Using a virtulization server for multiroom HTPC possible ?

RimBlock

RimBlock

RimBlock

Associate
Joined
10 Nov 2004
Posts
2,237
Location
Expat in Singapore
Hi,

I will be starting a renovation of my new apartment soon and have been using a WD HD Live TV for streaming media to my main TV (SD and HD). I am finding the 5Ghz Wireless is not up to the job for large files from my NAS (10+GB) so I was thinking of putting in cat6.

I have also been playing with an older (C2D 2.5 or there abouts) second PC as a virtulization server (Win 2008 or CentOS using OpenVZ) and the though struck me... is it possible to have virtual environments on the virtual server playing movies to different TV's in the house at the same time ?

Would I need multiple video cards (one for each tv) and then find a way for separate rooms to control the individual virt sessions on the server or would I need dumb terminals (maybe atom PC's) ?.

Thoughts / suggestion most welcome for this twinkling idea...

Thanks
RB
 
RimBlock said:
Would I need multiple video cards (one for each tv) and then find a way for separate rooms to control the individual virt sessions on the server
Click to expand...

I'm not fully understanding this idea.

If you don't mind buying Atom based machines you could just get one for each room (an ION based one for VDPAU / off loading to the GFX card) and have all the media files on your server, no need for multiple virtual machines in that scenario.

If you were meaning for actual TV through the HTPC this would get more complicated, it is still very possible using MythTV with your server as a backend and multiple front end clients.
 
Illusion said:
I'm not fully understanding this idea.

If you don't mind buying Atom based machines you could just get one for each room (an ION based one for VDPAU / off loading to the GFX card) and have all the media files on your server, no need for multiple virtual machines in that scenario.
Click to expand...

Yep, this is what I have with my WD HD Live TV's.

Illusion said:
If you were meaning for actual TV through the HTPC this would get more complicated, it is still very possible using MythTV with your server as a backend and multiple front end clients.
Click to expand...

This would be the sort of thing I would be looking to move towards where one machine (server) plays multiple movies at the same time and outputs the video of each for each movie to different TVs.

I can see the server being able to play multiple movies (one per virtual session) and maybe even output the video to different video cards HDMI connections.

Bit like this quick visio...

vitualhtpcserver.png


Any ideas / suggestions ?
RB
 
That makes more sense now, it seems like quite a project actually :p

The biggest thing for me there would be whether you can assign different video cards to each virtual machine, I'd assume you can somehow I just don't have enough experience with virtualisation to know the answer myself. Also how would you be controlling each of the displays?

If I was you I'd be leaning more towards the server as a backend with XBMC clients (and MythTV integration?) on each of the TV's. Should still be quite fun to set up just not quite as adventurous.
 
Yes you could do this, however I am not sure whether you can actually have hardware video decoding in a virtual machine, you might have to settle for cpu decoding, in which case you would need something a lot more powerful than an old C2D if you were decoding 4 separate videos at once. On the other-hand it might be possible to get hardware decoding in a VM, in which case it'll be a bit easier, of course you will still need 2 video cards for 4 HDMI outs.

After having a think about this though, I think it would probably be cheaper or at least no more expensive to set this up simply using a file server, which doesn't need a high spec at all, that old C2D would be more than enough, and using a media streamer for each tv set. The Playon one everyone keeps talking about is less than £80 I believe and rather better than the WDTV aswell as I understand it. All of these could access a single media store on a file server or NAS no problem. You would want to run ethernet cables and a Gigabit network though.
 
Last edited:
Thanks both of you.

I already have a DNS-323 Nas box which shares to the network and works fine with the WD player.

I may well have a look at the playon box though. Any models in particular ?

I guess I was really trying to find out if I could run multiple virtual machines on a host server, each independantly being controlled via a tv and input device(s) (wireless keyboard/mouse) without the need for a machine in each of the rooms.

If not then I will have to stick to the NAS and multiple players.

RB
 
RimBlock said:
I guess I was really trying to find out if I could run multiple virtual machines on a host server, each independantly being controlled via a tv and input device(s) (wireless keyboard/mouse) without the need for a machine in each of the rooms.
Click to expand...
No.
 
I imagine you could probably get around the input problem somehow (more easily if it's restricted to IR devices only). Not having GPU decoding would be a bigger problem. But overall my question would be: why?

If your problem is wireless network speeds then run some Cat6. If you went the way you're thinking then you'd have to run HDMI cable anyway, which would be considerably less useful and limited in range. In general your solution sounds interesting but is just more difficult to set up and more restrictive for very little benefit as far as I can see.
 
Would you actually need virtualisation?
I have mediaportal (free HTPC software) installed on my HTPC. It is the media player in the main TV room, which accesses a NAS I store all my media files on, and also serves up freeview TV and movies stored on the NAS to the two PC clients I have in other rooms with no problem.
You can set up mediaportal as a pure server, so it can be locked away in a cupboard somewhere, and connect to it with other pcs as clients.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom