[mythtv-users] Way out idea on watching same thing in multiplerooms

Tortise tortise at paradise.net.nz
Wed Jan 6 00:47:54 UTC 2010


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Gareth Glaccum
To: Discussion about mythtv
Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 11:33 PM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Way out idea on watching same thing in multiplerooms



> I have been thinking about this problem on and off for around a year now. There are, as has already been stated, two distinct 
> problems.

Seems quite a few have been considering this use.  Great to see the discussion resulting.

>However, in businesses where there are IT techs paid to set networks up properly, most networks I see are not set up correctly for 
>multicast. A hub would not multicast, it broadcasts multicast streams. A switch set incorrectly will most likely broadcast 
>multicast streams. This means that you could be swamping devices on the network with video data. My TV at home has a 10Mb/s data 
>port, if I broadcast a video stream to it, it is going to be overwhelmed. I suspect there are more home networks that are better 
>set up than office networks, but we must consider the case where multicast does not work, and it is instead broadcast to all 
>devices.

I would certainly suggest that the use of multicast (if it eventuated) would probably be best as default off type situation where it 
is enabled only by those wanting it and prepared to ensure their LAN's will comply and oblige.

People may well want to specify particular multicast (range) addresses to use.

I had posted earlier how I had successfully tested multicasting a DVD, the string I used specified 239.0.0.0.  Its since been 
pointed out to me (elsewheres) that this address is reserved, (see http://www.iana.org/assignments/multicast-addresses/) so I'll 
probably change my testing to use 239.255.x.x, - a small point for anyone else considering trying this. 



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