Does each media director need a TV Tuner?

[MarkDavidoff]

I am considering setting up linuxMCE in my home and I have a very puzzling issue, having never used it.

What is the point in having a TV Tuner in the CORE rather than the media directors?

If I wanted to watch a different channel on each media director PC, then surely I would need a separate TV Tuner card for each PC?

The "newbie" media director setups in the wiki don't have any TV tuners.

[Stutch]

Mark,

You do not have to install a TV Tuner card in each Media Director.  The whole idea behind this project is the sharing of your media.  I would recommend putting a couple TV Tuners in your core.  With that set up, you can access your recorded/live TV from any media director.  Word to the wise: Gigabit Ethernet between each device is essential!  Streaming video will not work well on a 10/100 network.


Good luck!

[posde]

Another note here: you can put TV cards anywhere, in the core and/or in media directors. Sometimes, putting a TV card in a media director makes sense, as most of the time, there already is an antenna outlet near your TV.

No matter where your TV cards are, any media director is able to utilize any TV card in your whole setup.

Regarding 100mbit vs. 1gbit networks. Make sure you have a QUALITY switch. A good quality 3Com, Cisco or HP switch 100mbit, will be better than a cheap run of the mill gigabit switch.

rgds
Oliver

[Viking]

Hi,

I have a small question here.

How fast is the MD Switching with a local (DVB-s) TV card and how fast without a local card ?

VDR at the moment can switch DVB-s channels in around a second. But streaming VDR to VDR takes around 4 seconds.

Greetings
Viking