34 Clients .. Need some ideas

[tourettes]

Originally Posted by rtv

Therefore the DB isn't bottleneck at all - it's just the code..

Yep, one is the threading in MP. For example mini EPG queries are pausing the live tv, so even a 0,1 second query time is too much with the current design. But it's nothing that will change in MP1, there won't be a separate GUI thread

[megacrypto]

I really dont know how many tv's they will have in their house, and i doubt that all 32 will be used at the same time (that if they install 32 tv's) but the house is in the construction phase right now and i guess they want to have the option to access anything anywhere in the house.

As far as HD goes, we still dont have that many HD transmissions here for our networks (Showtime, ART, Orbit) and i doubt that they will go HD anywhere within the next year, so basically its normal DVB-s streams.

I found out about the multiswitch that will be used it's Triax TMP 5x32 [ http://www.triax.com/AntennaSystems/Multiswitches/TMP%205x.aspx?productId={10B4F256-B49E-4882-A756-7087D09F446D}&Tab=0 ] still really don't know much about how can this be used with the TV Server !?!

[Hetfield]

To Tourrettes and rtv. Thanks for information. I haven't used Gentle, and don't know your architechture/design princibles. At my own work we use NHibernate O/R mapping, but for heavy queries it's not an option. Those we have to port to use efficient plain SQL queries, which fill presentation objects with only the fields which are really needed. Actyally those are also done by NHibernate, but they are light versions with specific SQL queries, and in the build there are test cases to validate each such query.

By this way also code on the application side is simple. If Gentle supports making of those, maybe at least for EPG that would be an option. Below couple of rough examples (should be at least fast). I noticed there's no SQL profiler on my PC, so I'm not able to trace and test the performance of MediaPortal or my queries.

Examples:

-- Mini epg with current programs, getting also next program to show up is more tricky.
select channel.sortorder, channel.name, program.title, program.starttime, program.endtime
from channel with (nolock) left outer join program with (nolock) on program.idchannel = channel.idchannel
where
channel.visibleinguide = 1 and
channel.istv = 1 and
((program.starttime <= getdate() and
program.endtime > getdate()) or program.starttime is null)
order by channel.sortorder

-- EPG with some data near current time
select channel.sortorder, channel.name, program.title, program.starttime, program.endtime
from channel with (nolock) left outer join program with (nolock) on program.idchannel = channel.idchannel
where
channel.visibleinguide = 1 and
channel.istv = 1 and
((program.starttime >= getdate() - 1 and
program.endtime < getdate() + 1) or program.starttime is null)
order by channel.sortorder, program.starttime

That "with (nolock)" sets the isolation level I mentinioned in my previous post for this single query. With that EPG should not wait even if there is EPG import going on at the same time. Single query is always fastest, and avoids the need for complex logic in the program code.

[mbb]

Ok the multiswitch Triax TMP 5x32 can provide a good quality DVB signal from 4 Sat sources and 1 terrestrial to 32 spots.

In your configuration it seems to me that the main preoccupation is not to have a device connected at each spot but to distribute operational cabling everywhere in the house to be always near a spot.

This solution is designed to connect directly a DVB decoder to one of this spot.

To size the TVServer, the good question is how many channels would you watch/record simultaneously?
and how many real clients will be connected to the server.

The network bandwidth problem can be solves by aggregate network cards on the server 2gb to start linked to a network switch and each client at 1gb

When the number of DVB tuners will be known, the last delicate problem will be the share of a subscription to pay-tv because I suppose that all this installation is not just for watch FTA channels.

[megacrypto]

mbb:

Im guessing not more that 8 channels will be watched at the same time, the household is only 3 people living in it (maybe some helpers 2 or 3 more + a cpl of guests) so that will be it.

As for the pay tv, i thought i could build them a sharing network within the house, i.e. have their cards shared via gbox running on one machine (like i said we only have 2 providers that supply cards - Showtime & ART, the 3rd one you must have their own receiver - the subscripion card is embeded)

[limpwhizkid]

I think i found the solution .. suddenly it hit me how I would approach it..

If you would have like 8 tuners..
I would map the first tuner to a very popular transponder with say 4 channels on it... (example with my own channels)
Netherlands 1
Netherlands 2
Netherlands 3
RTL4
I would then map only these channels to 1 card and set cam limit to 4
This way this tuner can serve all clients watching any of the channels, it can decrypt them all at the same time..

Would do the same for 3 other transponders with popular channels.. map them exclusively to 1 transponder so anybody could watch them at any time. and ofcourse set the cam limit to the number of channels present on the transponder

Depending on how may channels/transponders are left over.. you could map those 4 tuners left over to less populair channels so you could cover the rest of the available channels..
or just make a certain set available you want.. and map each tuner exclusively to 1 transponder.. some transponders actually have like 10 channels on them ..
so with 8 tuners you could cover something like 50 channels.. and the only lag a client would experience is the restart of the timeshift from another tuner.. which should be rather quick since it isnt actually changing channels but just using the tuner already tuned in to the signal ..

I think this would actually work rather good.. patent pending

[megacrypto]

limpwhizkid: i guess this has to be tried, or atleast on a smaller scale to tell how it works.

right now im struggeling with setting up tv server, i have one server that i set up with svn 18215 (both mp and tv3). the server is working alright, got it running, but now im strugeling with 1st client setup, i can get channels guide but no image. i'm trying to set this up to both see how well it work, and second demo it to my friend to set as the solution to go with... so still exploring the possibilites

[Gixxer]

Originally Posted by megacrypto

limpwhizkid: i guess this has to be tried, or atleast on a smaller scale to tell how it works.

right now im struggeling with setting up tv server, i have one server that i set up with svn 18215 (both mp and tv3). the server is working alright, got it running, but now im strugeling with 1st client setup, i can get channels guide but no image. i'm trying to set this up to both see how well it work, and second demo it to my friend to set as the solution to go with... so still exploring the possibilites

have u installed the client in the server pc also? does it work there?

[megacrypto]

client works fine on server.. actually all works ok on server, and when i switch on client pc i can see in the tv server console that my user is timeshifting, but nothing in the streaming server list (im starting a thread for this matter to keep this focused on the topic it started - No picture on remote client pc )

[limpwhizkid]

Originally Posted by megacrypto

client works fine on server.. actually all works ok on server, and when i switch on client pc i can see in the tv server console that my user is timeshifting, but nothing in the streaming server list (im starting a thread for this matter to keep this focused on the topic it started - No picture on remote client pc )

What is the operating system of the client(s) I bet it is vista ?

I do have the same problem with clients with vista with the last few builds..
however.. everything works fine with the clients on XP.. I also read somewhere that a developer confirmed this problem so , I guess you have to wait.. or install a client on XP..

I run the tvserver build from 29-03 now.. and it is fine sofar..
As said i cant get clients on vista connected.. , it looks like everything is working but no picture..
Clients I run on Xp .. even with a tvserver client plugin from 20-03 is working normally..

Just keep an eye on the nightly builds and see if they fix the vista problem in the comments..
then you could try again .. ?

dont forget.. it is still under development..