Wanted to get the community's advice on how to setup my system.
I have 2 main computers running MC17:
Downstairs I have an HTPC, hooked up to my stereo. This is cat5'd to a router, connected to the internet. To keep noise low, I decided not to install a traditional hard drive in the HTPC. It is only using a 64GB ssd for operating system, apps, etc.
Upstairs I have a PC that currently houses all of my media files, and which I also use to play media files in my office while working. That PC is cat5'd to a router which is acting as a bridge to the downstairs router via 802.11n (I would use wifi direct from the upstairs computer to the downstairs router, but i have bad reception in my house and don't want to run cat5 throughout).
I have two main objectives for my setup:
(1) minimize buffering, delay when accessing the upstairs media on the downstairs computer. Minimize errors.
(2) reduce the amount of time both computers are on and not being used.
Theoretically, It seems that the best case scenario would be to house a MC media library on the downstairs HTPC, which includes as a monitored folder networked shared folders of the upstairs media. This seems to do a better job buffering, etc. and, perhaps more important, it doesn't rely on MC running flawlessly at all times on the upstairs computer (MC sometimes crashes, etc.) The problem is, in this scenario, as far as I can tell, there is no way to remotely wake the upstairs computer from sleep when I start using the downstairs HTPC. MC won't send a magic packed since it is not looking for the library of the upstairs computer. And as far as i can tell, I can't setup a WOL for mere hard drive data access (please correct me if i'm wrong on this, i've tried for a while).
The alternative setup is to use the downstairs HTPC with the library of the upstairs computer loaded. As I mentioned this seems to increase buffering times, introduce unexpected complications when playing large mkv files, etc. These problems arise most often when the upstairs computer has been awoken from sleep with WOL by a magic packet from the downstairs HTPC. Also, if media server crashes for whatever reason, i am SOL.
Is there a solution to this problem short of buying a NAS and running cat5 throughout the house?
Thanks for your help!
