Multiple TV Servers (1 Viewer)

[Ausdigital]

MediaPortal Version: 1.0.2
MediaPortal Skin: Blue3
Windows Version: XP SP3
CPU Type: AMD Athlon
HDD: SATA 1 TB
Memory: 2 GB DDR3
Motherboard: MSI
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 5500
Video Card Driver:
Sound Card: Onboard
Sound Card AC3: Onboard
Sound Card Driver:
1. TV Card: Winfast
1. TV Card Type: HD
1. TV Card Driver:
2. TV Card: AverMedia
2. TV Card Type: HD
2. TV Card Driver:
3. TV Card: AverMedia
3. TV Card Type: HD
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec:
MPEG2 Audio Codec:
h.264 Video Codec:
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case:
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote:
TV:
TV - HTPC Connection:

Does MediaPortal support multiple TV servers?

My limited experience with MP has allowed me to setup one server (with 4 clients) with 3 tuners in it but my thoughts have expanded to wonder if one had a two story house and wanted to setup MP upstairs and another downstairs both with multiple tuners.

Would you be able to configure it for two servers and/or select between them as required. Even to the point if one had all tv tuners locked in use, then the second server would become available.

Or am I just living in a fantasy.....

 

[kstam]

I think (almost sure) that MP doesn't support that. there can be only one server, or at least the two servers would be independant. Meaning that the one could not use the tuners of the other, and each client can connect to only one. What I 'm not sure is if it is easy from inside the client to select to witch server you want to connect. And when I say easy I mean from inside MP and not having to go to Configuration. Something like selecting groups for example. That would be a suggestion to the developers...
But your are not living in a fantasy. What you describe is possible with MythTV. The most well known Linux Media Center with TV capabilities. It is based also on Server client model (in fact far before MP did) and it is possible to have one Master server (Backend as it is called) with multiple TV cards and MULTIPLE Slave servers (backends) with multiple TV cards each. Then the clients connect to the Master server who selects witch card of which slave server would use to server the specific request of each client. You can try it if you have a couple of test machines using a distribution specifically designed for MythTV like Mythbuntu (based on Ubuntu) or Mythdora (based on Fedora).

 

[Ausdigital]

I agree that the two servers would be independent, but can clients be configured in future versions of MP to allow more than one server to be setup.

Suggesting that a priority be created like the tuner cards. A client would connect to the first server and use its tv cards, as more clients connect and discover the first server's tuner cards are locked or unavailable it connects to the second server.

This idea would be suited for larger homes with several tv areas with minimal requirements for antenna slots and maximising the home network ideas.

Perhaps this thread should move to the wishlist section of the forum where the experts have their thinktanks.

 

[dvdfreak]

You can run and manage multiple servers using For The Record: https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/general-support-51/multiple-tv-servers-69334/#post499449

 

[Bagal]

Out of the box MP doesn't support multiple TV Servers (originally this was intended but it didn't work correctly so was disabled) but as suggested above using For the Record you can utilise multiple TV Servers and this is how my system is setup, which works great!

 

[Guzzi]

AW: Multiple TV Servers

I also tried the multiserversolution some 2 years ago, but nowadays I think 1 server is fine, because there are working solutions with USB and Firewire - so you can have 10+ parallel cards in a server - I think this should be enough for "home use" - plus it is energysaving having "less servers" running.
And for those planning to record all Sat-channels in parallel and continously - as stated for the record is a solution ... and those probably require some more servers to store the petabytes ;-)