Hi, I am in search for a sleek home TV streaming solution that is “semi-easy” to use. I’m in need of significant help! I bought a beautiful new home, but because of the age of the home there is only a single coax connection (outlet) in the whole house. Through this single lifeline (coax connection), which is downstairs in the living room, I will get my Comcast internet and basic cable. I have the physical location constraint of where my coax comes into the house and need help finding a solution that gets my TV service to the other rooms in my house. Utilizing my wireless home network (802.11g or n) how can I get it to other rooms while maintaining a sleek, “semi-easy” to use concept.

Well I have already checked out a few solutions such as Pinnalce PCTV to GO, My HAVA, SlingBox, ORB, MythTV, VLC and some others but they all have limitations that I need to get around. Here is the list of my needs and wants:

Needs
-Multiple Viewers (I want 5 HTPCs. Living room, Bedroom, Family Room, Kitchen and Patio)
- At least the ability to view 2 different channels at the same time (Girlfriends watches top model and I watch sports)
- Ability to change channels from any PC viewing the stream (Needs a TV Tuner because I am using basic cable. No set top box).
- Viewing clients compatible with Windows

Wants
- Windows Media Center Integration
- IR Blaster (To control DVD Players, set top boxes, etc)
- 1080p streaming capability
- HDMI, component, composite, coax connectors
- Linux/MAC support

Just for the record, if a PC based server is used, “RDPing” or “VNCing” into the server (computer with the capture card) is not an acceptable solution in my book. My girlfriend can’t do that!

I am baffled that there is no complete, cross platform solution out there (that I can find) that can do what I am looking for. The demand is definitely high enough (I’m not the only one who wants this) and there is all the technology out there to do this, but there is no integrated solution, limitation free, available for the home consumer (that I can find). Amazing! If anyone could help me I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

Chad

Kaliedascape server, best of class.
If you want the same thing, but cheaper, ummm, maybe. As you say " GF acceptance factor is a deal breaker ". And, your right, what you want doesn't sound too eccentric.

Ben

Hi.

Have you ever considered LinuxMCE. Is an affordable solution to your needs ;)

Windows Home Server, Sage TV server for WHS, and a Hauppage hd dvr. Get you there for alot less, and all your GF will ever see is a remote, and a menu onscreen.

Ben

Windows Home Server, Sage TV server for WHS, and a Hauppage hd dvr. Get you there for alot less, and all your GF will ever see is a remote, and a menu onscreen.

Ben

Sage TV is the way to go, almost posting this yesterday, ran out of time, the Sage TV guys are best at making things work, it is SUPER configurable, if you can think of it, someone is working on a plugin to it.......
Sage has nice extenders, $200 gets you full HD, no more messing with codecs....

The benefit of such an active forum is the abundance of information. However, it's also the greatest hindrance. Searches can take weeks. With that said, I'm going to piggy-back on this thread since it closely relates to my desires.

Originally, I had intended to build an HTPC that was capable of ripping/archiving/playing Blu-Ray, HDDVD and DVD, along with music for just one room. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it would be nice to have access to stored media from ANY room in the house (office, guest bedroom, etc.) My house has studs exposed at the moment, so pulling wires is a breeze.

It seems that I'm looking for the ultimate solution. "All" I want is to be able to store information in a central location, then stream that info to multiple positions in full HD, with DTS-HD, or whatever audio is present. At the point of viewing, I'd like the option of audio over HDMI.

What are my options? Should I build my original HTPC and tilt it towards being a server, then adding streamers/extenders in each room? If I go this route, will I be able to watch different movies at the same time? Would the HTPC be overloaded with trying to stream an HD movie to 4 locations? Or, is the processing done in the extender, and the PC is just "transferring" data?

I'm not worried about cable/dish programming. Just music and movies.

Currently, my living room is the only one capable of 1080P and 7.1 all over HDMI. I have an Xbox 360 there as well. I may buy a stand-alone blu-ray player in the future just for this location, but would still use the 360 to stream SD movies from the PC. Other rooms may eventually follow the 1080P 7.1 route as prices fall.

To bump/follow up, and add another question:

Are there any streamers that can accept firmware upgrades via LAN? For instance, if 1080P/Dolby Super-Master-Digital-Opti-Audio decoding isn't available at launch, would it be possible to enable later via firmware update?

I'm pulling my cat5 Thursday night, I really need some help and answers. Thank you.

I would seperate it out. Video and music could be on 1 device (several to choose from). Cable plus some type of DVR is different. I would make the coax entry the main server area. You can store all your movies and music there. I would not put a pc at each tv location.

I would not rely on wireless. Its almost there but not quite. Also you have to remember you are doing your "whole" house. When you look at solutions they have to be tried and true. They might not deliver everything but reliable is better.

I am not a big expert on tv distribution other then using coax. For movies and music i would say TVIX or Popcorn are very good. Also running the cat is a plus no matter what you decide to do.

Best to route lots of CAT6 or CAT5E and coaxial cable through out the house right now. Find the best location for a single distrubtion center where you can put in a nice panel. It's always possible to convert HDMI through CAT5E/6 through a converter box. Coaxial cable is nice to have so you have the option of running sat signal or cable tv to that room.

Every room where you want to have a connection should have at least two drops on the opposite wall. This will save you a lot of headache later if your significant other decides to arrange the furniture.

Finally, for complete future proofing, two CAT6/5E might be needed at each drop. You might want to have internet distribution + AV distribution on separate ethernet system.

So a good HTPC at the center location acting as a file server at the same time with a network media player w/o HD at each location. This is probably cheaper and easier to maintain than one HTPC at each location.

The biggest benefit is maximum flexibility and future proofing. The backbone network can keep up to 1gig through the house even though most of the current network media player don't need them yet.

The benefit of such an active forum is the abundance of information. However, it's also the greatest hindrance. Searches can take weeks. With that said, I'm going to piggy-back on this thread since it closely relates to my desires.

Originally, I had intended to build an HTPC that was capable of ripping/archiving/playing Blu-Ray, HDDVD and DVD, along with music for just one room. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it would be nice to have access to stored media from ANY room in the house (office, guest bedroom, etc.) My house has studs exposed at the moment, so pulling wires is a breeze.

It seems that I'm looking for the ultimate solution. "All" I want is to be able to store information in a central location, then stream that info to multiple positions in full HD, with DTS-HD, or whatever audio is present. At the point of viewing, I'd like the option of audio over HDMI.

What are my options? Should I build my original HTPC and tilt it towards being a server, then adding streamers/extenders in each room? If I go this route, will I be able to watch different movies at the same time? Would the HTPC be overloaded with trying to stream an HD movie to 4 locations? Or, is the processing done in the extender, and the PC is just "transferring" data?

I'm not worried about cable/dish programming. Just music and movies.

Currently, my living room is the only one capable of 1080P and 7.1 all over HDMI. I have an Xbox 360 there as well. I may buy a stand-alone blu-ray player in the future just for this location, but would still use the 360 to stream SD movies from the PC. Other rooms may eventually follow the 1080P 7.1 route as prices fall.

To bump/follow up, and add another question:

Are there any streamers that can accept firmware upgrades via LAN? For instance, if 1080P/Dolby Super-Master-Digital-Opti-Audio decoding isn't available at launch, would it be possible to enable later via firmware update?

I'm pulling my cat5 Thursday night, I really need some help and answers. Thank you.

Popcorn A-110 does passthrough of all the current HD audio formats and is firmware upgradable.

liupublic is right... I would run cable now, rather than spend money on crazy streaming boxes and woefully inadequate wireless. Despite what the industry would have you believe, 802.11g just isn't cut out for dependable streaming, especially not whole-house. I have no faith in 802.11n either, extended ranges just means extended interference, and I doubt it's up to the task of multiple HD video streams.

If you do a good job, having cat6 and a central distribution box could be a selling point to your home should you ever move.

I am very surprised that this thread only has 11 posts on it. It seems like whole house distribution of content would be a common goal as more people get multiple HD capable monitors.


I don't know how much I will add to the thread. I would hope I don't add any confusion or misstatements. If any clarification or correction is necessary, please don't hesitate to step in.

I gave up on whole house content distribution a long time ago. I was a broke, busy dental student when I got my first HDTV as a wedding gift. Now I am a broke busy dentist.....:)))))

We got one of the 1st 1080p DLPs on the market by Sammy 3.5 years ago. Still has a fantastic pic. I didn't realize that there was no broadcast distributed material that was 1080p..... The TV won't even accept a 1080p signal unless it's through a RGB input (VERY strange I know....)

Anyhow, I am looking back into whole home content. I live in a 1250sq/ft 1 story loft-style condo with few walls. My short term goal is to be able to share Files, Pictures and Video over the internet to both computers within the network and remote desktops/laptops. (Any recommended free FTP client that is SIMPLE to use)

I do not have enough long term storage on my current desktop. I do not think I want to go with a usb/ethernet single drive. I think I am ready for NAS with RAID 5 - 2 TB.

Can anyone recommend a good unit. Sub $1250 would be ideal. I think it would need to be UPnP and DLNA since I would probably in the future want to placeshift this content (stored video, pictures and music) to other TVs/Stereo system - would this be best done with a client like PopCorn Hour, Sage TV HD Extender, or the HD VISTA Media extenders (Linksys/D-Link/Samsung MediaLive....)?

Thanks so much for your help in advance.

I really like my "Windows Home Server" but don't know if it fits in your topology though, you didn't really mention what you run for OS. Mine is the HP EX470 to be exact.

It has two DLNA options: 1) Windows Media Connect 2)Twonky Media Server
It does redudancy at share levels, not Raid 5 more of the lines of a Raid 1 but without the need for exact drive size matching.
It has a web interface to allow you to get at your files remotely
It automatically does backups of your PCs in the house when configured to do so
Includes an iTunes server

For $1250 you could load it up with 3 1TB drives and still have enough money left over to buy a Popcorn Hour A-110.

I really like my "Windows Home Server" but don't know if it fits in your topology though, you didn't really mention what you run for OS. Mine is the HP EX470 to be exact.

It has two DLNA options: 1) Windows Media Connect 2)Twonky Media Server
It does redudancy at share levels, not Raid 5 more of the lines of a Raid 1 but without the need for exact drive size matching.
It has a web interface to allow you to get at your files remotely
It automatically does backups of your PCs in the house when configured to do so
Includes an iTunes server

For $1250 you could load it up with 3 1TB drives and still have enough money left over to buy a Popcorn Hour A-110.


Thanks for the quick reply - I have considered using Windows Home Server - I read recently in a couple of scattered blogs that there have been instances where Home Server had some sort of glitch and ALL the data became unusable and unretrievable.....

I am currently using XP Pro. I have Vista Ultimate just collecting dust right now on a shelf.

I thought I should be getting a drive switchable "Enterprise" solution from companies like QNAP or Synology. I looked at the Buffalo Linkstation Live 2TB but I have read that the read and write speeds are pretty slow.

Any input?

Thanks for the quick reply - I have considered using Windows Home Server - I read recently in a couple of scattered blogs that there have been instances where Home Server had some sort of glitch and ALL the data became unusable and unretrievable.....

I am currently using XP Pro. I have Vista Ultimate just collecting dust right now on a shelf.

I thought I should be getting a drive switchable "Enterprise" solution from companies like QNAP or Synology. I looked at the Buffalo Linkstation Live 2TB but I have read that the read and write speeds are pretty slow.

Any input?

You read right but the the data corruption bug has been addressed about a month ago with the Power Pack 1(PP1) for home server. I held off until they addressed it as well.

Anyhow, I am looking back into whole home content. I live in a 1250sq/ft 1 story loft-style condo with few walls. My short term goal is to be able to share Files, Pictures and Video over the internet to both computers within the network and remote desktops/laptops. (Any recommended free FTP client that is SIMPLE to use)

I am a little confused on what exactly your looking for here. Are you trying to get online content IE hulu, Netflix, Blockbuster streaming from the internet onto your tv's in your home?

Or are you trying to have a central location, to feed downloaded content to your pc's? or both?


I do not have enough long term storage on my current desktop. I do not think I want to go with a usb/ethernet single drive. I think I am ready for NAS with RAID 5 - 2 TB.

For easy, simple to use, WHS has that, I currently run WHS setup, with 5+ TB of storage, but I use WHS because of the added benefits of desktop backups, internet based online backup (I have WHS do nightly backups of my photos, documents, ect... things I can NOT loose, to amazon's S3 service via the jungledisk plugin)

There are also things like UnRaid which are simple easy to use linux file servers that do have redundancy, similar to parity, but aren't as advanced like WHS is when it comes to plugins and other features.



Can anyone recommend a good unit. Sub $1250 would be ideal. I think it would need to be UPnP and DLNA since I would probably in the future want to placeshift this content (stored video, pictures and music) to other TVs/Stereo system - would this be best done with a client like PopCorn Hour, Sage TV HD Extender, or the HD VISTA Media extenders (Linksys/D-Link/Samsung MediaLive....)?

Thanks so much for your help in advance.

also just an FYI the vista media center extenders need to have a vista media center pc, so you are actually talking about two sepearte systems there. Which I do run, but you can also run a vista media center pc and also use it as a central storage depot as well.

- Josh

I recommend the Infrant (now Netgear NV+). It has X-raid which means that it is expandable as your needs grow. With three disks or more it runs Raid 5. It has a built in bare bones server that handles pretty much everything out there. If you prefer Twonky it can be installed also. The operating system is pretty mature and well supported. The forum support is outstanding. The only weak link is the Netgear phone support.

Alan

I am a little confused on what exactly your looking for here. Are you trying to get online content IE hulu, Netflix, Blockbuster streaming from the internet onto your tv's in your home?

Or are you trying to have a central location, to feed downloaded content to your pc's? or both?

- Josh


I am trying to store everything centrally and then have access to it by Laptop/Desktop - both from within the house and elsewhere (parent's house/hotels......)

The next goal is to be able to have content (both DVDs/Music/Pictures/HD Broadcast content) viewed on TVs and larger screens.... I am pretty sure this will require an extender of some sort. At that point I will probably have to upgrade to Vista Ultimate or Sage TV and HD Sage Extenders....

The ultimate goal is to have DVD/Music/Pictures/HD Broadcast content/Blu Ray all in one location - accessible within every nook of the house and also out of the house (I understand the bandwidth requirements of this and will be fine with downgraded resolution as long as it's accessible) Too grand a scheme???


For easy, simple to use, WHS has that, I currently run WHS setup, with 5+ TB of storage, but I use WHS because of the added benefits of desktop backups, internet based online backup (I have WHS do nightly backups of my photos, documents, ect... things I can NOT loose, to amazon's S3 service via the jungledisk plugin)

also just an FYI the vista media center extenders need to have a vista media center pc, so you are actually talking about two sepearte systems there. Which I do run, but you can also run a vista media center pc and also use it as a central storage depot as well.

- Josh

Interesting comments about Amazon S3 - I didn't know they hosted....

I guess I had several follow up questions regarding WHS -

With WHS:

Are you able to view content on TVs? If so, do you need more hardware
(extender)?

Did you make your own server / NAS?

Did you go with a RAID setup?

Thanks

I am trying to store everything centrally and then have access to it by Laptop/Desktop - both from within the house and elsewhere (parent's house/hotels......)

The next goal is to be able to have content (both DVDs/Music/Pictures/HD Broadcast content) viewed on TVs and larger screens.... I am pretty sure this will require an extender of some sort. At that point I will probably have to upgrade to Vista Ultimate or Sage TV and HD Sage Extenders....

The ultimate goal is to have DVD/Music/Pictures/HD Broadcast content/Blu Ray all in one location - accessible within every nook of the house and also out of the house (I understand the bandwidth requirements of this and will be fine with downgraded resolution as long as it's accessible) Too grand a scheme???

great, that helps. if you don't need TV DVRing or streaming live TV, then a media center solution might not be needed.

if all your doing right now is PC file sharing to laptops and desktops, then WHS would work or any other NAS based solution would easily work for you. With WHS you can set it up so that you can have remote/internet access to your files, you can even stream them with ORB or Webguide plugins.

really what you need to do is first pick a solution, then figure out what format that solution requires, for me I picked the MS extender solution so for all of my HD rips, and HD video they are all in WMVHD, as that is the most universal solution that extenders can support.



Interesting comments about Amazon S3 - I didn't know they hosted....

yea Amazon S3 is an Amazon webservice, ppl have just taken advantage of it, created easy to use tools like Jungledisk http://www.jungledisk.com/ to automate the uploading and downloading of files, they have created a WHS plug-in that makes it extremely easy and well automated.

For me that was important for family photos, videos, documents, ect... stuff I can NOT loose. Raid doesn't protect against mother nature or fire, but off site backups like S3 helps out with that.


I guess I had several follow up questions regarding WHS -

With WHS:

Are you able to view content on TVs? If so, do you need more hardware
(extender)?

I run a two system setup, my main room, my hometheater/media room has a closet where I house both my WHS machine as well as my HTPC running vista ultimate.

see pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/umdivx/BasementHomeTheater1112007#

WHS shares up all my files and content, my HTPC gets access to that content via file shareing, pretty straight forward there.

then I have media center extenders through out my home, 2 linksys DMA 2100's and an xbox 360.

all three directly connect to my HTPC, give me the same interface that I get with my HTPC and media center, I then use this setup to stream live and recorded tv, photos, music, videos, ext...

the live tv and recorded tv come straight from the HTPC, however the music, photos, videos and other shared content come directly from my WHS box again via file sharing.

the only issue is that you have to make sure your content is in a format that is supported by the extenders, IE divx/xvid, mpeg4, mpeg2, and WMV(HD).

for me that is enough support, I'd love for it to have h.264 and mkv but divx and wmv pretty much take care most of what I need.


Did you make your own server / NAS?


WHS is my NAS, Server. I built it myself yes, but if you can install windows, you can install and setup WHS, it is very easy to setup.


Did you go with a RAID setup?


That was one thing I struggled with, WHS doesn't do raid, but it does to folder/file duplication, so if you have that feature turned on, it'll make sure that the system at least has two copies of the file so your less likely to loose your content, its not raid and its not perfect but it does work. But like I've pointed out already is that I also use online backups via S3 so I technically have 4 copies of any given file. WHS does 2 with folder dupe, then one copy with WHS backup to exteneral HDD, then the 4th copy is via amazon S3, but this is only for important files (photos, family videos, ect..) I don't do folder dupe for ripped dvd's or music, or anything like that as the original DVD/CD is the "backup" copy.

- Josh

If I wanted to to able to watched "streamed" Blu ray movies from a media server, I would assume I would need an HTPC or some other device like the Popcorn by each of my TVs?

For that price, might as well get a blu ray player for each TV?

If I wanted to to able to watched "streamed" Blu ray movies from a media server, I would assume I would need an HTPC or some other device like the Popcorn by each of my TVs?

For that price, might as well get a blu ray player for each TV?

Correct. You would need a device for each TV, or you would need a single device with some sort of video matrix switch to feed each tv from the single source.

But what you would loose out on if you got a stand alone blu ray player for each tv is media, photos, music, ect... support unless you got a PS3 for each tv.

- Josh

Great :D

http://www.electronichouse.com/slideshow/products/4599/735


Well you did ask.

I would recommend SageTV Server on a htpc with storage and tuners. Put a Sage HD-extender wherever you have a TV. Invest another $250 or so on software to move optical media to harddrive. You're going to need wired ethernet - gig-e or 100BT. Wireless is too big a pita to bother with for mission critical activities.

The HD-extender supports almost all video formats or there is a method available for lossless conversion and it works (plays hd ts files, bluray, dvd isos, flacs, etc). Firmware updates over ethernet. The only thing that is really missing on the HD-extenders is support for advanced audio codecs. Sage supports pc clients as well, but at $200 per hd-extender, the extenders are a better solution (quiet, 7watts, ir remote or tcp control, hdmi out, no decoding software, etc)

I have 10 TB of RAID5 on my SageServer PC. 3 or 4 client PCs. 1 HD-extender (soon to be 3 when they come back in stock). I'm using an R5000HD for DirecTV (which is going the way of the Dodo) and the HD-PVR from a DirecTV HR-20 (will need a second one for dual-tuners when DirecTV drops meg2 for HD). I'm serving HD TS files, SD TS files, ISOs, bluray MKV files, FLAC, mp3, etc to the HD-100 extender. There's a placeshifter client that allows remote viewing as well.

If you insist that you want to tweak, there's plenty of opportunities with Sage as well.