Pluto (.39) configuration - Laptops as media directors?

[archived]

Hello,
  I am trying out Pluto presently, my needs are small right now, but I lke the idea of being able to expand the system to control lighting and environment as well.

  Right now, my goal is to have the machine running as a media server contain pictures, videos, and music, being able to serve the media to a mixed environment of uPnP, Windows, and
Linux machines.  I seem to have a working  Core/Hybrid which has a pcHDTV HD-2000 in it,
I am wishing to be able to have a couple of laptops as part-time media directors (they are running SUSE 9.1)

  Now for the question:
    Do I configure these laptops as being their own room?  Because they can and will move about the house, yet I want to be able to deliver content to them.  I also want them to be able to run the Orbiter software as well.  That's really all I want, they aren't going to be plugged into TV's or anything else, I just want them to be able to receive content.  I don't really like the SMB(uPnP)  way of doing things.

    One of the laptops is running Windows XP,  I noticed a zip file download that contained the majority of the pieces necessary to have it be a media director, will I need to do that
in order to get content?  It's already running the orbiter successfully.

    Can I configure the core to stream content using VLC?  Controlled by the orbiter
on the laptop which uses VLC to receive and process the stream?

    Am I making this harder then it really is?

Thanks for your help

Bill (HA Newbie)

[archived]

If it helps, I have used laptops as Media Directors.  It seemed to be more logical to give the laptops "room names" based on their name, such as "Dell", "HP" etc and then not to use the "follow me" bluetooth features of Pluto.

On your orbiters you would then tell Pluto which "room" (i.e. Machine) you are using and let it do the rest.

[archived]

Do I configure these laptops as being their own room?

yes, you'll need to assigne any new media director to a new room

One of the laptops is running Windows XP, I noticed a zip file download that contained the majority of the pieces necessary to have it be a media director, will I need to do that
in order to get content? It's already running the orbiter successfully.

i have no idea of what you refer to, but if you have the orbiter running i guess the installation went ok.

 

Can I configure the core to stream content using VLC? Controlled by the orbiter
on the laptop which uses VLC to receive and process the stream?

you can configure vlc to do that, but you'll meet problems since vlc integration isn't very succesful[/quote]