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Ok, I'm slightly lost.

It seems to me that the best way to split MP in to a client/server is though the use of being able to add a NetworkTvCard as a 'fake' tv card in the MP setup, and have it act as a stub to a real card somewhere on the network. Surely there is a common interface in MP for all TV cards?

Then you could use webservices (of whatever flavour) to make accessing the card over the network completely transparent. The client would send and recieve data to the NetworkTvCard stub which would then pass it over the network to a recieving interface, that would then interact with the actual hardware card, (which would be unaware the client was remote).

From a setup perspective, the client is simply a full MP install using the NetworkTvCard as its tuner, and the server would be a stripped down version of the bit of MP core that deals with the hardware, (before the common interface that I'm just guessing exists). Then doing all the stuff like timeshifting and so on would be performed on the client, as the NetworkTvCard would just act like a regular card waiting to be told what to do.

Of course the main issue is bandwidth. But, the raw signal coming from a DVB-T card is probably 6MB/s right? Of course it'll be a lot higher for HDTV, but there is no reason why a HDTV signal couldn't be transcoded on the server first to say MPEG4, (although this would be potentially difficult getting the existing MP framework to deal with this, unless it was transcoded back in to MPEG2 on the NetworkTvCard stub - messy but easy). Besides, if you wanna stream HDTV, you gotta realise you'll need a network to shift that much data, there's no point sugar coating it.

For multiple users, I think with some TV cards you can get them to act like multiple cards anyway right? I'm not just talking the dual tuner variety, but there are also cards that can do picture on/in picture setups, even when the channels are in different transport streams. My Compro T300 seems to be able to do this with no loss of quality, (although I could well be proved wrong on this). The point is, each card (or each virtual card in the potential case of my Compro) could have its own webservice to be used by whoever wants it. Of course, the problem then is in multi-user scenarios finding which card(s) are free, (which I think was previously descussed by the use of a broker?).

Anyway, thats my 2p. ;0) Feel free to harshly knock whatever I've written.

<blockquote data-quote="staverton" data-source="post: 53799" data-attributes="member: 11205">Ok, I'm slightly lost.It seems to me that the best way to split MP in to a client/server is though the use of being able to add a NetworkTvCard as a 'fake' tv card in the MP setup, and have it act as a stub to a real card somewhere on the network.&nbsp; Surely there is a common interface in MP for all TV cards?Then you could use webservices (of whatever flavour) to make accessing the card over the network completely transparent.&nbsp; The client would send and recieve data to the NetworkTvCard stub which would then pass it over the network to a recieving interface, that would then interact with the actual hardware card, (which would be unaware the client was remote).From a setup perspective, the client is simply a full MP install using the NetworkTvCard as its tuner, and the server would be a stripped down version of the bit of MP core that deals with the hardware, (before the common interface that I'm just guessing exists).&nbsp; Then doing all the stuff like timeshifting and so on would be performed on the client, as the NetworkTvCard would just act like a regular card waiting to be told what to do.Of course the main issue is bandwidth.&nbsp; But, the raw signal coming from a DVB-T card is probably 6MB/s right?&nbsp; Of course it'll be a lot higher for HDTV, but there is no reason why a HDTV signal couldn't be transcoded on the server first to say MPEG4, (although this would be potentially difficult getting the existing MP framework to deal with this, unless it was transcoded back in to MPEG2 on the NetworkTvCard stub - messy but easy).&nbsp; Besides, if you wanna stream HDTV, you gotta realise you'll need a network to shift that much data, there's no point sugar coating it.For multiple users, I think with some TV cards you can get them to act like multiple cards anyway right?&nbsp; I'm not just talking the dual tuner variety, but there are also cards that can do picture on/in picture setups, even when the channels are in different transport streams.&nbsp; My Compro T300 seems to be able to do this with no loss of quality, (although I could well be proved wrong on this).&nbsp; The point is, each card (or each virtual card in the potential case of my Compro) could have its own webservice to be used by whoever wants it.&nbsp; Of course, the problem then is in multi-user scenarios finding which card(s) are free, (which I think was previously descussed by the use of a broker?).Anyway, thats my 2p. ;0)&nbsp; Feel free to harshly knock whatever I've written.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="staverton, post: 53799, member: 11205"] Ok, I'm slightly lost. It seems to me that the best way to split MP in to a client/server is though the use of being able to add a NetworkTvCard as a 'fake' tv card in the MP setup, and have it act as a stub to a real card somewhere on the network. Surely there is a common interface in MP for all TV cards? Then you could use webservices (of whatever flavour) to make accessing the card over the network completely transparent. The client would send and recieve data to the NetworkTvCard stub which would then pass it over the network to a recieving interface, that would then interact with the actual hardware card, (which would be unaware the client was remote). From a setup perspective, the client is simply a full MP install using the NetworkTvCard as its tuner, and the server would be a stripped down version of the bit of MP core that deals with the hardware, (before the common interface that I'm just guessing exists). Then doing all the stuff like timeshifting and so on would be performed on the client, as the NetworkTvCard would just act like a regular card waiting to be told what to do. Of course the main issue is bandwidth. But, the raw signal coming from a DVB-T card is probably 6MB/s right? Of course it'll be a lot higher for HDTV, but there is no reason why a HDTV signal couldn't be transcoded on the server first to say MPEG4, (although this would be potentially difficult getting the existing MP framework to deal with this, unless it was transcoded back in to MPEG2 on the NetworkTvCard stub - messy but easy). Besides, if you wanna stream HDTV, you gotta realise you'll need a network to shift that much data, there's no point sugar coating it. For multiple users, I think with some TV cards you can get them to act like multiple cards anyway right? I'm not just talking the dual tuner variety, but there are also cards that can do picture on/in picture setups, even when the channels are in different transport streams. My Compro T300 seems to be able to do this with no loss of quality, (although I could well be proved wrong on this). The point is, each card (or each virtual card in the potential case of my Compro) could have its own webservice to be used by whoever wants it. Of course, the problem then is in multi-user scenarios finding which card(s) are free, (which I think was previously descussed by the use of a broker?). Anyway, thats my 2p. ;0) Feel free to harshly knock whatever I've written. [/QUOTE]