[vdr] Re: complicated hardware setup

[Rene Bartsch <ml@bartschnet.de>]

Am Mon, 2003-05-12 um 00.12 schrieb Oliver Brandt:
> 
> 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, h
 ere 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.

Works.

> Distribution: Sever and clients are supposed to run debian (probably sid)

You just need some Linux.

> 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

Should use 1000Base-T for the server (one TS-stream from the server has
about 25-40 MBit/s).

> 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?

You'd need an active cooled CPU.

There's no support for MPEG2-HW-decoding in linux for that boards and no
soft-based A/V-backende for linux. So you need to take a DXR3. It
provides Composite, S-Video, analogue stereo, and PCM/AC3-SPDIF.

And you can use a weak, passive cooled CPU.

> How much memory should the clients have?

32 MB should be enough.

> 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?

VDR supports only DXR3 or TT-based DVB-S for playback. With
Bitstreamout-plugin you can send AC3 to a alsa-based soundcard.

> 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?

No, just use a DXR3.

> 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.

The newer VDR-versions allow a CAM to decode up to three
channels/streams. So your setup will work. You cannot assign a card to
one transponder, but to specific channels.


And please, activate line wrappping.

Rene



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