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Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: AZRedhawk44 on August 30, 2010, 05:25:55 PM

Title: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: AZRedhawk44 on August 30, 2010, 05:25:55 PM
I want one box with actual hard drives in it.

A terabyte volume for data (archived software, DVR content, etc).
A 500+GB volume for "home" data.  Documents, images, software projects, etc.
A terabyte volume for backing up particular data from the other two locations.
This box will have a TV Tuner card, also.

Then, I want a few thin-ish clients around the house.  I want them to boot from little USB flash drives (no internal HDD) or possibly even over PXE and TFTP, and mount the software/DVR volume over the network.  Then boot to a generic guest account automatically and connect to a MythTV environment. 

I want the ability to log out that guest account on demand, and log in to a user-specific environment (root, me, etc).

Can I install Ubuntu or another distro to a USB flash drive?  Or do I have to get a SATA/IDE adapter doo-dad like G98 was doing awhile ago?  I think a local flash drive would perform better for my multimedia objectives than a PXE/TFTP environment.

I want /home and another location (/tv, probably) to be mounted either via NFS or iSCSI.  I think iSCSI can only be connected to a 1:1 ratio over the network (only 1 client can connect to an iSCSI resource at a time, IIRC), so probably NFS.  I want authentication to be controlled from a central resource (the box that has HDD's will run some LDAP or similar authentication mechanism).

And:  Anyone have any knowledgeable work-arounds for the fact that NetFlix on demand doesn't work on Linux?  Aside from a virtualPC installation?  I guess I could have a default "guest" account for mythTV related use, and a logout/login process for a user called "netflix" that launches a VirtualBox VM in full screen mode, but if that user logs in at more than one terminal in the network then I could have problems with the VM.
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: Brad Johnson on August 30, 2010, 05:37:32 PM
Quote from: AZRedhawk44 on August 30, 2010, 05:25:55 PM
Anyone have any knowledgeable work-arounds for the fact that NetFlix on demand doesn't work on Linux?

Run Windows.

Brad
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: BReilley on August 30, 2010, 06:03:01 PM
Quote from: Brad Johnson on August 30, 2010, 05:37:32 PM
Run Windows.

Brad

How about WINE?(if that's not perverse enough for you, I don't know what would be)
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: AZRedhawk44 on August 30, 2010, 06:33:27 PM
To my knowledge and research so far, Netflix requires MS Silverlight.

The open source equivalent, Moonlight, refuses to implement DRM management.  So, it won't work with Silverlight applications.

I'm curious if anyone knows of efforts to integrate Moonlight with DRM to achieve voluntary compatibility with Netflix?
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: RocketMan on August 30, 2010, 09:25:32 PM
I read some speculation yesterday that MS is abandoning Silverlight.  If I run across it again I'll post a link.
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: Regolith on August 30, 2010, 09:55:16 PM
Quote from: RocketMan on August 30, 2010, 09:25:32 PM
I read some speculation yesterday that MS is abandoning Silverlight.  If I run across it again I'll post a link.

Good.
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: RaspberrySurprise on August 30, 2010, 11:12:03 PM
Quote from: AZRedhawk44 on August 30, 2010, 06:33:27 PM
To my knowledge and research so far, Netflix requires MS Silverlight.

The open source equivalent, Moonlight, refuses to implement DRM management.  So, it won't work with Silverlight applications.

I'm curious if anyone knows of efforts to integrate Moonlight with DRM to achieve voluntary compatibility with Netflix?

I thought you could get a silverlight plug-in for firefox, maybe try that?
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: Marnoot on August 30, 2010, 11:39:58 PM
Quote from: RocketMan on August 30, 2010, 09:25:32 PM
I read some speculation yesterday that MS is abandoning Silverlight.  If I run across it again I'll post a link.

http://techrights.org/2010/08/23/silverlight-dying/
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: Ben on August 31, 2010, 10:11:58 AM
There's a Netflix app for Android on the way, so I would guess Android's big brother Linux won't be far behind.
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: AZRedhawk44 on August 31, 2010, 10:17:46 AM
Quote from: Brad Johnson on August 30, 2010, 05:37:32 PM
Run Windows.

Brad

Considering this, but:

One of the goals is relatively diskless remote machines operating off of a central data repository.  Either flash or PXE boot.  Identical profile regardless of where you log in.  Central authentication store.

-Can Win7 be installed onto a small-ish thumb drive?  I want to avoid hard drives on the remote computers.
-To my knowledge, Win7 cannot use a central auth store without implementing a WinServer with AD.

Anyone know which PC remote controls work well with MythTV?
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: Nick1911 on August 31, 2010, 10:26:55 AM
My generic MCE remote works great with mythbuntu.
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: AZRedhawk44 on October 06, 2010, 10:57:12 PM
I just ordered a 1.5TB hard drive from NewEgg for this project.

It was $69, free shipping.

Holy Schnikey, drive space is teh ubercheep.
Title: Re: Want: New Home Network based on:
Post by: sanglant on October 06, 2010, 11:25:28 PM
something in a nice ssd, either PCIe or sata will leave flash drives(yeah yeah same thing but the interface if faster) in the dust. =D