Sending digital video from my PC to my TV: How difficult can this be?

Hi,

I have various digital video files on my computer in my office at
home. I would like to watch them on my television in another room. I
would also like to be able to pause, fast forward, etc the digital
video when I am watching it.

I have a Dell computer running Windows XP (not the media edition) and
a cable modem.

I was planning on purchasing a wireless router and a media hub that is
capable of playing back video (some media hub products only handle
photos or audio). The new Linksys product looks promising ( WMCE54AG
see: http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=38&prid=658
), but it requires a Media Center PC.

Would a Tivo product help me with this?

Is there a media hub solution that would work with my PC?

What am I missing here?

Thanks.

Rick

Rick Holigrocki wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have various digital video files on my computer in my office at
> home. I would like to watch them on my television in another room. I
> would also like to be able to pause, fast forward, etc the digital
> video when I am watching it.
>
> I have a Dell computer running Windows XP (not the media edition) and
> a cable modem.
>
> I was planning on purchasing a wireless router and a media hub that is
> capable of playing back video (some media hub products only handle
> photos or audio). The new Linksys product looks promising ( WMCE54AG
> see:
> http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=38&prid=658
> ), but it requires a Media Center PC.
>
> Would a Tivo product help me with this?
>
> Is there a media hub solution that would work with my PC?
>
> What am I missing here?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Rick

Maybe this would be of interest -
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/pro..._mediamvp.html

Give this a look, I havent tried it but it sounds pretty neat

http://www.prismiq.com/products/product_mediaplayer.asp



"Tiny Tim" <_(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:418d2013$0$43620$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Rick Holigrocki wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have various digital video files on my computer in my office at
> > home. I would like to watch them on my television in another room. I
> > would also like to be able to pause, fast forward, etc the digital
> > video when I am watching it.
> >
> > I have a Dell computer running Windows XP (not the media edition) and
> > a cable modem.
> >
> > I was planning on purchasing a wireless router and a media hub that is
> > capable of playing back video (some media hub products only handle
> > photos or audio). The new Linksys product looks promising ( WMCE54AG
> > see:
> > http://www.linksys.com/products/prod...id=38&prid=658
> > ), but it requires a Media Center PC.
> >
> > Would a Tivo product help me with this?
> >
> > Is there a media hub solution that would work with my PC?
> >
> > What am I missing here?
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > Rick
>
> Maybe this would be of interest -
> http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/pro..._mediamvp.html
>
>

You may want to post your message in rec.video.desktop newsgroup.
There was one person in that newsgroup who had tried using wireless
connection to stream video using a network media player that another
person has suggested to you.

If my memory is correct, I believe the result was not very encouraging
-- something to do with the network media player has too little buffer
and the wireless connection is too easy degraded by people moving
around, cordless phone, microwave, and such, and the software in the
network media player is too buggy.

Seem like using wireless to stream video is close to bleeding edge at
this point -- there probably requires a lot of adjustment and trials
and errors to get this to work OK. I don't have that kind of time;
therefore, I decide to wire most of my house with GigaBit wired
connection for streaming video. Areas in my house that I have a hard
time to run cable (such as in a second floor of my house that doesn't
have an attic), I will use wireless -- but only for sharing internet
connection and is not for streaming video.

I actually have a Belkin pre-N wireless router that I may try to see
if I can use it to stream video. But I am not keeping my hope high,
and I cannot do this test until Belkin comes out with a PCI version of
their pre-N wireless adapter (they only have a PCMCIA version for
laptop).

My suggestion is to run cable between your office and your TV room and
be done with this. There is a very easy to setup home-network-model
shown in LANshack.com web site; that version allows people to
construct home network using ready made cables.

Hope this helps.

Jay Chan

Jay Chan Wrote:
>
> <snip>
> I actually have a Belkin pre-N wireless router that I may try to see
> if I can use it to stream video. But I am not keeping my hope high,
> and I cannot do this test until Belkin comes out with a PCI version of
> their pre-N wireless adapter (they only have a PCMCIA version for
> laptop).
> <snip>
>

Jay -

I just picked up new pre-N Belkin equipment yesterday. Took me visit
to three different stores (2 different CompUSA's and one Circuit City)
but I wound up with the router (F5D8230-4), a PCMCIA card and the PC
card. Although Belkin doesn't list it on the website, it's out there i
the stores (some of them at least). The way Belkin packages the PC
card, it's actually the PCMCIA laptop card packaged with
Cardbus/PCMCIA adapter. You install the adapter first, reboot you
machine and Windows (XP in my case) recognizes the adapter as a Rico
cardbus adapter and instantly installs it. Then you run the Belki
install program, and it prompts you to insert the card so it ca
install the driver into Windows.

I was concerned that there was no provision for an external antenna
since the card wound up on the back of my wireless pc, BEHIND the pc
facing AWAY from the new Belkin router (which is about 40 ft away
through a couple of rooms and lots of furniture and glass. In m
previous setup with DLink super g, I had to install a 6 dBi externa
directional antenna on the dlink dwl-g520 PCI card, and a 6 dBi omn
antenna on the di-624 router to get a good signal in this remot
location - hence the concern.

However it turns out that the Belkin pre-N signal is SO much bette
that there's no need whatsoever for extra antennas. With the tin
PCMCIA card poking out of the back of the pc, sitting in its adapter
I've been getting a consistent 97% signal, and incredible speed
stability and throughput.

Considering that you should see at LEAST something like 45 mbps tru
throughput (probably more - I haven't tested yet), I think you shoul
be able to stream video. You also have the option to set QoS optio
(quality of service) in the router to give preference to video stream
and VoIP if you use them on your WLAN

--
jonaze
brought to you by http://www.wifi-forum.com

Jay Chan wrote:
> You may want to post your message in rec.video.desktop newsgroup.
> There was one person in that newsgroup who had tried using wireless
> connection to stream video using a network media player that another
> person has suggested to you.
>
> If my memory is correct, I believe the result was not very encouraging
> -- something to do with the network media player has too little buffer
> and the wireless connection is too easy degraded by people moving
> around, cordless phone, microwave, and such, and the software in the
> network media player is too buggy.
>
> Seem like using wireless to stream video is close to bleeding edge at
> this point -- there probably requires a lot of adjustment and trials
> and errors to get this to work OK. I don't have that kind of time;
> therefore, I decide to wire most of my house with GigaBit wired
> connection for streaming video. Areas in my house that I have a hard
> time to run cable (such as in a second floor of my house that doesn't
> have an attic), I will use wireless -- but only for sharing internet
> connection and is not for streaming video.
>
> I actually have a Belkin pre-N wireless router that I may try to see
> if I can use it to stream video. But I am not keeping my hope high,
> and I cannot do this test until Belkin comes out with a PCI version of
> their pre-N wireless adapter (they only have a PCMCIA version for
> laptop).
>
> My suggestion is to run cable between your office and your TV room and
> be done with this. There is a very easy to setup home-network-model
> shown in LANshack.com web site; that version allows people to
> construct home network using ready made cables.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Jay Chan

FWIW I can happily stream a DIVX movie across an 802.11g network, via a
wireless router, and play it in real time. At 700MB in, say 90 minutes,
that's 7.8 MB per minute or ~1Mbps - not much of a challenge over a 54Mbps
network.

I do run into stuttering problems doing the same thing between an 802.11g
laptop and an 802.11b laptop via the router. Maybe that's because the
802.11b laptop has only a PII 300 processor.

I tried to access a film on a shared DVD drive across the network but
couldn't get it to display the menu, never mind play the film. I was
probably doing something wrong though. I tried WMP 10 and Power DVD 5.

> I just picked up new pre-N Belkin equipment yesterday. Took me visits
> to three different stores (2 different CompUSA's and one Circuit City),
> but I wound up with the router (F5D8230-4), a PCMCIA card and the PCI
> card. Although Belkin doesn't list it on the website, it's out there in
> the stores (some of them at least). The way Belkin packages the PCI
> card, it's actually the PCMCIA laptop card packaged with a
> Cardbus/PCMCIA adapter. ...

Glad to hear that you find a way to use their Pre-N wireless adapter
in a PCI slot. Last time when I went to the local CompUSA, all I see
if their adapter in PCMCIA format. May be I was not looking hard
enough.

> However it turns out that the Belkin pre-N signal is SO much better
> that there's no need whatsoever for extra antennas. With the tiny
> PCMCIA card poking out of the back of the pc, sitting in its adapter,
> I've been getting a consistent 97% signal, and incredible speed,
> stability and throughput.
>
> Considering that you should see at LEAST something like 45 mbps true
> throughput (probably more - I haven't tested yet), I think you should
> be able to stream video. You also have the option to set QoS option
> (quality of service) in the router to give preference to video streams
> and VoIP if you use them on your WLAN.

I am happy for you. Seem like this is a great product for people who
don't need to worry about whether this is 'N' or 'Pre-N' (such as in a
home network where there is only one wireless format).

Unfortunately, I will need to return mine today, and exchange it with
a dual-band A+G wireless router. My pre-N wireless router is busted.
One week ago, I changed some settings through their internal menu.
Since then, it has stopped working. Even worse is that the reset
button at the bottom of the router doesn't work. That why I said "I am
not keeping my hope high" in my last message. Adding insult to injury,
a week ago the tech support told me that they would send me a
replacement unit. Now, they tell me that they don't have a record of
this conversation. I wait one week for nothing. I get enough of this.

You may want to make sure the reset button in your pre-N works before
the refund period runs out; otherwise, you may experiment with
changing some settings in the router, and it may stop working and you
cannot reset it. If their tech support promises you a replacement
unit, you need to call them up everyday to check the status to make
sure that they don't lose the record.

Hope you have a better luck than mine.

Jay Chan

> FWIW I can happily stream a DIVX movie across an 802.11g network, via a
> wireless router, and play it in real time. At 700MB in, say 90 minutes,
> that's 7.8 MB per minute or ~1Mbps - not much of a challenge over a 54Mbps
> network.

Great to hear this. Although I plan to wire most of the house, I
cannot wire to two rooms in the second floor. I will try something
like a dual-band A+G wireless router in order to stream video and
share internet from my second floor master bedroom to those two rooms.

The "DivX" thing seems to be a good idea. But the TV-video capturing
card (Hauppauge PVR-250) that I use cannot capture video directly into
DivX. I will have to do one more step to convert the video from MPEG
into DivX. I think I will pass on this one. I will wait until I find a
TV-video capturing card that supports DivX natively. Meanwhile, I will
have to capture video in low quality (such as VCD format) in order to
avoid taxing the bandwidth.

> I do run into stuttering problems doing the same thing between an 802.11g
> laptop and an 802.11b laptop via the router. Maybe that's because the
> 802.11b laptop has only a PII 300 processor.

I am under the impression that your 802.11g will downgrade to 802.11b
performance level if you mix 802.11g with 802.11b. This probably
explains the reason why the performance is not good when you introduce
the 802.11b laptop into the mix. You may want to borrow a 802.11g
adapter for your second laptop to see if this helps.

Of course your PII 300MHz CPU can also be the source of the problem. I
am under the impression that the CPU needs to decode the DivX video,
and I am also under the impression that we need something like a
800MHz CPU to be fast enough for decoding video. Obviously, faster CPU
will give you a better performance in this case. I am in a similar
situation that I also have a low performance PC (as a client). I plan
to add a Sigma Xcard to use hardware to decode MPEG (and DivX).
Unfortunately, this solution will not work in a laptop because a
laptop doesn't have enough space for an expansion card.

Hope you will be able to solve this problem soon.

> I tried to access a film on a shared DVD drive across the network but
> couldn't get it to display the menu, never mind play the film. I was
> probably doing something wrong though. I tried WMP 10 and Power DVD 5.

I am not sure. Is this a copy-protection "thing" that the DVD drive
manufacturer doesn't want people to share a DVD movie over the
network. Have you tried sharing your own home video on a DVD instead
of a copyrighted movie on a DVD? Anyway, this is WAY beyond me. You
may need to ask this in the rec.video newsgroup.

Jay Chan