Hello,

I have some questions on how the frontend, backend, and remote communicate with each other.

If the tuner cards are in the backend, say in the basement, what do I need for a remote on the frontend?

Here is my config:
frontend:
Asus P2B-DS dual 500's w/ big heatsinks (no fans)
512mb (4x 128's) PC100 ECC SDRAM
2x 40gb HD's RAID 1
Lite-ON LDW-811S DVD burner
nVidia PCI videocard w/ 64mb ram & S-Video out
Soundblaster LIVE
dual gigabit w/ crossover to backend
What do I need to do for a remote for this?

backend:
Dell Poweredge 2300
Dual CuMine 1.0 GHZ P III's
6x 73 gb 10K rpm hot-swap drives in RAID 5 (350 gigs)
2x 9.2 gb 7200 RPM non-hot-swap drives RAID 1 for OS
Hauppage PVR-150 tuner
Generic BT848 tuner
2048 mb PC133 REG-ECC ram
dual gigabit port NIC w/ crossover to frontend

Do I need a soundcard in the backend?
I'll be using the on-board video for the backend.

I also have a poweredge 2400 that I am decomissioning in the coming weeks, I'll make that my primary backend and the 2300 the slavebackend. The 2400 has dual Tualatin 1.4 Ghz / 512 kb L2 cache CPU's, 2 gigs PC133 reg ecc ram. I'll move the HD's and NIC to the 2400 & put 2 4.3 gig RAID 1 scsi drives, and 6 18.6 gig hot-swap raid 5 drives in the 2300. I'll also keep the current tuner cards in the 2300 & get a PVR-500 and a PVR 350 for the masterback end.

Again, I'll have a gigabit crossover cables between the masterbackend, slavebackend, and frontend computers.

The PE 2400 also has a 60 min UPS unit & dual redundant PSU's.

Is there anything different that you recommend?

Thanks,

~ryan

Any remote on the front end will work to drive the frontend menus. All the front end is doing is playing back recordings on the backend, so the tuner cards (and their remotes) are irrelevant, basically.

Look around for what people are using... I've got an ATI Remote Wonder on my frontend and it works OK.