Hello and recommendations for a newb

[Pacman]

Hey Everyone,

Ran across this site while researching building a DVD server. From what I can tell so far WOW! I think this may just be the answer to my interface needs.

Here's my current plan. Build a DVD server, Music Server, and 1 or 2 TV card servers. Probably use Athlon XP 2.x's and RAID0 a 1 TB disk array for the DVD server and 2-300 GB for the other machines. Place all of these in the basement of my new house. Run CAT 5 to the bedrooms, living room, family room and the rec room. May place a WiFi media point for outside speakers. Not 100% sure on that one yet. Anyway, each HTPC machine in the different rooms will be another AMD setup. Top it all off with several WIFI P(ocket) PCs to act as controllers for all media functions and X10 updates planned for the future.

Noticed tha XL was able to run mutliple PPC controllers for a distibuted system like this. Was wondering if anyone knows of a way to have the PPC's recognize which room they are in and trigger XL to bring up the skin for the room that the PPC is in.

Wanted to also ask for opinions on which TV software to use: Snapstream etc. The TV cards I'm using are AverMedia PCI 350 Hardware MPEG TV cards.

Was also wondering if anyone knows what the data rate of a Gigabit ethernet connection was if CAT 5e wires are used.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.

Cheers,
Steven

[jowaldo]

As far as I know, its not possible for a ppc to know what room its in (let alone in xlobby)

Tv software? Your best bet is the xctpvr plugin carm is workin on. Sounds like the epg portion of it will be ready soon. And your card you use is supported in his program. You can find it in the plugins section of this forum.

Cat 5e can handle full gigabit easy, as long as your runs are insanely long (like over prob 400' or so it might slow down)

Hope that helps

[Myth]

Was wondering if anyone knows of a way to have the PPC's recognize which room they are in and trigger XL to bring up the skin for the room that the PPC is in.

Probably not what you're after, but, you can have each different PPC bring up a differant screen using the servers.txt file by putting the name of the screen after the IP address

192.168.1.105:ppcmenu

192.168.1.105:ppc1menu

192.168.1.105:ppc2menu etc


Myth

[ukbubs]

RAID 0 for dvd server could be the worst of all worlds:
no redundancy
no need for the extra speed: my server runs a 1.36tb raid 5 array on 5400rpm disks - the bottleneck is in the network (100mbps cat 5 / wifi "g") , not on the server.
Suggest you try serving music files off the same box before you build a music server.

Hope this helps - with a gigabit LAN you'll avoid some of the problems I've built in to my system.

[Pacman]

Thanks everyone for their inputs.

I'll try the plug-in for tv. With a bit of luck it will be ready before I have everything set up in the house.

Planning RAID 0 is merely a cost issue (3 kids + too many hobbies). It's cheaper to buy 4 250Gb drives and not worry too much about redundancy. Yeah I know, I'll probably pay for that last statement. Maybe later I can convince momma that we need more arrays for redundancy. In the meantime I'll have to risk rebuilding the server if it flakes out.

Wanted to clarify one other thing. When running client/server operations the server IP addresses must remain fixed so that XL can find everything. Currently letting my cable modem/router handle DHCP issues. I haven't tried assigning static IPs with XP and my Comcast high speed. Any known issues with static IPs?

Thanks again everyone.

Steven
(edited because I can't type)

[art]

Currently letting my cable modem/router handle DHCP issues. I haven't tried assigning static IPs with XP and my Comcast high speed. Any known issues with static IPs?

Thanks again everyone.

Steven
(edited because I can't type)

I have the same - Comcast ->cable modem -> router -> 4PC + 3 laptops - mix of linux & winxp, some of them have 2 network cards in them and all have assigned IPs - no problems, go for it

[sic0048]

Thanks everyone for their inputs.

Planning RAID 0 is merely a cost issue (3 kids + too many hobbies). It's cheaper to buy 4 250Gb drives and not worry too much about redundancy. Yeah I know, I'll probably pay for that last statement. Maybe later I can convince momma that we need more arrays for redundancy. In the meantime I'll have to risk rebuilding the server if it flakes out.

HD are getting cheap. You'll definately want to go RAID 5. You WILL have a HD go bad at some point (it only a question of WHEN). You do not want to waste all that time to re-rip all of your movies and music. RAID 5 only takes one extra HD. Getting an extra drive now for $100-300 is cheap insurance. DO NOT USE RAID 0 or you WILL REGRET IT.

[cwellsaz]

With the cable use cat 6 with gigabyte. Cat5 is 100mbps cat6 is 1000mbps if your board or you have bought a gigabyte carde please use the gigabyte. Plus resale value for your home may go up

[GFORCE]

if you setup the server as a proper file server with Win2k3 or Linux, you can use a Network Load Balancing Network with 2 or more Gigabit Connections into your network switch, this will help the server maximise the efficiency of the raid 5 setup and the network.

I use this idea for my own server
ive got 5 gigabit network Connections into a Layer 3 Gigabit Switch and a single Gigabit connection to each HTPC.

[cwellsaz]

Nice, see thats the way to do it! And include the raid 5.

[hjackson]

"Wanted to clarify one other thing. When running client/server operations the server IP addresses must remain fixed so that XL can find everything. "

Or, instead of using the IP address (ie 198.168.1.100) you can use the name of the computer (ie. HTPC1) and continue using dynamic IP's.

hjackson

[GFORCE]

the names will resolve to their IP Addresses, so Yes it should work, Also Most Routers allow you to reserve specific IP Addresses for certain workstations.

This works but assigning an IP based on a MAC Address. This is Very Useful if like me, when the Servers are going Full Hog, its difficult to get a DNS Request for the router.

Or you might want to Setup a WINS Server as that is based on another Computer and it holds all the IP Addresses and Computer Names for anything on the Current Network.

Well Ill brb Ive got someone sitting across the road in a car watching me....