[Willith]

Hiya

My current setup consists of a server running ubuntu with three xbmc clients accessing the server via samba shares.

What i would like to do is watch the content on my server at my girlfriends house. She has an old 24" panasonic crt with scart sockets. I've considered the following to be a possible solution:

Using my old original xbox with xbmc, setup transcoding on my server and access my server from hers via something like upnp. I have poked around with mediatomb and got it half working with a config.xml file i conjured. This would allow even my hd content to be played back on the original xbox.

However i am not sure realistically how reliable this solution will be. My alternative is to spend a bit of money and get myself another computer with a big hard disk and a graphics card with s-video out. I would have to copy all my data over to this machine but it would at least be reliable.

I have looked into plex which does nearly what i want except it doesnt offer much flexibility in transcoding.

Any advice would be appreciated

[sectune]

Hiya

My current setup consists of a server running ubuntu with three xbmc clients accessing the server via samba shares.

What i would like to do is watch the content on my server at my girlfriends house. She has an old 24" panasonic crt with scart sockets. I've considered the following to be a possible solution:

Using my old original xbox with xbmc, setup transcoding on my server and access my server from hers via something like upnp. I have poked around with mediatomb and got it half working with a config.xml file i conjured. This would allow even my hd content to be played back on the original xbox.

However i am not sure realistically how reliable this solution will be. My alternative is to spend a bit of money and get myself another computer with a big hard disk and a graphics card with s-video out. I would have to copy all my data over to this machine but it would at least be reliable.

I have looked into plex which does nearly what i want except it doesnt offer much flexibility in transcoding.

Any advice would be appreciated

you could also look into streaming the movies through a vpn tunnel from your home server to your girlfriends client (provided the upload speed at your home's internet provider is quite high, otherwise it's no fun with all the buffering involved...).

[Willith]

What exactly is a vpn? Would it let me see my files exactly as i see them on the local network? That would be great but the bandwidth issue still exists. We both have fibre optic with a fancy dl/ul but i dont want to drain the resources or be inconsiderate to others using it (both shared households). Plus some of my h264 stuff might choke the xbox

[rflores2323]

why doesnt plex offer the flexability? It transcodes everything I throw at it and it looks great when I am on the road.

[Willith]

I've installed the plex server but it's transcoding options are limited to 3g connections. Im not sure how i can get this to play back on the tv

[sectune]

What exactly is a vpn? Would it let me see my files exactly as i see them on the local network? That would be great but the bandwidth issue still exists. We both have fibre optic with a fancy dl/ul but i dont want to drain the resources or be inconsiderate to others using it (both shared households). Plus some of my h264 stuff might choke the xbox

VPN is short for virtual private network and is basically a secured connection between Client/Server through the internet. My idea was: set-up vpn on your server (the computer which has the movies etc. you want to play) and then set up the client-computer at your girlfriends house to connect to your server through this vpn connection. Then you could control the xbmc f.e. through the web interface at your girlfriends house (through a webbrowser) and also play your movies on the local harddrive at your house (basically it will stream the movies from your house to your girlfriends'). Your home server will "upload" the individual movie you want to be played to your girlfriends' client.

[Willith]

What exactly is a vpn? Would it let me see my files exactly as i see them on the local network? That would be great but the bandwidth issue still exists. We both have fibre optic with a fancy dl/ul but i dont want to drain the resources or be inconsiderate to others using it (both shared households). Plus some of my h264 stuff might choke the xbox

VPN is short for virtual private network and is basically a secured connection between Client/Server through the internet. My idea was: set-up vpn on your server (the computer which has the movies etc. you want to play) and then set up the client-computer at your girlfriends house to connect to your server through this vpn connection. Then you could control the xbmc f.e. through the web interface at your girlfriends house (through a webbrowser) and also play your movies on the local harddrive at your house (basically it will stream the movies from your house to your girlfriends'). Your home server will "upload" the individual movie you want to be played to your girlfriends' client.

That sounds like a potential solution. Is there a way to transcode my files in the process and play them on my old xbox?

[sectune]

That sounds like a potential solution. Is there a way to transcode my files in the process and play them on my old xbox?

If you are willing to wait some months (maybe a year, you never know ) this thread might be very relevant for you (just think of it in connection with vpn, as through vpn connection your connected computers pretend to be in the same local environment)

[MassIV]

What is your upload speed? Because you might not need to transcode at all, specially if most is SD.
And instead of a vpn you could simply share a folder on your computer (webdav https).
http://www.slickit.ca/2009/07/webdav-on-windows-7.html
And just add the https url as source in her xbmc / your usb stick.
Note! You might need a static IP or something like http://www.no-ip.com/

I use a USB drive set up with xbmc in portable and my webdav set up as source for instant xbmc anywhere.

[Willith]

I've decided i will get another computer with a big hard disk. Thanks for all your help.