just bought an 8 core macpro...need advice for pms

[j2048b]

I live in the states.
Yeah. It's a decent setup but I didn't buy it to stream my movies. That is an added bonus.
Your internet connection shouldn't be an issue for streaming from one room to another.

I don't run Leopard and Tiger at the same time. I have to have a safety OS because I can't afford to be obsoleted out by a new OS. My other drive is what I use to test new OS's from Apple before I fully commit. I usually stay one OS behind. Long story and won't bore you with details.

Thanks for the advice on forcing transcodes. I'll try that. Are you any good ad scripting AVISynth? I need help with that.

Black Magic Intensity Pro is a HDMI and component PCIe capture card - good for bringing in home movies on HD camcorders and digitizing VHS, outputting Mac to HDMI tv sets sans Blu-Ray, etc.

Why the high IP address? Because I let my router assign dynamic IP's and locked them in with DHCP reservation. I could change it but I'm too lazy. I don't generally screw around with what works.
I run WPA Personal and have MAC Address filtering on. It makes my kids mad because their Nintendo DS are only WEP. Fixing to buy a WRT54GL, flash it with Tomato or DD-WRT and put them on a subnet so they will quit bugging me about it.

As far as streaming to a wireless PS3:
Here is what I experienced at my brother in law's house when setting him up. Like I said before, his iMac is downstairs. The iMac is downstairs and his Time Capsule is upstairs in a mechanical closet supporting his home theater. The dude has a huge house so distance is an issue. We could not stream 1080p 16mbps without stuttering until I built an ethernet cable to directly connect the time capsule to his PS3. Now, he's 16mbps all day and 40 - 50mpbs with only a little stuttering during high motion.
FWIW, his iMac has 2GB RAM and one hard drive but it appears to stream 1080p 5.1 surround .m2ts with absolutely no problem and virtually no CPU hit.

If you get an 8 core, the rule of thumb is 1GB of RAM per core. I use Crucial memory. Make absolutely sure to match up the correct processor to the RAM.

I don't have any experience with Airport Extreme or AirPort units from Apple other than the one that comes inside my latest Mac Pro. We liked to have never got my brother in law's Time Capsule to do right - it had something to do with his DSL modem.

I've been meaning to test my PS3 and see how it performs if wired direct to my computer. I may end up running some cable.

as far as avisynth goes MEGui is a great avisynth program and i heard it is pretty easy to use?
(have not tried it myself)

what did you use to build the ethernet cable for the bro-in law? Will it loose specs the longer the cable is?

and also are you actually streaming all your movies from the mac pro to the time capsule? I ask because all mine are going to be stored this way i will have 2 terrabytes in mine and 1 500 gig/ 1 320 gig/ 1 400 gig /1 firewire terra byte as well, and everything streams from computer wirelessly to ps3's, wich actually sucks and i have probs streaming good quality,

so i may want to hard wire in both ps3's (1 upstairs 1 dowbnstairs, may be hard to do? might have to route cables through attic and down through the walls?)


i will then have to move my AE basestation downstairs and my dsl modem as well? or leave it upstairs and set up a WDS and plug one into the cone shaped AE, route the dsl cables through the wall, up through attic and to living room, and master bedroom?


then everything else will run wirelessly?

(Wii, 2 laptops, mac pro, )

Thanks

[flexoffset]

I will give MEGui a shot. Thanks for the info.
I just use an RJ45 crimping tool to build my cables. It pays for itself the first time you use it. I bought a big roll of ethernet cable and a box of jacks. I believe 1000BASE-T has a 100 yard limit on total length I believe. You can get fancy with repeaters and stuff but that is beyond the scope of my knowledge.

I don't have the Time Capsule. My brother in law does. His movies sit on his iMac and shoot up through the Time Capsule on the way to his PS3.
We're interested in hooking up an eSATA drive to his Time Capsule and streaming direct from that but I'm not precisely sure how to do it ... not sure if the eSATA drive needs a media server built in or not. He's looking at a big LaCie multi terabyte unit. That is where I'm not very sure about things. Kinda expensive to try and it not work. Anybody know what's involved?

I'm not comfortable advising you on whether to move your AE's around and stuff. I'll leave that to people who are gifted in that discipline.
Your mac can run wired and wireless at the same time. I do it some. The only thing I know is the streaming improved on both our units only after we physically connected the PS3 to our router.

I really wish I could help you more but that's pretty much the end of my knowledge on the subject.

[liddokun]

I believe 1000BASE-T has a 100 yard limit on total length I believe.

100 meters, that is a little better

[j2048b]

I will give MEGui a shot. Thanks for the info.
I just use an RJ45 crimping tool to build my cables. It pays for itself the first time you use it. I bought a big roll of ethernet cable and a box of jacks. I believe 1000BASE-T has a 100 yard limit on total length I believe. You can get fancy with repeaters and stuff but that is beyond the scope of my knowledge.

I don't have the Time Capsule. My brother in law does. His movies sit on his iMac and shoot up through the Time Capsule on the way to his PS3.
We're interested in hooking up an eSATA drive to his Time Capsule and streaming direct from that but I'm not precisely sure how to do it ... not sure if the eSATA drive needs a media server built in or not. He's looking at a big LaCie multi terabyte unit. That is where I'm not very sure about things. Kinda expensive to try and it not work. Anybody know what's involved?

I'm not comfortable advising you on whether to move your AE's around and stuff. I'll leave that to people who are gifted in that discipline.
Your mac can run wired and wireless at the same time. I do it some. The only thing I know is the streaming improved on both our units only after we physically connected the PS3 to our router.

I really wish I could help you more but that's pretty much the end of my knowledge on the subject.

all of your help has been awesome i appreciate it!!

So you can run both wired and wireless at the same time?

What can you do with both ethernet ports in the back of the mac pro? (always wondered about that:)

I will have to set it all up and connect each ps3 to the router and run everything else wirelessly!

i will check and see if a WDS would be a good idea or not!!

Again thanks i appreciate it

[flexoffset]

So you can run both wired and wireless at the same time?

What can you do with both ethernet ports in the back of the mac pro? (always wondered about that:)

I will have to set it all up and connect each ps3 to the router and run everything else wirelessly!

i will check and see if a WDS would be a good idea or not!!

Again thanks i appreciate it

Yes. I can run wired and wireless at the same time -- they are on completely separate networks, though.
I suppose you can run two wired and one wireless ethernet out of your mac. I've not had the need for that but would be interested to test it some day.
Running cable from a router to a PS3 works for me and my brother in law. I hope it will work for you.
You'll have to get someone else here to help with a WDS since I don't have one -- sounds like something I'd be interested in finding out more about. I don't know what kind of overhead it would incur.

[j2048b]

So you can run both wired and wireless at the same time?

What can you do with both ethernet ports in the back of the mac pro? (always wondered about that:)

I will have to set it all up and connect each ps3 to the router and run everything else wirelessly!

i will check and see if a WDS would be a good idea or not!!

Again thanks i appreciate it

Yes. I can run wired and wireless at the same time -- they are on completely separate networks, though.
I suppose you can run two wired and one wireless ethernet out of your mac. I've not had the need for that but would be interested to test it some day.
Running cable from a router to a PS3 works for me and my brother in law. I hope it will work for you.
You'll have to get someone else here to help with a WDS since I don't have one -- sounds like something I'd be interested in finding out more about. I don't know what kind of overhead it would incur.

Thanks for all of your help,
I will have to get some crimpers and make a few huge lines for the ps3's to connect wired, and then they should be awesome when streaming!!

I wonder... do i need to connect the lines to the new Airport extreme, that will be connected from my dsl router, or to my dsl router?

I am not sure about the overhead that may incur? I have heard of this but not to sure about it? will look at some other macrumor posts!!


plus the older version of AE that i have is only b/g but i do not know if anything in my house is rated n yet or not, maybe my new HP laptop? But other than this computer and my Wii, everything else will then be wired!!

[j2048b]

I am lost to hooking up the airport extreme(s) and do not have the wirless in my macpro, yet!

There is nothing to worry about Airport extreme.

You should have Airport utility program in your utility folder. After you make connection with your internet router, using cat 6 (my advise) cable, run this utility and just made simple wired network.

usually manual setup work ok. Then go to your network system preferences tap and check your IP address. It might be neccessary to enter that in your PS 3 MS set up.

let me know if all goes good.

P.S. Airport extreme is kind of ment to run "bigger" network systems, so it could look complicated, but you need to use just a basic "mac" skill to have a success.

Thanks for the advice, why a cat 6 cable? is it better than cat 5 or cat 5e?

Yeah the whole AE network may be a bit of a head ache,

here is what i have:

westell 327w by versalink, verizon issued, has both wired and wireless modem
1 mac pro
1 Wii
2 ps3's
1 laptop (possibly 2)

wii and 1 ps3 are downstairs along with a laptop

1 ps3 and mac pro are upstairs.

Is it better to use a wired connection for the mac or does it matter?

I am going to be buying an airport card for mine, soon!
but not sure if i will need it?

I also have an older AE white cone shaped one, that i was thinking of setting up aWDS but like flexoffset said:

we dont know what kind of overhead it will cause ?

Is it even worth it to set up a WDS, or just run cables through the attic and down through the walls for wired?

Thanks for any help!!

[nedd]

Cat 6 is a standard cable for gigabith ethernet. I think also some cat 5 are supported for gb networks too, but depends on your budgets and probably lengths. I use 5 meter (±16ft).
You don't need Airport card in your MacPro unless you need wireless network there too. Don't forget that if you watching .mkv HD movies (who doesn't) they are 'ripped" and encoded by "who knows who" and with "who knows what kind of software" so there could be many different materials around. Compressing video is quite serious job. Try testing different rips, and sometimes 720p will look better, play better (fast movements) than 1080p. It's all trial and errors at this stage of PS3 Media evolution.

[j2048b]

Cat 6 is a standard cable for gigabith ethernet. I think also some cat 5 are supported for gb networks too, but depends on your budgets and probably lengths. I use 5 meter (±16ft).
You don't need Airport card in your MacPro unless you need wireless network there too. Don't forget that if you watching .mkv HD movies (who doesn't) they are 'ripped" and encoded by "who knows who" and with "who knows what kind of software" so there could be many different materials around. Compressing video is quite serious job. Try testing different rips, and sometimes 720p will look better, play better (fast movements) than 1080p. It's all trial and errors at this stage of PS3 Media evolution.

Thanks for the reply,

I want to make my own as flexoffset did, but not sure where to obtain all the stuff for a decent price?

also, wondering what the max length would be before there is substantial data loss?

I am kind of far from my tv, but not as far as some others may be?

[flexoffset]

You can buy a crimper either online or at an electronics shop.You tend to get what you pay for with crimpers. The prices range from $20 to $70 and up. The one I use will accept different "dies" for different cable ends.
Search for RJ45 crimper, plugs, CAT 6e cable, etc. Newegg probably has everything.
You'll save money making your own run vs. buying a 25ft pre-made cable at a place like Best Buy or Office Depot.