Ongoing Project "Add a new room to your configuration" (1 Viewer)

chrisonline

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  • August 17, 2007
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    My current setup is 1 old self configured HTPC "Server".
    This HTPC is connected directly via HDMI to my SONY 52 Zoll TV.

    So far so good, but today i ordered a new SAMSUNG LED TV 22 Zoll for my bedroom.

    The challenge is now to add a new small client PC in my bedroom who is fast enough to stream HD and watch HD videos.
    Does anyone have a small client PC in another room and stream HD movies?
     

    Bradley Dyke

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    November 25, 2007
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    G'day, yes recently started doing this myself. purchased an Asrock ION330 and running it wireless. works great so far although can be a little slow to display music shares and my movies (possibly due to the large amount of graphics it needs to load off the server). only problems so far are that i have to open each of the separate network shares (i have 5) prior to starting Mp or they often wont show up, i think this is due to having anonymous mapped shares running off the server. all up spent about $500 AUD including buying a separate remote (the one supplied with the Asrock doesn't work in some Mp parts and too lazy to map. (actually i think the remote issue is covered in the forums here and is related to running Win Xp)
    In all system works really well even for some HD stuff especially considering it's over wifi. a happy bonus has been the live TV side never expected this to work and it's been a treat. down sides, can be a little slow to load screens at times and flick between menu's and have had to redo the watched flags on a number of occasions due to loss of network shares.

    my setup so far.
    Thermaltake Media PC in living room connected to Samsung 60" via HDMI with 5 nas drives of varying sizes separated for TV Shows, Movies etc.
    Asrock ION 330HT in bedroom connected to old 42" Panasonic over RGB all content is pulled back from Thermaltake
    Running latest Mp with StreamedMp on both boxes and very satisfied.
     

    chrisonline

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    AW: Project "Add a new room to your configuration"

    WOW 60'', great!

    Which WLAN do you have?
    I have a WLAN g and HD TV streaming is not so good (i've tried it with my notebook)...
    It hangs sometimes and sometimes it dont start.
    SD streaming works well, but also not perfect...

    I think i buy a Powerline (LAN via electricity), this is up to 200 MBIT!

    How do you start your TV Server from your bedroom?
     

    jonm

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    Asrock ION 330 in my bedroom here. Works fine with my 720p Sony 32" TV. Not sure it would handle full HD though, but I've not tried. House is CAT6 wired Gbit.
     

    chrisonline

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    AW: Re: Project "Add a new room to your configuration"

    Regarding PowerLine, there is a new series coming in a couple of months: Netgear AV Series Set for Expansion - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
    Until then, you may have problems streaming HD.

    Why do i have problems? 200 MBIT is enough for HD i think...
    On my LAN 100 MBIT (i will upgrade to 1 GB net in the feature) it works fine with HD.
    Do you have a Powerline?

    Asrock ION 330 in my bedroom here. Works fine with my 720p Sony 32" TV. Not sure it would handle full HD though, but I've not tried. House is CAT6 wired Gbit.

    Do you have a LAN in every room?
    My problem is that i do not have LAN in every room, so i need another solution.
    WLAN n is to slow i think for HD (not contant).
    Powerline seams good enough.
     

    Bradley Dyke

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    November 25, 2007
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    Ok thought i might test this a bit.
    Network Setup
    ASUS WL-600g All-in-1 Wireless ADSL2/2+ Home Gateway
    Thermaltake Media PC (living room) this is my media/live TV server with 5 USB drives *connected with Cat 5
    Clone PC in study (running uTorrent constantly :D) *connected with cat 5
    Asrock ION330HT in bedroom connected with internal wireless (no external antenna)

    So Clone PC downloading at 100kb/s living room Media PC running BH 90210 on DVD (don't ask :rolleyes:) and recording live TV. so a bit of existing load on network and resources.

    turn on Asrock (btw it loads to windows in under 5 sec with instant boot turned on) checked connection over wireless and only 2/5 bars with quality rating of Poor (not a good start)
    went to My Videos and played the following
    2001 A Space Odyssey.m2ts 1920 x 1080 6ch AC3 took a little while to start but once running very smooth ffw caused small delay but then resumed smoothly
    8 Mile.mkv 1280 x 544 DTS not too bad again took a while to get to load but reasonably smooth ffw again caused a little stuttering for approx 30 sec and then smooth.
    Black Hawk Down.wmv 1280 x 720 6ch wma bad real bad constant stuttering and some distortion on image ffw bad stuttering
    300.mkv 1920 x 800 6ch AC3 unusable really took about 3 minutes to load and then just constant stuttering.

    A mixed result i guess but considering i only have an average connection over wireless and the server was playing and recording i think it's not such a bad performance and to be honest for a bedroom machine the small size, zero noise, instant on and relatively cheap price makes this for me a winner. clearly cat 6 or even dedicated cat 5 would be a step up but maybe later. also think a more centralized storage and Db solution could improve throughput. hoping for this with Mp 2 as managing tv series databases on 2 machines is a pain.

    thanks for reading.
     

    robyf

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    Please be aware that ION is not capable of doing 1080i HDTV (it can do 1080p though). You should go for a more powerful solution if you need it, or use the TV with hdready resolution.
     

    jonm

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    Do you have a LAN in every room?

    Yeah, although I haven't run a cable down to the garage/workshop yet, that's next week's job :)

    It was a big job to cable the whole house but worth doing. I put most of the cables in when I was re-wiring anyway.
     

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