Re: audio video multimedia setup

["E. Lee Dickinson" <ltek1@xxxxxxxxx>]

cj wrote:
> looking at:
>
> 1. a great room
> 2. 3 bedrooms
> 3. kitchen
> 4. office/den
>
>
> wondering what kinda of audio video solution you guys would advise,
> there will be a touchpad in each one to choose a movie or archived tv
> show, also a live satellite feed for watching live tv.
>
> im wondering if i should go big ass dvd player or a highend multimedia
> computer with massive hdd space.
>
> going to control it all from the den with just drop feeds to each room.
>
> any suggestions/links.

Hi Chris,

I am using D-Link media players (one of the SD ones, and two HD ones)
in my bedrooms and living room.  The server is a WinMCE computer in the
kitchen, with all movies ripped to .vob files, and the MCE machine
handling tv recordings, and serving music and other content.

It works *fairly* well.  I am not using the server software that came
with the dlink boxes -- instead, I am using Tversity
(www.tversity.com).  With the addition of Cidero, I can start and stop
and cue up any media on any box from any PC. Might have to develop a
touch screen interface for my old audry's, but really the remote
control that comes with the DSMs has been just fine.

The issues I am having are some bad VOB encodes, and the 4gb file size
limitation that tversity has. Can either compress movies using DVD
shrink, or split them into 4gb chunks, which has been what I've been
doing.  This causes about a 1 second pause towards the end of most
movies.

E. Lee Dickinson
Entertainment Design and Technology