[vdr] Re: complicated hardware setup

[Oliver Brandt <oliver_mlisten@gmx.de>]

Hi Rene,
thank you very much for your quick, compleate and very helpfull reply.
Althoug I don't really like to hear everything you told me, as I think
1000Base T will make the whole thing a hell lot more expensive and I'm
spending too much already ;-(
I hope you or someone else can help me with some more questions that
came up when reading your reply:
> > 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.

I just love apt ;). It's the best!

> > 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).

This means I'll need a 1000Base-T switch, too. I looked at alternate and
they are very expensive (300 Euro). I belive there are others avalible
with just one 1000Base-T port but I could not find any and so I don't
know how expensive they are. Anyway, talking about 1000Base-T the
PCI-bus poped into my head. Is a 32bit PCI engought for the 1000Base-T,
one Nexus, three Novas and the IDE-Raid. Seams to me this could be the
next problem (German: Flaschenhals). Do you think I need a 64bit PCI?
Because then we are talking serious money, The 64bit Mainboard, 64bit
1000Base-T and switch, 64bit IDE-controler (could not find one on alternate)... Do
you think 64bit is necessary?
Would a complete set of Nova cards instead of the Nexus make any
difference on the server cpu and bus load?
How fast of a cpu do I need in the server and how much Ram?

> > 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.
You mean without the dxr3?
> 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.

What does the cluster-plugin do? Does it translate the viedo-input into
mpeg1 or mpeg2 or something compleately different to send it over the
network?
By using a dxr3 I understand those weak clients won't need the
cluster-plugin for playing the DVB-stream delivered by the
streaming-plugin and for DVDs. Do I need it for playing divX or can
I go totally without the cluster-plugin in case of a
dxr3. In this case only the DVB-stream (mpeg2) and compressed DivX-movies stored on the server
will be sent over the network and never more then one way, so one client
should not need more then 10Mbits of network traffic and a 100Mbit
infrastructure is enought.
Could this be a way to go?

> > 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.

What does line wrapping do? could not find anything on the list.

Please correct me where ever I'm wrong. And thanks a lot for helping me
with my novice questions! Thanks to the programmers of vdr for make the
project possible in the first place!

	Oliver
> 
> 
> 
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