Windows PC as a Media Director?

[Durrtyboi]

basically i have 3 PCs in different areas of the house

im going to build a new one for LMCE that ill place elsewhere

basically, can i use these PCs as media directors, without having to uninstall the operating systems as i'd need them for generic PC stuff, email, chatting, web surfing etc. it said it was possible in a linuxmce v windows mce video

is there a way i can still use them to watch stuff from the linuxMCE machine?

also does this work with a 802.11n connection? as i really dont want wires running around the house

also, will a nokia 770 work well as an orbiter for all the computers? using wifi or something

ill also need to control a few X10 home automation equipment, for use with the nokia 770

i dont know how im going to set all this up

im a total linux n00b, so please be kind

thanks

[PeteK]

The media directors network boot for MD operation, off of the core.  This means that you can have whatever OS you want on the local hard disks, and just choose to boot off of the hard disk instead of the network boot to access that OS.

A 770 will work very well for control.  Michael Stepanov, who I think I've seen here on the forums, has done a lot of work in getting it going.  You can find out more info here:


http://smart-home-blog.com/archives/658

This is a fairly complicated piece of software, but it's really powerful and can be a lot of fun.  Go ahead and play around with it.

[Zaerc]

Other options that might interest you are the windows orbiter (see the wiki) when using windows on those PCs and you should be able to access the contents of the others LMCE machines as network shares to locally their play music and movies, etc.

[Durrtyboi]

thanks to both replies

im intrigued about using windows as an orbiter.

this means ill get the LinuxMCE interface on my computer without having to reboot or re-install my OS?

and retain the same functionality?

[bulek]

thanks to both replies

im intrigued about using windows as an orbiter.

this means ill get the LinuxMCE interface on my computer without having to reboot or re-install my OS?

and retain the same functionality?

Well there are two general types of ORbiters. One is called "on screen" Orbiter and runs on Media Director. Another is just plain Orbiter that runs on Windows also. The main difference is that "on screen" Orbiter is capable of playing media and has embedded softphone and the second is more like a "remote control" screen for those on MDs.

HTH,

regards,

Bulek.

[Durrtyboi]

thanks to both replies

im intrigued about using windows as an orbiter.

this means ill get the LinuxMCE interface on my computer without having to reboot or re-install my OS?

and retain the same functionality?

Well there are two general types of ORbiters. One is called "on screen" Orbiter and runs on Media Director. Another is just plain Orbiter that runs on Windows also. The main difference is that "on screen" Orbiter is capable of playing media and has embedded softphone and the second is more like a "remote control" screen for those on MDs.

HTH,

regards,

Bulek.

oh right, so i can get the "on screen" orbiter on my windows PC and have the other orbiter type on my Nokia N770 to control it?

is there anyway the menus wouldnt show up on the PC if im using a remote? that would be a pretty neat feature

[savvycenter]

The "on-screen" orbiter must be on linux because it is part of the MD. The remote control orbiter can be on a Windows PC or Linux (Nokia).

[Durrtyboi]

so i cant play full videos ie. HD videos on my windows PC?

is there a way i can somehow install linux on a windows machine and make the LinuxMCE somehow activate it through a LAN connection or something, then once i end the "session" so to speak, it goes back to windows

i really dont want to uninstall windows but also want to use the pc as a media center

[savvycenter]

Install VMWare on your Windows machine and then install KUbuntu as a guest operating system in VWMare. Then install LinuxMCE.

Check this out: http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Testing_with_VMWare

[kir]

Install VMWare on your Windows machine and then install KUbuntu as a guest operating system in VWMare. Then install LinuxMCE.

Check this out: http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Testing_with_VMWare

I don't think it will work with playing HD from the VMware It is good for the testing, but not for the heavy video playback.

[kir]

so i cant play full videos ie. HD videos on my windows PC?

is there a way i can somehow install linux on a windows machine and make the LinuxMCE somehow activate it through a LAN connection or something, then once i end the "session" so to speak, it goes back to windows

i really dont want to uninstall windows but also want to use the pc as a media center

Another option you may consider is to resize your Windows NTFS partition to make it smaller, and install Kubuntu+LMCE on the obtained free space. This will be so-called dual-boot installation - here is link about it: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot   - as a result, on the start of PC the boot menu will allow you to select what to boot - Windows or Kubuntu Linux + LMCE.

Please note, that if you don't have such experience and/or you have some important data on your Windows disk, you really should backup all your data to the external disk, CD, DVD, whatever. Never underestimate the number of things that can go wrong