Playing Video from my PC through my LAN to my Home System

[digiflix]

I'd like to be able to send my videos through my 100 Meg LAN to my home entertainment system (LAN Streaming I guess?) . I know I can use Video Out from my Video card, but that is impractical due to the distance between the units. However adding some CAT 5 cabling is relatively simple. I only need to have some sort of device on the Home Entertainment system end. This way (in theory anyways), I could play whatever format I'd like (MPEG, DIVX). I realize that I may run into some throughput issues. But right now I am wondering about connectivity.

Any thoughts fellow video nuts?

[BJ_M]

sure no problem
http://www.hometech.com/audio/tpaudio.html
http://www.vgav.com.au/PDF/multiview350.pdf
http://www.videocapturecard.com/svaudiobalun17.html



but running high quality RG6 or Belden 8281 plus audio pair may be cheaper.
depends on your distance and if you already have cat5 installed.

[BJ_M]

you could also build a cheap box with a good 100 nic in it and a good video out card .. somthing like a p500 w/a ati all in whatever and 256 memory and tiny harddrive .. use that at the other end ...

or just get a removable drive and carry the stuff from one to the other ..

[crahak]

Yup, you can use your player to open the file across the network (or map a drive). Works great.

[tonyp12]

Would be great of this RIO also did video, but it does not.
http://www.ubid.com/actn/opn/getpage.asp?AuctionId=8186098&CATID=0&SPOTID=9

If you add up all problems with using a remote,
cost of cables or dedicated PC.


Would it not be better to burn the media to a DVDR disc
and carry it out to the stand alone DVD player that
already sits next to the TV?

DVD burners cost less than $200 now.

You would ofcource need to convert DIXV files to MPEG2.

[bugster]

A friend of mine plays video on his PC (upstairs) to his large screen TV (downstairs). He uses a wireless keyboard with trackpad for control and uses a cheap video sender unit attached to his PC's video out at one end and his TV at the other to transfer the video and audio signals to his TV. It works well, is cheap to set up (less than £100) and doesn't involve any long cables.

[tonyp12]

Could get the showtime for $70 if your Video card has comp Video out.

$100 for the VGA version, but how do you use your regular monitor then?

http://www.x10.com/products/x10_vk73a.htm#ORDER%20SHOWTIME%20TODAY

[joepic]

He uses a wireless keyboard with trackpad for control and uses a cheap video sender unit attached to his PC's video out at one end and his TV at the other to transfer the video and audio signals to his TV.

I am looking for a wireless keyboard and mouse ( or trackball) that is good for 100ft from the basement to the first floor.

Any recommendations, web sites or manufactures?

Thanks

PS

I just did a little looking around and these two products seem to be the best available:

RF-250 Wireless keyboard & touchpad plus RF-000 wireless recvr - $399
http://www.wireless-computing.com/

GyroMouse/Keyboard & usb receiver - $295
http://www.gyration.com/keyboard.htm

[BJ_M]

He uses a wireless keyboard with trackpad for control and uses a cheap video sender unit attached to his PC's video out at one end and his TV at the other to transfer the video and audio signals to his TV.

I am looking for a wireless keyboard and mouse ( or trackball) that is good for 100ft from the basement to the first floor.

Any recommendations, web sites or manufactures?

Thanks

sure - easy , microsoft makes a bluetooth keyboard and mouse
http://www.bestbuy.com/ComputersPeripherals/specials/MSBluetooth.asp

more distance than that (30') - set up a wireless lan is cheapest solution ... though there are some mega buck options

http://www.microsoft.com/uk/keyboard/wodBlue_req.asp

[digiflix]

Thank you all for your advice. I am just experimenting with an old laptop. PC to LAN - Laptop to LAN (100 Meg.). The MPEG2 files are on the PC and I am playing them with the laptop (Using Power DVD). The laptop has a video and audio out. So theoretically I can hook the outputs to my Yamaha receiver inputs. And from there control video and sound with the Yamaha.

Right now my video is a jittery on the laptop. Static scenes are good, but when the action starts, the jitters also start. Audio comes through okay. I was wondering if this is caused by the video format (MPEG2), the LAN connection, the laptop hard drive, or all. I could download each video to the laptop and play from there, but this defeats one of my purposes - which is to utilize one of my PCs as a Video Server.

Along with this, I was also wondering if the DIVX codec would provide enough quality for playback through a large video monitor?

As before, comments, tutelage and any advice is appreciated.

Anything to save DVD media!

Les (aka Digiflix)

[Thorn]

I've been thinking about options for this type of thing for a while too, but I'm not convinced the technology is right yet to take this avenue. I've seen good testimonials and guides on how to make a mini-pc (on the micro-atx or flex-atx scale) that would sit by the entertainment center, but I don't think that could be a turnkey solution anytime soon (unless you have nice software to automatically load and play cds and dvds and media from your server, you'll have to write the software or run it manually).

My thought it to look into wireless video transmitters. I don't know if it's affordable for one with good video quality, but it seems like the best solution right now. You can control your server computer with a wireless mouse and keyboard, but there wouldn't be any computing at the TV end, just the reciever that's already wired to connect to the TV.

[joepic]

Right now my video is a jittery on the laptop. Static scenes are good, but when the action starts, the jitters also start. Audio comes through okay. I was wondering if this is caused by the video format (MPEG2), the LAN connection, the laptop hard drive, or all. I could download each video to the laptop and play from there, but this defeats one of my purposes - which is to utilize one of my PCs as a Video Server.

Along with this, I was also wondering if the DIVX codec would provide enough quality for playback through a large video monitor?

The main problem is probably the "old laptop". CPU horse power, hard drive speed along with the video card output are the three killers of solid video output.

A while back I did a little video test to see what my system could do.

Hardware
3 computers with PIII's, 800, 933 & 1Ghz
all ATA/100 hd, 7200 rpm
video cards - old TNT2's
Lan cards - 100 MB

Movie
SVCD on the 933 acting as the server, movie on hard drive

I was able to watch the video on both the 800 and 1GHz PC's starting at different places in the video stream (started one PC then waited a while and started the second PC) OK.

[dun4cheap]

Well I have implemented all three methods.

Method 1 I have built a PIII system with a TV card out that is sitting on my main entertainment system. I painted it all black to match my devices, put a wireless keyboard and mouse and installed Windows XP pro so I could accesses it with remote desktop. It does have a cat 5 200mbps full duplex with internet access on it. I would probably go with the 11mbps wireless route now since its not very expensive. (WORKS GREAT) I als use this to rip my DVD movies.

Method 2 I also have an RF modulator on my main computer system that feeds a second RF cable that runs in my house. It feeds my main TV, the tv next to my computer and the 2 bedrooms. I have installed an ATI AIW 7500 previously I had an ATI Radeon Duel VE. They both work well allowing me to work on my main computer while puting a movie on DVD, AVI, mpg or what ever using the TV out with theater mode. (WORKS GREAT) I burn my DVD movies on my Sony DRU500a that I ripped with my other system.

Method 3 Wireless video transmition. Well the concept is great but the quality is not very satisfacory. I purchased a 2.4ghz wireless setup and installed it for a client. The transmitter is on his computer using a Radeon Duel VE card. That portion works well but we had a lot of interference with the reciever which was not even 15 feet away in the next room. So I do not recomend this way at all.


By the way the reason I have 2 sets of RF cable is my cable signal was terrible, so I got enough cable from the cable company FOR FREE to rerun both. So I now have two live cable feeds coming from the cable companies box. 1 to feed my cable modem and the other to feed my TV's. So I also dropped the line from my computer at this time. I do prefer running the video from my system but either works well.

[BJ_M]

here is another really simple solution
http://www.sigmadesigns.com/products/netstream_console.htm

Sigma Designs' NetStream Console SE is a stand-alone video endpoint for playing ISMA MPEG-4 streaming video from an Ethernet network for display on televisions. Based on our award-winning REALmagic® Video Streaming Technology, the NetStream Console SE delivers premium audio and video experiences. A compact, self-contained design, it provides an ideal solution for advanced video-on-demand and streaming video applications. Our professional Services Group offers hardware and software development to customize the product to your specifications.

[tonyp12]

What about this idea:

Place your DV camcorder next to the TV.

Run a firewire cable to the PC, get hubs if the distance is far.

Get a media player that converts any media to DV-AVI on the fly,
tell it to output this DV-data through the firewirecable.

[BJ_M]

"converts any media to DV-AVI .." in real time w/ audio may be an issue ..

but basicly it would just be using an app like vegas video in preview mode over firewire --

but i think he said he has already cat 5 installed , plus if you run firewire - you may as well run video cable

[tonyp12]

When you play a MPG it converts it to RGB in realtime
so I think to DV should be no problem as it is more related to mpg.

With my idea, you would end up getting a second screen.

The PC will still display it's regular dekstop and a person
will still be able to work on the pc.

The MPG to DV conversion goes on in the background
and is never displayed on the Monitor.

Are there any CAT5 to IEEE1394 converters?