[Tfug] OT: cabling

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Erich,

> In my case,
>          The video and audio
> are run on the local machine, and are therefore
> exempt from high data rate limitations, The local machine

But I don't want to watch/listen TV/movies/HiFi on a computer!  :>
And (unlike Earl  :> ), I don't want a computer in my living room!

We want music wherever we happen to be -- and, we each have
very different music tastes.  It's annoying to have a "stereo"
in each of those places "just in case" we might want to listen
to music there.  Plus, having to have the correct media there
that we want to listen to!

The same applies to movies.

> also acts as a workstation that connects to an internet server 
> with office applications & gimp thru a LAN drop.
> 
> My workshop has a machine that focuses on dialing phone #'s and
> financial bookkeeping and ftp also thru the LAN drop.
> 
> It is wrong to have a machine that represents a central server
> for everything. If a given computer is focused on a particular
> set of tasks, it becomes easier to configure.

That's why I have several machines  :>  I don't burden my media 
server with engineereing tasks (mainly because those engineering 
tasks are far more important than serving up video or audio!)

> Then there is the engineering project station in my workshop, 
> also on the LAN. I currently have a machine there that's going
> to be built into a home theater PC. This will have LIRC, and be
> connected by VGA to a wide screen. Once again we will avoid 
> real-time attempts to input video/audio from the LAN. It is 
> possible to do this, but it is an engineering headache.

No, its only a headache if you try to use a generic machine
(and OS) to do a highly specific task (like this).  Try using
your 2GHz PC to control your microwave oven and you'll
discover that the $17 of electronics in that microwave are
far more adept at the task than your PC will *ever* be!  :>

I have an OS explicitly designed for multimedia applications
so that side of the equation is simple.  And, the applications
are truly distributed (vs. a pure C-S model) so there's less
"slop" in the total system (slop translates to bigger buffer
requirements, increased latencies, etc.)

The more important issues (to me) are the practical ones:
is there ever a need for two colocated drops?  how often
does an installed cable fail (at an inconvenient place for
repair)?  etc.