Home Video Center with an $800 budget suggestions? (Long)

[EwanG]

I currently own a Series 2 TiVO (upgraded to 100 hrs at Best Quality) and have a Linux system with a nice RAID-5 array that has about 750 Gigs of space. I additionally have a Canopus ADVC-100 and a Leapfrog Wireless Video Signal system.

So far it's good to be me, right?

Here's the problem. The TiVO is connected to our downstairs Cable and Digital Cable Box. The Linux system is on the other side of the room, and on a different circuit so that even if I could tolerate running a cable across (which I've tried), I get some nice Ground Hum...

Leapfrog works well, but is rather subject to interference - so you can't run the Microwave in the middle of a recording or...

So, for some time I have used the Canopus and Kino software to do captures from the TiVO, but while the quality is actually pretty good, it's rather time intensive since I capture as DV and then have to convert to something else. And even after that there's no good way to get the video back out from the computer. Because if you hook a cable up on the return there's that lovely Ground (and cable across the room) problem.

When TiVO released the TivoToGo software, I thought I might finally have part of the solution to my problem. Except that while you can pull files off the TiVO, it still takes about the same amount of time as it would to record, you can't playback the files except on Windows, and you can't put a file back on the TiVO.

So I started looking at what's going on with ReplayTV. Their 5000 models would allow you to move files back and forth to the boxes, and using DVArchive you can stream stuff around too. But the newer 5500 boxes only support streaming - and to stream video you need to have at least an 802.11g network. And right now all I have is 802.11b. And as for a wired Ethernet there's still that cable across the room problem (and I wonder if I'd get a lot of noise on that cable as well).

OK, so there's the current situation. Let me discuss what I want to do, and see if there's anyway to accomplish it.

In addition to the downstairs TV, we also have two TVs upstairs I'd like to be able to support - Master Bedroom and Upstairs Family Room. I'd like the Linux system to be the archive hub storing most of the video, but would still like to have something close to the TVs for playback and capture. I'd also like to be able to support showing Home Videos, as well as video I've backed up from the other systems. And I'd like to spend about $800 (bonus that's coming in a couple weeks) to reconfigure what I have and what I'd need to get to do all of this.

Additionally - I really don't want to hack the TiVO or ReplayTV units (if you think that's the way to go) to add stuff to them. I managed to upgrade the TiVO, and between caring for my handicapped daughter and other "life" issues it took me three days just to do that. I'm certain I could figure out how to hack the systems eventually - but would rather not devote 2-3 weeks of my life to doing so, and don't want to go to all that trouble and then have the service decide they won't support my system at some future point.

I gave some thought to setting up some kind of MythTV setup, but can't figure out anyway to do that for less than $2-3K considering the number and kinds of computers I'd have to get to do that.

So - what am I missing? What's the obvious (but not to me) solution? Or am I just asking for too much?

Thanks in advance,
Ewan

[funkguy4]

ethernet = low voltage + digital signal
you wo'nt be losing any quality from transferring thru ethernet cable

[EwanG]

ethernet = low voltage + digital signal
you wo'nt be losing any quality from transferring thru ethernet cable

Actually I was more concerned that the Ground Hum would cause noise on the line and cause some reduction in speed.

However, I'm now considering the following setup:

1) Get an inexpensive PC with XP Home (Semperon 2400, 512 Megs RAM, Radeon 7000 VGA).
2) Get the Snapstream BeyondTV3 package that includes a USB IR blaster and a Hauppauge PCI Capture Card.
3) Get a Hauppauge MediaMVP device.

Idea is that I pull most of the drives off the Linux system and reconfigure as two RAID-1 250 Gig devices (for a total of 500 Gig). Then use the PC to pull programs off the TiVO using TivoToGo until I get "caught up", at which time I should be able to use the computer with BeyondTV downstairs, and the MediaMVP upstairs. The upstairs machine would be hooked up to a D-Link Xtreme G (108 mbps) bridge while the downstairs computer would be hooked to an Xtreme G router (one network), and a Wireless B for internet access. I assume I can run all this at the same time with this machine?

Anyone done anything like this who can tell me if I'm going to be able to do this, or if I'm missing something?