The Television Project
With the pending switch to digital-only broadcast TV (Even though it’s looking like that is going to be pushed back six months), I’ve been working on a project to get TV on my computers.
This has several goals.
- Minimum one HD television tuner, secondary (SD/HD) optional (And preferred)
- Network-capable DVR, meaning it takes the input and is capable of streaming the output to computers around the network
- Video playback abilities on televisions as well as computers (live, recorded or ripped)
- Video that can be streamed to multiple display units (simultaneously)
- Ability to transcode video and send to mobile devices such as portable media players, phones, PDAs, etc. as a stream or download
- Integration with the rest of my home automation projects
- Power-efficient architecture
Most of this is actually not hard to do. MythTV will do most of what I need. It provides the networked DVR with software that runs on the front-end computer, and it has plug-ins that provide for transcoding video for archival or playback on less powerful devices. It is capable of using quite a number of different video input devices; pretty much anything Linux supports, MythTV does. It has the complete suite of DVR features.
For the tuner, I decided to go with a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun. It is a standalone dual-tuner ATSC/ClearQAM receiver. It has two RF antenna connectors and an Ethernet port. It plugs directly into the network and can stream two signals simultaneously. I bought it during a sale last fall. Normally they’re $180, but I got it for $130. There are cheaper tuners available, but this one provided me the flexibility and features I wanted.
For the antenna, I decided to use a Winegard HD antenna, mainly because it was given to me for free. It’s a really nice outdoor, directional antenna. I don’t know the model or I’d link it.
I plan on mounting the HD antenna in the attic, and running a cable from there down to the wiring box in the laundry cubby where I’ll mount the HDHR. This will allow me to plug the HDHR directly into the unused port on my “core switch” and will keep the HDHR where I can get to it and out of the hot/cold attic. I may also mount a second antenna in the attic for the second interface, since it’s just so darn useful.
Since my tuner input will be digital (MPEG2 transport stream) I don’t need anything special for the MythBackend server except gobs of hard disk space. I’m thinking of just putting it on my main server, but that will ultimately depend on software support (My main server runs CentOS and I’m not rolling my own MythBackend).
My current problem is the front-end. SD TV isn’t a problem, but I want 1080p at least on the main TV. Secondaries can be 720, and in fact for TVs under about 30-inch it may be better. Most low-power systems can handle 720, but it still requires a higher-end video card to do 1080, especially when you throw MPEG-4/H.264 into the mix.
I don’t want to have a full-blown PC attached to each TV. I don’t even want a set-top box around each TV. I want the computer to be invisible. Only a few TVs even have Ethernet on them and those are mostly limited embedded-systems. I want something more powerful and flexible. I have seen one product from VIA that mounts to the VESA mounting holes on the back of most LCD TVs and monitors, but they’re hard to come by and about $800 per unit.
So once again, it’s up to me to scratch that particular itch. I’m not sure exactly how I’ll tackle it. I may use something like an Asus EEE Box though only the 204 or 206 (Which are not out yet) will be powerful enough to run a 1080 display.
For the secondary displays, I’ve been looking at things like the BeagleBoard, GumStix, or other tiny embedded system to drive the display. The BeagleBoard is about 3“ square, runs a 500-600 MHz ARM CPU, a 400MHz DSP (Think programmable stream processor), comes with a mini DVI-D output port (Basically an HDMI port minus the audio), is reportedly capable of playing 720p without breaking a sweat, and consumes about 5W (That’s not a typo).
So my idea for a secondary display (say, for the bedroom) is to get a 21” LCD monitor (Not a TV as those things are $300+) with speakers and mount a BB in a plexiglass case to the back, connect the audio and DVI and use a remote or wireless gyro mouse (Possibly a Wiimote?) for controls. This would work equally well in the kitchen.
For the main TV in the living room, I will need a lot more power, but I want to do it without sucking down electricity by the megawatt. So my idea is to get a large-screen (I’m looking at a 46“ Sharp Aquos) 1080p LCD monitor with HDMI input, a 5.1-channel receiver system (Haven’t picked one out yet) with S/PDIF input, and a small computer system to run it all. I’m thinking of using an Eee Box 204, as it has an ATI Radeon HD 3450 video card with HDMI-audio as well as a S/PDIF output, so I can run just the TV sometimes but when I want the full-on home theater experience, I can run the audio out to the receiver. The Aquos has a rated power consumption of about 240W, the Eee another 10-30W. Only the receiver (Which wouldn’t need to be on all the time) is the unknown when it comes to power consumption.
Since everything would be running through programmable computer systems, it shouldn’t be too difficult to expand to add new features as time progresses. And since I’m basing everything on Linux, there should be no major problems finding examples of anything i want to do.
The final goal is to integrate the TV system into a larger home automation project I am also planning. More on that later.
