[Jay M]

I have more PCs than TVs in the house and I want to be able to capture the SAT TV s-video and audio on the HTPC and be able to view it on other computers on my network.


I would like to keep the bandwidth low enough so that I can stream over 802.11a so I can sit on the front porch and watch tv and surf the web on a wireless laptop.


Taking it a step further, I'd like to be able to remote control the SAT receiver from the remote PC.


I'd also like to have a library of digitized shows, music and movies that can be viewed on any PC on the network. Maybe even rip a handful of my favorite DVDs.


I would want the quality to be pretty good, about as good as the best quicktime trailers, but I want to be able to view it full screen like windows media player or powerDVD


I would really like to be able to do this in one easy to use program so when guests come over I can show them the program on the guestroom PC and they can easily choose from pre recorded shows and live tv.


I'm not sure where to start, but I'm guessing that I will need to capture the audio and video and then convert it to a high quality streaming format.


Any ideas?


Thanks,

~Jay

 

[jeport]

What is the speed of the pc's? I'm in the same boat (a lot of PC's), and am looking to do something similar in my house as well.

 

[Rickd]

I stream DVD off my server over my network and it plays smooth it needs 100Mbit though it seems to only use up to12% of the bandwidth so anything higher than 10Mbit should be ok. 10Mbit was a bit choppy when I tried it.


But this is DVD so live video may require less.

 

[jeport]

And what speed is your server? And the speed of the "clients"?


Thanks

 

[liontech2002]

Well, you are asking for alot, the biggest concern I see is the wireless. I love it don't get me wrong, but mine is 11MBs, and my notebook is an older model 266mhz. On my setup I can view video and play mp3 through the network, but the quality being very high is not the case. I am not sure yet how to stream my TV broadcast live, but I know it can be done as the driver works over web cam protocols. Divx, Mpeg files are the big problem, over the wireless I really am not sure you will be able to get the quality you want over anything below 50 - 100 MBs. Actually, if the quality is very high I have even seen judder over 100 MBs even with very fast PCs. I have 5 PC's all pretty slow by todays standard since it changes every two weeks. I am sure you can get this stuff working, I run Haupauge's Wintv PCI on the HTPC the Conextant driver allows the same functionality as web cam for the TV broadcast, I use Linksys Network products, and have as I said only the 11MBs version wireless, and 100MBs ethernets. As for one program, for my online library I use the windows media player 6.4 because it has nothing to drag down system performance, and allows you to tweak the decoder while your viewing a video, for audio I use Winamp, and I use Mpg, DivX, & Mp3 as the basis of al file formats.


Anyway, I am still working on getting all this perfected as you say you want yours. Right now I just don't have the funds to buy more hardware, so I am just getting by for now. I have been able to get most of the things on your wish list working to some extent though. As far as making the system all work on one program that is easy for guests, I am the wrong guy for that. I don't simplify anything here, but I don't find it hard to use, or to explain. At any rate I don't have a way to network TV through media player or I would say use that for the whole shabang.


Liontech2002

 

[Mooneyass]

I've had success with windows media encoder. I broadcast live (about 10 seconds behind) using it. I havent spent alot of time on it, seems kinda buggy, but I did manage to watch The New Yankee workshop on the craper the other day


I'm using 802.11b and it seems fine. I'm running 320x240 @30 fps, ~760 kbps. Not great quality but alright for casual viewing.


Wes

 

[clayfree]

Jay M


I'm in the process of setting up a server to do this sort of thing and I still have lots to learn but let me make a couple of suggestions:


Have you looked into Snapstream? It is designed to stream over a network. The application is browser based and recorded shows generate an html playlist that can be accessed by other computers within your network. It has a number of stream bitrates, from near DVD quality to streams that are meant to be played on a color PDA.


If you so choose it can be configured to be accessed over the internet.


They a finalizing the new full screen version called Quartz now and are scheduled for a December release.


Clay

 

[JNiemi]

I'm interested in something very similar, but I'd like to be able to convert the streaming video to a signal that a TV can process.


Maybe I need to start another thread on this, but it sounds very close to what you guys are talking about. I'd like to use a HTPC as an audio/video server over a network, but ideally I'd like to have some sort of ethernet appliance that can decode the streaming video from the PC, and output it to a TV instead of just another PC. Just add the following features:

PRV functionality in the HTPC for cable and satellite

DVD Playback

MP3 audio broadcasts

Ethernet appliances with remote that uses a video display menu displaying programs/channels/music available on the PC.


This would be for basic, non-hometheater setups, but if there was something that had digital audio outputs to go into a receiver and component outputs, that would be cool, too...


Has anyone seen such an animal?

 

[philba]

there are lots of ways to do this, all the piece parts are available however, there is no "appliance" product that does this. yet, I suppose.


a couple of points:


real and ms both have what you need. its all free from both. real runs on more than windows and RV9 video is very good. in both cases, be technical, you'll need it. Real also makes source code available for many of the parts (though not the RV9 codec) under opensource license (i.e. free). www.helixcommunity.org


You dont want to run uncompressed video over your LAN. it will suck it down. plus, as has been mentioned, there is very little margin for error and jitter, studder, dropouts, etc will all happen. Depending on your source material, you can get very good compressed video at 1 Mbit but you'll need a 450Mhz class machine to play it back. You'll need a fast pc to do the encoding, though. the faster, the better.


I would not recommend 802.11b. effective bandwidth is around 3 Mbit at best (11Mb is a big lie) and falls off fast with walls in the way. 11a should be ok, though. there are new dual APs and adaptor cards coming out so it shouldn't be super expensive.


I dont suggest you use your htpc for the encode/broadcast server. You are asking a lot from this machine and wont be able to use it for much else while broadcasting. Plus, you can put together a reasonably cheap machine to do the encode/broadcast.


well enough for one day.


Phil