ok, here is what i am wanting to do, and perhaps someone here could give some positive (ie helpful) feedback on it. i am wanting to build 2 pjs. one for my room and one for the living room. there are at this point 3/4.6 computers in the house. (the .6 is an ipaq, and my broken lappy, the screen is cracked ) right now only 2 of the computers are on broadband.


i want to build 2 more computers. one acting as a server so that ALL computers in the house are on wireless broadband, and connected to each other, and the other with quite simply as much freaking hard drive space as possible.

on this hard drive computer i would like to take every DVD in the house and rip the contents onto it. in this way, i would like to network everything together so that... i can watch any movie i want, on any TV/PJ i want, just by accessing it through the network.

now, i know when it comes to TVs we are talking scan converters and lower quality picture, and of course, some way to interface the TVs with the network in the first place to get a signal to them at all.

with the PJs it would probably be a "LITTLE" easier, since their input can come from a computer and the ol' keyboard/mouse can be used.

was wondering though if anyone had any suggestions for putting this together, and a couple of things specifically.

1)would it be a good/bad idea to instead of having a server comp and storage comp, to have one comp that was both server and storage.

2)has anyone experimented/implimented, adding to their pj a tuner, or the use of a remote control

3)for the pjs i would like to have a few different inputs(most of which i believe i have already figured out). computer, DVD player(for rented movies),video games, satalite TV.

4)another thing that i would like is the ability to schedule movies(ie through a program, set a timer to play movie x on screen y at time z). and to make"movie night" a little more like a night at the movies, have current trailers downloaded from places like moviephone.com play randomly before the "feature" starts. the question here being, would playing said previews violate the copywrite of the material? i wouldnt think so since it can be downloaded freely, but just a question. im not concerned about copywright infringment for hard drive storage, since i would be only ripping DVDs that i own and not using them for commercial use.

one last thing. i have always wanted to have a gazebo with a koi pond. recently i got the idea, it might be nice to have a pj in said gazebo with a drop down screen. one problem being theft. now, having seen the LL site, im thinking that it may be possible to actually build a pj INTO the gazebo. now, wiring it up for power etc, would not be a big issue, im sure i could figure out all the connectivity issues. the main stumbling block here is insulation. how to keep tempurature and condensation/moisture from damaging it. any suggestions on that one?

You don't need a computer acting as a server for the broadband. Just get a broadband router/firewall with wireless. This will allow multiple broadband connections




It really depends. If you plan on watching both PJs at once then yes you will probably need two computers. If you only plan on watching one at a time then yes you could get away with one. It really also depends on how much you want to spend.

Ideal setup:
Server - This would house all of your music, pictures, videos. Need alot of disk space. I would check into a motherboard that has a built in RAID controller. This will protect your data in case of hard drive failure.

HTPC - This machine would have a smoking cpu, 1gb ram, good video card, and tv tuner card. This is the machine you would connect to your pj. The CPU needs to be fast so you can post process.




Alot of people are using the Haupagge pvr150. It is a tv tuner. It comes with card,remote,pvr software, and an IR blaster which is needed if you have a set top box like a sattelite or cable receiver box.



The pvr150 has several inputs. You will want play dvd movies through your pc so you can run ffdshow which is a post processor. Makes a huge difference.



The pvr card can do this.



Don't know about this one. I would be very concerned about weather. Where do you live?

i live in kansas. i have seen setups for commercial projectors to be outdoors, so i know its "possible" but as i said, my main concerns are temperature, and moisture. in other words, how to keep it insulated enough so it doesnt break from the cold in the winter, without over insulating it so it breaks from heat in the summer. and condensation, from humid days. rain i dont see as an issue since it would be covered by the roof.