Introduction, and server / client design

[xiphon]

Hello,

I found this software this evening, and think it might just hit the nail on the head, with what I am trying to achieve...

I have a few computers, a laptop and a PocketPC to play with, and wish to somehow create a home media centre (well, just in my room to start with!!) I'm only really interested in playing music through my stereo to be perfectly honest - films (divx) and such can come at a later date

Hardware:

Server
AMD XP2500 @ 200MHzx11
1GB DDR400
1x 80GB (OS/Software)
2x 200GB (software RAID 1 - Music, Films, Photos, etc)
Windows Server 2003
Currently running headless in the garage (wireless)

Old PC
200MHz MMX Pentium 1
90MB RAM (it's around 90)
4GB disk
Running OpenBSD

Laptop
300MHz Celeron
192MB RAM
20GB disk
Windows 2000 / Debian "Etch"

Pocket PC
HP 3790
2GB SD-Card

A/V equipment
24" Sony TV (with Composite Input)
Digilogic Freeview box (connected by SCART atm)
Kenwood 5.1 Reciever (only got 2 speakers though)


Other relevant bits
USB Bluetooth adapter
24-bit Creative Live Soundcard
VGA -> Composite adapter
nVidia GeForce2 GTS graphics card (64Mb, AGP 4x)

Ideally, i would like to achieve the following:

1. Server contains data - connected by wireless to the home LAN (in the garage).
2. Old PC is the "headless" front-end to the Media Centre (contains soundcard, and sits in my room underneath stereo)
3. PocketPC is the controller through bluetooth.

Can I do the above with xlobby, in some sort of way?

Any help much appreciated

Cheers,
Xiphon

[jbretsch]

Just got started on xlobby a few weeks ago, so you will find better experts here on the board, but I dont think you will be happy with a 300mhz front. You indicate VGA to composite, so I am assuming your will be using this for video? In this case you need start with checking if your front end really have the horse power to play the media files you are looking for. If this is ok, you need to make sure you have sufficient bandwidth on your wlan from the server - try to play the media files on your front end over a file share from the sever.

If all this is working, you will do:

Server:
This is simple. Just create file shares for your files.

Frontend:
This where your Xlobby is installed. The under F2 the folders to pick up pictures. video and music refers to the servers shares. You enable the web server.

The PPC:
You have two options on the bluetooth side. If your PPC and the BT dongle supports the network profile, use this. otherwise you need to introduce Girder or similar using the serial profile (or get a new dongle/or a wifi card for the PPC). Use your brower to point to the IP of the frontend.

Check out the "My home Theater" section. There is a lot of good input as far as what others have done.

[xiphon]

Thanks for the reply

I won't be doing films (divX/DVD) just yet - that's for a later date, when I have a little more money to through at it!

I want to use the PPC as the remote, I suppose technically as the only GUI to the system. Don't worry about the composite/TV yet

The 200MHz PC (not the laptop) runs fine with Windows 2000 (which has been nLite'd) - it would be running headless, with XLobby running (possibly) as a service.

The bandwidth is fine for MP3s

Really I want to know if using Bluetooth would work for the remote.

[S Pittaway]

i have found the photo display quite slow.

i knocked up a xlobby install for my brother on a 700mhz amd thingy, and it was not very snappy when viewing photos.

music playback was fine, including using milkdrop on the music screens.

[xiphon]

i have found the photo display quite slow.

i knocked up a xlobby install for my brother on a 700mhz amd thingy, and it was not very snappy when viewing photos.

music playback was fine, including using milkdrop on the music screens.

The only *GUI* to the system, will be through the PPC - so I'm just interested in playing music - not DVD's, Photos or DivX films.