A few questions about MediaMVP

[Gambit]

I'm rather new to HTPC's in general so forgive me if what I'm about to ask should be rather obvious.

I'm in the process of putting together a new computer running Linux to do a few things, such as SAMBA file sharing, TorrentFlux and MythTV. This computer was not planned on being set near a TV, but instead likely left in the basement for various reasons. I was planning on storing my mp3's and DVD's on the computer and being able to view / listen to this content in another room in the house. I recently came across MediaMVP which would be *perfect* for allowing me to view this content on a TV. MediaMVP says it requires a Windows based OS, but my server will be running Linux (really no negotiation on it either). I've seen other software for the MediaMVP that you can send to it during the DHCP process, such as mvpmc, which doesn't sound like a problem to hook up. Having said all that, my questions are:

1. Although MediaMVP looks like a great solution, is there anything else?
2. My wife and I aren't obsessive about the quality of the video we watch, so everything will be viewed on normal SD tv's... what kind of steady connection am I going to be looking at?
3. I hear there can be sync issues with MediaMVP when skipping around... any ideas how bad it gets?
4. I also hear MediaMVP has trouble playing some content that was recorded with MythTV correctly... any comments?

So far, the only other thing I've come up with is to try to build a very lightweight computer to replace the MVP, but even with the cheapest components to just get it done, it'll still be huge and costly compared to the MVP.

Specs of the fileserver machine so far:
AMD X2 3800+
Geil 2x 1GB DDR2 800
4 Seagate Barracuda 500GB (in RAID5) - (might go down to 3)
BIOSTAR TForce TF570SLI
IDE DVD Burner
small IDE Harddrive (OS)
a cheap case and a decent power supply
MSI GeForce 8500GT
PVR-150

Any help / suggestions / comments would be great.

 

[Trepidati0n]

For your setup, I cannot comment. However, I use MVP's with SageTV on a windows box and have pretty good luck with it.

Also, don't forget that the MVP only supports non-encrypted MPEG2 for video (IIRC). You will need software that can transcode on the fly before sending out the stream if you want things like Divx, xvid, etc. I believe Sage has a linux version these days.

 

[Gambit]

yeah, I recall reading that you can use vlc for the transcoding... if that's true, that shouldn't be a problem. The server should also be able to handle transcoding, serving files and BT all at once without a problem.

I'll also look into setting up Sage as well, seeing as how it has the same capabilities as MythTV / MVP, plus it looks like it's able to work with a few more formats as well.