[ale] upcoming mythtv presentation: Jesse needs a topic

[Jesse Guardiani]

Steve Hamlin wrote:
> Jesse,
> 
> Just a few thoughts - I think you can get an hour out of the below  :)
> 
> MythTV questions I've run across in my not-too-uncommon setup (I 
> think).    
> 
> I'll plug my questions first (A), then other generic topics (B-F)
> 
> --- --- ---
> 
> (A)  Combining a Myth installation with a normal desktop, on multiple 
> screens:

<snip things that relate to that>

> --- --- ---


The above is beyond the scope of things I do on a regular basis. It's a cool
idea. But I have no advice as I've never tried running more than one video
card per machine.


[...]

> (C)  Tuner card selection: "Audience, just get a Hauppauge PVR-xx0, and 
> see the IVTV driver page for details".  Or hardware vs. software 
> encoding, performance requirements,.


I can touch on this.


> (D) Video card selection:  driver availability, hardware acceleration, 
> XvMC, TV Out, mutlihead (DVI-I/D, Dsub)


Sounds good.


> (E) Brief explanation of how to take a default MythTV install (with 
> intergrated front/backend) and either add a frontend, or separate the 
> front/backend.  MySQL network access config changes, MythTV tweaks, 
> NFS/SMB issues?, wireless performance


Good topic. The wireless issue is particularly interesting, especially
as it relates to HDTV streaming.


[...]


> (G)  Some background on MythGame (as I know nothing).  How to get the 
> ROMs, how to get joystick up in X and how this works with the mouse, 
> what kind of joystick to get.


I'll be happy to talk about that.


> (H)  Filesystem selection and configuration:
>  (1) I did a bit of research on filesystem selection for a Myth box, and 
> it seems to make a huge difference in performance because Myth is often 
> bound by multi-GB file read, write and DELETE performance.
>  (2) Hints you may have for new Myth users:  XFS vs JFS vs. ext3 vs. 
> Reiser(no!); mkfs.XXX options for best performance


I probably won't talk about this, as I run Reiserfs on my system. Probably
not the best choice for speed, but it's ultra reliable, even with a very
full filesystem. I've heard that XFS can be fragile, especially with near
full filesystems.

My MythTV box doubles as a maildir based mail server, so perhaps that's why
I chose reiserfs in the first place. :)


>  (3) Thoughts about simple partitioning vs. LVM


Yeah, I can touch on that.


> (I)  Video formats, transcoding, commercial skipping, DVD/VCDs.   (good 
> article in the recent Linux Journal featuring MythTV about how to create 
> DVD menus in linux)


This is an excellent topic too.

All very good suggestions. Exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks!