:Mal\’s Diving Blog

Having successfully set up the Hush Technologies machine under the TV, hooked into my sound system I decided to see how I could get the same set up in the Kitchen. In my house, most time is spent in the Kitchen so having a replicated entertainment set up was what I wanted.

Part of the problem I had was that there was no TV aerial near where the Kitchen TV could be.

At the time I started the project there did not seem to be a combined solution so I went for a Pinnacle ShowCenter which combined with an 802.11b connection enabled me to get music through to the room but pictures were going to be problematic.

I could record programmes on the Hush machine then convert them to MP3 using hte Showcenter software but piping them over wireless was just not going to work….plus I really wanted “live” TV, not recorded.

My next attempt was to get a Philips Video Sender. This is a fantastic little device taking upto 4 SCART inputs then broadcasting them over a 2.4GHz frequency to the receiving box set up in the Kitched. This in turn had a SCART outlet to transfer the picture to the TV.

 This worked wonderfully and I used the Video recorder as the main input to the transmitter. This was good becasue the remote controller was then able to control the video, enabling me to start recordings, watch recordings, watch live TV and change channels. When I bought a Freeview box I plugged that into the video input and was able to then watch Freeview over the link. A small downside to this was that the remote control could not remotely control the Freeview box I had bought, so any channel changing required me to walk into the lounge…..Not really a digital home was it?

I lived with this solution for a year or so and was generally happy with it. It ticked most of the boxes on my “Wants” list with the major exception being I could only programme and watch analogue video and the Freeview box could not be remotely controlled.

I was very excited to read about the launch of the XBOX 360 and in particular its planned Media Extender capability. When first launched they were hard to get hold of and I was busy doing other things anyway.

I finally got it a couple of weeks ago and installed it very quickly…..It really is a very easy set up. I purchased the Xbox Wireless Extender and hooked it up to my 802.11B network. Configuration went ok and it did not take long for me to be getting my music pumped through in glorious stereo. The video side of things was not so great though. The 802.11B wireless network just does not have enough bandwidth to get video through.

Clearly, I needed to upgrade the wireless network. Time has marched on hasn’t it? A Wireless G or A network was needed so a Netgear WGU624 which had both A & G capability. I installed it as an extension of the Wireless network….the B network will carry on for roaming Internet access and the A network will be dedicated to the Media Centre and Xbox.

I configured the new IP addresses in the Media Centre, re-configured the Xbox then rebooted them both.

It fired up perfectly…..Music, Photos and now Video as well able to be pumped through….oh yes and Live TV…..but not just Live TV…..Live TV with the ability to pause!

It probably sounds like I am TV freak spending all my time in front of the gogglebox….nothing could be further from the truth….this exercise was mainly for the Technical challenge of it

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