[vdr] complicated hardware setup

[Oliver Brandt <oliver_mlisten@gmx.de>]

Hi,
I've been watching the vdr project for a while and it is exactly what I've been dreaming of for a long time. I've played around with the software and some plugins a bit but I don't have any Hardware yet not even a dish (except a friend has a dxr3). I've spent hours searching the web to find answers. But I sill have a lot of questions as I'm for example not shure if some of the features already work properly, if I got everything right and sometimes the info I found was just rather old. So I was hoping I could let you know what I'm planning and I would really apreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience with me so that I don't spent a fortion on hardware that does non work in the end. So please excuse if I ask questions that have been covered somewhere else. Shurely I overlooked some answers (I usually overlook the most obvious) and often I'm just not sure if what I found out is correct. Any helpfull links are very welcome, too. Please feel free to criticise! Anyway, here my setup:

Features I wan't to use: Watch,record and timeshift satelite tv, listen to satelite radio and shoutcast, cds, mp3, ogg, watch DVDs VCDs and DivX, AC-3 sound, use a remote and LCD.
Distribution: Sever and clients are supposed to run debian (probably sid)
The Hardware I'm planning to use:
One Server and up to three low power diskless clients (of course I'll start of with one...)
Connection 100Mbit ethernet
Using the streaming and cluster plugin to have the server do the decoding work and have all the DVB cards installed on the server
The server is also supposed to do software raid5 and firewalling. How much CPU and Ram is required?
The diskless clients are supposed to be silent so I was thinking of a VIA EPIA ME6000 mainboard. How do I conect the TV and sound? I would like to use SPDIF. Can I use the onboard tv and sound out and does the hardware exceleration work (do I need it) or should I use a dxr3?
How much memory should the clients have?
Is it possible to connect multiple soundcards at the same time, e.g. The SPDIF of the dxr3, the onboard sound and a usb sound card so that I can connect spekers in my living room, bathroom and on the padio and control the volume of each seperately?
Do the streaming and cluster plugin work dependantly already? The version numbers are 0.0.x. If I want to watch a DVD can I decode it locally if the cluster plugin is enabled or will I have to send the data to the server and back (would cause a lot of unecessary traffic as I hope the clients are powerfull enought to decode mpeg2 (or am I wrong?)? Does hardware mpeg2 decoding on the clients do any good with the cluster plugin?
The system will be in Austria and so I want to watch ORF1 and 2 but they are crypted. I've read I can watch multiple channels with one DVB card at the same time as long as they are on the same transponter (which is the case with ORF). Is this also true for crypted channels and is it possible to preset one card to a specific transponder. I only want to use one Nexus-S with a cam module and the rest should be Novas.

For a system I'm thinking of building for my place (the stuff I was talking about is for my dad's place) how are your experiences with the analog plugin in a simmular setup like the one mentioned above with a WinTV card (only one client though, no cam-module)?

That's all I can think of right now. Please let me know if I missed something or my setup is just overall crapy or whatever. Please don't reply to the email adress in the header as I might miss your answer inbetween all the spam I recive on it, just post back to the list or, if you want to reach me personally write to "Mail at oliverbrandt.de".
Thank you very much in advance for all your help!
	Oliver


-- 
Info:
To unsubscribe send a mail to ecartis@linuxtv.org with "unsubscribe vdr" as subject.