Setting up a streaming audio/video server through LAN

[Connoisseur]

Hey guys. You'll have to excuse me if this question sounds kinda stupid but I am kinda stupid when it comes to networking. I have a bunch of spare parts...enuf to build a very capable system (1.2ghz T-Bird, 512mb ram, Kyro 2, SB Live!, 40 gig hd). Now as a project I want to try to set up a music/video server through my primary desktop (which houses all the video/music in WinXP) that can stream audio and/or video to the secondary system (1.2ghz Tbird Linux or WinXP) which will then output them to my stereo/tv respectively. My stereo is a relatively old (about 10-12 years) Sony system with an AX401 receiver/amp and my TV is a relatively new (about 2 years) panasonic 32inch.

My first question is, is such a system possible given a Linksys 100 mbit router or a 802.11g wireless router? And if so, can someone give me a reasonably detailed yet simple way to set it up (like what software and/or hardware I need)?

My second question is, if such a system isn't possible, what software would you suggest I run on my primary desktop to make it a server so that I can simply download the audio/video to the secondary machine and run it off of there?

Note: In either case I require my primary desktop be windows xp because I run other apps (Office, Photoshop, some games etc.), but the secondary can be any OS (Linux or Windows). Sorry for the long post and I apologize doubly if it's been posted before. And thank you for your time in advance.

 

[Need4Speed]

http://www.videolan.org/

 

[Connoisseur]

Holy cr@p! I didn't know software like that existed. Thanks a lot! Looks like it's just what I need. Heh it can stream audio and video. Dang. Now can anybody tell me what connector I need to hook up my Sound Blaster Live! to my stereo system and/or tv?

 

[JHutch]

This is very possible and there are multiple ways of accomplishing it. I'll go into some detail on my particular setup below.

***

3 computer LAN connected with 100Mbit Ethernet. (I tried with 11Mbit wireless, but it wasn't able to keep up with the bit rate of the movies in realtime).

2 "main" computers at my computer desk. I have a total of 5 120MB HD spread between the two for a grand total of ~600GB of dedicated video storage.

1 "player" computer cobbled together out of parts that sits tucked behind the TV. It has a TV-out port on its video card (old ATI Radeon card) and I use a remote to serial port controller that I bought from X10 a couple years back. I use a program called Girder to control the computer with a simple remote control.

The video player I use is ZoomPlayer. I am able to define "genre" for my movie files, so with a single button push I can bring up a list of all the Comedies, or all the TV shows, or whatever categories I define. Then, by press up/down, I can scroll to the movie I want and hit play and BOOM! I'm watching a movie.

The videos are all stored in XViD format, so a good near-DVD quality copy of the movies run about 700MB. The sound is only in stereo, not surround sound, so that would take more space if you kept the AC3 surround sound.

Now granted, some movies take more than 700 MB, but the vast majority fit in that range.

A good program for creating these little wonders is Fair Use, but your mileage may vary.

Also, the best site I've found on the web for information to help you create video backups of your DVDs is doom9.org.

JHutch

PS Yes, I have a huge DVD collection and these movies are MY movies (I own the original DVD), so under Fair Use copyright I can may copies for my own use.

 

[tmccann11]

Originally posted by: Connoisseur
Now can anybody tell me what connector I need to hook up my Sound Blaster Live! to my stereo system and/or tv?

All you need is an RCA-to-Mini adapter. You can pick it up at Rat Shack or someplace similar.

Tom