jamespurl.org

The first section describes what I used for my server infrastructure. As technologies blur what is a "server" and what is a "workstation", I defined the servers on my network to mean those that must stay available or it will result in severe disruptions of the intranet or Internet-offered services. I separated this into full-fledged "servers" that you might think of, and appliances which may be specialized hardware or simply a computer running software to make it act like specialized hardware (such as a NAS).

Use
This is a rather short recipe about how to get the nice HD-PVR output to the Playstation 3. There are probably other ways, and ways to get it to the XBox 360 as well, but I stopped at the first solution that worked.

Chosen Tools:

• TVersity


• Arcsoft Total Media

Recipe

Use
I am an early adopter. When the High Definition DVD format war was launched, I planned to lay low and let the dust settle, or go for whichever format produced the Star Wars Trilogy first. But, Microsoft chose a side and dangled a juicy, delicious carrot in front of me--the XBox 360 HD-DVD Add-on. We got one and remained an HD-DVD household until we purchased a PS3 this March.

Use:
This is useful for the rare 1080i MythTV recordings I've gotten via firewire from my cable box. For some reason, these recordings really confuse ProjectX and therefore can't be fixed. If you have any blips in the recording, then you will lose sync without ProjectX or the method below. The method below also does deinterlacing and samples sound down to stereo. The resultant file is playable on a PS3.

Chosen Tools:

• mencoder


• y4mscaler


• mjpeg tools


• x264 encoder


• HDTVtoMPEG2.exe running in wine

This book is a collection of recipes and tips I've come across as I've done my hobby of audio-video conversion. I have a NAS that I refer to as the Purl Media Cache that I store archived copies of the DVDs and CDs I bought for backup and easy access.

My preferred method of converting, if at all possible, is to use Linux commandline so that I can easily fire it off remotely (from the laptop in the TV room or over the Internet) using the screen command. Also, using command line makes it easy to fashion a batch of conversions using for loops.

Over many, many moons, my home network has grown from one computer to what I consider a decent little home network. I've had my own domains since 2000 and have found uses for my older computers whenever I've upgraded my "main" workstation. I refer to this as trickling down. Here are some highlights of my network before this reorganization:

This book covers the layout of the JP Network. It'll explain some of the hints and tips I could pass along to others trying to achieve the same.