I'm considering getting a two part setup: one main core and one diskless media director (most likely the Fiire station and Fiire engine). What I'd like to do is set up the core upstairs, in a closet, and have the media director downstairs, near the TV, connecting wirelessly to the core.
Now I realize that you can't really watch HD content reliably over a wireless network. That's perfectly fine. What I'd like to know is if the director can start building a local cache with a buffer large enough so that I can watch the HD content reliably. In other words, here is my user story:
I want to watch my 1 hour of Heroes on HDTV. I tell my fiire station that I want to watch Heroes. It starts downloading content over the wireless network from the fiire station upstairs. I go make myself a cup of coffe. Five minutes later, the fiire station has downloaded enough content to buffer the first 10 minutes of the show. I sit down and start watching. The fiire station has a couple of gigs of flash memory, so I can still rewind and skip commericals. I'm watching the show, and the buffer is building up as I watch it, so that my media experience is seamless.
Will this work?
I tried asking this question on fiire.com's chat support page, but the technician didn't seem to understand my question. He gives two contradicting answers. At first he says no and then he says yes. When I asked if I could escalate the question since it was a big decision for me, his answer was "I am a tech support engineer"
Julien:
Question
I would like to know if the fiire station can connect through a wireless network to the fiire engine. I would like to install the engine upstairs in a server closet, and then connect the station to my TV without having to run wires
adrian:
How May I help You?
Julien:
Hi
adrian:
hello
Julien:
Were you able to read my question?
adrian:
yes, you can but the main prob is that the wireless network is not good for streaming
adrian:
if you watch dvd's for example
adrian:
so, we recommend a wired network
Julien:
does the fiire engine have a local cache? So that it can start pre streaming a couple of hours of video?
Julien:
I'm thinking if the engine has a few gigs of flash memory I could tell it that I want to watch a tv show, and then it could stream that and cache it?
adrian:
it can record it if you want
adrian:
just schedule it
adrian:
from mythtv
Julien:
Right, I understand that it can schedule from mythtv. My question is, will the engine have to stream everything from the server in real time, or can the engine do any local caching so that it doesn't have to steam in real time?
Julien:
If it can do local caching, then it could look good over a wireless network as long as I give it a few minutes to start streaming and build up its cache
Julien:
does my question make sense?
adrian:
i only know that mythtv can do that scheduled recording
Julien:
Would it be possible to escalate the question to someone that knows? I'm considering the purchase but it's a big decision so I want to make sure it works
adrian:
i am a tech support engineer
Julien:
I see. So do you know if watching a scheduled recording on a fiire engine over wireless will work well?
adrian:
becausemany users who are using mythtv reported that works
Julien:
ok, thanks
adrian:
you're welcome
adrian:
anyway, we done that too at Fiire
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