Flexibility

[Guest]

Just my $.05...

I have run an MVP over a 802.11b wireless and it works OK streaming DivX movies (ie the source was DivX - the Hauppauge server software transcodes it to mpeg2). There was some stuttering though, which tended to happen only after an hour or so which is strange.

One other tip I can offer to getting MVPs working with wireless networks: make sure the wireless bridge you use can support MAC address passthrough, or "MAC address cloning". A lot of Wireless bridges substitute their own MAC when passing on the DHCP requests and so the MVP never gets the replies, and won't boot.

I started using a Linksys WET11 which required a firmware update to support this feature (which was added primarily to support game consoles).

I am now using a Linksys 54Mb/s "Wireless Game adaptor". These are a little tougher to set up as they are intended to just plug in and go, so chnagign the IP address can be a challenge but a bit cheaper than the 54Mb/s bridge. Does the same job though.

I've not trieds this with the MVP yet as a bolt of lightning blew the MVP's network port (along with the WET11....). I just took delivery of another MVP Today and hopefully, the increased bandwidth will cure the stutter.

loopy - your vision is much the same as mine - one central backend and some cheap (and quiet!! clients. Just a shame that the MVP doesn't have decent sound output etc but for £39 inc VAT in the UK (Dabs) they are amazing devices.

Lookign forward to trying out GBPVR for the first time this weekend

Scoot.

[aegisx]

I can comment on the wireless...

Ive been using the MVP wirless for a bit now.

It works great on my 802.11g network. I have a D-LINK 802.11g bridge. I didn't have to mess with any MAC stuff though, pretty much worked out of the box. It is also a WPA encrypted network Ive watched live TV and movies over it, looks good, no real issues. Im itching to see how it is with 2 MVP's on at once, will get a secoind bridge/MVP eventually. Hope they come out with a Wireless MVP (which supports WPA of course .

[Oyml]

The MVP works well on my 802.11b network. I only bought the system for music since I'd have to invest more money in my PC in order to try to get any of the PVR functions to work well. My router is a LinkSys BEFW11S4 and the "bridge" is a LinkSys WGA11B Game Adapter. Took some fiddling to finally get everything together, but it streams music really well (except for some problems with the occasional MP3 due to tagging issues). I was suprised at the fact that it actually plays videos much better than I expected. Most of the stuff that doesn't play are DivX videos that my computer isn't beefy enough to transcode prior to streaming, which is pretty well expected... The cool thing is the whole system cost me around $200, which wasn't a bad investment for listening to my vast MP3 collection on the stereo without having to try to wire my whole house up.  

Oh, and I finally managed to figure out how to get WEP to work with the system without problems... It helps to read the manuals!