Hey all, with 7 PCs in the house, a PS3, an XBox360, a Wii, iPhone, iPod touch and Lord knows what else we have - I've decided to TRY and connect them all together in some form of near-sentient mess. setting up a network is more-or-less required at this point to share music, photos, etc. But I would reallt like to do is build a HD PVR for the bedroom. We have a DirecTV DVR in the family room but the kids have over-run the damn thing with Disney and NickToons. I of course would like to be able to stream the recorded shows as well as MP3s throughout the house.
As this is a pretty open-ended question, I need advice on where to start looking if anyone has opinions. I'd like to keep the network wireless if possible.
Thanks!
Full Version: Looking to stream media/PVR options
Anyone know/use BeyondTV?
Jaysus, Joseph and Mary. Are you on a one person campaign to keep the comp companies/Apple in business? No wonder you don't have any personal time. At one point I had 5 personal computers networked together plus a laptop PLUS I was the service manager/chief builder/top OS guy for a computer company plus I did all the repair work on the companies and employees private computers. Maybe that's why I was burned out from using/working with computers. I sold off 3 computers and the laptop. Life became, well life. 
I realize that you have family obligations but jeez, B. That's a mess of shit to be diddling with. That will suck up your time like a Dyson vacuum cleaner with fine dust. In answer to your question, probably talk to tb or Mr. 4x4 or wharfrat.
I realize that you have family obligations but jeez, B. That's a mess of shit to be diddling with. That will suck up your time like a Dyson vacuum cleaner with fine dust. In answer to your question, probably talk to tb or Mr. 4x4 or wharfrat.
Only two PCs and a laptop are running - aside from the game systems and the iPhone. I want to setup a media server, PVR in the bedroom and two PCs for the girls in the basement.
Now if 4x4, tb or wharfrat would opine...I'd be set!
I think that bk might have a thing or two to add as well.
Now if 4x4, tb or wharfrat would opine...I'd be set!
I think that bk might have a thing or two to add as well.
Yep, he'd know how also, if he is up on the software. He is more than capable of knowing/explaining the theory/routing of it.
Bagging the PVR for the time being. I can't find a card compatible with my DirecTV HD receiver.
We're now down to 6PCs and I've set up shared folders for music and photos so we're more-or-less set for the time being.
We're now down to 6PCs and I've set up shared folders for music and photos so we're more-or-less set for the time being.
I've currently got a PC in the living room with an Athlon XP1800+, 1GB, 160GB HDD, and Hauppage PVR-150 video capture/tuner card in it, except that I'm not really using it as a PVR just yet - the machine's just too loud. I blame the MWave house-brand power supply... I just need to snag an Antec Basiq 450 for some nice, quiet power.
I originally had an ATI 9200 All-In-Wonder, which was working like a champ except that the original 'ATI Media Center' software package that came with it lacked a few features I was after (not being in 'record' mode as soon as you turn it on, for one, and a nice interactive video so she wouldn't have problems finding the recordings, etc). The next release of the ATI Media Center was awesome - same problem though, if it's in TV mode, it's recording. Everything else seemed to be fixed. Crap!
So I jammed in the Hauppage card, and it's stuff is cool, except that all of the installations. tweaks, deinstallations, re-installations, etc., of the ATI stuff has messed up Windows XP. Hopefully, my boss can hook me up with a copy of Windows Media Center soon - just to try it out. I still need to flush the OS and reload clean with the Hauppage video card as the main tuner and it's software exclusive (no ATI stuff) and see what happens. But then again, all I need to do is get the machine quiet too... this has been put off for the past 15 months or so. I can go forever without actually making this thing work the way I want it to, more than likely.
All of that, plus the fact that none of the 'free' packaged TV Guide stuff I was supposed to enjoying with my new cards doesn't reach my area - so, sucks to be me. Trying to find a nice 'one-step' recording has been a PITA, because none of the cool PVR applications out there (MythTV, BeyondTV, myHTPC, etc.) can be used in their 'free' mode without some kind of directory service you have to pay for. Screw that - that's the whole point of doing this... so I don't have to pay for the ability to use the PVR for the handful of things we record and watch.
You've pretty much got the basics down - 'sharing' media across the network is basically 'streaming,' there's nothing really mystical about it. If you want to 'stream' media through your website or something, then that's a different deal, and need server-side features to support that.
You take one of the hottest machines you've got, jam a couple NICs in it, shotgun the connections to the central switch (for multiple connections with less lag), share out the folders you stash all your media in, lock 'em down (Read-Only to everybody except your administrator account so nothing gets accidentally over-written by anybody), map those shares as drives on each machine, and have everybody make 'playlists' on their own machines. If you need new music added, add it in as a 'media administrator' or something. Set up some share folders for everybody else to dump their tunes in that they want kept as well - then copy them into your central music stash as necessary. If you use Win2K or Win2K3 server (Or equivalent) and set up Dynamic Drives, you can just add a hard drive device as your stuff grows, and add its space into the shares without having to reconfigure it all as well.
This works for anything you've shared out. If you share out a directory of MP3s, a player (I use WinAmp) can have a local playlist based on mapped drives. If those mapped drive letters ever change, you can simply edit the playlist through Notepad or something and change the drive letters to reflect the new ones. Easy stuff.
When you get the PVR portion of it set up, then make sure the newly recorded stuff gets dumped into another shared folder as well - the files should be recorded in a format you can stream to Media Player, or whatever you use at your PC. I've tested all this stuff out, and it works. The MP3s are currently on my webserver (that machine's only a Duron 1300 w/512MB that I recently upgraded to an XP2100+ w/1GB), and they can be streamed anywere in the house - but I'm the only one that listens to them anyway. When I have the living room machine running, I can pull whatever videos I've recorded into my PC in the other room with no lag on the network (the wife's always playing WoW and she doesn't notice it when I 'play' with the machine like that).
The big thing is to come up with a consistent file plan, so you can restore everything fairly quickly if someone messes up their stuff, or a machine goes down. For instance, name your MP3 shared folder as 'Tunes' and dump all of your different bands, albums, genres (whatever), into it as sub-folders - that way you only have to map the one drive 'Tunes' on all of the other machines - they'll have access to everything in the subfolders. Then at each machine, make sure to map 'Tunes' as the 'S' drive (or something else - but be consistent). Then make a directory shared as everybody's name, make 'em Read-Only to everybody but the owner and the administrator, then map them with the same drive letters on everybody's machine. That way, music can be shared, and 1 person can't accidentally dump someone else's music - and it leaves Mommy and Daddy the ability as the administrators to go surgically remove some of the undesireable music as well.
Do that with all types of media you want to share out across the network - Movies, pictures, tunes, whatever. I do the same thing with all of the important crap I need to get my machines back online as well. I try to keep the latest hardware drivers, spyware signatures, AV signatures, etc., in one location so if a machine craps out, all I have to do is get it reloaded and put on the network, and go from there. I know a lot of people just make images, but my junk doesn't go down very often - and having more than one or two machines is a PITA - especially when the 'image' changes with stuff you add-in and take away when you're tired of it. Plus, when I build machines for other people, I'm only a network share away from all of the 'extra' stuff I install for them.
Plus, whatever machine you designate as your 'file/media' server, can also become a printer server as well - just plug in whatever printers you want to have online, put 'em in a central area, share 'em out, and guess what - you only have 2 or 3 printers to deal with, rather than one at each machine.
Having a robust home network is easy to do. You just need to think things out a little bit, and most importantly - be consistent at all of the machines for quick recovery.
Sorry for the novel, but you did say to weigh in... and I'm a pretty big boy.
I originally had an ATI 9200 All-In-Wonder, which was working like a champ except that the original 'ATI Media Center' software package that came with it lacked a few features I was after (not being in 'record' mode as soon as you turn it on, for one, and a nice interactive video so she wouldn't have problems finding the recordings, etc). The next release of the ATI Media Center was awesome - same problem though, if it's in TV mode, it's recording. Everything else seemed to be fixed. Crap!
So I jammed in the Hauppage card, and it's stuff is cool, except that all of the installations. tweaks, deinstallations, re-installations, etc., of the ATI stuff has messed up Windows XP. Hopefully, my boss can hook me up with a copy of Windows Media Center soon - just to try it out. I still need to flush the OS and reload clean with the Hauppage video card as the main tuner and it's software exclusive (no ATI stuff) and see what happens. But then again, all I need to do is get the machine quiet too... this has been put off for the past 15 months or so. I can go forever without actually making this thing work the way I want it to, more than likely.
All of that, plus the fact that none of the 'free' packaged TV Guide stuff I was supposed to enjoying with my new cards doesn't reach my area - so, sucks to be me. Trying to find a nice 'one-step' recording has been a PITA, because none of the cool PVR applications out there (MythTV, BeyondTV, myHTPC, etc.) can be used in their 'free' mode without some kind of directory service you have to pay for. Screw that - that's the whole point of doing this... so I don't have to pay for the ability to use the PVR for the handful of things we record and watch.
You've pretty much got the basics down - 'sharing' media across the network is basically 'streaming,' there's nothing really mystical about it. If you want to 'stream' media through your website or something, then that's a different deal, and need server-side features to support that.
You take one of the hottest machines you've got, jam a couple NICs in it, shotgun the connections to the central switch (for multiple connections with less lag), share out the folders you stash all your media in, lock 'em down (Read-Only to everybody except your administrator account so nothing gets accidentally over-written by anybody), map those shares as drives on each machine, and have everybody make 'playlists' on their own machines. If you need new music added, add it in as a 'media administrator' or something. Set up some share folders for everybody else to dump their tunes in that they want kept as well - then copy them into your central music stash as necessary. If you use Win2K or Win2K3 server (Or equivalent) and set up Dynamic Drives, you can just add a hard drive device as your stuff grows, and add its space into the shares without having to reconfigure it all as well.
This works for anything you've shared out. If you share out a directory of MP3s, a player (I use WinAmp) can have a local playlist based on mapped drives. If those mapped drive letters ever change, you can simply edit the playlist through Notepad or something and change the drive letters to reflect the new ones. Easy stuff.
When you get the PVR portion of it set up, then make sure the newly recorded stuff gets dumped into another shared folder as well - the files should be recorded in a format you can stream to Media Player, or whatever you use at your PC. I've tested all this stuff out, and it works. The MP3s are currently on my webserver (that machine's only a Duron 1300 w/512MB that I recently upgraded to an XP2100+ w/1GB), and they can be streamed anywere in the house - but I'm the only one that listens to them anyway. When I have the living room machine running, I can pull whatever videos I've recorded into my PC in the other room with no lag on the network (the wife's always playing WoW and she doesn't notice it when I 'play' with the machine like that).
The big thing is to come up with a consistent file plan, so you can restore everything fairly quickly if someone messes up their stuff, or a machine goes down. For instance, name your MP3 shared folder as 'Tunes' and dump all of your different bands, albums, genres (whatever), into it as sub-folders - that way you only have to map the one drive 'Tunes' on all of the other machines - they'll have access to everything in the subfolders. Then at each machine, make sure to map 'Tunes' as the 'S' drive (or something else - but be consistent). Then make a directory shared as everybody's name, make 'em Read-Only to everybody but the owner and the administrator, then map them with the same drive letters on everybody's machine. That way, music can be shared, and 1 person can't accidentally dump someone else's music - and it leaves Mommy and Daddy the ability as the administrators to go surgically remove some of the undesireable music as well.
Do that with all types of media you want to share out across the network - Movies, pictures, tunes, whatever. I do the same thing with all of the important crap I need to get my machines back online as well. I try to keep the latest hardware drivers, spyware signatures, AV signatures, etc., in one location so if a machine craps out, all I have to do is get it reloaded and put on the network, and go from there. I know a lot of people just make images, but my junk doesn't go down very often - and having more than one or two machines is a PITA - especially when the 'image' changes with stuff you add-in and take away when you're tired of it. Plus, when I build machines for other people, I'm only a network share away from all of the 'extra' stuff I install for them.
Plus, whatever machine you designate as your 'file/media' server, can also become a printer server as well - just plug in whatever printers you want to have online, put 'em in a central area, share 'em out, and guess what - you only have 2 or 3 printers to deal with, rather than one at each machine.
Having a robust home network is easy to do. You just need to think things out a little bit, and most importantly - be consistent at all of the machines for quick recovery.
Sorry for the novel, but you did say to weigh in... and I'm a pretty big boy.
Holy Crap!
Thanks E. It was a loooong read but a good one. Keep me posted if you get the PVR running. BeyondTV actually has a new module to convert video for iPods. Now if only they had a PVR card that would run with a DirecTV receiver.
Thanks E. It was a loooong read but a good one. Keep me posted if you get the PVR running. BeyondTV actually has a new module to convert video for iPods. Now if only they had a PVR card that would run with a DirecTV receiver.
Demon, another free operation system?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_video_recorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_video_recorder
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