Beginner - Understanding Fat vs Thin clients

[msmulian]

Having set up Xlobby (using Baddabing's KISS) on one machine (this will be my server), I am trying to understand my options, their relative merits and the practical side of implementation.

My aim is to be able to view movies and pictures around the house, both to PCs and TVs (2 of each). [Music is handled by Slimserver].

I tried using the thin client on another PC and got the Xlobby menus, but could not start any music / films.

Am I right in thinking
* Thin Client is to control output from the server to another directly connected device (ie output from server fed via cable to a TV in another room)
* Fat Client is used to deliver sound & vision (Server > FC > TV)

If this is wrong, what is the difference and what are typical setups?

In a server / fat client setup, if I am not going to view any material on the server, where do I run

Foobar - Server / Client / both
Daemon - Server / Client / both (for iso images on server)
Zoom - Server / Client / both
Databases - Server / Client / both

Thank you

Martin

[Marbles_00]

You have the basic concept.

A fat client is a full computer with all the video/audio playing software installed, and running its own Xlobby. In the Xnet section of Setup, you define your server machine, and link all database to the shared network directory of your server. When XLobby loads on the fat client, it copies all the databases over from the server, and links to the network share. All video and music still reside on the server, it is then streamed to the fat client. But it has all the capabilities of a thin client as well in that it can control the server. Example, you can control with a fat or thin client the music to be distributed to different audio zones.

A fat client can also be considered a zone for audio distribution, only don't expect synced audio using the default Xlobby commands.

A thin client doesn't have any capabilities other than to control the server. No databases are copied. It is only an interactive GUI for controlling the server.

Hope this was helpful.

[msmulian]

Thanks for the prompt reply - I will try setting up a fat client this evening.

Just to be clear

If the server will just host the databases and files, does it still require Foobar and Zoom?

On fat client setup

* I need to setup Foobar & Zoom locally
* I setup the databases by connecting to the server in Xnet

As the ISO movie images are on the server, do I need to run Daemon Tools on the client, the server or both; which is most efficient?

[Marbles_00]

Good questions

If the server will just host the databases and files, does it still require Foobar and Zoom?

and

As the ISO movie images are on the server, do I need to run Daemon Tools on the client, the server or both; which is most efficient?

To tell you the truth, I have used the fat client to connect additional zones to my music server. It was always running multiple winamps anyways. I would think though that if the server did not require to play anything directly, you should not need it. Worth a try though, and if it does work, great, if not, then you know to add the players on the server.

As for using Daemon tools, I can not answer that at all, as I don't use it. Sorry.

[cmhardwick]

Daemon tools is going to mount the ISO image so the machine playing it can see it as a drive letter. This would need to be on the machine playing the video, not on the machine hosting it. Configure it on the client machine and you should be OK. If this doesn't work, I didn't tell you to do this