[mythtvnz] Just how cheap could you build a system? Possibly OT.

[David Moore]

On 06/06/12 19:57, criggie wrote:
> On 06/06/12 17:05, dmoo1790 at ihug.co.nz wrote:
>> On Wed, 6 Jun 2012 16:43:24 +1200, "Criggie"<criggie at criggie.org.nz>
>>> How about you get VDSL with a 5-6 Mbit/sec upload, set up a tunnel from
>>> his home router to yours, and simply stream recordings off your backend
>>> to him?
>>> Caps could be an issue though, so look for an ISP with zero-rated
>>> internal
>>> traffic like TCL.
>>
>> Caps would be the least of the issues with this solution. I guess you may
>> be joking.
>
> Only slightly - I've been meaning to try streaming over my spanky new
> VDSL to work, just haven't had time.
>
> What other issues do you anticipate?
> * Latency - I get 5.5 ms over VDSL to work, and 44-48ms over an ADSL
> through my VDSL. Should be workable
> * Bandwidth
> speedtest returns 40.1 Mbit down and 7.3 Mbit up to Snap in Chch
> iperf returns 58.4 Mbit down.
>
> What else? I know my old 802.11b wireless NIC was almost perfect, and
> that only returned about 5 Mbit of actual throughput.
> And I'm only thinking about SD not HD.
>

? AFAIK TVNZ and Medaiworks are doing pretty high bit rates on their 
main channels (TV1/2/3). Around 10 Mbit/s I believe. Maybe you're 
talking about DVB-S?

But the real problem is putting something together as simple and stable 
as a VCR for someone in their 70's with little patience with technology. 
For example Dad has never used the Wifi feature on his DSL box and I 
think he still uses a very old PC and dial-up modem to get his personal 
emails! I foresee his patience evaporating very quickly with anything 
which is much more than plug and play.

>
>
> But back to the original question of low-cost mythbox... The cheapest
> way is to use stuff you already have.
> My first mythbox had 3x30 GB Maxtor IDE drives in a raid0 (this was
> before the days of storage pools).
> So find what you got and what you don't have, and let us know.
>
>

Basically nothing which I would use as a basis for myth. Tivo is looking 
more and more like the best way to go...