Central Server and Multiple Remote Clients?
#1
Hello,

Moving house soon and considering an XBMC setup for the new place.

I am considering a central file / XBMC server, that sorts all my media, manages my databases and multiples user profiles etc. No playback or PVR facilities necessary. I would then like a light client at each viewing point, bedrooms, lounge, cinema, kitchen etc. Assuming the network is all wired Gigabit ethernet.

What kinda of hardware will a need for the server and client machines?
  1. Can you do this? One central machine with all media files, database and profiles 'feeding' several remote clients.
  2. Will the server do a lot of work? Does it need a beefy processor?
  3. Will a Raspberry Pi be capable of working as a client with all media served over the network?
  4. Will I be able to watch multiple streams at once over the network?

Thanks in advance.
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#2
1. Yes.
2. If you are just serving files and not transcoding anything, no.
3. Yes.
4. Yes.
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#3
server hardware is somewhat dependent on server OS and intended setup. But generally, a Celeron processor would handle everything just fine (unless you're transcoding).
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#4
Thanks. I have an old 2.5GHz core 2 duo tower lying around; I'll get a Raspberry Pi and see if it can get this shit set up. Any good articles or guides for multi-user multi client setups?

If I were to add a 4 head digital tuner to the server and use it for PVR and live tv, I assume that would need a very beefy processor and tons of RAM?

(2013-10-30, 20:55)dagatech Wrote: server hardware is somewhat dependent on server OS and intended setup. But generally, a Celeron processor would handle everything just fine (unless you're transcoding).

Server OS can be anything, it will be a dedicated XBMC box.... What do you recommend?
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#5
I converted my c2d tower into an unraid server (unraid is the OS). It runs from a USB flash, saving your sata ports for more hdds. I did this all with used hardware and a few 2tb hdds. You can setup a 3 hdds system for free, more hdds need a license.

I stream content (mostly .mkv files) via cat6 to 2 atvs, one old dell laptop running openelec, and another atv on wifi.

Only issue I ever have is some of the huge 1080p mkvs choke on the atvs and drop frames, but networking has never been an issue. The unraid server also hosts MySQL to keep all the boxes in sync with each other.

I also use air video to serve the same content to my iPad/iPhone over 3G/4g for my train rides
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#6
Your server has no need to run XBMC - it is simply a file server. It should also run mysql so that all your clients get an identical library and your watched statuses carry through the whole house. (Nothing better than getting half way through something and deciding you want to watch in another room, and it picks up exactly where you left off in the second room).

If you want PVR you need more software, a backend. XBMC does not record TV, it relies on other projects to do that (no point in reinventing the wheel when so many other projects do it well). I like and recommend mythtv, but tvheadend gets good reports. They are both linux PVR solutions. If you want to run windows on your server there are other solutions like NextPVR, but windows in anathema to me and I can't make any recommendations as I simply don't know.

A linux PVR server won't require a huge amount of RAM or CPU. Digital TV is captured by simply writing what the broadcaster sends to disk. There is no transcoding or encoding unless you still live in a part of the world where analogue TV is still available. My mythtv backend is sometimes a little underpowered with a sempron single core with 1G ram. I'll be upgrading it soon, but it has done good service to date.
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#7
(2013-10-30, 20:58)DannyBres Wrote: If I were to add a 4 head digital tuner to the server and use it for PVR and live tv, I assume that would need a very beefy processor and tons of RAM?

No, your 2,5GHz Core 2 Duo will be very good.

"Recording" digital TV is only saving a stream on harddisk. No capturing an encoding like old analogue TV.

I'm using tvheadend as backend and it is running with around 70MB RAM and uses about 5% CPU of one Core of an 2.1 GHZ Dual Core Sandy Bridge Pentium when viewing FullHD TV on another box.

LiveTv is just extracting the tv-channel stream from the sattelite signal, wich is done by your tunercard and then distributing it over your network.
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#8
Thanks for the help all! Smile Smile

I'll have a bash!

Any good guides for setting it all up? What to install on the server? How to point the XBMC clients at the correct SQL server etc?
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#9
Are you going to run linux or windows on the server? If you are going to run linux and mythtv then I would install the latest mythbuntu and go from there.

MySQL guide is here http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=HOW...sing_MySQL
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#10
Thanks, sounds excellent. I'd rather run Linux, no licenses required that way. Which will be best for performance?
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#11
Just go mythbuntu 12.04 (for Long Term Support).
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