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WinTV / PC network-based video services

MODS: Please don't move to Jeep Geeks. The smarter geeks hang out in OT.

Anyone else watching TV on their computer? I've got an older WinTV card from Happauge... ran S-video from a Dish receiver along with stereo audio. Not bad on a 17" LCD screen, lets me keep a TV in my home office without taking up space.

I'm considering a long-term project that would involve a server in my wiring closet with > 250Gb storage (maybe up to 1Tb?), and diskless workstations (MX mobos) as set-top boxes on the 4 sets in the house... I would run MythTV on Linux as opposed to that over-priced Microsoft XP Media Center edition, and essentially have a system where all of my DVDs would be saved to computer, and every TV in the house could be used as a PVR, and any TV in the house could be used to play back what was recorded - no matter which set was used to record.

I've already got Cat5e wired to every TV, and a Gig switch in the wiring closet. I'm looking at the Happauge 350 PVR card (it has an MPEG-2 hardware encoder) for the set top boxes.

Anybody else done anything crazy like this? I figure most of us are the kind of people that would lift a perfectly good Jeep 4", we're probably the same kind of people that would do shiat like this.
 

skeptic [JU]

Archived
I have been running MythTV on my main desktop for a couple years and have been happy with it. I intend to switch to a laptop for my main computer and make the desktop dedicated MythTV center.

As you probably already know, MythTV is far more than just a free Tivo. Music. DVD player. Other movies. Weather forcasting and radar images. Web Browsing. M.A.M.E. and other games...
 

twylie [JU]

Archived
I'm doing almost exactly what you're describing... 60,000 songs, 300 hour PVR and 100's of videos to various TV's, audio systems, and PC's in the house. As bad as I wanted to use Myth (I was using KnoppMyth), I found a mix of other solutions to be more reliable and easy to use. For video capture, I'm using the PVR-350, plus another 250 waiting for the new house when I rebuild some of this stuff. Storage is a large RAID5 box. I've been through a fair bit of hardware to find something that works for me. PM me and I'll share what worked and didn't.
 
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