"Jeff" == Jeff Artz <junk_inbox@verizon.net> writes:
Jeff> I've got 7 drives just as individual drives directly attached Jeff> via SATA ports. Each drive is mounted individually, and I use Jeff> the "Storage Groups" feature in MythTV, which spreads the Jeff> recordings across all the drives pretty evenly. ;-)
Interesting, no RAID. Did you do this for ease of expansion, so you just add a new disk and Myth simply starts using it? And I assume you don't care if you lose 150+ programs at a go if a disk dies, right?
Jeff> I ran a Raid5 of 6 500GB drives for a couple of years. But then Jeff> I had a drive that was starting to fail, so I had bought a Jeff> replacement, and had powered down my system to replace the bad Jeff> drive. Well, when I did that, a 2nd drive went DOA with the Jeff> 'click-of-death'. No amount of recovery attempts brought things Jeff> back to life, so there I was with 2.5TB of Raid5'd recordings Jeff> gone.... Ouch, not fun. I can understand your desire to limit your losses. I guess with drives being so cheap now, RAID6 would make alot of sense with more drives. Jeff> So I re-built using Individual drives and Storage Groups. Now Jeff> if I were to lose a drive or two, I only lose SOME of my Jeff> recordings, not everything. Can't really object. I'm amazed at how many shows my Tivo now holds with it's 1Tb drive. Way more than I'll ever watch...
Of course I'm running on a Tivo Premiere with a single disk so I'm toast too if it dies. I need to crack my case one day and make a backup...
Jeff> I used to 'backup' my DishPlayer 7200's back in the day... but Jeff> it's much easier with MythTV. ;-) Having to crack the case is a pain I admit. But I love thr TiVo remote, it's the best one I've ever found bar none. It really just does the trick.
I'm also using a Cable Card and a Cisco interface box because Tivo doesn't support the latest two way cable card standard. And that Cisco box keeps crapping out randomly and requires a reboot. Better
Jeff> So this is basically an 'external tuner' for the Tivo? Sounds Jeff> like it could be used to feed a tuner for MythTV too... Jeff> Yes/No/Maybe? Is it SD or HD? (Sounds like SD) We're running an HD signal, but displaying to an old JVC Tube TV which is still going strong. Might replace it this Xmas, might not. Basically, with HD channels now, they have a cable card standard that allows you to get a listing of all your channels, but it only streams the ones actually being used at the time down your local cable loop, to minimize the bandwith used. So the Cisco box talks to the head end and says "I want channel 54" and the head end replies with "Tune to frequency X.y.z" which is either already streaming that channel, or which has just been setup to do that channel for you. The Tivo unfortunately doesn't understand this protocol for some reason so I need this extra box. Sucks in alot of ways, but it's better than the old cable box I used to have. Jeff> I had also tried tuning Clear QAM on my FiOS cable, but didn't Jeff> get anything except locals and the SD "Government" cable Jeff> channels, which are of no interest to me. And I get the locals Jeff> loud & clear via a roof-mounted UHF antenna. I suspect that Fios does the same thing, but I don't know.
channel switching speed/accuracy than using an IR blaster though for sure!
Jeff> Yeah, IR Blasting is somewhat of a science... When I was using Jeff> IR blasting, I managed to get things tuned up well enough that I Jeff> almost never had a bad channel change. But maybe it's because I Jeff> used an oscillescope to 'tune' my scripts to be 'pefect'... The thing I didn't like about the IR blaster was that it's so one way. The Tivo would just assume that the cable box was on the wrong channel and change it no matter what. The new setup uses a USB connection, so the Tivo asks for a channel and the Cisco tunes very quickly to the new channel, or just stays where it is. No annoying flashes or preceptable delays. Now I have to admit my Tivo Premiere feels *slower* for some operations compared to my older Series 2 unit. And last night I had it hang hard on me for about 5 minutes before it suddenly came back to life and started changing channels again. I hope it's not a disk dying or something like that... I should really take the time to pull it and make a backup. John