On 8/2/06, Matt Dittbenner <mbditt at plauditdesign.com> wrote: > > After reading the replies from everyone else, I'm still somewhat lost on > some of the details of your project. So I'll start by asking some questions > to try to clarify some of the scope of this project. > > 1. How many rooms are involved? > > At least 6 rooms. > 1. What kind of budget were you thinking for the total system (minus > the laptops you already have, of course). > > A few $k. > 1. Are you looking to include actual PVR capabilities or just play > already existing media from the server? > > PVR, too. > 1. Why don't you want a "computer" in every room? > 1. size? > > Yes. Also the space required for keyboard/monitor/mouse. I don't want to need a desk or shelf or whatever in every room. > 1. cost? > > Eh... > 1. noise? > > Yes. > 1. Will you be using an audio receiver / amplifier? > > Yes. > 1. If yes, are you going to try to support digital surround sound? > > Only in one room, the actual home theater room. > 1. If yes, where did you plan on putting it/them? > > As above. > 1. How do you plan on getting audio from one room to another? > > Speaker wire. > 1. How do you plan on getting video from one room to another? > > Co-ax cable. > 1. What do you plan running the video to in each room? > 1. Standard Analog TV > > One room. > 1. HD TV > > Theater room. > 1. computer monitor/software program > > No. > 1. What do you plan running the audio to in each room? > 1. computer speakers > > No. > 1. shelf/audio component speakers > > Yes. > 1. headphones > > No. > 1. receiver > > No. Sorry, I know I've got some repetition in there. > > Running analog wires, in my opinion, would be a last resort. The > degradation of video and audio quality would probably be significant enough > that it would almost outweigh the benefit of doing this at all. Especially > as you increase the number of rooms. > I'm not an A/V wiring expert, but how does the cable company maintain quality with co-ax cable? I was just going to do the same thing, assuming it is possible. REALISTICALLY... using some sort of thin client that you can hide somewhere > is BY FAR the most flexible way to go. Your "wall jacks" to "simply plug in" > to would be much better suited as networking ports or even wireless, with > some sort of device in between to convert the stream back to something you > can use on a TV or stereo. A computer can be such a flexible device that you > don't have to have an entire desktop case to dedicate to such a specific > task. > The server sitting in a dedicated server closet is supposed to be the flexible device. All output would go from it, to various rooms. You can go get a used Xbox and mod it (if you don't know people that can do > it, someone you know might, and I definitely know some people if you want > help). It will support analog and digital audio, and standard definition > video, etc... basically anything you'd want to throw at a TV or set of > speakers. Xbox Media Center is a great, FREE app that will do everything you > want and more. Stream audio/video from any existing PC share on the network, > and controllable with a remote for the Xbox, the xbox controller (not what > you want) or via the built-in web server. The number of rooms would be > essentially limited only by your network and server power. > > You alternatively could try to hook up a myth front end right on the xbox, > but Xbox linux is (as far as I understand) not to be trusted. Maybe it's > fixed now, but XBMC is more likely the best bet. > > Trying to go the all analog route means: > > 1. purchasing one audio card for each room with audio > > This was my assumption. > 1. purchasing one video card for each room with video > > This was my assumption. > 1. filling up your pci/agp/pci-e/usb (I'm fairly certain they make > usb soundcards) ports > > Good point, I hadn't thought of the fact that my motherboard would have a limited number of ports & slots. > 1. you can't move to a PVR solution since you've already filled up > your slots > 2. since you are running analog, the cables are EXPENSIVE for > long ones and more expensive for high enough gauge ones to control the > interference/degradation. > > News to me. I was going to run standard speaker wire for audio, and co-ax for video. > 1. Not scalable (limited number of rooms) means if you move or > expand your installation in any way, your investment is gone. > > Could be an issue in the future, not sure. Probably more issues, but really I don't see it being worth it. Myth on your > server can save it's streams to some sort of shared folder and you can just > read them right off the server and not even bother with the myth front-end. > I'm pretty sure it's standard mpeg format video (for recorded programs) and > if not, you can have a script convert them. > > I know I probably sound like a MS / XBox fanboy here, but to put this into > perspective, I don't even have an XBox. I plan on purchasing one in the next > month and doing exactly this. 5 of my friends however DO have modded xboxes > (you can do it with software these days, no opening of the box is required > if you don't want to....this also allows you to put it back to it's original > state easily) and I can tell you it's great. It put the itch in me to pick > at least one up if not more and for like $99 used, its a steal. > > Let me know what you think about this since I have other ideas, but I just > think this is the most convenient, clean and highest quality solution for > this type of installation. > Thanks for the input. Since this is still the exploratory phase, I obviously had not thought of everything yet. I just wanted to know if MythTV could handle multiple channels of audio and video output. I've seen some of the small form factor PC cases, and they would look OK scattered and hidden around the house. But unless I can run them all as headless myth clients with their own web front-end, I really don't see the benefit of putting a computer in every room just so I can centralize the storage and streaming of my A/V media. I might as well just put a small boom box in every room and be done with it. If I CAN do the SFF headless myth client with web-based front-end, then it becomes something worth looking into. Dave -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mailman.mn-linux.org/pipermail/tclug-list/attachments/20060802/d0a40a64/attachment.htm