headless core, wol storage, n800 orbiter, will it work?

[rthorntn]

Hi

I would like to do the following, will this work?

Core: dual core, 2gb ram, 4GB CF boot disk, 160gb media disk, 4 ethernet ports, dvb card, adsl card, wifi card (all linux compatible) can I use this as a music server, tv recorder and firewall as well as the core?

Storage Server, dual core, 2gb ram running solaris 10, store all movies on here and wake-on-lan when movie is required.

Media Director, single core, two sound cards, two spdif connected to receiver, each card used to send a different source to the multiroom audio, headless if possible, network boot preferred, use n800 to select room and music to play there, n800 displays cover art and track listings.

Windows Media Centre PC used for live TV and watching HDDVD disks, partner friendly config :-(

Either the core or media director connected using serial to my Marantz SR5600, to control, all devices will be in the same vicinity, only the core will be always on.

A nokia n800 as orbiter, I would prefer to have this as the only controller for the core and media director, if maintenance is required on the core or media director i can use vlc or connect up a screen, I would prefer to not be running X on the core or media director to save space and resources.

Will all this work, any experiences, caveats?

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Cheers
Richard
http://aussiehomeautomation.blogspot.com/

[1audio]

1) You can run the core headless but I would set it up as a hybrid and connect a monitor when I need to do something local. It will make little difference in its operation. And you can access it through the web panel at any time.
2) You can only have one audio per media director (or the core). The easy way to have the distributed audio is with a Squeezebox or Roku. There is interest in multiple audio cards in the core but its not been figured out yet.
3) If all you want from the media director is audio just use Squeezeboxes.
4) I'm not sure what you want the remote to do with the AV Receiver. Explain it a little more.
5) I understand the Windows media center issue. LMCE can pull the available content from it, and act as a source for content and a backup system.
6) You will need to manually set up the 4 port NIC and the WiFi access point. Here are two links to info on a Linux Access point http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/nethub/article.php/3467111 and a Linux friendly 802.11n PCI card http://cgi.ebay.com/EDIMAX-Wireless-USB-Adapter-802-11n-Draft-2-0-N-MIMO_W0QQitemZ270204351990QQihZ017QQcategoryZ45001QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I have been researching that issue myself.
7) The core will work as a PVR, Music server and a firewall/residential gateway with more features than the premium commercial product with no proiblems. Getting it all configured is still new stuff but not for long.
1GB of ram is all you need. It won't use the rest, doesn't seem to need it.
9) N800 or N810 should work fine as a controller.

[rthorntn]

1audio thanks for all the info :-)

So I guess I hoped I could use a SFF PC i have lying around with two sound cards to drive to the two separate zones over spdif on the SR5600 and have all that controlled with the n800, so the n800 would allow me to select one of the two zones then select the songs for that zone and show the status and cover art.

I was going to use the info here: http://plutohome.com/wiki/index.php/Adding_support_for_Marantz_SR_5600_A/V_receiver to power it on, configure the inputs and volume levels in the two zones when I start playback using the n800, also I could select a windows mce mode which would set the source and volume for movies and tv.

Cheers
Rich

[1audio]

It won't be an easy road but you could get there. There will be a lot to figure out and many configurations to modify. Its possible but not easy or currently supported.

[rthorntn]

OK, thanks for that, so if I use the spare PC for a single instance of a slimserver client, with slimserver running on my core, can I do all the things above, like control it using the n800 and have the n800 show tracks and cover art and such?

[1audio]

By Slimserver client you mean Softsqueeze? It should work. You will need to manually add it to the MD which is a little more difficult than adding to a core. However the power to run the PC box is significant and a Squeezebox may be cheaper to run over time even including its cost. Youi might also be able to find a Roku pretty cheap.

[rthorntn]

Thanks again :-)

The PC I could use is a SFF with integrated audio (spdif) and video (hdmi), the processor is a Celeron M410 at 1.46GHz using 27W, it all runs from a 120W fanless PSU, it has a single PCI slot.  This PC should WoL when I ask for music in its zone and possibly do a network boot, possible?

Also for my main living room zone could I have slimserver send the music to my Vista PC, and control that using the n800?

Also anybody tried to boot linuxMCE from compactflash, with swap and media on another hdd?

A recap of the hardware I have:

Linux: commell ls-570, dual core, 2gb ram, 4gb flash, 160gb hdd, quad gigE, 802.11agn card, adsl card and one spare pci slot

Vista MCE: asus modt, dual core, 2gb ram, dvb-t card, 40gb disk, 250gb disk, 8500gt connected to 30" dell

Solaris 10 Intel: supermicro mb, D420 proc, 2gb ram, 4 x 400gb and 8 x 80 gb.

spare
=====
asus modt, dual core, 2600pro
abit modt, single core, empty pci slot, integrated spdif and hdmi
2 x 1gb ram sticks for above two boards
7.1 sound card
marantz sr5600
dvb-t card
17" tft

I basically want to end up with:

firewall, asterisk server, mythbackend and sr5600 automation (with more HA to follow) on the commell, always-on for downloads, music streaming and recording tv
n800 orbiter for management, selecting tracks and showing whats playing in both rooms
separate audio to two different rooms, wake-on-lan
storage on solaris, wake-on-lan

i have to keep the vista mce box as is.

Any thoughts on what I could do better would be appreciated?

[1audio]

You can run Softsqueeze on the WMCE box and it will look like a Squeezebox to the core. (Finally a use for one of those. . .)

Booting from a flash drive is a good idea but not been really tried yet. Keep in mind the wear out characteristics of flash memory. LMCE is designed to have the MD's network boot.





What is sr5600 automation?

[rthorntn]

Cool, great stuff, the SR5600 automation is the Marantz SR5600 receiver, it has a serial port and two separate zones.