Laptop as media-director AND orbiter at the same time

[JanM]

Hi to all,
Imagine me, 61 years old, new to Linux but very happy with it. This is my situation: We are building our new little home. Cat5 or Cat6 all around the place. A nice new flat-screen, lots of mp3's and video's on disk, a few laptops in the house, a decent audio system still to choose, but thats not the prob. I have been reading about LMCE for the last few weeks and made a choice: thats where we will go.
Build a decent hybrid in the "office" and connect it to TV and Audio-system (just at the other side of the wall of the office). I must be able to get that running. Now my question(s): I would like NOT to invest in more media directors/TV's/orbiters right now. So I would like to use one of the laptops as an orbiter for the Hybrid. That cannot be a big problem , but.....I would also like to take that laptop to -lets say- the verandah, plug it in the network connection there, netboot it, and use it as a media-director WITHOUT  external TV/Audio attached to it. Just have the laptop running, playing whatever TV program I choose on that same laptop. In that way I can use my laptop whereever I am to watch sports, not on a big screen, not with fancy sound, but at least I can watch it. So actually I am using that laptop as a media-director to its own screen and as an orbiter for the hybrid at the same time. Is this possible, or am I too old for this?

[purps]

I'm fairly sure you can do that.

If you are in your office, with the hybrid and TV all up and running, there is nothing stopping you from running a web orbiter in the browser of whatever OS your laptop is running, and controlling your entire setup like that (I do a similar thing in my lounge when working on the laptop whilst watching programs on the main big TV - reaching for the remote control 2 feet away is just too much effort!).

Then, if you want to use the laptop as a MD in another location, you just plug in your network cable and netboot it. You can control that using the built-in onscreen orbiter that you get with every MD, using the touchpad and keyboard.

If you have a half-decent mobile phone, you can control everything using that as well

[JanM]

Thank you Purps, thats what I wanted to hear. One additional question: Can I expect any problems in getting a decent TV/video image on that laptop screen?

[purps]

I guess it would depend on the laptop and its graphics card. I have a Toshiba Satellite A30 in my kitchen with intel graphics, must be getting on for 5 years old now, and that works well. My touchpad doesn't work mind, but that doesn't bother me as I generally use my mobile phone to control it. Plus there are always the keyboard controls.

[JanM]

thanks again.Thats the way to go then.

[bongowongo]

What I sometimes do for testing purposes, but now as a working solution, use vritualbox.
I create an MD in virtualbox, that netboots from the 192.168.80.x range.

So
You have a OS, windows/linux/OSX.
You run virtualbox with an MD. You can watch movies/tv/audio etc etc
I can imagine you need a little bit more power in your laptop, but I do not know what laptop you have.
My system is Intel corps2 quad Q6660/ 4 gb/ ATI HD3850 512mb and a  HD filled to the max with environmentally friendly porn

[purps]

That's a good point, I use VirtualBox to run an MD in my study via my everyday desktop. It works so well, that I have actually bought a second monitor that's dedicated to the VBox MD.

Then, to control it, I use either my mobile phone, or a web orbiter on the main screen.

[JanM]

Sounds all pretty straight-forward. thanks