Difference between revisions of "System Requirements"

Revision as of 00:38, 7 December 2007

Core

Core is the term given to the main server with in the house. This is the 'center' of the LinuxMCE system and is the device which serves the administration pages to browsers.

It is from this Core that allows whole house plug-and-play and lets you plug all sorts of devices anywhere into your home network:

• Media directors
• telephones
• surveillance cameras
• interface modules
• audio players

LinuxMCE will detect them and set them up automatically. It's like plug-and-play in Windows, but it extends throughout the whole house.

Retrieved from Core

Minimum

CPU

This machine should have a reasonably powerful CPU for decoding/encoding media, running the database and web server, and other system services.

I would recommend a ~700mhz P3 as a _bare_ minimum. --bmk789

Motherboard

Any Linux-compatible motherboard (95% chance your's will work) will run smoothly, give or take a few features (SPDIF, etc.)

RAM

For a bare minimum server, 256MB of RAM is recommended, (128MB has been tested to work, but not very well)

Hard Drive

Your core's hard drive should be larger than 4GB (to install the OS) plus as much as you want for media storage, network-boot images, etc.

DVD/CD-ROM

A DVD drive is required for installing with the Quick Install DVD. Without a DVD-ROM drive, the user is left to the CD install method, which requires a fresh install of Kubuntu 7.04, then a 2CD installation of LinuxMCE.

Recommended

CPU

Late model single-core or any dual or quad core processor is enough power to run a Core.

Motherboard

Any Linux-compatible motherboard. Can have built-in digital audio, Gb networking, HDMI, GPU, etc.

RAM

1GB+ RAM should handle most setups. 4GB+ would require 64-bit OS which will be available with 0710

Hard Drive

Most drives today offer more than enough storage space to run LinuxMCE, but you can add as much storage as you want via NAS, other machines, and other storage devices.

DVD/CD-ROM

DVD-ROM drive is required for installing using the Quick Install DVD and a DVD+-RW drive is recommend for backing up media, burning CDs, etc.

Media Directors

Minimum

Recommended

User Feedback

CPU

• A PIII/733MHz system can encode one video stream using the MPEG-4 codec using 480x480 capture resolution. This does not allow for live TV watching, but does allow for encoding video and then watching it later.
• A developer states that his AMD1800+ system can almost encode two MPEG-4 video streams and watch one program simultaneously.
• A PIII/800MHz system with 512MB RAM can encode one video stream using the RTjpeg codec with 480x480 capture resolution and play it back simultaneously, thereby allowing live TV watching.
• A dual Celeron/450MHz is able to view a 480x480 MPEG-4/3300kbps file created on a different system with 30% CPU usage.
• A P4 2.4GHz machine can encode two 3300Kbps 480x480 MPEG-4 files and simultaneously serve content to a remote frontend.

FireWire

You may use the Firewire output of the Motorola DCT6200 or the SA3250.

Video Capture Card

pcHDTV makes and manufactures cards just for Linux and is now on its third generation of card, the HD-5500 available from http://www.pchdtv.com/

The Plextor ConvertX PVR devices are supported through Linux drivers available from http://www.plextor.com/english/support/LinuxSDK.htm. MythTV uses the Plextor to capture hardware encoded MPEG-4, so the host CPU requirements are low.

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 (driver available at http://www.isely.net/pvrusb2/) emulates a PVR-x50 card. IP Recorder (RTSP, RTS, UDP)

MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and H.264 internet TS stream recording is supported using the IPTV recorder in MythTV. This recorder expects the channels to be supplied as a m3u playlist. If your DSL/Fiber provider supplies television service, but does not provide a m3u playlist for the channels, you can construct one for your own use. You do not need to download it from the same server as the streams themselves, and can also read it from a file if this is more convenient.

If your provider uses 5C encryption on a particular channel, you won't be able to get any content. DBoxII or other devices running Neutrino

You may use the Ethernet port of an DBoxII or a similar device to capture MPEG2. Your set top box has to be running the Neutrino GUI. USB Capture Devices.

Sound Card

The system needs a sound card or an on-board equivalent on the motherboard to play back and in most cases, to record sound. Any sound card that can be operated by the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) kernel modules will work with MythTV. However, some cards and drivers will provide better quality or compatibility than others. In particular, many audio devices included on motherboards can be problematic.

The usual practice for capturing the audio associated with the video is to run a cable from an audio output on the video capture card to the Line input on a sound card. However, some video capture cards provide on-board audio capabilities that work with the kernel btaudio module instead, thereby eliminating the need for a cable. This is useful if you will be using multiple capture cards in a single chassis, since each capture card will not need its own sound card. Note that a separate sound card is still required for playback when using btaudio, and that often the audio recorded in this way will be mono only. See the btaudio section for more information.

See Also

The hardware category and it's sub categories.

Forum Discussions

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