New build - help needed - separating combined BE/FE

Do you want advice about what hardware to buy for use with MythTV? Ask here.

Moderator: Forum Moderators

Post Reply
jiminorris
Junior
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun May 29, 2016 3:52 pm
Great Britain

New build - help needed - separating combined BE/FE

Post by jiminorris »

Quite frankly, I don't have a clue what I'm doing here;

For the last ~15 years I've had a combined FE/BE as follows:
Xubuntu LTS
Occasional fresh installs (originally Mythbuntu,) but BE database constant upgrades since v0.19

Hardware:
AMD Athlon(tm) II X4 605e Processor
12Gb RAM
Nvidia GT710 (passive)
Hauppauge Win/TV Nova-T PCI DVB-t Tuner
PCTV 290e DVB-T2 Tuner (USB)
Bunch of HDDs


Currently, this is all in a massive SilverStone case and my plan would be to have two boxes; an always-on BE and a bunch of small FE around the house. There will be a main FE with the family TV (where we also play video-games through Steam) and then probably a bunch of Kodi sticks connecting to the MythBE everywhere else.

Trouble is, I'm not sure what I need running on the backend. My whole DVD collection is on there as are the LiveTV recordings. It would be great if my wife could also use it as a file server for her business, too.

What options are there for the backend/file server? I've seen NAS devices, but they seem too restricted in use. What should I do?!
jksj
Senior
Posts: 148
Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2014 7:53 pm
Great Britain

Re: New build - help needed - separating combined BE/FE

Post by jksj »

Cheapest option is to use a Raspberry Pi 4 GB as a backend with a hard drive interfaced with usb3.
Performance is great with low power consumption. Makes a great backend. I run Hauppauge Dual HD USB wirh no issues for Freeview.
See Raspberry Pi thread in this forum and https://mythtv-rp4.blogspot.com/2019/12 ... -pi-4.html

Firestick 4K recommended as mythfrontends
See Android thread in this forum (note Uk specific settings)
There is an isssue with Kodi however on the F4K which is waiting for a firmware fix https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=336151&page=69.
Any other Kodi stick would work.
Raspberry Pi 4 is not good running mythfrontend but runs Kodi ok.
Kodi runs perfectly on Raspberry Pi using https://libreelec.tv/
User avatar
jfabernathy
Senior
Posts: 577
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2015 2:37 pm
Location: Raleigh, NC
United States of America

Re: New build - help needed - separating combined BE/FE

Post by jfabernathy »

jiminorris wrote:
Sun Jun 28, 2020 1:58 pm

Trouble is, I'm not sure what I need running on the backend. My whole DVD collection is on there as are the LiveTV recordings. It would be great if my wife could also use it as a file server for her business, too.

What options are there for the backend/file server? I've seen NAS devices, but they seem too restricted in use. What should I do?!
My production backend is an old Core i7 PC with sort of the setup you mentioned you have. When I last built it from scratch and moved on the mythconverg database and recordings I was on Ubuntu Server 18.04 and v.29, but it's been upgraded to v31.

I included a small boot drive and 4 2TB HDDs and configured them as 2 RAID 1, mirrors. I split the recording between the 2 mirrors for performance and also setup directories for a NAS. I setup NFS and Samba so the other PCs in the house could have data storage. I have all my Videos and Music on the NAS as well.

If you want remote frontends you'll need some small edits and config changes, but easy. My Frontends are FireTV 4K Stick and Shield TV. Plus any PC in the house can run Kodi or mythfrontend if Linux/Mac.

If you want more data I can post some links on doing some of this. I debated having a separate NAS, but having a mythtv backend and NAS worked great and was stable. Most of the stability is due to only using Ubuntu Server so no GUI to screw it up. I can even access it outside the home because my AP/Router has a OpenVPN server built in.
jiminorris
Junior
Posts: 23
Joined: Sun May 29, 2016 3:52 pm
Great Britain

Re: New build - help needed - separating combined BE/FE

Post by jiminorris »

jksj wrote:
Mon Jun 29, 2020 9:35 am
Cheapest option is to use a Raspberry Pi 4 GB as a backend with a hard drive interfaced with usb3.
Performance is great with low power consumption. Makes a great backend. I run Hauppauge Dual HD USB wirh no issues for Freeview.
See Raspberry Pi thread in this forum and https://mythtv-rp4.blogspot.com/2019/12 ... -pi-4.html
Would a Pi4 really be able to manage the load of ~8Tb storage, streaming to multiple frontends and serving music/data elsewhere?

jfabernathy wrote:
Wed Jul 01, 2020 10:54 am
My production backend is an old Core i7 PC with sort of the setup you mentioned you have. When I last built it from scratch and moved on the mythconverg database and recordings I was on Ubuntu Server 18.04 and v.29, but it's been upgraded to v31.

I included a small boot drive and 4 2TB HDDs and configured them as 2 RAID 1, mirrors. I split the recording between the 2 mirrors for performance and also setup directories for a NAS. I setup NFS and Samba so the other PCs in the house could have data storage. I have all my Videos and Music on the NAS as well.

If you want remote frontends you'll need some small edits and config changes, but easy. My Frontends are FireTV 4K Stick and Shield TV. Plus any PC in the house can run Kodi or mythfrontend if Linux/Mac.

If you want more data I can post some links on doing some of this. I debated having a separate NAS, but having a mythtv backend and NAS worked great and was stable. Most of the stability is due to only using Ubuntu Server so no GUI to screw it up. I can even access it outside the home because my AP/Router has a OpenVPN server built in.
Yes, more detail on how this works would be great. :)
jksj
Senior
Posts: 148
Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2014 7:53 pm
Great Britain

Re: New build - help needed - separating combined BE/FE

Post by jksj »

Would a Pi4 really be able to manage the load of ~8Tb storage, streaming to multiple frontends and serving music/data elsewhere?
For networking performance see
[url][https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews ... y-pi-4/url]
User avatar
jfabernathy
Senior
Posts: 577
Joined: Wed Feb 18, 2015 2:37 pm
Location: Raleigh, NC
United States of America

Re: New build - help needed - separating combined BE/FE

Post by jfabernathy »

On the RPi4 I have found no issues running it as a backend only with a HDHomeRun Quatro. So I've tested recording 4 shows at once during primetime so there might have been a 1 minute or so of overlap where it's really recording more. I have the multi-record to 2 recordings per tuner, i.e. 8 possible. It will run commercial flagging okay, but stay away from any transcoding.

I've even used the FE on the RPi4 at the same time. Not as good as a FireTV 4K stick but works fine. You need to make sure you use an externally powered USB3 storage so the Power supply on the RPi isn't a problem.

I'll point you you to my old blog for setting us Ubuntu Server with mythtv and SAMBA file server. The Ubuntu stuff is old, but still works similar. I don't think SAMBA has changed. I know it's the same setup I use today. I just updated the O/S in place as well as Mythtv now on v31.

You might want to refer to more modern mythtv install instructions, but this will give you ideas.
https://mythtvinstall.blogspot.com/2018 ... dless.html
Post Reply