Hi Brian, Thanks for your response. > What "performance" improvement are you looking for? Well I had noticed that on my current MythTV setup I was getting some interlacing problems (edges of objects breaking up into lines) and I also noticed that in order to get a good picture/performance I had to pause (buffer) the video for a few seconds and then play it. I was not sure if running the back end on another machine would fix either of these issues, heck I wasn't even sure that having the front end on another would allow me to watch live TV! I thought maybe you could only watch recordings through it. I haven't found any information about limitations of running the front end on another PC so I am assuming that all front ends behave the same, regardless of where they are situated. > but a heavily loaded 100 speed link might > be, and 802.11b with HD video would definitely be something to try and > avoid. It would be a 100 link and all we currently use the network for is printing, the occasional file sharing and internet use (general browsing and some Torrent downloading). Hmmm... perhaps I SHOULD have opted for the motherboard with dual Gigabit LAN ports. We have a 54MBit wireless LAN and I was toying with the idea of being able to run a client on a wireless box/laptop. Currently my Fiancée's Laptop is the only PC using the Wireless LAN and she often used it to watch downloaded TV stored on my PC. > OTOH splitting the system makes sense if you might want to add an > additional frontend, or if you want the backend to be installed in a > basement or garage to eliminate noise or unsightliness. It might also be > a good idea if you want to centralize storage for Myth and other > systems. I work in the security industry and got my hands on a dead DVR that was essentially a super compact PC. I was planning on building the PVR in that but I found that the MiniATX motherboard I was planning to use was an inch too wide to allow me to fit the HDD inside. Since typing the first email I have found out about MiniMyth and after contemplating a split system I am now considering revisiting the DVR case and use a CF card (or USB flash memory) instead of a HDD. (I haven't been able to find much info on MiniMyth apart from how to set it up. What's it like?) Centralised Storage also makes sense since my new motherboard allows me to JBOD. I could put all media on the "server" (downloaded video, recorded TV, Music, etc). With this example would I also be able to centralise my DVD drive? Watch a DVD from the back-end PC on any front-end client? I assume that since the remote control is configured to work with the front end that this would be a good way to serve the DVD anywhere in the house and not have to use a Remote Control extender. It sounds like I am going to go ahead with a split system :-) > Brian Wood wrote: > > Glen Hawksworth wrote: > > > > > Will I get all of the same functionality on the client machine as I > > would on a Client/Server? If so I would imagine that giving all the > hard > > work to my Grunty new PC would greatly improve overall performance. If > > not then what will the client not do? > > Any thoughts on this matter would be greatly appreciated. > > Thanks, > > Glen > > What "performance" improvement are you looking for? > > If your current FE/BE combo does everything you want it to do, what > would prompt you to split the system? > > Things like commflagging and transcode jobs will obviously run faster on > the newer machine, whether this would be an "improvement" depends on > your usage. If you don't watch a recording for a few hours or even days > you really don't care how fast the commflag is, and if you don't run > transcode jobs who cares how fast they might run. > > By splitting the system you add additional complication, power draw, and > cost. The network connection becomes an issue, a lightly loaded Gbit > network would be no problem, but a heavily loaded 100 speed link might > be, and 802.11b with HD video would definitely be something to try and > avoid. > > OTOH splitting the system makes sense if you might want to add an > additional frontend, or if you want the backend to be installed in a > basement or garage to eliminate noise or unsightliness. It might also be > a good idea if you want to centralize storage for Myth and other > systems. > > Better graphics on the backend is totally irrelevant. > > There is no "right" answer. > > beww > _______________________________________________ > mythtv-users mailing list > mythtv-users@mythtv.org > http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users