is there a way that i can use my upstairs pc (sempron 2200, 512mb, 80gb hd, radeon 9550) as a pvr (with a tv capture card) and then use a less powerfull (quiter) pc downstairs (linked via ethernet) hooked to my plasma screen to display the recorded tv .

totally. you might want to use a PVR system like freevo or mythtv, but in order to watch back a program you recorded elsewhere, all you'd need is nfs or samba access to that file an a suitable media player.

I allready accomplished what you want to do.

It's hard to setup, but it's worthed. It's called: MYTHTV. I'm using mythtv-0.15 (I tried 0.16 but didn't work for me)

You should run a masterbackend server on the computer who has to record from antenna/cable, and a non-masterbackend on the computer who has to show the Live TVstream or recordings (programs will be recorded on the master backend and viewed on the non-master backend).

You don't need to make SMB or NFS shares at all.

Mythtv is one of the most powerfull programs I've ever seen.

Good luck and take your time (read the Documentation on www.mythtv.org)

Some extra info (I use debian):

You will need to setup a mysql-server on the master backend and a mysql-client on the non-master-backend.
Run mythtv-setup on the master backend to setup channels.
edit /usr/share/mythtv/mysql.txt (or similar)
comment out 'skip-networking' in /etc/mysql/my.cnf


Greetings Hendrik

thanks to you both for the info. One more question, the computer that will display the recorded tv will be very low power (possibly an amd 450 chip with an radeon 7000 card) do you see any problems with this. Will this computer need to decode the stored tv or will the more powerfull pc do this and stream it over the lan.
Thanks again for all your help.

The Slow computer will have to do de decoding work (this makes sense for network trafic savings).


performance experience for the recorder:

recording at 384x576 takes 1/2 of the CPU time on a 1500 Mhz

recording at 384x288 takes 1/4 of the CPU time on the same system.


performance experience for the viewer:
a Pentium II 300Mhz can handle a resolution of 384x288 (this is the highest resolution for PAL without having to deinterlace) at an mpeg4 video bitrate of 1400kbits/sec and no audio compression.

a pentium 533 Mhz can handle a resolution of 384x288 (this is the highest resolution without having to deinterlace) at with denoise3d filter (bitrate doesn't matter anymore), or 384x576 without 'denoise3d' filter and no deinterlace.

If you want to deinterlace, you probably need more power.


There are enough options to tune your mythtv system.

If mythtv works for you, it will be nice to have a extra hd of 200GB.

Good luck

again many thanks
could i control the upstairs computer ie set to recorde from the downstairs computer. What would be ideal is that the downstairs computer would have a nice interface like mythtv but the upstairs computer would do the recording. Is this possible and if so do you think that i could set up a remote control with the low power downstairs computer to do this.

Mythtv is completely transparant. You can record with the same interface downstairs as upstairs. For example, you can schedule a recording upstairs, and delete the recording downstairs and vice versa. No limitations.

Greetings Hendrik

I haven't configured a remote control yet but it looks like it's possible.

You can plan a recording with every computer. Only one computer (who has a TV-in card and the mysql-server) has to be turned on for the recording and not necessarily the one who has scheduled the recording (it's all kept in the mysql database).


Greetings

thanks everybody if i have any problems i will get back in touch. by the way i am going to look at building a remote control for use with this (i teach electronics at a local school) if i have any luck i will post the results.
cheers and thanks