MythTV / MPEG federation
I’ve been spinning up my MythTV system again. The hardware is modest, and I still need a good frontend solution. Currently, the configuration is as follows:
- DL360 Dual 800mhz processors (probably need to get an insurance quote on it since it’s so old)
- SiliconDust HDHomeRun dual HD tuner
- Hauppauge PVR-250 (Again, old hardware, but it works great) for analog cable
- WD 1TB MyBook E-Sata connected for storage
- Lenovo Z60t laptop for frontend
- E-Machines laptop for frontend
I’m booting the DL360 off of the Mybook, since it’s cheaper and more reliable than old SCSI drives. I bought a SATA card (3mb/sec PCI bus SATA cards are few and far between) to give my DL360 access to the MyBook. I’m impressed at how well the DL360 handles the rigors of digital recording. Since it’s got dual NICs, I’ve got a host route setup between it and the HDHomeRun to keep some of the traffic off of the rest of the network.
I had a bit of trouble getting digital channels off of the cable, and I’m currently running the HDHomeRun off of a home built HD antenna on just one tuner. This weekend I’ll pierce the exterior wall of my house and run the antenna outside. If the reception is good, I’ll probably just run both tuners of the HDHomeRun off of the antenna, and skip digital cable all together.
I sure wish we had TBS, CNN and ESPN over the air like they do in ATL. I wonder if I can find someone in ATL that will let me put a Myth backend in their house for grabbing some of the channels we don’t have in Birmingham.