# x over ip (including sound) on weak hw

## DaggyStyle

hello,

I have a small question, I'm thinking of getting one of these mini extra small atom/amd new desktops (cheap) with hdmi output, attach a n wifi adapter to it and stream an x session to it and redirect it to the hdmi output.

my goal is to watch fhd on it, does anyone knows if it will work/done it?

also, any ideas how to redirect the sound to?

thanks.

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## TJNII

I'm kinda doing what you have in mind, but not the way you're invisioning.

I have a bunch of thin clients sprinkled about.  The two I use the most are my desktop and the TV client.  Both are currently 800Mhz HP think clients.

On the desktop I use tigerVNC for X.  I chose VNC so that my desktop would persist across client reboots, a feature I value highly.  Good-old X over SSH or raw X over TCP are also options, and probably faster, but neither offer the persistence I want.  I currently don't stream sound, I don't have I need.  I only listen to music, and I just run MPD on the client for that.  Pulseaudio and NAS (network audio system) are two projects I'd look into.  I've done it with Pulse before, so that is an option of you can tolerate the bugs.

The other main thin client I use id connected to the TV.  I watch DVD movies on it without issue.  I haven't tried HD, but I doubt my hardware could handle it.  For this I don't do any X or audio streaming, I know that would be too processor intensive.  For this I've found the best option is run mplayer locally on the thin client and play to the framebuffer.  It works quite well.  This is the route I would recommend for you; decoding the movie and throwing over X is probably going to add too much overhead.  You should also be able to decode the movie on another box and stream it to mplayer to reduce processing overhead.  I haven't tried this myself yet, though.  The other advantage to a multimedia stream as opposed to X + audio is that the stream will keep your audio and video in sync.  I've done video over X plus an audio stream in the past and it had noticeable sync issues.

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## boerKrelis

 *DaggyStyle wrote:*   

> 
> 
> my goal is to watch fhd on it, does anyone knows if it will work/done it?
> 
> 

 

Remote X doesn't work with XV or any other accelerated video mode. Theoretically, you can do it with 'mplayer -vo x11' but you'll need perverse bandwidth and processing power.

 *DaggyStyle wrote:*   

> 
> 
> also, any ideas how to redirect the sound to?
> 
> 

 

Yes, pulseaudio is network-transparent. I use it all the time.

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## DaggyStyle

I'd rather not use pulseaudio, afaik it is too buggy.

problem is that I need a way to pass video into my tv, I can pass a hdmi cable but the length is ~15 meters from the tv to the comp so I'm not sure about the signal

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## boerKrelis

 *DaggyStyle wrote:*   

> I'd rather not use pulseaudio, afaik it is too buggy.

 

a) you don't have to use it for everything, you can use it just for mplayer and just for your remote video usecase

b) over here, it's stable as hell, and has been for years. most 'buggyness' users experience is due to system integration, not pulseaudio itself.

c) it's 2½ bitches to set up right.

Try running it in system mode on the thin client. That will make it a pulseaudio 'server'. Your movie-playing desktop will be a pulseaudio *client*, only to be addressed if you so choose - so pulseaudio needn't have anything to do with sound on that system. It won't run the server. (If you set it up right).

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## TJNII

Watched a movie in VNC on my thin client tonight while doing paperwork.  I set up Jack as the audio link instead of Pulse.

Guide is here: http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/JACK

Be advised that jack is media-sound/jack-audio-connection-kit not media-sound/jack.

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