Wireless Options (short-term solution) - What's garbage/What's useable?

[mattroby]

Anyone have any thoughts on whether these two wireless transmitters are any good? I'm not looking for HD signal - just want to get the HTPC out of the room - and don't like the interface of the MediaMVP (or similar).

Wires are the last resort - and I just want to get the a/v signals out of the pc and into the TV (FYI - in a year or so I'm probably moving and will upgrade to LCD/Plasma and will then switch to DVI or HDMI and S/PDIF)

Meanwhile - I'm just looking for a cheap way to get the signal from the closet to the tv:

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/PC-TV_GWB-4000.html ($150)

http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/wireless-avw-1000.html ($80)

http://www.x10videosender.com/ ($50 - with a remote to boot)

Is the X10 option any good? Or is it just a road to frustration?

[coolbeing]

Have you bought any of these products?

I am also interested in buing somethng similar to that.

How are this?

Are there any other like these ones?

Which ones is good?

I am mainly looking to stream TV streams from computer to the TV.

[mattroby]

No - I haven't.

I'd like to be able to stream - as you would - but I'm worried about quality being horrible and/or the user interface being too cumbersome (the wife factor)

I'm leaning towards running a signal over the power line (with those plug-in converters) and buying a couple of conversion boxes that send the AV signal over cat-5 (http://www.avovercat5.com/products/avosva2.htm). It'll run around $250 for everything - but then I have a better belief that it will work. As you can see, I'm not ready to pull the trigger yet.

[bits]

Bite the bullet and get something like the MediaMVP and go wired! No more HTPC hassles and no 'wireless' problems either.

[coolbeing]

MediaMVP

looks interesting. How is it better the nthose crappy dlink models I read about.

My questiosn are:

1) Will it play: Divx, Xvid, DVD.ISO or DVD.nfo files?

2) How is the quality?

3) So, all I have to do is run a server (software in background) on my pc/laptop and the MediaMVP will get the fiels from my laptop without me actually needing to watch the file, like with the tv out option in stadnard video cards?

4) Is it possible to make this wireless? Liek connect it to a router and browse files via router?

5) Will I be able to run internet tv stream via MediaMVP ?

6) What if I want to connect to several TV sets ?

And wow,,, system requirements:

2.2GHz or faster 256MB RAM minimum

2.2Ghz is insane? Does this mean that their server software will eat all of my CPU ???
Here it is:

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_mediamvp-w.html

I am slo thinking of maybe buying one of those hard drive media players - like Mediagate MG-35 on ebay now for 109$.

Need your responses.

[coolbeing]

Nah, forget it.

Just called them and it does nto support Xvid which is no go for me.

Also the software does the decoding, meaning your pc will be working full CPU. That is no go for my laptop.

Maybe some time in the future they will support xvid.

And software decoding sucks.

So what about hard drive player? ANy ideas ?

[bits]

I have a MediaMVP that I use with my SD TV to play recorded mpeg files. I personally do not think Xvid, DivX or WMV is worth the effort so I just cut commercials and have bought a bit more HDD space. When I am done watching the show I delete it. BTW the MediaMVP only uses your CPU for decoding Divx, it uses its own decoder for mpeg. When viewing mpeg my computer cpu is around 3-5% utilized. Watching TV using the MediaMVP, recording a show and running BTV4.2 the cpu utilization is around 12% and most of that is BTV.

I also have a Linkplayer 2 that is hooked my 50" HD Monitor TV. The LP2 has its own DivX and mpeg decoder and uses very little cpu.

Seperate mpeg files can be viewed simultaneously, one using the MediaMVP and the other using the LP2, while recording a show, detecting commercials in real time using ShowAnalyzer and cruise the internet with no problems. Real time commercial detection uses 30-70%cpu. The best part is that my computer is on the other end of the house.

[videomaniac]

Nah, forget it.

Just called them and it does nto support Xvid which is no go for me.

Also the software does the decoding, meaning your pc will be working full CPU. That is no go for my laptop.

Maybe some time in the future they will support xvid.

And software decoding sucks.

So what about hard drive player? ANy ideas ?

What do you mean by 'hard drive player' ? Are you asking about DVD recorders with HDDs? or TiVo type machines?

I have no direct experience with HTPC but I have investigated it a number of times and each time concluded that it is too complicated, too expensive (cost of a computer and TV out graphics card not to mention a card or cards for cap'ng) and requires having a PC in my living room. Wired media players seems like the way to go, at least for me.

[100calorie]

You could try wireless pc to tv converter. It is plug-and-play, no software or network set up is needed. And it displays all file types that can be played on your PC. I bought one a couple months ago to display my photos and videos from my PC on the TV. Quality is nice. You can find it on ebay or www.pctotvconverter.com

[BobT]

You may want to look into buying a used Xbox and converting it into a media center with Xbox Media Center (XBMC). XBMC will handle almost any video. The softmod is fairly easy to perform and with a little work you can have one working for very little cost. I can stream normal DVD video to 2 Xbox's simultaneously with no problems (this is on a wired connection). At current wireless speeds you will have problems with streaming DVD video. Wireless can only handle MP3 or XVID video without stuttering problems. www.xbox-scene.com has all the relevant info.