Question about Core and Media Directors

[Bassackwards]

Hi all,

I'm trying to find out if it possible to have OTA HD cards in the media director and not located in the core? I'm hoping that I can have an OTA HD card(s) in one media director and that it will store the HD .tp stream back to the core. Once stored at the core, I would then be able to playback on any media director ( assuming they have the ability to playback .tp/.ts streams ). Maybe it does this and I'm just to dense to see it but I want to make sure it will work before I go re-wiring 1/2 my house.

Thank You,

-Brian

[totallymaxed]

Hi all,

I'm trying to find out if it possible to have OTA HD cards in the media director and not located in the core? I'm hoping that I can have an OTA HD card(s) in one media director and that it will store the HD .tp stream back to the core. Once stored at the core, I would then be able to playback on any media director ( assuming they have the ability to playback .tp/.ts streams ). Maybe it does this and I'm just to dense to see it but I want to make sure it will work before I go re-wiring 1/2 my house.

Thank You,

-Brian

Hard drives (or partitions on drives) can be located either at the core (as many as your hardware will support) or can be attached to MD's or can be drives shared over samba from a Windows PC/some other device on the network. Its really completely flexible and as far as i can understand your question linuxmce already does what you are asking about.

[PeteK]

I'm guessing by "HD cards" the poster is asking about ATSC (OTA hi definition) capture cards. If I understand correctly, this is something that is supported in Myth.  Essentially, you'd need to run a myth backend on each of the media directors.  The master backend running on the core would schedule the tuners.  One easier option that you should look at would be using the HdHomerun (http://www.silicondust.com/)  This device puts two HD tuners on the network.  This is supported by MythTV and lets you avoid having to string coax to each of your MDs.  You can stick it somewhere out of the way.  This would simplify your MD MythTV setup as well.

[totallymaxed]

I'm guessing by "HD cards" the poster is asking about ATSC (OTA hi definition) capture cards. If I understand correctly, this is something that is supported in Myth.  Essentially, you'd need to run a myth backend on each of the media directors.  The master backend running on the core would schedule the tuners.  One easier option that you should look at would be using the HdHomerun (http://www.silicondust.com/)  This device puts two HD tuners on the network.  This is supported by MythTV and lets you avoid having to string coax to each of your MDs.  You can stick it somewhere out of the way.  This would simplify your MD MythTV setup as well.

Your right! Sorry Brian... I misunderstood your post ;-) Thanks PeteK for pointing my mistake out!

I'm in the UK so can I ask a question about HD? Why would you want to distribute them like this and secondly how many channels can a single card receive at the same time? I assume HD channels are mux'd like standard def or HD channels are here in Europe.

Cheers

Andrew

[Bassackwards]

Great, thanks for the replys guys. Sorry if my post was a bit confusing - it made sense to me when I posted but I guess I should have clarified with more detail. I will take a look at the mentioned product from Silicondust hoping it will keep me from crawling into the attic again

Thanks for the help

-Brian

[MasterC]

I'm in the UK so can I ask a question about HD? Why would you want to distribute them like this and secondly how many channels can a single card receive at the same time? I assume HD channels are mux'd like standard def or HD channels are here in Europe.

Cheers

Andrew

I'm not sure about what you mean by why would you want to distribute them like this, but I assume you are asking why the OP wants to have his media directors also be HD capture sources.  In that case it is likely do to cabling.  If they already have cables ran to various rooms in the house, then by having each media director be, in essence, a mythbackend, they can use multiple HD tuners without having to cram them all inside a single box; the upside is ease of having multiple HD sources, the major and obvious downside is that every machine must be configured, always on (when you expect them to be, or able to be remotely turned on at will).

One great alternative is the HDHomeRun which means no need to have every system in the house always on or to have multiple "backends" setup.  Instead 1 backend with several HDHomeRuns or even a single HDHomeRun to do 2 HD captures at the same time..

Your second part about how many channels are muxed, well just 1 in reality.  The stations here are a little new to the whole concept of multiplexing.  Instead of showing multiple shows on the sub channels, they offer 2 versions of the same show: SDTV and HDTV which usually just translates to 4:3 or 16:9 and either 480i or 1080i/720p  So, in general you need a tuner for every channel you want to watch as each station has it's own separate mux and show the same program on all of their mux's.

To say that visually:

Channel 2 is the analog version of 2.1
Channel 2 and 2.1 will show the same program, and if 2.2 exists it will show the same program in a lesser digital format (such as SDTV at 480i/4:3 ratio) while channel 2 will show the same thing but analog and 2.1 will show the HDTV 16:9 1080i with DD 5.1 surround of the same program.

Hope that helps.

-Chad

[totallymaxed]

I'm in the UK so can I ask a question about HD? Why would you want to distribute them like this and secondly how many channels can a single card receive at the same time? I assume HD channels are mux'd like standard def or HD channels are here in Europe.

Cheers

Andrew

I'm not sure about what you mean by why would you want to distribute them like this, but I assume you are asking why the OP wants to have his media directors also be HD capture sources.  In that case it is likely do to cabling.  If they already have cables ran to various rooms in the house, then by having each media director be, in essence, a mythbackend, they can use multiple HD tuners without having to cram them all inside a single box; the upside is ease of having multiple HD sources, the major and obvious downside is that every machine must be configured, always on (when you expect them to be, or able to be remotely turned on at will).

One great alternative is the HDHomeRun which means no need to have every system in the house always on or to have multiple "backends" setup.  Instead 1 backend with several HDHomeRuns or even a single HDHomeRun to do 2 HD captures at the same time..

Your second part about how many channels are muxed, well just 1 in reality.  The stations here are a little new to the whole concept of multiplexing.  Instead of showing multiple shows on the sub channels, they offer 2 versions of the same show: SDTV and HDTV which usually just translates to 4:3 or 16:9 and either 480i or 1080i/720p  So, in general you need a tuner for every channel you want to watch as each station has it's own separate mux and show the same program on all of their mux's.

To say that visually:

Channel 2 is the analog version of 2.1
Channel 2 and 2.1 will show the same program, and if 2.2 exists it will show the same program in a lesser digital format (such as SDTV at 480i/4:3 ratio) while channel 2 will show the same thing but analog and 2.1 will show the HDTV 16:9 1080i with DD 5.1 surround of the same program.

Hope that helps.

-Chad

Hi Chad,

Ok I can understand the need to distribute your HD cards around your MD's if you each card is limited to a single channel like the old analog cards.