Video sharing/streaming/?

[Bob2004]

A mountain range does not mean tons of winds. It means a mountain range. Being on a mountain, the team was able to work with less outside interference, because the stuff the wind can kick up does not contribute as much to interference as stuff on the ground might. There's also less stuff around, in general, that would screw around with the signal.

Winds offer more or less interference depending on the amount and type of debris kicked up by the wind. The wind itself is not the problem.

P.S. Way to turn our OP into a female. I would be more careful with the pronoun "she."

Edit: In any case, suggesting that the OP build a satellite dish communication system that extravagant for the simple purpose of streaming videos is unrealistic. Think about all the problems that simply having one would entail. Aside from the amount of electricity and the cost of materials you'd need to cover, you're streaming pirated content over the air through a conspicuous medium. There are probably also legal issues you'd have to look into, just for having the dish itself, but don't quote me on that one.

Not particularly conspicuous, and not really any legal issues either, provided the total power of the wireless aerial does not exceed regulations (which it won't, because you can't buy those). It would simply be an 802.11b/g wireless network, which are perfectly common, and would just show up as such (same as you occasionally pick up other people's wifi hotspots, this will just appear the same). The only difference is it will be a directional antenna, meaning the total power is all concentrated in one direction (thus leading to much greater range), as opposed to an omnidirectional antenna where the power is spread out equally in all directions.

That said, it probably won't be feasible unless you have line of sight between the two dishes, and can guarantee the midpoint of the link will be a certain distance above the ground (I forget how much, it's called the Freznel zone or something like that). If both of those things are true, then an antenna with 12db gain at each end should be enough to achieve reasonable speeds. It will be either difficult or expensive though, so it might be better to just use the internet instead if you can.

[kitamesume]

^

she mentioned these.

4) About 3km bird path straight through the city center Maybe some sort of radio link would be possible, I am living on the 3rd floor on a hill and can almost see the club house from my balcony :-)

3km straight distance, and he could see the club house from her balcony, meaning nothing in between.
edit: lets say she misjudged the distance and it was 4km or 2.5miles in actual, that distance is very achievable even with a 12inches sat dish =P
some people say a 3feet(36inches) sat dish could reach 8miles or 12.9km.

@OP, i'd like to request a pic from your balcony =P

edit:
cost of building one:
http://www.amazon.com/DIRECTV-060209-Dish-for-DirecTv/dp/B000HRQXQQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317518919&sr=8-1
18" Dish for DirecTv
List Price:    $189.99
Price:    $27.98
You Save:    $162.01 (85%)
+ some mods  for the dish $50~ ish
+ WLAN card $60~ ish http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833281002
= $138 x 2 (total: $276)
note: obviously if you already have a WLan router/card then you can skip the option of buying one.

considering you could also hit the internet through this setup you'd be saving a couple of bucks from getting another line.

[Bob2004]

Note he said 'almost see the club house from my balcony'. He needs actual line of sight between the two dishes, so it'll only be workable if he can definitely set that up. If he can't quite see, then that might well not be good enough.

And again, it also depends on the distance between the dishes and the ground - if the clubhouse dish is too close to the ground, then you might start getting interference, though I'm not sure of what kind of distances are needed at which parts of the link, so that would be worth researching first too.

[kitamesume]

3stories above the ground should be enough, and he pretty much can mount the other dish on the roof of the club.

Edit: ah and i`m requesting a pic from the balcony =P

[Bob2004]

3stories above the ground should be enough, and he pretty much can mount the other dish on the roof of the club.

True, I don't expect there will be any real problems with that, but it's worth checking just to be sure, in case there's a small hill in between or something which would decrease the distance between the link and the ground.

[Freedom Kira]

Again, let us steer away from the ridiculous solution that you keep pushing forward. The original mention was clearly meant as a joke. If you seriously want to spend a few hours assembling a dish and aiming it so that it's accurate within a tenth of a degree in order to get the accuracy needed to beam a signal over 3 km, go ahead. But the project should be either for fun or for developmental purposes for a greater goal, not for something like this, where there likely exists a more practical solution using the existing Internet connection.

Seriously, you guys are suggesting something akin to bringing in a crane to drop a giant block of stone onto a car in order to crush it.

[Bob2004]

Again, let us steer away from the ridiculous solution that you keep pushing forward. The original mention was clearly meant as a joke. If you seriously want to spend a few hours assembling a dish and aiming it so that it's accurate within a tenth of a degree in order to get the accuracy needed to beam a signal over 3 km, go ahead. But the project should be either for fun or for developmental purposes for a greater goal, not for something like this, where there likely exists a more practical solution using the existing Internet connection.

Seriously, you guys are suggesting something akin to bringing in a crane to drop a giant block of stone onto a car in order to crush it.

I thought we'd already agreed that his best option, if his internet can handle it, is just to stream it using that? We were only discussing satellite dishes as an alternative if that fails, because honestly, other than the initial cost, it probably would be the most efficient solution if the upload speed of his home internet connection isn't up to streaming video. I have a friend who lives on a farm who set up something fairly similar to allow him to get internet access from one of the farm buildings, which is a good way from his actual house, and it works brilliantly for him.

If it's possible to just stream the video to the clubhouse over the internet, then that would be the best option, of course, but if the internet speeds aren't up to it, and the factors I mentioned in my last couple of posts aren't a problem, then I actually think a wireless link would be the most efficient (though also probably not the cheapest) option. Unconventional, yes, but potentially the best option.

But this is coming from someone who would massively enjoy building a pair of directional wireless antenna to set up a long-distance wifi connection, and if I had the money and the need for one, would do it even if it wasn't the best solution, so...

It's not nearly as extravagant as you make it sound, either. Wireless connections like this are actually very common, they're pretty much the standard solution for small businesses etc who need to stream data between two sites.

As for the difficulty of aiming it accurately, it shouldn't need to be perfect. The dish would probably have a 40 degree angle or so, which means it wouldn't need to be spot on at all (though the closer the better), so long as it points in roughly the right direction.

[Mcgreag]

Yes the radiolink was a joke, hence the smiley. It 's not something I am considering even as a worst case scenario.

Anyway been doing some testing of VPN with mixed results:
I haven't got the windows 7 built in VPN server to work, keep getting error 720 when connecting suggests something is misconfigured. I am fairly sure the problem is on the server side but all help I can find assumes that the server is correctly configured and that it's a client error.

Got TeamViewer setup and working but I am seeing the same speed problems that I had with hamachi. 2 computers on a local net with a gigabit connection. When I copy a file without the VPN tunnel I get 30 mbyte/s, speed most likely limited by the writespeed of the receiving harddrive. When I use the VPN link the speed is reduced to just 2 mbyte/s. Similar behavior using a 3g connection, with a direct connection (ftp server) I get 400kbyte/s. Through the VPN tunnel I only get 180kbyte/s. These speed reductions are too large to be just overhead, there got to be something else limiting. If I can't get these speed problems fixed then even a 24mbit/s connection might not be enough.

MediaTomb. I checked up on this program and it seems it uses UPNP exclusively and this only works on a local net. For over the internet usage you need to tunnel through a VPN. But if have to set up a VPN then what is the point in using MediaTomb? Might as well use windows shares instead.

I have also looked a little bit at other streaming software like Llink but haven't tested anything yet. The major issue I have here is that everyone is saying I should use VLC with these and well let me put it like this: If the choice is between keep carrying the drives and being forced to use VLC I rather keep carrying the drives. If they can work well with MPC they are an option but otherwise they are not.

The other option suggested with an ftp server at home and pre-download anything we want to see does not work very well with our usage pattern. The reason to have this large collection in the first place is to be able to just browse the list and see if we find anything that looks interesting and quickly determine if it is interesting or not by watching a few min of it.

As for the tumbdrive "solution". Not sure of 120 of those with accompanying usb hubs to be able to connect everything is actually going to weight less than the current harddrives Also with the cost of those it would be cheaper to get a fiber connection. Only 7-8k$ for that while the thumbdrives would cost at least 10k$.

[Bob2004]

Mediatomb is fully UPnP, it's true, but you don't actually need to use UPnP to stream any content from it. It has a web interface accessible through http, which you can access with any web browser, and from there it can stream the file through http too. Or, if you are accessing it on the same local network, UPnP can be used instead with VLC or a compatible device. No need for a VPN, it's just accessible on the server's IP adress on whatever port you assign - regardless of what network you connect from.

You could just use a shared folder instead, and that might be better since it requires less setup, and should (in theory) stream just as quickly. Mediatomb has various advanced features relevant to media streaming which may or may not make it worth the effort to set up, depending on what you want. Things like on-the-fly transcoding of video, which can come in handy if the player your using only supports limited formats.

Re. the error 720, make sure that your router, firewall, etc aren't blocking the connection. As far as I can tell, that error means the client was unable to establish a connection, so there's probably something blocking it in between somewhere. Forward the correct ports/protocols, and make sure to allow incoming connections from the internet.

[Freedom Kira]

As for the tumbdrive "solution". Not sure of 120 of those with accompanying usb hubs to be able to connect everything is actually going to weight less than the current harddrives Also with the cost of those it would be cheaper to get a fiber connection. Only 7-8k$ for that while the thumbdrives would cost at least 10k$.

Your response makes me think that you're actually carrying your entire collection back and forth. What's wrong with just bringing what you want to watch on a single stick, and deleting and replacing files on the stick as you go? Do you never go home or something?

[Mcgreag]

As for the tumbdrive "solution". Not sure of 120 of those with accompanying usb hubs to be able to connect everything is actually going to weight less than the current harddrives Also with the cost of those it would be cheaper to get a fiber connection. Only 7-8k$ for that while the thumbdrives would cost at least 10k$.

Your response makes me think that you're actually carrying your entire collection back and forth. What's wrong with just bringing what you want to watch on a single stick, and deleting and replacing files on the stick as you go? Do you never go home or something?

Your response makes me think you haven't actually read what I have written. I take the stuff home in regular interval to fill up with new stuff that have been downloaded since the last time. I usually wait until I have around 1-2tb of data to add so I don't have to do it too often as the weight is a problem (total weight atm is around 10-12kg). And just filling up a a single 2tb drive and move only that is not an option because I also need to organize everything in a way that makes it actually useful and that includes sorting, removing of duplicates (not so easy as it might sound when you have over 2000 titles and different groups use different names for a show) and anidb indexing. All of this takes several days and I don't have the time to sit at the club doing just that.

The whole point in having the collection at home and stream it to streamline the process of getting new stuff into the collection. If it's always at home I can do a little bit a time instead of having to do everything in these large chunks that can takes weeks if I am low on time which means the whole collection is unavailable at the club during that time.

Re. the error 720, make sure that your router, firewall, etc aren't blocking the connection. As far as I can tell, that error means the client was unable to establish a connection, so there's probably something blocking it in between somewhere. Forward the correct ports/protocols, and make sure to allow incoming connections from the internet.

Error 720 does not mean something is blocking (that's error 800). 720 means there was a problem negotiating a the set of protocols and services to use. The usual problem (if the server is correctly setup) is that the client is missing a service that the server uses. But I am fairly sure that the problem is that the server is missing a service it needs to provide to the clients.

[kitamesume]

..., if you ever get to shell out 1K$ remember the sat dish wifi first, it shouldn't even cost you half of that.

edit:
cost of building one:
http://www.amazon.com/DIRECTV-060209-Dish-for-DirecTv/dp/B000HRQXQQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317518919&sr=8-1
18" Dish for DirecTv
List Price:    $189.99
Price:    $27.98
You Save:    $162.01 (85%)
+ some mods  for the dish $50~ ish
+ WLAN card $60~ ish http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833281002
= $138 x 2 (total: $276)
note: obviously if you already have a WLan router/card then you can skip the option of buying one.

considering you could also hit the internet through this setup you'd be saving a couple of bucks from getting another line.

[Freedom Kira]

Your response makes me think you haven't actually read what I have written. I take the stuff home in regular interval to fill up with new stuff that have been downloaded since the last time. I usually wait until I have around 1-2tb of data to add so I don't have to do it too often as the weight is a problem (total weight atm is around 10-12kg). And just filling up a a single 2tb drive and move only that is not an option because I also need to organize everything in a way that makes it actually useful and that includes sorting, removing of duplicates (not so easy as it might sound when you have over 2000 titles and different groups use different names for a show) and anidb indexing. All of this takes several days and I don't have the time to sit at the club doing just that.

The whole point in having the collection at home and stream it to streamline the process of getting new stuff into the collection. If it's always at home I can do a little bit a time instead of having to do everything in these large chunks that can takes weeks if I am low on time which means the whole collection is unavailable at the club during that time.

Hmm. I had read it, but apparently I didn't fully understand your situation. I think I still don't fully understand. Do you have your client set up to download everything that comes in through RSS feeds?

I think it would be easier and more time-efficient to split the work into more frequent transfers. Each time, you're working with a few gigs of data instead of 1-2TB (unless you use up space like water). This is assuming that you visit the clubhouse often enough that each time you visit the clubhouse you don't have more than 64GB of new data.

I had assumed that your main collection is at home, and you are bringing temporary copies into the clubhouse. The way you are describing it now, it sounds like it's the other way around.

[Mcgreag]

I am not downloading everything but probably 80-90% of all anime and some liveaction from bakabt, plus some stuff from other places when not available on bakabt.

It's not going to be more efficient to split it up to smaller physical transfers as doing the organization (sorting etc) at the club is not practical. I have done physical transfers for a few years now but the thing is that the collection is becoming too large, both in a physical sense (kilos and cubic decimeters) but also in the virtual sense (gigabytes, titles and files) so that physical transfer is not practical anymore no matter how you do it. I have know this for over 2 years but it's not until know that we have had an internet connection that is good enough to present an alternative.

This brings us back to the topic which is to not do physical transfer but to find which way of virtual transfer works best.

1. Windows shares over VPN tunnel
This is what I hope will work but I am still having some problems with it. Mainly the huge (2-10x) speed reduction I am seeing compared to a non vpn tunnel connection. At this time I am hoping that the speed will be good enough even reduced from the 24mbs connection, but it's something I can't know for sure until the connection is up and running which will take a few weeks at least.
I am still hoping for some insights to why the large speed reduction (I find it too large to just be VPN overhead). The only help online that I have found talks about MTU, but I have checked and TeamViewer already sets the MTU to 1400 to avoid that problem.

2. Full set of drives at both sites with a remote backup service running.
The main deterrent for this is the large initial cost of getting a whole new set of drives (around 5-600$). There are also some smaller problems related to the fact that the clubhouse will not have fixed IP (which I do have at home), but that's solvable.

3. Streaming
I know a lot of people here consider this to be the perfect solution but to me it's the worst case scenario if I can't get anything else to work. I might set it up alongside solution 1 for the times when network just doesn't deliver the necessary speed.

[kitamesume]

have you tried turning your main PC into a FTP file server?
http://filezilla-project.org/client_features.php

My connection at home is a very stable 100/100 fiber connection.

since this shouldn't be much of an issue for your home line.

ah and you wont be paying ppl monthly fees as you're the server itself, plus there shouldn't be a limiting factor other than your line or your machine.

[Mcgreag]

have you tried turning your main PC into a FTP file server?
http://filezilla-project.org/client_features.php

As MPC doesn't seem to support streaming from ftp I would have to predownload everything we want to watch and as I said a few posts up that doesn't fit very well with our usage pattern.

We have 2 meetings per week where we watch anime. For one of them we have a fixed schedule with stuff decided weeks in advance. For that I am currently use a thumbdrive to transfer a few weeks in advance. It works well because I have to make the schedule and playlist in advance anyway. For these meetings it's very important that everything works so I will keep transferring things in advance. But I will probably use the internet connection to do so instead of the thumbdrive once it's up.  So for this the details are not important, just need someway to transfer the files.

The other meeting is the reason to have the collection with full access to all of it. We just sit down and see if we can find anything interesting in the collection. This means opening a file on whim and watch a few min, maybe jumping back and forth a bit to see if it looks interesting. If it does we'll watch it, if it doesn't we will check something else. On an avg night we might checkout upto 20 different titles. To have to first download the hole file when it can be up to 5-6gb just to do this is not very practical. Even if I can max out the connection we are looking at upto 40min for a large 720p movie.

[kitamesume]

^ try this for being a resourceful, download the anime you want to watch first then download the next one in the background while watching your anime >,> it should be done in 20mins @ 3+ MB/s no? (3MB/s x 60sec = 180MB x 20mins = 3.6GB)

edit: well you're giving yourself alot of headaches =/ i cant help you with that, theres alot of solutions here already but you've pretty much turned them down.

if you're being smart then using a wifi lan dish connection would be the easiest thing with a little bit of investment, you wouldn't need to get another internet line as well, the cost of operation is just about like using a wifi router because the powersource is the wifi router/card itself, no need for a booster.
note: if you think how the hell does a dish get to be the same cost operation with a wifi router/card then heres a short example.
a router with 10watts output has to output 380° of range, excluding the spherical range, if you compress that range it into a dish's range to lets say 20° then the output of the dish should be 19times more dense and powerful, now if the 10watts router can only reach 200meters at best then the dish should be able to reach 3800meters minus the losses.

the 2nd practical use is turning your main PC into an FTP server and access the files from there, you'll have to have at least a 24megabit line to get those 4GB+ files on your club in 20mins. oh and for a buffer, just get an external drive and put a couple of animes in there, there after download the rest while playing everything inside the external drive.

[Freedom Kira]

Mm. Windows (or Samba) shares over VPN is probably the ideal solution. If you ever get it working, let me know what you did.

EDIT: Doki seems to be testing out some new streaming feature here. Maybe you can ask them for advice?