Long-Range Wireless Keyboard/Mouse?

tambo writes with the sort of problem more people wish they had: "I've just bought myself an excellent LCD TV. I'd love to be able to access my home server from it for many reasons (music, video, surfing, MAME, etc.) — but my home server is in another room, 30 feet away from the TV and 50 feet away from the couch. I've acquired some gear to send PC audio and video wirelessly (over the 5.8GHz range), so that's all good. My challenge now is trying to send input wirelessly to my PC from fifty feet away. I've thought about getting a wireless USB hub, but that would introduce an additional wireless hop that would probably add to the input latency (and might interfere with all the other wireless gear in my pad.) My best bet now is to get a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse that have an unusually good range, and some of the Logitechs seem to qualify, but it's a gamble. Advice?"

Re:Build your own set-top box...

[hostyle]

If it has to be wireless I can't help, but have you considered USB over Ethernet http://www.google.com/search?q=usb+over+ethernet [google.com] ? Or networking over mains power?

HTPC doesn't need to be too powerful

[Rob the Bold]

I've got a Linux HTPC that satisfies me pretty well. The only case fan I need is on the power supply, since I'm using a low-power AMD 45W dual core CPU. The CPU fan is small and almost inadible. Since all the data storage is on the home server, the HTPC boots off a 4GB CF card. The power supply itself is "80 plus" rated PS with power factor correction, and the fan only runs as fast as it needs to, which isn't very fast since nothing in the box makes too much heat.

The performance specs aren't incredible, and this setup wouldn't be suitable for hard-core gaming, but it doesn't take much CPU horsepower these days to run video and audio codecs.

Re:Wi-fi/web server based remotes

[Anonymous Coward]

Mac ... iPod Touch ... iPhone

Or if you don't like sucking Apple off, you could always get this [wikipedia.org] (or the earlier model, the N770 [wikipedia.org] for about $150) and you're in business. The N770 is a completely open platform, if you've got some developing skills up your sleeve you can write your own application. If writing code isn't your thing, I've seen a couple of free projects that allow you to control your PC remotely, and even one commercial one [linuxdevices.com].

The N770 is a pretty reasonable alternative to a keyboard and mouse, plus you can take it around the house or mount it somewhere for parties to let people have a bit of control of the music. Also, resolution permitting you could run a copy of VNC Server Enterprise and use VNC Viewer Enterprise which allows dynamic resizing of the screen to fit on your tablet for when you need to do a bit more than what your web interface allows.

Re:Extension cable

[K8Fan]

I build home theater systems. One was in a home with two toddlers with the destructive capacity of a cement mixer. So all speakers were installed in-wall. The LCD screen was also installed in a wall, and a model was chosen with controls on the top. And all the items with buttons and knobs were installed in a room in the basement. DVD playback is via a Mac Mini. The actual DVD unit is a USB DVD drive that can be disconnected and hidden away when not in use. Everything else is via an RF remote control.

The point of all this? Apple's Bluetooth mice and keyboards are CRAP! They can't reliably transmit 12 FEET, let alone 12 meters. The stupid things have to remake their connection constantly. I'm looking for a replacement keyboard and mouse for my client. Oh, and was Steve Job's mother frightened by a button while he was in her womb? I HATE their "few buttons as possible" concept. Are there hidden IR codes so I can open the stupid Frontrow launcher to a specific application?

Re:HTPC doesn't need to be too powerful

[Per Wigren]

Except that if you want to be able to play all those 1080p h.264 .mkv-files you'll need at least around a 2,8 Ghz Core 2 Duo or X2 5600+ if you use the CoreAVC codec. If you want to play 1080p VC1-stuff or the use a standard unpatched ffmpeg/mplayer you'll need minimum 3 Ghz and realtime priority.

I have an AMD X2 5600+ in my HTPC and it can play 1920x800 @ 24 Hz (most movies) fine, but drops frames in high-motion scenes on full 16:9 1920x1080 videos, especially if they are 30 FPS. This is with a custom "mythplayvideo" wrapper script I wrote that sets different options depending on "pixels per second" and codec, and also changes the refresh rate to match the video FPS with xrandr. It's also using AC3/DTS-passthrough so no CPU is spent on audio decoding.

Re:Build your own set-top box...

[Curunir_wolf]

It's not the HD *content* that's the problem - it's all the lock-down crap on every HD content delivery system these days, and all the restrictions on the hardware (at least what's available in the US).

My own experimentation with an HTPC has been quite and adventure. I started out with the goal to get rid of Comcast, install FiOS for internet, then deal with just the OTA digital stations. They broadcast plenty of HD. A few of my problems were, well... "social", but most were technical.

Of course the first thing that happened was we decided that while only having local channels was not so bad, being without the convenience of the DVR was just a no-starter. So I built one. AMD 690G motherboard (from GigaByte), HDHomeRun dual networked tuner, 500GB storage. Worked pretty good. Then:

• The MPEG2 codec from M$ is buggy as hell. Lots of issues there, but mostly niggling stuff
• After going through 4 antennas of varying sizes and power, I realized none would pick up all the channels I wanted. Well, I can get all of them on Verizon FiOS for $13 a month. Not bad, simple solution.
• Getting the guide to list everything properly was a nightmare. Verizon gives you a couple of channels for each local broacast - figuring out which is in HD and which is downgraded for analog is not easy. Inevitably what I record is either SD, or an erroneously listed main channel program that turned out to be the local station's secondary channel with 24 hour weather. Then they provide you like 122 channels of music. Gotta clear that off the guide, all those "unknown" listings are really annoying. The local PBS station actually broadcasts 3 signals, but I only get 2 from Verizon. Grrr.
• Oh - those government converter boxes will *not* tune anything on cable (qam). They are strictly vbs8 (OTA). $5 more dollars a month to Verizon for a STB.
• And after working through all that, my wife and teenager are bellyaching so much about never having stuff to watch it's driving me crazy. They both were on board with it before I started. "But I thought there would be more than this..." etc.
• I call Verizon. I want 6 channels: SciFi, HGTV, FX, Comedy, Animal Planet, Science. Guess how they responded to that request. My Verizon bill just took a big jump.
• Apparently, there is an FCC regulation that requires cable companies to transmit at least the local broadcast stations "in the clear" (no scrambling). Guess how many others they don't scramble. Don't count all those music channels. The answer is "1", and it's in spanish. Ok, I'll need another STB.
• Yea, I can get analog from the box to the HTPC no problem. I gave up on HD. HDMI is no-go. No HDMI input (won't work anyway since it won't do HDCP). Firewire will transmit the HD signal! But... only if your input is 5c compliant. WTF?? Yep, it's the "broadcast flag" implementation. If your firewire input don't talk 5c, the cable box won't give it anything. I haven't figured out a way around that, yet... but I'm still trying

But at least I don't have Comcast anymore. Oh, and I'm saving a whopping $8 a month, so my hardware investment will be paid back in ... only 7 years!!!

Re:CB'er solution

[opieum]

Or you could run synergy http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]

Re:Bluetooth?

[UnderCoverPenguin]

I am dubious of Bluetooth. Have the security issues really been resolved and the fixes correctly implemented? Also, while wireless keyboards are fine, wireless mice can be a pain to retrieve when dropped. I'd like to see a wireless keyboard with the mouse wired to it.

Re:Bluetooth?

[roeles]

Even better. With properly set-up intermedia bluetooth devices, you can have it create a multihop network. A bluetooth client can join multiple piconet. It's all automatic though, I'm not sure how well it will actually work. Might be worth a try though.

Use a Class I Bluetooth dongle

[DrYak]

Had the same situation some time back.
If one use a Class I bluetooth/usb dongle instead of the basic cradle that comes with the Logitech gear (class II) the range is increased.

class I has a nominal range of 100m
class II has a nominal range of 10m and most bluetooth gear use this
class III has a nominal range of 1m and the only gadget using it I've seen is a bluetooth GPS receiver.

Using a class I receiver with class II gadgets, in my experience, increases the range over an all-class-II setup.

Bluetooth 2.0 EDR dongle are supposed to have 100m range too, but I haven't had the occasion to see if there's a significant increase in range.

Re:HTPC doesn't need to be too powerful

[pugdk]

I have a Mac mini with a Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz CPU.... I have not had any problems playing any 1080p x264 mkv movies what so ever (as long as the mkv file is error free that is!).

This is on Ubuntu 8.4 using mplayer with the CoreAVC codec.

Basically the parent is wrong.... and he needs to check his software setup. Most likely those specs are for non CoreAVC mplayer and/or VLC (and VLC truly SUCK playing 1080p x264 files...)