Viewing content on external device

[rick78]

Hi All,

Is it possible to view content (also Live TV) from other PCs in the LAN?
I made a MP system and put it in my utility room, where I have a server rack and patch panel, and have CAT 6 cabling throughout my house. I would like to be able to access the content from the other 8 rooms, where I have PCs and an XBox connected. The XBox I am trying to get working with the plugin that does not show up in the plugin list, but I would also like to get the PCs to work with MP as clients.

Any info is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Rick Locke

[Khris]

Unfortunately MP does not work in a Server/Client setup (yet). The only real way to do it would be to install MP on your other machines and point them all to the same shared files.

[rick78]

Well, that would be a good solution I think. Does this mean that in the MP setup I point the TV directory to a network share and then I could see the same content ? Also, music and pictures in the same way?
That would be cool.

Thanks for the reply.
Rick

[Brocklander]

Originally Posted by rick78

Well, that would be a good solution I think. Does this mean that in the MP setup I point the TV directory to a network share and then I could see the same content ? Also, music and pictures in the same way?
That would be cool.

You can't make your Recorded TV directory pick up files from another computer, but you can add a network share to My Videos that will automatically show any files that are added or removed. Yes, the same thing will work for Pictures and Music.

As a crude workaround for viewing live TV, you can use AutoDVRConvert. This creates an MPG file as you record a program, and can be viewed while it's still being created with VLC, which effectively means you're watching a live TV stream (you can pause, rewind etc in it too). Unfortunately as WMP won't let you view a file that is still being created, you can't watch it in Media Portal. We use it to watch live and recorded programs on other computers, and it's especially great as half our computers are Apple Macs and can't open DVR-MS files.

You should also be able to play these MPG files on your Xbox (maybe live like in VLC?), as this is what the creator of AutoDVRConvert made the program for.