Playing Movies from 1 PC on Numerous TV's

decbuck

Hi,

I have my house cabled with cat 6 cable. I have my dvds ripped onto my pc.

So what I need to do is be able to watch a movie in one room, by browsing direct from the tele, and a different movie in another room.

Just want to know what type of hardware I need.

Thanks.

Bald? er, dash!

I am currently using a Freecom MG-35 Media Player, which AFAIK they are re-badging from a Korean manufacturer called ALtech (google should throw up more info) The freecom link is here:http://www.freecom.com/ecproduct_detail.asp?ID=2345&CatID=&sCatID=

It can be used with or without a 3.5" HDD (up to 500GB) - I have installed a HDD and am using it as a NAS also, but I dunno if it works as a share for other MG-35 units. It can browse share folders on pc's on the same network for mp3, jpg, avi, IFO (i.e. full DVD rip) etc etc. It has ethernet connection, there is a variant with WLAN capability also, but if you have already wired for Cat.6 like me, then that's the best way to go for streaming video withoutr buffering.

The unit itself has a cheap plastic look about it, which I was'nt overly impressed with out of the box, but it's Ronseal, so I got over it...

This Pinnacle ShowCenter is another option, but I don't have it, so won't comment further

Calibos

decbuck wrote:

Hi,

I have my house cabled with cat 6 cable. I have my dvds ripped onto my pc.

So what I need to do is be able to watch a movie in one room, by browsing direct from the tele, and a different movie in another room.

Just want to know what type of hardware I need.

Thanks.

Excellent!! I get to whore the XBMC screenshots I made last night!!:D

XBMC installed on an original Xbox (ie. not 360) will do everything you want and a hell of a lot more. Its a bit more involved in setting up than the likes of the devices mentioned above but its cheaper, a hell of a lot better looking on screen, with an absolute hell of a lot more functionality and compatability.

But if you want just plug and play and don't mind more limited functionality compatability and a dull GUI then the likes of the mediagate are fine I suppose.









I discovered XBMC while researching streaming from my PC to my 360. Turns out the original Xbox with XBMC installed had a hell of a lot better compatability and functionality. I dug the old xbox out of the attic and dusted it down, installed xbmc after a bit of research into softmodding and away I went...............away I went to Gamestop to buy another 3 xboxes to install XBMC!! Its that Good. Spent about another €50 on various bits and bobs for each xbox. ie Xbox Remote Kit, XIR remote mod kit (to be able to turn the boxes on/off with the remote) HD Component cables.

I recently moved all my music, photo's, TV-Shows and DVD rips/H.264 off the PC onto two NAS drives so no need for PC to be on.
So now each of the 3 TV's and 1 PJ in the house has an xbox with XBMC installed which can access all our 40gigs of music, Photo's, TV shows, and 600 movies.

Last night was a real test of the network/Nas actually as everyone was home. Brother 1 was listening to music off the Nas on his Desktop PC in his Bedroom. Brother 2 was watching 'The Shield' off the Nas on his laptop. Brother 3 was watching a movie with his Girlfriend in his bedroom on his XBMC off the Nas. Father was watching the TV Show 'Damages' on his XBMC in the Living Room. Mother was watching Friends on her XBMC in the Kitchen and I was watching a movie with a mate on the Projector on the Cinema room XBMC. Twas a 'Full House'! All on a 10/100 network, TV Shows and Music streaming off one NAS and the Movies streaming off the Other NAS.

Sparky

Im planning in the near future to do the same.

Very nice

byte

Wow Calibos, that XBMC setup you have seems fantastic. Great from what is now a cheap piece of hardware. Playing games being a bonus!

I have an Xbox with XBMC and other bits, but never really thought about its full potential!

Good work

Wolff

Have to agree about the XBMC have been using it for a couple of years now and its great

One word against it though it wont touch hi def stuff though its ipconversion to 1080i on standard dvds and avis is very good

Calibos

Wolff wrote:

Have to agree about the XBMC have been using it for a couple of years now and its great

One word against it though it wont touch hi def stuff though its ipconversion to 1080i on standard dvds and avis is very good

Slight correction. It will actually play 720P HD Xvids ripped in a certain way with the proviso that they are 2.35:1 ratio movies. ie 1280x540p in effect. No information where the black bars would be taking up encoding/decoding bandwidth/cpu cycles. XBMC adds in the black bars itself.

16:9 720P is a no go though because that extra picture information top and bottom ie 1280x720P pushes it beyond the limits of the xbox hardware.

But you are right. For all intents and purposes XBMC on the original abox cannot do HD.

The dev's are however working on a linux port of XBMC which will mean it will ultimately be able to be installed on a much wider range of much more powerful hardware and HD in combination with XBMC will be a reality.

I can't wait for that day to come. The problem at the moment is that although there are no devices on the market that do 1080p yet there are a few that can do up to 1080i like the mediagate, apple tv, TVix etc. Some of these aesthetically look crap some good. Connectivity wise some are crap some are good. Some have a lovely GUI but are very limited in the formats and codecs they'll play like the apple TV/mac mini front row. Some like the TVix aesthetically look ok. has decent connections, plays a wider range of codecs but have GUI's like teletext.

There just isn't anything out there that has everything.

So for me, I have my fingers crossed that apple keep the mac mini going despite the new imacs seemingly covering most of the same bases as the mini section of the market possibly making it redundant. I hope they don't cancel the mini because the next hardware refresh on the apples mac mini roadmap is apparently exactly what the xbmc devs need hardware wise for smooth 1080p VC1/H.264 playback. Apparently the next gen mac mini (if apple don't cancel the mini) will use the latest Penryn Core2 Duos and the new intel mobo will have the new 3100 series integrated graphics chipset which the devs can use much better than the old 950 IG for taking some/most of the strain in decoding 1080p off of the CPU. Also intel will be exposing all the abilities of the 3100 series in the linux drivers. Unlike say Nvidia where the drivers they release for windows get full access to the hardware but the linux drivers don't. I can't say that I understand much of all that but thats what I remember the devs saying on the xbmc forums.

The reason I am really holding out for the mini despite the fact that I could probably build a fully Linux XBMC port compliant micro-atx PC for the same money or less is that it still wouldn't look as good as a mini, still wouldn't be as quiet, still wouldn't have the full range of outputs. (ie toslink, component, hdmi, etc) and still wouldn't be 6in x 6in x 2inches.

While replacing all my €100 xboxes with 7-800 euro mini's just for HD sounds excessive, the way I look at it is they'll look a hell of a lot better then the old xbox. They'll be a hell of a lot more powerful (I'll be able to stream Blu-Ray rips!!). They'll be a hell of a lot smaller. They'll have better connectivity. They'll be gigabit ethernet capable. They'll come with Leopard. I'll be able to dualboot to Linux XBMC or Leopard. An ultimate media streamer and PC for every TV in the house.

I can't wait!

skywalker

Calibos wrote:

Excellent!! I get to whore the XBMC screenshots I made last night!!:D

XBMC installed on an original Xbox (ie. not 360) will do everything you want and a hell of a lot more. Its a bit more involved in setting up than the likes of the devices mentioned above but its cheaper, a hell of a lot better looking on screen, with an absolute hell of a lot more functionality and compatability.

But if you want just plug and play and don't mind more limited functionality compatability and a dull GUI then the likes of the mediagate are fine I suppose.









I discovered XBMC while researching streaming from my PC to my 360. Turns out the original Xbox with XBMC installed had a hell of a lot better compatability and functionality. I dug the old xbox out of the attic and dusted it down, installed xbmc after a bit of research into softmodding and away I went...............away I went to Gamestop to buy another 3 xboxes to install XBMC!! Its that Good. Spent about another €50 on various bits and bobs for each xbox. ie Xbox Remote Kit, XIR remote mod kit (to be able to turn the boxes on/off with the remote) HD Component cables.

I recently moved all my music, photo's, TV-Shows and DVD rips/H.264 off the PC onto two NAS drives so no need for PC to be on.
So now each of the 3 TV's and 1 PJ in the house has an xbox with XBMC installed which can access all our 40gigs of music, Photo's, TV shows, and 600 movies.

Last night was a real test of the network/Nas actually as everyone was home. Brother 1 was listening to music off the Nas on his Desktop PC in his Bedroom. Brother 2 was watching 'The Shield' off the Nas on his laptop. Brother 3 was watching a movie with his Girlfriend in his bedroom on his XBMC off the Nas. Father was watching the TV Show 'Damages' on his XBMC in the Living Room. Mother was watching Friends on her XBMC in the Kitchen and I was watching a movie with a mate on the Projector on the Cinema room XBMC. Twas a 'Full House'! All on a 10/100 network, TV Shows and Music streaming off one NAS and the Movies streaming off the Other NAS.

Can I ask how are you getting the info for the tv shows/albums to display like that? I have xbmc but Ive never seen that before. Also any particular scripts you'd recommend, Ive just recently discovered them.