HTPC with PC in a different room?

squibs

For reasons of aesthetics and a desire to use a noisy PC, I'd like to keep my prospective HTPC in another room and stream media wirelessly.

Is there a product like the Buffalo LinkTheatre that as well as streaming from the PC to the unit, will stream from the unit to the PC for recording purposes?

*Crosses fingers* please please please.

8T8

Not as far as I'm aware, there are recorders like the ones from Kiss that give you FTP access to the recorder so the recordings it makes on it's internal HD are accessible from the PC.

The Netgear EVA8000 can also control a PC running Windows Media Centre TV recording segment even though it's not an official MCE extender but you still have to pipe the TV to the PC in that scenario.

squibs

Hi 8T8 - the netgear system looks like a great solution. You seem to have more info on it than I've been able to find. Two quick questions if you don't mind:

Do I have to have XP MCE installed? I couldn't see any info about that on the site (it only mentioned XP)

Also you said "you still have to pipe the TV to the PC in that scenario." Do you mean I need a physical connection and I can't record over wireless? Again the site doesn't go into detail.

Thanks in advance.

squibs

From the manual, which I eventually found, it will record wirelessly and XP MCE is not required. It still needs a TV card for this, and only supports a handful, but what a sweet device. I'm getting one

8T8

I meant that you will have to link up your TV signal whether it is an plain old aerial, cable based set top box whatever to the tuner in order to be able to record TV to the PC.

The EVA8000 are fairly nice devices but I don't have too much info on how the TV record works only that it does at least work with WinXP MCE or WinVista MCE.

Elara.ie sell them if your looking to get one, also the Netgear forums are the place to check for the low down on how it works plus firmware updates, for instance a recent firmware update added DVD playback to the unit so your DVD's on a hard drive can be played back.

squibs

Thanks 8T8. Found the forums and found it for sale on elara amongst other places. Didnt realise the dvr capability needed the PC to have it's own signal source. I thought the netgear unit would beam the signal to the T.V. Then I realised it was only a receiver of multimedia content.

Sigh

Pongo

Just came across this thread, and this gizmo has caught my eye... I'm just trying to get my head around it though.... At the moment I have a PC running WMCE in my living room, but it's a noisy bugger, and moving it elswhere would be nice. Only problem is wiring, I don't fancy knocking holes in walls to run wiring, but if I'm not mistaken this will eliminate the need for that?
The question is, if I move the WMCE pc say, to the attic, along with the Sky box it's hooked up to, will this device then allow me to access the WMCE from the living room and watch/ pause/ record TV, access video content stored on the PC etc etc? Or, have I completely over estimated what it can do?

SouperComputer

why not start by quietening the HTPC?

TBH, if you are dealing with a HTPC and plan working with even SD TV resolution, wireless just wont cut it. You could try an ethernet over power device which basically makes a LAN point out of a power socket.

Most of the non-M$ hardware has sloppy support for MCE's features to put it mildly.

If you want the features of your HTPC at a remote location you need a Media Centre Extender. The original XBox and Xbox360 work as one.

If you plan having the HTPC in the attic (Make sure you have some way of logging your temps up there!) and want full MCE functionality the the Xbox360 is the best way to go. Most support, and by far the easiest to setup.

Pongo

Thanks for the reply, yeah the temps in the attic would probably be a problem now that I think of it. I'll look into the Xbox option, I hava 360 so I suppose shelling out on a new gizmo doesn't make sense if that will do...
I wasn't planning on using the Eva8000 wirelessly, I have a network point in each room, I assume the Eva can be used wired as well, as I said though it looks like the 360 is the answer to my problem....

Thanks....

SouperComputer

LOL, yea you have everytihing you need! Stick freeNX on the HTPC for remote access. When you mentioned not wanting to deal with wires I guessed you were thinking of runnig a wireless network for this

Check the sticky at the top of this forum for more Xbox360 extender info