![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Advice on home networking?
May. 23rd, 2008 11:32 pmI'd appreciate advice on the following:
1. thin clients for the home, or maybe a wi-fi KVM switch, or similar.
2. gadgets to stream MP3s from computer disk to a traditional hifi stereo
3. general thoughts about backups and the scenario below.
This comes about partly because I'm toying with the idea of a PC media centre (similar to the one that SeaOfCats has built). I.e. a PC in a lounge-friendly box with TV tuners, TV out, remote control, Blu-ray DVD drive / DVD recorder, & a hard disk for recording TV, old VHS tapes, photos and music. (This in turn is partly because our old, 4:3 CRT TV is beginning to show signs of wearing out and so I'm looking at new, 16:9 HDTVs and all the paraphernalia that goes along with them).
It also occurs to me that most of what we use our home PCs for is simple mail and web stuff. So we don't really need a PC each; some sort of thin client arrangement might be just as good, especially if the media centre will be switched on much of the time. On the other hand, maybe we should just keep using the PCs until they break and then think about thin clients.
Perhaps a 2nd PC would be worthwhile anyway for 2 reasons. First, for the occasional bit of game playing - I'm not talking bleeding edge stuff but most games require a reasonable amount of CPU + graphics. Second, I could set up a backup system between the two. This would protect against a disk crash, but ideally a backup system should store stuff off-site (to protect against fire, water & theft). So is a 2-PC system really a worthwhile backup system?
Finally, I still have a reasonably good hifi and I'd like to play MP3s through it. Connecting my portable player is possible but irritating. I could use a long cable from the PC and drive it from the PC, but I'd rather have a wifi gadget that was easier to use, especially if the music will be stored on the media centre in a different room. The Squeezebox seems a plausible solution. There are more < HREF="http://www.sonos.com/">expensive solutions but I'm not convinced the MP3 format makes them worthwhile. (Actually, I'm not convinced I can afford all the stuff I'm talking about at all).
So I'm happy to hear from anyone who has experience with any of this.
One final question: do PC media centres upscale standard DVDs to HD output, the way modern DVD players do?
1. thin clients for the home, or maybe a wi-fi KVM switch, or similar.
2. gadgets to stream MP3s from computer disk to a traditional hifi stereo
3. general thoughts about backups and the scenario below.
This comes about partly because I'm toying with the idea of a PC media centre (similar to the one that SeaOfCats has built). I.e. a PC in a lounge-friendly box with TV tuners, TV out, remote control, Blu-ray DVD drive / DVD recorder, & a hard disk for recording TV, old VHS tapes, photos and music. (This in turn is partly because our old, 4:3 CRT TV is beginning to show signs of wearing out and so I'm looking at new, 16:9 HDTVs and all the paraphernalia that goes along with them).
It also occurs to me that most of what we use our home PCs for is simple mail and web stuff. So we don't really need a PC each; some sort of thin client arrangement might be just as good, especially if the media centre will be switched on much of the time. On the other hand, maybe we should just keep using the PCs until they break and then think about thin clients.
Perhaps a 2nd PC would be worthwhile anyway for 2 reasons. First, for the occasional bit of game playing - I'm not talking bleeding edge stuff but most games require a reasonable amount of CPU + graphics. Second, I could set up a backup system between the two. This would protect against a disk crash, but ideally a backup system should store stuff off-site (to protect against fire, water & theft). So is a 2-PC system really a worthwhile backup system?
Finally, I still have a reasonably good hifi and I'd like to play MP3s through it. Connecting my portable player is possible but irritating. I could use a long cable from the PC and drive it from the PC, but I'd rather have a wifi gadget that was easier to use, especially if the music will be stored on the media centre in a different room. The Squeezebox seems a plausible solution. There are more < HREF="http://www.sonos.com/">expensive solutions but I'm not convinced the MP3 format makes them worthwhile. (Actually, I'm not convinced I can afford all the stuff I'm talking about at all).
So I'm happy to hear from anyone who has experience with any of this.
One final question: do PC media centres upscale standard DVDs to HD output, the way modern DVD players do?
