Some very initial / infrastructure related questions

[orenshani]

Hi All,

I bought a new apartment in a building that is now under construction, and when I move in, I plan to put in an MCE system.

I was very excited to learn about LinuxMCE, it seem to be exactly what I had in mind.

In any case, since I am going to move in only about 2 years from now, I guess it is too early to get into the details. I do have two infrastructure questions:

1. Will LinuxMCE work good over wireless lan? More specifically will I be able to watch TV and videos on clients if  the stream comes from the server trough WiFi, or do i need a 100BT wireline infrastructure?

2. Can I use thin clients like http://www.thinlinx.com/ or http://www.chippc.com/ for clients? (and if they are not supported at present, do you know if they or on the roadmap for the next year or so?)

Thanks in advance,

Oren

[tschak909]

1. No. You really want to do it over cat-6 cable, using gigabit 1000-baseT ethernet.

2. No. Get a PC with supported hardware, put a CPU and RAM in it.

[orenshani]

1. No. You really want to do it over cat-6 cable, using gigabit 1000-baseT ethernet.

2. No. Get a PC with supported hardware, put a CPU and RAM in it.

Huh? This is just an MCE, not the infrastructure of a telecom carrier...

Is this (taht is that I need a gigabit network and powerful clients) the general opinion here or some one thinks differently?

What if I need the clients just to be a PAL TV/Audio system substitute?

[tschak909]

Full disclosure, I'm one of the developers...

and, no. It's not. This system is a smart home platform, the first of its kind. We do offer full telecom integration as well.

You can use 100mbit ethernet, but I do not recommend wireless for media director connection.

I wish people would actually read what this system does, instead of just assuming that it is a drop in replacement for Windows MCE.

-Thom

[golgoj4]

1. No. You really want to do it over cat-6 cable, using gigabit 1000-baseT ethernet.

2. No. Get a PC with supported hardware, put a CPU and RAM in it.

Huh? This is just an MCE, not the infrastructure of a telecom carrier...

Is this (taht is that I need a gigabit network and powerful clients) the general opinion here or some one thinks differently?

What if I need the clients just to be a PAL TV/Audio system substitute?

I would hope my ISP has better than cat-6!
But seriously, depending on your network, the type of media you plan to stream and other factors, cat6 just makes sense. Especially considering that the place is being constructed, to go cheap on the networking cable would only be to your disadvantage.

fyi: im a general contractor in CA and i explain this type of thing all the time to homeowners. Do yourself the favor now.

Also, i would really check out all that linuxMCE does. Its a lot more than a media center and since your place is under construction, it would be good to decide NOW what  you intend to install as far as media / network distribution as it will only cost more later to do it after the fact.

[orenshani]

1. No. You really want to do it over cat-6 cable, using gigabit 1000-baseT ethernet.

2. No. Get a PC with supported hardware, put a CPU and RAM in it.

Huh? This is just an MCE, not the infrastructure of a telecom carrier...

Is this (taht is that I need a gigabit network and powerful clients) the general opinion here or some one thinks differently?

What if I need the clients just to be a PAL TV/Audio system substitute?

I would hope my ISP has better than cat-6!
But seriously, depending on your network, the type of media you plan to stream and other factors, cat6 just makes sense. Especially considering that the place is being constructed, to go cheap on the networking cable would only be to your disadvantage.

fyi: im a general contractor in CA and i explain this type of thing all the time to homeowners. Do yourself the favor now.

Also, i would really check out all that linuxMCE does. Its a lot more than a media center and since your place is under construction, it would be good to decide NOW what  you intend to install as far as media / network distribution as it will only cost more later to do it after the fact.

Well surely once I decide I put a wired infrastructure in, I will not go cheap about the kind of cables. I was surprised that 100BT may not be enough, that's all.

As to thin clients, I would like to ask again. Are they an option at all assuming that I really just want video audio streaming to some of the clients?

[Zaerc]

...
As to thin clients, I would like to ask again. Are they an option at all assuming that I really just want video audio streaming to some of the clients?

Media Directors are not thin clients but diskless nodes, and there is no streaming.  Those machines you're looking at won't be powerful enough.

[tschak909]

if you want some audio-only nodes, use a SqueezeBox, or a Roku Sound Bridge, just drop in and go.

-Thom

[Asgaroth]

Would these ethernet over power adapters not be sifficient? I was thinking of putting these in initially.

http://www.devolo.com/co_EN_cs/produkte/dlan/dlan200aveasysk.html

[ytuxedo002]

I've read here that people are doing SD fine over wireless, but don't even attempt HD.