I need LOTS of help here......

[carlandjulia]

Hi, I've read a few of the posts from these fora and it looks as though you might be what I am looking for?

I have built a sound insulated studio (18'X20') in my basement with an accompanying 5'X13' mixing/electronics room also sound isolated both from the rest of the basement and the studio room. I play around (for enjoyment only) with guitar as does my wife but both her son and mine are serious musicians so I wanted to provide them a way to further their professionalism but at the same time, these rooms seem ideally suited to home theater application and intense music listening as well.

We have several computers, a G4 dual 1.25 Ghz, a laptop PC w/ 2 Ghz celeron, a 700 Mhz desktop PC, and a 180 Mhz Mac desktop w/ 604e processor. These computers are distributed throughout the house and i would like to find a way to network them all together and control a LARGE capacity (~ 1 TB) from any location. I have my entire house hardwired with cat5e and RG6 coax. My idea is to load all my music and movies on the hard drive(s) and be able distribute music or video to others parts of the house as well as the studio, and use the studio for recording/mixing work (maybe not at the same time?). Are you up on HTPC and how it can integrated with recording and all networked between opposing platforms? I am thinking about using a DLP projector (presentation grade yet able to handle HDTV resolutions - hopefully ceiling mounted) with a pull down full size screen. I also have an older architecture PC and MAC that are unused at present which, along with the 604e MAC could perhaps be utilized as dedicated units as i would like to continue to use the others in their locations.

I realize from what I've read on the forum that I might require at least a G4 downstairs in order to drive the recording apparatus and I'd love to get a G5 dual but.....I'm afraid my budget would already be severely stretched as it will be. I need to accomplish all this for $10,000 or LESS.

Does this all sound feasible? Practical? Would it requires customized software? How much would it cost to get it engineered? Where can I get the info I'm looking for? Thanks

[LTA]

Noble idea, but it is going to be expensive. 100baseT isn't going to even cut it. If you are just using the 1TB server drive just as storage and not a working directory, you might be able to swing the networking requirements. But if you are planning on using the server as storage for your audio (and video?) files, be prepared to spend alot of time waiting on transfers.

If budget allows, dedicate a g3 or g4 mac running jag as your file server. It will allow you to file serve to both PC and mac, and is definately easier to admin than NT.

Ill ask my friend about HTPC, and get back to you if he provides some enlightenment.

Also, consider a closed circuit system for your projector, along with remote control linked to the "server room" location. No reason you can't drive the projector from the server computer without transmitting it on a network.

[carlandjulia]

Thanks for the reply LTA. I'm still researching this and any additional info would be GREATLY appreciated. Question: Does a hard drive serve up DVD video slower than a DVD drive? My idea was to use the large hard drive just to serve up video and audio but don't know the access speeds required to efficiently do this. If the hardware can accomplish what I want, I can try to find/adapt software to finish the job. I can dedicate my G4 dual 1.25 to this app - gives me an excuse to tell wife I need new g5.

Any other help you or others can offer will be appreciated.

Carl