Centralized recording machine? Possible

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richms

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#19389 14-Feb-2008 20:10

Rather then record to a HTPC, I was wondering how viable it is to whack 2-3 TB of disk, some dvb cards and whatever OS is needed on a centralized machine on the lan, and have it dump all channels all the time to disk, and then pick stuff off the cache of tv data after the fact (no idea how long it would last for, but would like it to just loop over itself like the cctv recorders do)

Might only need to record 2 mux's depending on what goes up on the kordia one - with pariliment and maori tv its not worth it at this stage but if see see stratos appear then it may be.

Is that something myth tv with multirec can handle? Im ok with it chopping it into 10-20-30 min pieces so long as the playback of them is seamless.

Also, streaming the raw data over the lan to a PC to watch would be nice too, but adding dvb tuners to other computers inorder to just watch live tv isnt too much of an ask.

Richard rich.ms

mruane

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#110708 14-Feb-2008 21:39

If it were me I would install MediaPortal TVEngine3 on the server box because you can get every thing from the Freeview Sat with just two DVB-S cards one for each transponder. You can then play the recordings to either MediaPortal clients on networked PC's or Media Centre (which can be configure to playback the .TS files or you can store the recordings as .MPG - I have better results with .TS).

I have that working here and it works quite well. You could also stream Live TV to the clients also.

Cheers Mike

richms

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#110745 15-Feb-2008 00:18

Sounds promising, but I want to do it once and do it right, so setting up once with dvb-s and then again onto -t seems silly. How is support for that in Media Portal?

I was thinking that mythtv must have a way to do it, but I am open to other solutions. Ideally something that will extend to hardware players since building an HD capable PC for every tv will be a bit of overkill and expensive.

Richard rich.ms

eXDee

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#110835 15-Feb-2008 17:36

Mediaportal as of yet doesnt support DVB-T that will be used here, but its being worked on.

Mythtv i think has a few 'extender' 'standards' like UNPnP etc if you want that, however i cant remember.
It also works on the frontend/backend system so if your running linux/can find a windows client then PC's can tune into the backend.

CYaBro

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#110887 15-Feb-2008 22:44

I have a Mediaportal server here.
It has 2 DVB-S cards for Freeview as well as an analogue card to connect the Sky decoder to. The sky decoder is only there to get Prime so there is no channel changing going on on the decoder itself. I just leave it on Prime all the time.

I have another small form factor PC in the TV room that runs the Mediaportal client to connect back to the server.
With this you can watch live TV, recorded TV and view the EPG to set recordings. You can of cause do lots more with MediaPortal!
I also have the client running on my laptop so can watch TV on it as well but this doesn't work too well over the wireless network.

Overall I think it works very well. Even the WAF is pretty good and she can work it without me

It sometimes has a hissy fit and you have to reboot the client but the server usually runs for a few weeks or more without needing a reboot.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.