I know you can use multiple tuners with Myth, Beyond or Sage Tv. My
question is, once you have shows recorded can you output 2 different
shows to 2 different video cards (or 1 card that supports multiple
monitors)? The purpose of this would be so one person could watch
show X on TV 1 and another could watch show y on TV 2 simultaneously.
Even if possible, wow would you control that without being at the PC
(ir blaster)?

"Mike C" <michaeljc70@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1173657833.023612.6850@t69g2000cwt.googlegrou ps.com...
You could store your video on a LAN, and have PCs on the
LAN that display to your TVs. Any PC could access and play
any video you have stored on the LAN (as long as it is shared).
All the PCs could play a different video at the same time, within
the throughput capabilities of the LAN. 2 PCs would be no
problem.

I have a Gigabit LAN with a NAS Terastation box, to hold
video for my living room HTPC connected to a Projector or
any of the other PCs on the LAN.

I am making some very good menus for playback of my
NAS archived video. This is a great way to go, if you want
to create something impressive and informative to select
your videos from.

http://photos.yahoo.com/kmaltby@sbcglobal.net
The MMB folder.

Just click on the pictures at the site, but to see
them full size you can download them, they are small
<200KB files.

Luck;
Ken

On Mar 12, 2:45 am, "Ken Maltby" <kmal...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
Having to have a PC for each TV is a little overkill (and not cheap)
in my opinion. Todays PCs are more than capable of streaming
multiple streams at the same time.

"Mike C" <michaeljc70@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1173717167.856544.316440@q40g2000cwq.googlegr oups.com...
Streaming involves a server and a client.

Yes, you can buy "media player" client boxes that will play
your files, (I have a Buffalo HD LinkTheater, myself.), but
a cheap PC is much more capable. You are already
using one PC as a TiVo/DVR.

So I guess my question to you is: "Multiple streams" too
what? What kind of "streams", by the way? Don't you
need some way to get the streams from your "DVR" PC to
your "TV"s ? Are you planning to run video cables from
your "DVR" PC to all these TV's?

You can control the streaming of any server, on a LAN
from any client, on that LAN.

Also, any program, running on any PC in the LAN, can
access/read any shared files. That includes programs to
play video files. Several different PCs (or Media Players)
can access, files off the LAN at the same time.

For most people with several computers in the home, it is
just a matter of economics to share a single broadband
connection to the Internet. To do so a simple router is most
often used. This creates a LAN (Local Area Network) in
many homes, like mine.

A LAN allows the sharing of data as files or as streams,
between all the devices connected to the LAN.

A "DVR" (Digital Video Recorder) stores video as files on
a hard drive. (A TiVo, cable or satellite DVR, is just a Linux
box, running dedicated software/firmware to record video to
its harddrive(s).)

If you don't have or want to use a LAN to distribute your
stored video, you could do it the old-fashioned way, with
coax, distribution amplifiers, transmitters and receivers.
Then you would need your multiple video output card or
multiple vid cards, and some means of controlling the
program(s) playing the video files.

Luck;
Ken

On Mar 12, 12:59 pm, "Ken Maltby" <kmal...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
I already have a distibution amp for audio/video for my whole house
system. What I need is multiple video cards, but was wondering if/how
that is supported. I would imagine not all (if any) of the DVR
programs support sending different streams to different video cards at
the same time. That is my issue. I know I could use stand-alone
programs to "play" the .avi files and send to the appropriate video
card, but controlling that from the room would be the issue.

I guess, in summary, I am looking for DVR software that after
selecting a fiel (show) to play, asks you if you want it sent to video
card 1 or video card 2.

"Mike C" <michaeljc70@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1173726127.503677.111740@q40g2000cwq.googlegr oups.com...


Most dual head video cards will let you have separate desktop space,
to run programs in.

Media Player Classic has a command line switch: "/monitor N" that
will "Start on monitor N, where N starts at 1."


My MMB menus just run Media Player Classic with command line
switches, to play a file. (The file to be played is also part of the
command line.)


Luck;
Ken