How do I have Household TV from collection?

[EwanG]

OK, I've been dealing for several months now with taking my home videos and other video stuff, and working up nice DVDs. It's a long and painful process - which is at least partly me I'm sure, but also reflects the nature of the products that are currently out there. I don't think these forums would be so full if that weren't true...

Anyway, it occurred to me the other day that a lot of the problems I've had to deal with come with preparing video files just right to be authored in a format just right to be burned just right. That's when it hit me - why am I burning DVDs? Almost all of my work is just to make it possible for me to watch my video files on TV.

I have what I hope to be an instant fix for our master bedroom since the computer that is hooked up to my big HD (360 Gig) is a Compaq Presario 1720 US with an S-Video out. So I assume if I get a cable to hook to the S-Video out on the Compaq and to the three RCA cables on my TV or TiVO I should be ok. However that doesn't handle the situation with the other TVs around the house. Is there any way to network (preferably wirelessly) the video output? For that matter, is there anything available that would allow me to control the computer upstairs from the living room area below? I assume MS Media Player will give me some useful functionality, but are there better programs?

Thanks for your help and pointers,
Ewan

[Prospero424]

Well, as to a wireless broadcast of your video to other TVs in the house, there are wireless A/V transmitters/receivers available out there for reasonable prices (just do a search for wireless a/v on google) but from what I have heard here and from other places is that the quality can vary greatly between makes/models but usually the quality is roughly equivalent to a UHF broadcast. Almost all of the units I have seen operate at an RF frequency of 2.4Ghz. Now, of course this is an analog broadcast as current consumer-level wireless technology doesn't have near the bandwidth to handle a high quality digital video stream. This is the only thing I can think of that will allow you to receive an image on multiple TVs in the house wirelessly unless you want to invest in a laptop or cheap multimedia PC equipped with a wireless LAN connection in every room with aTV set, enabling you to stream a digital video file from a file server to any of the PCs hooked up to your TVs.

As for controlling your multimedia PC from another room, you have a couple of options. First off, I know ATi includes a wireless remote with many of there "All-in-Wonder" packages, but this may not be practical in your case, and the signal strength of the remote may not be strong enough to get through the floor.
Second, if you have a laptop and a wireless network in your house, you could install Real VNC:

http://www.realvnc.com/

on the multimedia box which will allow you to control the machine as if you were in front of it, all from your laptop. RealVNC is free and open source, so there's no worry there. I would suggest you visit the site and read about what it does and how.

I guess it all depends on what you have already and how much money you are willing to spend

Hope this is helpful,

Prospero

[jdizzy40]

Take a look at www.snapstream.com. I've had my TIVO clone of a computer up and going for 2 months now. The program with a decent MPEG 2 decoder card like the WIN PVR 250 alllows you to record shows and watch later, stream over your local network and access your system from a remote location. It also allows you to add, other files to your library, such as MP3's and video files. Any computer can access the main system through a web like interface. By adding a TV Tuner capture card, like the WIN PVR 250 (which comes with a remote) to each computer and this software, you end up with a nice home entertainment solution. This is the route I took and I haven't been disappointed. Just one more solution to your problem.

[EwanG]

Appreciate the ideas, and hope folks will post any others that might come up. The Snapstream product sounds interesting - but would require me to either get another small computer just for this purpose, or to move either the TV or the desktop downstairs.

The RF boxes might be of some interest, though it's been so long since I've watched a UHF TV signal that I'm not sure just how bad of TV I'd have to get used to. Not to mention I'd then have to worry how much interference that would give my wireless network...

Thanks for the ideas,
Ewan

[Privdog]

i'm goin with snapstream aswell.. did the tryout with 6 year old hauppage tuner card and it worked pretty good.. it working at all on that card was enough for me to be sold on it. I ordered from newegg an MSI Tuner Card that comes with the snapstream software for 60 bucks and comes with remote.. snapstream software alone is a little over 60 for just a download and 70 something for CD.. and they sell a remote for 34 bucks.
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=0&submit=Go&description=TV%2CTUNER%2CMSI link to card @ newegg.. hope it works out. i should get it next monday. i'm hoping this card was built around the software