A Home Theater PC, Why? well after watching too many movies only to have the film skip or freeze from a scratched or even a seemingly perfect DVD I'd had enough. I tried several DVD players and even considered buying an expensive top end unit, but after talking to a few ppl who had these types of players I tried another solution.
I had a spare computer case and enough old bits to build a PC with an output that would feed the TV. After tweaking some settings here and there this worked great. Now this allowed me to play the DVD from the drive bay with better results, but also the option to copy the DVD to the hard drive and play back from there. If the disc was slightly damaged at least the computer could take the time to read it so that playback from the HD was flawless. Optical media (in the form of disc's) is evil and should be abandoned. I even had the analogue 5.1 from the sound card going to the surround sound system, even though the TV was a 51cm CRT. I knew a flat panel would one day grace that spot in the lounge.
This was all going well, so I tried copying some of my DVD's to the HD on another computer and playing them over the network (I'd now run a Cat5e cable from the 8 port 10-100M switch to the lounge) This played fine too. I was concerned about the speed of the 10-100M network, but all was good.
I'll add to this later.....
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
My Computer and AV Setup at home.
G'day.
I have an electrical / instrumentation background with a healthy interest in the technology of today and tomorrow. I'll be talking about the PC and Audio Visual network I've setup at home. Just explaining what I've created and why.
Hope you'll come along for the ride.
We have multiple TV's around the house and wanted to be able to watch satellite pay TV or stream media from the server to all of them. I also wanted to have this happen with little or no signal loss.
Streaming media from the server was done from the XBOX 1 (modded of course), I say 'was' as I now have a HTPC in the lounge and a WDTV Live in the bedroom which are great but more on them later, but the XBOX still gets some use.
There's a variety of TV's in various shapes and sizes in different rooms. From a 34cm CRT in the gym to 42" LCD in the lounge and all in between; family room, bedroom, sewing room, garage, spare room and points in the computer room for the cards in our computers.
Audio Visual Components: I've replaced all the cable in the house with Quad Shield RG6 using F Type connectors (crimp type not screw on). Including making up the leads from the wall plates to the TV's or devices. Now to get the signals around the house without signal loss I have a ClipsalStarServe Contractor Series Video Hub (8073/8VHPIR Series) in the top of the pantry. This is a powered device that can take 3 video inputs and output this to 8 points. So the inputs are the Free To Air (FTA) antenna on the roof that gives us the digital broadcasts from the local channels, the RF output from the satellite pay TV box and one from the XBOX 1 (this goes from the red, white and yellow RCA to a convertor that outputs to RF).
To change channel on the satellite box the is remote extender in use. I bought 2 of them as they can work together. There is one receiver pointing to the satellite box and a transmitter in the lounge and one in the bedroom. I would have got another couple of units but they stopped selling them a few years ago and as these still work, I can't justify replacing the whole set. I know that the Video Hub has IR capability but that's a bit costly for my likes, maybe later....
I have an electrical / instrumentation background with a healthy interest in the technology of today and tomorrow. I'll be talking about the PC and Audio Visual network I've setup at home. Just explaining what I've created and why.
Hope you'll come along for the ride.
We have multiple TV's around the house and wanted to be able to watch satellite pay TV or stream media from the server to all of them. I also wanted to have this happen with little or no signal loss.
Streaming media from the server was done from the XBOX 1 (modded of course), I say 'was' as I now have a HTPC in the lounge and a WDTV Live in the bedroom which are great but more on them later, but the XBOX still gets some use.
There's a variety of TV's in various shapes and sizes in different rooms. From a 34cm CRT in the gym to 42" LCD in the lounge and all in between; family room, bedroom, sewing room, garage, spare room and points in the computer room for the cards in our computers.
Audio Visual Components: I've replaced all the cable in the house with Quad Shield RG6 using F Type connectors (crimp type not screw on). Including making up the leads from the wall plates to the TV's or devices. Now to get the signals around the house without signal loss I have a ClipsalStarServe Contractor Series Video Hub (8073/8VHPIR Series) in the top of the pantry. This is a powered device that can take 3 video inputs and output this to 8 points. So the inputs are the Free To Air (FTA) antenna on the roof that gives us the digital broadcasts from the local channels, the RF output from the satellite pay TV box and one from the XBOX 1 (this goes from the red, white and yellow RCA to a convertor that outputs to RF).
To change channel on the satellite box the is remote extender in use. I bought 2 of them as they can work together. There is one receiver pointing to the satellite box and a transmitter in the lounge and one in the bedroom. I would have got another couple of units but they stopped selling them a few years ago and as these still work, I can't justify replacing the whole set. I know that the Video Hub has IR capability but that's a bit costly for my likes, maybe later....
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