Tvheadend

Don't know about something that will be happy in 1U form factor. But my TVH/NAS box is:

- http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/E35M1I/
- 1 * Samsung 830 128G SSD (rootfs/home/timeshift, i.e. live data)
- 3 * 3TB WD Red in md RAID 5 (media, backups, etc...) spun down when inactive
- 1 * 500G WD Blue (scratch, PVR recordings, etc...) spun down when inactive
- 1 * TBS6985
- 1 * TBSBLAH (dual T2 USB thingy TSB sent me)

But that's all in a bog standard cheapy desktop chassis as its in my loft out of the way.

Does the job, I've pushed the board to see what the CPU can cope with, I managed to get 8-9 parallel HD scrambled recordings going, think that was pretty much topping out the CPU, but then I didn't have much else I'd be able to get in with the tuners I've got

Adam

Hi Andy,

I did a similar set-up about three months ago, so I can at least give some input to you..

1. If you use a 1,5U rack instead, you can use the standard MB backplate. This makes things so much easier. I went for a CasePro KI-N1525 1.5U chassis.
2. Motherboard: Going rack, I really don't want to have the hassle by connecting monitors and keyboards when there's trouble booting etc. So AMT was an easy decision. I ended up with Jetway NF9E-Q77 Motherboard. AMT makes life soo much easier if you want to upgrade kernels and so on, since you can do everything from your regular desktop.

I'm currently using dual dvb-t2 tuners with this set-up, but I am ready for a PCIe.
Disks are 1 120GB intel SSD for recording and rootfs, and one 4TB for file server. CPU intel Core I7 3770. (They all use the same energy when idle, so no use going for the low power versions)
Since I wanted lowest power consumption, I calculated lots on different Power supplies (trying to find a low wattage one that was efficient), and arrived at XILENCE 200W SFX for this set-up.

This set-up is using 27W in normal idle. 4TB spun down.

I bought stuff from Germany (MB), China (Case), UK (PS) and Sweden (the rest) for this rig

Get this: http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-d2550-wifi-supreme-d2550itxs-a-e.html
The integrated graphics adapter (GT610) has enough power to deinterlace full HD stuff in various ways (VDPAU acceleration). Also take a look at this: http://shop.digital-devices.de/epages/62357162.sf/en_GB/?ViewObjectID=36642344

Hi Folks,

WOW! thanks for the quick (and informative) replies!

I hadn't thought about a 1.5U chassis or using AMT. (Strange really, we use it at work for remote management of the Hyper-V servers all the time!)

Thanks also for the confirmation that the TBS6985 is OK.

I think I'm probably going to go with an I5 CPU and at least 4G of ram.

I must admit I hadn't considered the possible implications of storage connectivity/speed on the system, I was originally considering an SSD for the OS, another SSD for timeshift, and dumping PVR recordings direct to my NAS over NFS (1G link). Is this likely to cause me performance problems?

Sorry for the new question, and thanks a gain for all the advice!

Andy B.

The SSD isn't required for timeshift, though ofc it could have benefits for skipping (longer term), my main reason for putting that on there comes back to the idea of keeping all "live" data on the SSD. That way my disks are only spun up (power consumption etc...) when they are really needed, i.e. playback or recording. So just watching Live TV doesn't utilise the disks of my machine (and keeps the power down a bit).

Unless you plan to use the server for more than a NAS/TVH server, OR you really need to descramble a massive number of channels or do transcoding etc... Then an i5 is overkill, but if you're looking for a more general purpose server go for it

I've only got 2G of RAM, though tbh that's just because I was tight when I bought it :p 4G is probably a reasonable price point. 1Gbps isn't a requirement either, but its definitely good to have plenty of spare capacity and these days its fairly standard.

With regard to the TBS6985, the one thing you need to do is alter the default IRQ setup else it dies frequently. This is just a module param, I'll dig out the details and put something on the wiki if I remember.

Adam

That's it then...

I'm sorted, or soon will be, a TBS6985, I5, 4G of ram and a couple of small SSD's will get me going, I wonder how long the 4T of free space on my "Media" NAS will last...

I did a quick Google on the TSB6985 and IRQ without a great deal of success, so anything you have on changing the IRQ setup (to MSI?) would be much appreciated!

Thanks again for all the info...

I'll possibly post a few pics when I'm done!

Andy B

PS - Adam, I notice that you mention descrambling... here in the UK that generally means $ky which I thought was "not possible" with current hardware/cards etc - does someone know something I don't ( wouldn't be surprised ) Maybe I'll start a new thread once the current project is up and running...

Andy,

In case I forget to put something on the wiki:

aps@bombadil:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/tbs.conf 
options saa716x_tbs-dvb int_type=1

The file name doesn't actually matter, just good practice to have meaningful name to aide memory

I couldn't possibly comment on what is/isn't possible with descrambling

Adam

FWIW, I set out to build a new low-power general purpose/NAS/TV server recently. I went with an i3 because the idle power is so low, yet has enough oomph to do overnight transcodes of BR rips and the like. Oh, and transcoding .ts files to correct the errors (did I ever mention elsewhere how much I hate .ts? Not sure that I did ... ).

I paired it with a similar disc setup as Adam's for similar reasons: an old 2.5" boot/scratch/temp/PVR drive, 3x3Tb WD Red drives configured as RAID-Z (ZFS) for fault tolerance. I stuck with USB tuners because they were what I had, although internal cards would have been tidier/better (no device numbering issues on boot).

I went micro ATX because of the SATA ports; I was looking at mini ITX before that, but there was only an ASUS board that came close. I've got the room to add another few drives as needed now, though.

Major parts:

• Intel i3-3225 (I think the only 4-core i3)
• MSI H77MA-G43 motherboard (seemed to be the lowest power uATX I could get)
• Antec 380W EarthWatts Green PSU (80Plus Bronze - nothing is really efficient at low power unless you go picoPSU)
• 8Gb Crucial RAM (single stick, takes less power - 8Gb because I was considering running Squid, although I also have the space for a decent RAMdisc if needed)
• WD Red Drives (so they can spin down independently)

... plus the inevitable bits and bobs. I think it consumes about 25W on idle, peaking at 70-80W when all four cores are active. The upcoming Intel chips would lower this further, but I couldn't wait any longer; I also considered a U processor, but decided that it just didn't have the grunt for very little return (lower TDP, yes, but not lower idle power or when only a single core or so is active).

Hi,

Can Tvheadend use multi processor board like xeon for more by exemple send 10 HD channels in same time????

If I understand : Most important is Processor>Speed Hard drive>Memory for transcode and more ?