Been thinking about building a monster PC and setting it up as the main hub of my home entertainment network.
Basically, with P2P file sharing, mp3 and DVD ripping, is there any real need for a separate DVD player, CD system etc etc adorning your living room ?
Would a super specced PC hooked up to a Plasma/ Projector and DD5.1 set up really be enough ?
If you rip all music and films to a large enough HDD, do you really need to have a physical CD/ DVD collection to boast about ?
Having one box under the TV instead of 2 or 3 would certainly have it’s advantages, and with a wireless set up, the less cable the better.
Having a couple of laptops to use as “dumb” terminals accessing the folders on the main HDD in other rooms could also be an option (although I suspect using a laptop is not really cost effective)

Thinking out loud really, but has anyone else installed this kind of thing or even thought about doing it ?


[Edited by Devil's Refugee - 7/29/2003 3:26:29 PM]

I've thought about it a lot, when decent specced PCs can be made small enough I'll be doing something like that. Trouble is you're limited to the size of existing media, like CD/DVD/hard disks etc.

A Shuttle might be ok, I believe they have TV out by default. If you have WiFi you could control the lot from your WiFi-enabled PDA to save having to use a laptop, but a laptop isn't a bad thing to have in the living room anyway - just need one with a touchscreen :)

PDA with wireless would be better than a laptop. :) You should be able to post on here from the loo as well.

Edited to say SteveCotton beat me to it.

[Edited by Nikko2 - 7/29/2003 4:02:19 PM]

I'm taking a dump as I type this ;):D

PC's will need to be a lot quieter before I have it whirring away in my living room. Locked in a cupboard out of the way would be ideal.

Stefan

Linksys have some proper toys coming out soon! this one allows you to hook up your pc, tv and stereoso you can play MP3s on your stereo. http://www.linksys.com/splash/wma11b/moreinfo.asp

PDA's an interesting point actually and much more portable and remote-control like.
The Linksys looks like a good gizmo but it still retains your stereo in the end. I'd like a one-box solution.
One of the larger Sony Vaio RX machines is going in the right direction (and I'm sure Microsoft's Media PC's will try and muscle in too)

I already use a network at home as a CD jukebox (have uploaded all of my CDs, about 250), playing through an Amp and speakers upstairs and a surround system downstairs. The downstairs one also has broadband access networked in to keep the growler happy (and she only consented to it in that room as it's kind of hidden in a wooden cube desk thing that opens up). We've got a hard network but it could easily be made wireless. Now if only I'd get round to repairing the hole in the wall I made when getting a cable down the cavity, then she'd be really happy :)

Works brilliantly, especially when we have people round - sounds great and you can tailor your play lists etc. Great fun for skipping through the contents and playing stuff on a whim - beats hunting for that CD you can't find and you stumble across stuff you'd otherwise forget.

Not sure hard drives are large enough yet for DVDs but it can't be far off - and I'm looking forward to being able to link it into a plasma TV or projector to play the original videos as I play music tracks (mmmmm, pauses to consider Kylie gyrating across the living room wall)

G

Kylie or a 6ft Lara on a projector look superb!!!! Specialist films also take on an interesting slant ie not for the self conscious.

im in the process of sorting a pc out for the same idea, looking for digital mainboad to connect to av amp, but i would still recommend a stand alone dvd player, as sometimes its just easier to put film in and thats it, i already have my xbox connected to my projsctor so will be nice to have another pc in there as well, plus the amount of movies to be downloaded from the net it makes more sense to add a pc to the home theatre stuff

You spend enough time in the loo as it is Nick!! In fact i'm thinking of building a toilet in that garage so therfor will not have to set foot in the house, as you'll have everything you need in the garage then......



Why i never thought of this before i have no idea.... glad i did now though :D

Hi

I have a main pc in bedroom acting as a server, connected via ethernet to a router, which is also connected to a shuttle with pvr abilities in tv room (attic) and a chipped xbox which can read music, video files (mpg,xvid,divx,wmv but not quick time :( ),pictures etc off server and shuttle, play any region dvd, vcd's etc.
All works quite nicely bit of a pig to setup initially put now it's all done it's :cool: :D

Si

There already is a Loo in the garage. Not to mention a sink a bath and a shower. ;)

Hmmm, I guess there are tissues in the loo which could come in handy..........

Ive been thinking of doing this, but running an epia via ITx motherboard (the fastest is 1GHz i believe). Its tiny 17cm by 17cm, then get the case for it a slim line dvd player, it has heaps of on board goodies, dolby 5.1, ethernet 10/100 tv out :-)

I was planning on using the TV out to display a custom made programme (not disimiliar to Windows Media Centre) to make the navigation really easy. You get such programmes already like MediaEngine.

My original idea was a car puter, running the same sytem using a touch screen Xenarc LCd as control and a wireless connection to my server for downloading music to the internal harddrive in the car puter :-) geeky or what LOL

Check out http://www.mini-itx.com/ for ideas.

Show shifter is also very good large and clear on a tv :)

Yeh there is a loo, a sink, a bath and a shower in there Nick but they are not connected to anything are they ;)

Any idea's how to pipe different music/ films into different rooms ?
Thinking along the lines that you could play mp3s in the bedroom solely whilst watching a Divx file downstairs.
Also, any thoughts as to how you could watch two films in different locations without using a PC in each room ?
Would one of those dual-screen graphics cards work here (or have I just made this bit up ?!)

modded xbox in each room, i think there would be hassle with the sound stream for two different films of one pc, picture part would be a dodle though.

Si

I think youd need 2 different video and sound cards in machine which I think would cause problems.

One way to do it would be a modded X-Box and map to a drive on your server and then select the files you wish to play and broadcast it over a 10/100 Mb link, just an idea.

Like most things there's diffent ways of distributing MP3's or movies to multiple rooms.

One is to use a distribution box and feed audio and video signals to the rooms. The trouble is when you want different sources in different rooms i.e. one movie in the living room and another in a bedroom or different soundtracks playing.

One way of having MP3's (and different sources in each room is to use several of the SliMP3 devices.

It's pretty expensive IMHO although you could easily make your own version out of PC bits, but trying to get it small enough would cost megabucks.

You can stream MP3's and DVD across a LAN, but again you need a big fat PC in each room to handle it.

Stefan

anyway of forwarding TV/Radio stations from a central server to clients (xbox's shuttles or whatever)..?

When the World Cup was on I did have live TV streaming to PC's in our office. The software I used linked in with a simple USB TV receiver. It was sh!te though, so I just set it up with our projector instead.

There are professional software and hardware that allow this. IIRC it was very expensive.

If you want very good quality TV in each room, then it's very expensive. If you can put up with 100x100 screen size, then it should be OK with a decent TV card.

Stefan

Why use a PDA with WiFi wen you can have one of these... with built in WiFi/Bluetooth.

Not as cheap as a PDA but similar to a laptop.

I spotted an RJ45 running into the back of a hotel room TV scart socket. It had this companies name on.

http://www.sciontech.com

I think a setup from these guys would allow different vids and sound in different rooms all through your scart sockets :)

On a SliMP3-related note, what do you think of the Martian Wireless NetDrive which we'll be launching during August?