (the set-top box is your tuner and you transmit the data to your system via Firewire). You do of course need FireWire on your motherboard or add it via a card.

There is no way I know of to capture HD via MythTV and a set-top box's component or HDMI outputs.

You could use a HD tuner card (or the HD HomeRun external box) and connect your cable directly to these cards (no set-top box required), BUT you will only be able to record unencrypted channels. Often these are only your local channels; the vast majority of the digital cable channels won't be recordable in this way.

I guess I would say, if you want to record three streams (2HD, 1SD), I'd get a HD HomeRun and a PVR-150. Then you could use the 150's IR blaster to change channels on a single cable box and record all those channels, and the HD Home Run to record whatever's available in the clear on your cable system.

Author:  slowtolearn [ Sun Nov 25, 2007 4:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Another series of newbie questions

stiev3 wrote:
I'm planning out a myth backend/file server system for my home network. My ideal outcome is a system that will accept media from any networked system and serve it out in addition to its role as a pvr.

I have relatively no experience with the PVR end of things. My list of questions is as follows:

1)
My cable provider (Cox) has provided me with a motorola set-top box for digital cable. I will be upgrading to their HD set-top receiver in short order, which I assume will be another motorola set-top. In regards to IR blasters, it's my understanding that if I wanted to record one HD stream, and watch another real-time stream at the same time, I would need to ask for 2 HD set-top boxes from Cox. I would then need 2 serial ports available, and 2 IR-blasters taped to the fronts of the boxes, correct? To expand my 1 serial port mobo to 2, I'm looking at usb>serial adapters.

2)
How many tuner cards would I need if I wanted to have myth handle 3 total streams simultaneously: 2 HD and 1 SD.
AFAIK, depending on the STB provided you can record over firewire - Search the forums for your specific STB.

stiev3 wrote:
3)
Which tuner(s) would be recommended? I do not plan on using any antennas. Just want to record what comes out of the set-tops and the SD cable. If this isn't enough info to make a recommendation, what info is needed?
Browse the Tier 1/2 forums. Also see
http://knoppmythwiki.org/index.php?page=WhatCardYouUse
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Tuner_Card

stiev3 wrote:
4)
Would this sort of hardware be able to pull off my goal?:

Backend:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 2.2GHz LGA 775 65W Processor
MB: GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
Ram: 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
HDD: 2x500GB WD 7200Rpm SATA

Frontend:
CPU: Same as above
MB: GIGABYTE GA-73UM-S2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7150 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Ram: 1GB
HDD: none(attempting a diskless minimyth install using boot from flash device)
Don't know about minimyth on flash, but the specs look fine to me. I would search the forums to make sure nobody has any specific issues with the motherboards you are planning to use.

EDIT: OK, good, looks like ceenvee703 took care of 1 and 2 /EDIT

Author:  Kirk [ Sun Nov 25, 2007 11:03 pm ]
Post subject: 

Howdy,

Regarding the minimyth install, why not go with a diskless frontend via NFS? I don't follow the minimyth development but there might be a compatibility problem between different versions of mythtv with the two installs? Just a thought.

Regards,
Kirk.

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