Newbie question (again)

[grepico]

I'm a little confused on exactly how A/V equipment physically connects to the system.

If I have a core and 2 MD's, I gather I hook the cable box up to a video capture card in the core.  Will I be able to watch two different channels at the MD's with one cable box or will I need two cable boxes hooked up to the Core?  If the latter is the case, does that mean 2 video capture cards installed and what happens when I need 6 or more? 

Likewise how do other A/V devices physically connect?  For instance, Cable box + CD changer + DVD Jukebox + Satellite Box, etc.?  I don't see anything on the wiki that adequately explains the physical hookups of all this equipment.  I need this info before purchasing hardware so I know what to purchase.

Is the video/audio transmitted to the tv's from the core over ethernet?  If so, what is the point at which the traffic is too heavy for smooth playback and what is the solution?

Thx

[ddamron]

I'll try to answer your questions one by one..

I'm a little confused on exactly how A/V equipment physically connects to the system.

If I have a core and 2 MD's, I gather I hook the cable box up to a video capture card in the core. 

You could, however, you could also put the video capture card in one of your MD's

Will I be able to watch two different channels at the MD's with one cable box or will I need two cable boxes hooked up to the Core? 

Depends on your configuration, to watch 2 LIVE channels, you'll need 2 Capture devices & Cable boxes.
Keep in mind, that while you may only have 1 Source (for lack of a better term), that 'source' can be controlled by linuxmce.  This enables PVR functionality..
so, you could watch LIVE TV on one MD, and a prerecorded video on another.. or BOTH can watch LIVE TV (same channel)

If the latter is the case, does that mean 2 video capture cards installed and what happens when I need 6 or more? 

Simple, you just add them.  The capture devices can be located on the core and/or MD's
I have a PVR150 Cable capture card in my core, and 3 DVB-S cards in MD's..  Linuxmce controls which stream I want to watch..

Likewise how do other A/V devices physically connect?

For instance, Cable box + CD changer + DVD Jukebox + Satellite Box, etc.? 

It really doesn't matter.. as long as you tell linuxmce how you have them connected... think of the wires connecting your devices together as pipes.
You need to tell linuxmce what pipes go where..

Here's an example:

you have a cable box.  out of it, you have AUDIO/VIDEO Composite going to your Capture card..
Also, out of it, you have HDMI or DVI (or whatever) going to your TV's input 1.

Make sure you TELL linuxMCE that you have made that connection... even though it seems retarded.. here's why:

When you watch LIVE TV, normally linuxmce will stream the output of the Capture card to your TV..
When you tell it you have another connection (that is much better), linuxMCE will tell your TV to switch to input1!
Then, when you activate the menu, or do something else, it switches back..

I don't see anything on the wiki that adequately explains the physical hookups of all this equipment.  I need this info before purchasing hardware so I know what to purchase.

Is the video/audio transmitted to the tv's from the core over ethernet?  If so, what is the point at which the traffic is too heavy for smooth playback and what is the solution?

Thx

Yes, the video/audo transmitted to the TV's are ethernet.. however, your question is very VERY open ended.
it depends on the quality of the stream, how many streams currently playing, speed of your ethernet..

I'm running 1000Mbit, streaming 3 HD videos to different MD's, recording from DVBs, watching live satellite on another MD, etc etc etc...
I have yet to run into a 'bandwidth' problem.  When I was experimenting with wireless however, I DID see limits, as the bandwidth for wireless is SHARED across all nodes.

Hope that helps, Lots more info in the wiki, and I HIGHLY SUGGEST you take the time to watch the video carefully, all this is demonstrated in the video.

Regards,

Dan

[grepico]

Thanks a ton Dan, that helped a lot.

[danielk]

You generally need one capture card per cable box, but some cards like the Haupauge PVR-500 can capture two streams simultaneously. You can watch as many recordings as you want but you can only make one recording per cable box at a time (again there are exceptions with dual tuner cable boxes). There are also external capture devices that work over ethernet or USB, so you could hook up more devices to one box. But you are also not required to hook all your recorders up to one machine, the architecture allows for multiple machines on your network to record programs using a single scheduler and program store.

The A/V streams are transmitted over ethernet unless they are local. Each 1080i@60fps HD stream takes about 2.5 MB/second, so if you have gigabit ethernet with switches and a single store you can stream up to 50 1080i@60fps streams, or 62 1080p@24fps streams. With a more complex setup using multiple stores you can scale that up linearly with each additional store; but you are exceeding the design spec at that point and may run into unanticipated problems. Unless you are using a _wireless_ network or there is a problem with your network hardware, it is the hard drives which will give you problems long before the network will.

-- Daniel

[ddamron]

No Problem Grepico..

You caught me on a good day..

For reasons I cannot divulge at this time, I'm unable to work on my insteon drivers..

So, I'm reading/responding when/where I can.. most of the time, if I respond at all, it'll be a quick yes or no... then RTFW or WTFV lol

You'll find probably most of the developers (more coming online every day) are like that..  no offense intended, but reading / watching the video REALLY helps the newbies..

It's hard to dive in and develop new code when you have to stop and answer a queston that <honestly> is in the wiki, or the video..

HOWEVER, I do recognise that newbies may NOT be able to find the wiki/video... depends on how newbie they are.. LOL

Good Luck, Hope that helps.

Dan