My wife wants to watch recorded shows in our bedroom...

[jackeric]

Ok. I don't even know what would be the english word for that. But here's what she was asking (and our kid too).

I record a lot of shows for the family on my PC which is in my office. We have a TV downstair for the kid and another TV in our bedroom upstair. My office is inbetween. When I'm looking at my shows, the kid wants to look at his and my wife want to watch her soaps. So there's a lot of frustration around.

I'm looking for a way to watch their respective shows on their respective TVs without having to purchase 2 other computers to plug into their TVs. Most importantly, I still can watch my tv shows while both of them would watch theirs.

I have looked at Apple's iTV but I'm not sure it will work with my BTV setup.

Anyone have this setup ? What are the pros & cons ? Any other comments that I didn't thought ?

[mourdor]

Since you already have TVs in the respective rooms, then it sounds like you only need a way to watch pre-recorded shows/videos that are on your office computer (PVR).

Thus, it I would recommend purchasing two media extenders, one for each TV, and install a UPnP service on your office PC.

There are many media extenders out there, all with its own pros and cons. I personally have using the Dlink DSM-320 for two years now, through wireless networking on it sucks. Another good solution is the MediaMVP, see [addon] MediaMVP w/BTV (October 06). Also, most modern game consoles, like the WII, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3, are also media extenders and a good solution if you already own one. Even the old Xbox can be converted into one.

The media extenders connect to your an UPnP service running on your office computer via the network (either wired and/or wireless).
There are many UPnP services, BeyondTV, Windows XP/Vista, Nero all have their own, but I recommend Tveristy (www.tversity.com). Tversity supports more media types, more media extenders, and supports automatic on-the-fly transcoding of files from types they media extender does not support to ones the media does support. Warning: Transcoding can be very CPU intensive.

This fairly inexpensive solution should give you most everything you want, except the ability to pause live TV on the two remote TVs.

Mourdor

[Bigbird999]

Or buy a couple of divx capable DVD players about $60 a copy and burn your showsqueezed tv shows onto data dvds. Depending on compression you can fit 10+ hours on a DVD. The media extender is a better solution but I throw this out because it might be all you need and it is cheap.

BB

[thundermax]

I use a Hauppauge wireless MediaMVP for this

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/produ..._mediamvp.html

[jackeric]

Originally Posted by thundermax

I use a Hauppauge wireless MediaMVP for this

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/produ..._mediamvp.html

Any problems with Vista ?

[jackeric]

Originally Posted by Bigbird999

Or buy a couple of divx capable DVD players about $60 a copy and burn your showsqueezed tv shows onto data dvds. Depending on compression you can fit 10+ hours on a DVD. The media extender is a better solution but I throw this out because it might be all you need and it is cheap.

BB

Well, I want them to be able to access it even when I didn't had time to burn DVDs for example.

[jackeric]

Originally Posted by mourdor

Since you already have TVs in the respective rooms, then it sounds like you only need a way to watch pre-recorded shows/videos that are on your office computer (PVR).

Thus, it I would recommend purchasing two media extenders, one for each TV, and install a UPnP service on your office PC.

There are many media extenders out there, all with its own pros and cons. I personally have using the Dlink DSM-320 for two years now, through wireless networking on it sucks. Another good solution is the MediaMVP, see [addon] MediaMVP w/BTV (October 06). Also, most modern game consoles, like the WII, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3, are also media extenders and a good solution if you already own one. Even the old Xbox can be converted into one.

The media extenders connect to your an UPnP service running on your office computer via the network (either wired and/or wireless).
There are many UPnP services, BeyondTV, Windows XP/Vista, Nero all have their own, but I recommend Tveristy (www.tversity.com). Tversity supports more media types, more media extenders, and supports automatic on-the-fly transcoding of files from types they media extender does not support to ones the media does support. Warning: Transcoding can be very CPU intensive.

This fairly inexpensive solution should give you most everything you want, except the ability to pause live TV on the two remote TVs.

Mourdor

I looked also at the Showcenter 200 from Pinnacle and it seems that it can play a larger set of video format compared to Hauppauge. I already have a Linksys wireless network 802.11g running. But I'm worried about transfer rate and it's impact on image quality (freeze/pixelizing etc...) From what you say your DLink experience was terrible. Was it because of the transfer rate ?

[thundermax]

Originally Posted by jackeric

Any problems with Vista ?

I haven't tried MediaMVP with vista, but I just googled it and it looks like some people have it working, but isn't officially supported by Haup yet

[Mistergq]

I have a wired MVP for the bedroom. I don't use it much now, because we got new furniture, and then got an HD TV, so it does not look great anymore.

You could also picked up refurbed dells and put link on there. I did this and it works great.

Here is a refurbished small form Dell with XP Pro
http://www.hcditrading.com/Shop/Cont..._by/sell_price
$225 + 33 s/h
I would then recommend picking up a half height video card. Here is a 7200 from newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814139014
$45 + 6 sh

Then you need to get link and possibly a firefly remote or another remote.

My wife was skeptical when I did this, but 2 years later, she agree, it was well worth the money. The dell is hooked up to the tv and no problems.

[dbroder]

Originally Posted by jackeric

I looked also at the Showcenter 200 from Pinnacle and it seems that it can play a larger set of video format compared to Hauppauge. I already have a Linksys wireless network 802.11g running. But I'm worried about transfer rate and it's impact on image quality (freeze/pixelizing etc...) From what you say your DLink experience was terrible. Was it because of the transfer rate ?

I'm running 802.11g and watching MPEG-4 is impossible... wireless will not cut it. WMV files work perfectly fine for me (using BTV Link wirelessly).

I've used the MediaMVPs in the past and thought they were the answer -- but was frustrated and stopped trying to use them. The WAF (wife acceptance factor) was a key -- BTV Link on computers at each computer is the answer for me. And that's what I suggest - build a computer at each TV and put BTV Link on each. End of headaches.

[jackeric]

Thanks for that input ! I finally found that neither Pinnacle nor Hauppage were Vista ready and Pinnacle doesn't even want to sell anything in canada ! Anyway, putting a PC in the bedroom... welll, the WAF is next to nanosize, too loud but the killer argument : not pretty enough

So.... Looks like an apple TV to me...

[Terminal]

I run 802.11G with MPEG in SD and it works great.

[KGideon]

simple, just put the PC's in the office and run the audio and video to the bedroom... no ugly PC in the bedroom, but all the benefits...

[cat6man]

i have 3 Ziova network media players, with built in DVD players, HDMI output, HD support.

i used to use mediaMVP but they couldn't handle the HD stuff and picture quality was limited, compared with the Ziova

[mourdor]

looked also at the Showcenter 200 from Pinnacle and it seems that it can play a larger set of video format compared to Hauppauge. I already have a Linksys wireless network 802.11g running. But I'm worried about transfer rate and it's impact on image quality (freeze/pixelizing etc...) From what you say your DLink experience was terrible. Was it because of the transfer rate ?

The DLINK DSM-320 has a very poor anntena, thus reducing the transfer rate to unaccepable levels. Though there are other DLINK media extender models to choose from. In addition, the DSM-330 and DSM-750 should be out very soon.