MythTV to a Full Media Server
I built myself a MythTV DVR a little more than a year ago, which is a freaking miracle, considering how much of a Linux n00b I am. Since then, I've been eying the prospects of making a full-on media server. I thought, hey, now that I'm part of this large community of geeks, I may as well make use of them.
The box I'm using now has rather new hardware in it (I built it from new components, except for the hard drives) so the only hardware update I'll be needing is some new hard drives, as the current ones function well for DVR needs, but won't hold diddly squat when facing a massive library of DVDs.
Specs:
Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8 GHz
EVGA 128-p2-N441-LX GeForce 7300GT 128 MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16
1 GB DDR2 533 (PC4200) RAM
ECS PT890T-A Mobo
Turtle Beach RIVIERA 5.1 Channel PCI sound card
pcHDTV HD-5500 tuner card
I can't remember how big the HDDs are, but they're ATA drives, so they've got to go anyway... They can't be reliable for much longer.
I'm running Gutsy Gibbon,(EDIT: I bought a 750 GB Barracuda SATA drive, and now have Hardy Heron installed) and my install of MythTV is whatever version I installed when I upgraded to Gutsy Hardy Heron.
I guess my biggest questions are, what should I reasonably expect to need in the way of capacity (that is, what kind of compression options are available to me that aren't going to completely destroy the quality of the episodes), and how the heck do I do this?
In the interests of full disclosure, I intend to put at least six full television series on this thing (Star Treks TOS, Animated, TNG, DS9, VOY and the new BSG, and yes, I actually own every spin-off of Star Trek on DVD except Enterprise), and there's the possibility of adding more in the future, not counting films.
Should I pick up one or two terabytes? Do I only need 750 GB? Will this integrate with MythTV, or do I need some other piece of software (I still want to be able to watch live TV)?
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
I went down this road a while ago and ultimately gave up so I'm not much help. I do still run the media server though, but just use it as a giant mapped network drive and that seems to work fine. Nothing fancy in between - I store movies and music on it.
Gamertag: GWJ Rabbit | Last.fm
"Think of it as 'grinding SO rep in the Kitchen instance.' " - Montalban
That could actually be of help on the logistics end... What kind of compression do you use, and how big on average is it per hour of DVD-quality video?
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
I may be doing this with my Dad's old office server this summer. To get 720p in xvid is around 700-800mbs per DVD. To get 1080 its around 2gigs. I would suggest xvid or AVI.
*Legion* wrote:
I generally do everything (now) to PS3 compliant MP4s using DVDFab or Nero. I generally set a 2 hour DVD to do 2-pass AVC at 1Gig (so thats variable bit rate) and i find it excellent. I am quite sure other folks are doing something different. I'm leaving the frame sizes untouched, so the 720/1080 thing is irrelevant.
Gamertag: GWJ Rabbit | Last.fm
"Think of it as 'grinding SO rep in the Kitchen instance.' " - Montalban
*Legion* wrote:
Yeah, I just like the quality/size/simplicity/laziness factor of just doing everything as AVC MP4s. They seem to play on everything I own.
Gamertag: GWJ Rabbit | Last.fm
"Think of it as 'grinding SO rep in the Kitchen instance.' " - Montalban
Well, looks like I'll just go with a terabyte drive... NO one has any software/interface suggestions that might work on a Linux system or integrate directly with MythTV?
EDIT: On second thought, the price difference between a 750 GB drive and a TB drive is too dramatic to justify that extra 250 GB.
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
Just Raid a couple of hard drives, like 4 750s.
*Legion* wrote:
I'm hoping with compression, I should be safe with a 750. It just came yesterday, popped it in last night, and it's running Hardy Heron now. I'm not particularly impressed with the options a quick googling comes up with...
Is there no one here that has a home theater setup with a nice front-end for watching ripped DVDs? It really doesn't have to interface with MythTV, that would just be a bonus.
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
There are a lot of ways to go about a media server, and a myriad of tutorials to get you through it.
It seems like Engadget, Dl.TV have done a lot on the subject.
Some things to keep in your mind. Unless you plan on running cable throughout your house, a wireless network will really hinder your video viewing experience unless you have an 802.11n router, and network(remember that your network's speed is only as high as the slowest device, so a single b or g device will slow everything down). Anything is fine for audio streaming.
Have a look at VLC as your solution. It works with PC, Mac, and Set Top boxes.
I use VLC regularly as a player, never really thought of it as a good interface for sorting and organizing through all of my rips, though.
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
*Legion* wrote:
I'm running MythTV here, so forgive me if this is a silly question, but have you looked at the MythVideo plugin for it? I have a 1.5TB RAID-5 array in my media box, which is largely filled with ripped videos, and I'm very happy with how it all works. MythVideo just adds a "Watch Videos" option in the MythTV menus, alongside the existing "Watch Recordings" option, and selecting that gives you several interfaces (I just use the tree-based interface) to browse through the folder that you have all of your videos stored in.
Xbox Live: pneuman | my tech/games/rant blag
Yeah, I installed the MythVideo plugin last night... I tested it out by ripping a DVD using the MythTV ripper in the Optical Discs menu, but it didn't seem to find the rip by itself... I suppose I either did something wrong, or have to change where it's looking for the ripped media.
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar
Yep, it's probably just a case of making sure it's picking up your files from the right place -- you can configure all of that in the MythVideo settings. You might also want to install a video player that can run without a GUI, like MPlayer or Xine, and configured MythVideo to use that. I have to admit, though, that I always rip videos on my desktop and transfer them from there to my MythTV box, rather than ripping them through MythTV.
Xbox Live: pneuman | my tech/games/rant blag
This is probably what I'll end up doing. I have DVDFab, like Rabbit, which has a number of good options... I just need to figure out where to put the files so MythVideo picks them up.
XBL: NSMike | Steam | PSN: NSMike | Wii Friend Code: 7763 1519 2475 2278 | GWJ Google Calendar