New system's suggestions

[flyer]

Hello,

I'm planning to built a new system.

This is my idea:

Stand-alone CORE:

MotherBoard   Gygabyte GA-M52S-S3P
CPU                   Athlon 64x2 6400
Video                   Asus GEFORCE 6200
RAM                   2x KVR533D2NA/2G
LAN                   Asus NX1101
TV Tuner           2x DTV2000 H mod. I
Power Supply      LC Power 560W Titan
Case                   LC 20 Rack 4U

Media Directors:

PC         MSI MEDIA LIVE BOREBOARD
TV Tuner         1x DTV2000 H mod. I

Eventually I will have 3 MDs and an home automation system.

What to you think about my setup?
Would it work out of the box?
Any ideas or improvemen is really appreciated.

Thank you very much


Andrea

[colinjones]

Andrea

How many TV tuners do you need? The ideal is to get the total and install them in the core. LMCE will manage the tuners and distribute the TV as required to the endpoints from there.

For a core 1-2GB is more than sufficient for almost all installations. And if dedicated you really do not need high end CPU at all. nVidia 6200 is fine, however you may want to consider 8xxx or 9xxx GPUs for future VDPAU support if you are interested in HD video at all.

I assume this set up will leave you with the required 2 NICs? For the NIC, TV tuner and sound chips you should do some searches for confirmed compatibility with LMCE (or at least with the 0710 Linux kernel 2.6.22-14)

[flyer]

Hello Colin,

thanks for the quick reply.

I considered to add a tv tuner in the MD becouse a I a Sky box with HD content in my living room. I would like to be able to watch HD content on my TV (direct connection via HDMI)  but also to be able to share LIVE TV from Sky to other MD.

My core will not be connected to any TV, actually I will store it in the garage, so from what I understand I really do not need it to be able to process HD content, isn't it?

Thank you again

[colinjones]

Don't really understand.... the Sky box direct to your TV is fine, and that has nothing to do with any TV tuners you may put in any of the boxes. But the LIVE TV from Sky to other MDs I don't understand... are you talking about the same Sky service? A DVB tuner isn't necessarily going to get this for you... needs to be an unencrypted service...

No the core does not need to be able to process HD video content.

[flyer]

sorry, probably I wasn't that clear.

I have a Sky box (let's say, it is like the SKY+ uk decoder, but italian version).

If I want to share the content from this decoder, i have to connect it (via s-video) to a video acquiring card (this is my TV TUNER that has s-video input).

More over i need it to be directly connected to my TV for the HD contens so I need it near a MD.

[flyer]

oopsss,

i just realized I made a small mistake in the MDs configuration. It will have only 1 TV tuner. 

[totallymaxed]

sorry, probably I wasn't that clear.

I have a Sky box (let's say, it is like the SKY+ uk decoder, but italian version).

If I want to share the content from this decoder, i have to connect it (via s-video) to a video acquiring card (this is my TV TUNER that has s-video input).

More over i need it to be directly connected to my TV for the HD contens so I need it near a MD.

Flyer,

If your Sky box is a Digibox or Sky+ then you have two options;

- Use a video capture card to digitise the video output of the Sky box in real-time and either stream it or record it to some storage connected to your Core's LAN side network

- Use a composite or RF cable and then run cables to the 2nd TV. Or use a Composite or RF to CAT5 converter and send the video output over CAT5 to your second room. You could also use a Composite or RF distribution amplifier to send the signal to several rooms at once. Search the forum for several threads about how we do this for professional installations.

The advantage of the first option is the video is stored in LinuxMCE's media library and can then be watched like any other content anywhere you have an MD. The down side is that the picture quality can be less than wonderful and if you want to use the Sky UI on screen there will be a significant delay due to the digitising process.

If you have a SkyHD box then there is really no acceptable HDMI capture card/device yet. So you are best off using HDMI distribution over CAT5 in the same manner as above.

Hope this helps.

Andrew

[flyer]

Thank you Andrew.

The HDMI to CAT5 converters are a really nice solution (may be a bit expensive  but i can consider it).

But for my understanding.

Can I connect my Sky box directly to my TV via HDMI and to the capture card via composite so I can view HD real time content on my TV being able to record content in low quality and share it with delay?

More over, do you think my whole setup is ok? Will it work out of the box?

Thank you so much

Andrea

[totallymaxed]

Thank you Andrew.

The HDMI to CAT5 converters are a really nice solution (may be a bit expensive  but i can consider it).

But for my understanding.

Can I connect my Sky box directly to my TV via HDMI and to the capture card via composite so I can view HD real time content on my TV being able to record content in low quality and share it with delay?

More over, do you think my whole setup is ok? Will it work out of the box?

Thank you so much

Andrea

The HDMI-CAT5 converters are a little expensive but they do deliver full HD quality at the remote end...no quality loss whatsoever. Yes the Sky boxes do output on all output connectors simultaneously;

Sky HD offers the following connection options:

HDMI  -  provides high definition output
Component video out **Only enabled on early models
Scart (labelled TV Scart)  -  RGB out or Composite out (depending upon the box settings)
Scart (labelled VCR Scart) - Composite in / out.  Also allows loop through of video output from VCR, etc.
S-Video out
Audio out (right and left)
RF1 out
RF2 out

So you can use the SD outputs from a SkyHD to drive an MPEG hardware video encoder card simultaneously with HDMI out. None of this will be 'plug n play' I'm afraid...much of this would need to be hand configured but is achievable for sure.

All the best

Andrew

[wierdbeard65]

Hi Andrew!

This is pretty much what I'm planning to do, however I'm intending to add some DVB-S cards to my core for accessing the freeview channels.

Having looked through the wiki and various positings here, I'm a little confused, however.

It would seem that the early video capture cards are better supported, but no longer available. Later ones (which you can easily get) seem to only be supported by 810 / serious hacking around? Is that a fair assessment of the position?

Can you recommend a card for use in this configuration? I'm looking for a feed from a bog-standard Sky box (no +, no HD) into my MD with the minimum of cost and hassle

I know from your previous postings that you recommend VDR over Myth for DVB rigs. Will VDR handle the capture card alongside the DVB cards? Also, does it have the feature that I believe Myth has, where you can give it a bunch of films / TV shows etc you want to collect and it will build the library as and when they air?

Sorry to hijack your thread, Andrea!

[flyer]

No problem mate.

You welcome

[totallymaxed]

Hi Andrew!

This is pretty much what I'm planning to do, however I'm intending to add some DVB-S cards to my core for accessing the freeview channels.

Having looked through the wiki and various positings here, I'm a little confused, however.

It would seem that the early video capture cards are better supported, but no longer available. Later ones (which you can easily get) seem to only be supported by 810 / serious hacking around? Is that a fair assessment of the position?

Can you recommend a card for use in this configuration? I'm looking for a feed from a bog-standard Sky box (no +, no HD) into my MD with the minimum of cost and hassle

I know from your previous postings that you recommend VDR over Myth for DVB rigs. Will VDR handle the capture card alongside the DVB cards? Also, does it have the feature that I believe Myth has, where you can give it a bunch of films / TV shows etc you want to collect and it will build the library as and when they air?

Sorry to hijack your thread, Andrea!

Well there are some more modern Hauppauge cards that are supported for capture (search the linuxtv.org DVB Wiki for info) but I agree they are not plug-n-play and will not be as welll supported under 0710. I cant recommend a card to you as we dont really use capture cards currently. VDR can use capture cards if you use a plugin. VDR can record shows automatically using 'timers' every week and stores them in its Recordings library so in general I think they broadly mostly similar capabilities. VDR is a DVB focussed DVR application whereas MythTV is more generalised as it has to accommodate both analog and digital TV (both DVB & ATSC from North America). VDR probably makes better use of your DVB tuners currently as it can make use of any of the TV/Radio channels transmitted on a Multiplex concurrently using a single tuner - giving you the ability to watch Live TV and record multiple channels simultaneously with fewer tuners.

All the best

Andrew