Advanced MythTV configs

[archived]

I currently run a myth system here.  I am using 3 capture cards.  One is a pvr-250, one is the air2pc (HD capture card) and the last is the pchdtv3000 (also HD capture card, pchdtv.com.) Ill be using mythtv terminology for this description;

1 Master Backend no cards, runs all commflagging, transcoding etc.
1 Slave backend, holds all 3 cards (closest to my cable and antenna hookups, damn apts).
This slave backend also runs a frontend, as it is hooked up to my HDTV and home theater system.  

How would this translate in pluto?  Would I need to transfer all my capture cards to my dedicated core, and my current slave/frontend would turn into a MD and netboot?  Or would I still be able to leave my cards in the MD and have a slave backend run on it as well (Id like to use the netboot feature of pluto as well).

I also wondered about the actual HD cap cards.  I didnt notice any mention of them being supported out of the box w/Pluto, so I would need to build the drivers for them myself correct?  If so, could I contribute the kmdls to you guys for use?

What vs of myth is pluto currently running?  Just a heads up, some time this month the main dev plans on releasing .18.

Tom

[archived]

Hi,

This will translate literally into a pluto config:

  - your master backend server would become the Pluto Core device.
  - the slave babckend would become a pluto media director.

There is no need to transfer your cards if they work like that.

The core will always run a mythtv backend ( as the master ). The same goes for a media director which has a mythtv_player device configured.

The mythtv version used is the latest one aka. 0.17. We will support the upgrade to the 0.18 version when that become available.

With the drivers is a little tricky because we usually have already built drivers for ivtv, the bttv drivers from the kernel, and alpha quality drivers for the blackbird reference design cards but for the rest is nothing that we can guarantee at the moment.

If you know what drivers you need and how they need to be built (and if they build reasponably clean with the 2.6.10 kernel) you can point us to the sources and to the build instructions and we will try to include them in our build and release process so that the packing and installing of the drivers would be done automatically (with the exception of the driver firmwares binaries were applicable).

Sincerely,
   ToMiC (mihai.t@plutohome.com)

[archived]

Gotcha.  Thanks for the info.  I am running a vanilla 2.6.10 from kernel.org and I had to recompile to get support for the air2pc card.  The 2.6.11 kernel has support for the air2pc and the pchdtvk cards built in, so once/whenever pluto goes to that kernel, itll be pretty easy to use the cards.  Ive got my kickstart cd, will probably install it this week sometime and will let you know how it goes building the drivers.  

I am currently running FC3, here are the notes I followed when setting this the air2pc card up.

http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/personal/angel/mythtv/air2pc-howto.html

Tom