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Building a Multi-Channel PVR System?
Dr.Ruud asks: "What would be good ways to build a multichannel VCR? Think of a cluster of 4 PCs, each having 4 TV-cards (with MPEG-hardware on each) and (if necessary) a separate harddisk per TV-card, and maybe a 5th PC that controls the others, holds a DVD-writer and any other necessary hardware. Could it be done in a simpler and cheaper way? See also linuxtv.org, linuxmedialabs.com and of course SouceForge-vcr-projects like Freevo." What would be the best way to go about cutting down the number of machines such a cluster would need? Could this be done by building an all-in-one-wonderbox without it getting really expensive?
I'm just trying to figure out why you would need 16 programs taping at one time... I am the only one who finds that a bit off the wall?
I have no great authority here, except that I have ran several linux systems, coded simple linux apps, and ran ATI's all-in-wonder (piece of crap) PVR solution for two years.
Every month or so, someone comes up with a newfangled linux PVR and posts it here and on sourceforge.
Last I looked, there were at least 4 seperate projects on linux PVRs. There was also something major wrong with each project!
One project has a cool interface but could not actually record!
One project could record and playback, but not record and playback at the same time!
Yet another project could record and playback, but even the author of the thing reported that the audio and video were badly out of sync.
Now: I don't know if the Ask slashdot question was a troll, or someone hoping to startup a dumb dot bomb that re-sells TV signals, but even a single P-1Ghz with an ATI all in wonder could barely record at broadcast quality - read: It didn't ever fully approximate broadcast quality.
I've got two coworkers who purchased PC PVR solutions, and guess what - all three of us now own: Tivo, Replay, and DishNetwork-PVR systems.
BAH. This is really stupid. Until someone hacks together something that actually works, and doesn't require a PHd in driver hacking, and syncs the audio properly, and has a 1/10^6 chance of working on someone else's build of linux/hardware, then let's not waste time discussing the *neato* applications of linux PVR. It's still a fantasy for private/OSS projects...
Word to developers - what you've done so far is great, but if you want to unseat MSFT, you've gotta make it so that Grandma can install it.
If we were talking about a new version of GCC or the latest kernel, with Visual Studio.NET and Windows Longhorn as the competition, it'd be fine to moderate this comment as (-1, Lazy n00b), but you're talking about a glorified VCR, and you're going up against TiVO.
For this kind of product, User Interfaces matter. Saying "RTFSource", and "It's skinnable", won't cut it.
Likewise, dependency trees can be a formidable barrier to adoption. Saying "Well, of course it compiles fine for me, I mean, who doesn't rebuild XFree86 from the CVS source tree on a weekly basis?" isn't gonna cut it either.
PCs are cheap enough these days, especially since folks in the DIY segment might want to dedicate one as a PVR. Given the appliance-like nature of such a device, I'd say a (set of, for each supported motherboard-chipset/video-chipset combo) binaries ought to be a design goal, and I might even go so far as to say that distribution as an ISO wouldn't be out of the question.
Chill. Relax. There is no need for longwinded rants with random bold words. No, the free software PVR projects are not ready for prime time yet. It shouldn't be suprisingly, they're all very new. Mozilla's few few years weren't terribly promising. Linux itself took many years before approaching general usability. For the software to reach a polished stage we need to start with the crappy first pass. There is lots of experimentation and playing around. Core components (like drivers to TV cards and MPEG encoders) are still early in the development stages themselves. Eventually things will settle down, all but a handful of projects will fold, and things will become ready for you. In the meantime, let other people do a little harmless cheerleading. We need early adopters and fans to help work out the bugs in the system, do development, and keep the developers inspired.
(If you feel a burning need to emphasize something, the <em> tag will generally give you a more subtle, easy to read result. Bold text tends to leap out, dominating the paragraph. If you really want readers to just focus on those key points, consider a bulletted list using <ul> and <li>)
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A couple thoughts off the top of my head:
Really folks, when someone asks a question they don't want to be told why they don't need to know the answer. So, come on, don't send off-topic replys about how pathetic or dumb a question is post a constructive answer!
credo quia absurdum