Multiple Instances of XBMC play on multiple TVS

Is there a way to have one server run multiple instances of xbmc like 5, all controlled with 5 android remotes with 5 video cards all inside 1 box. Then play to whatever to each individual TV?

Maybe using any virtualization technology? No good idea about this.

Possible? Maybe. It would have to be a beast of a machine to have five virtual environments for it to even possibly work. It would probably be cheaper to have five cheap XBMC boxes, like jailbroken ATV2's or some really cheap ATOM box.

Thats the way i was originally going to go but i dont want to see any boxes. They will all be in the basement and stream to the tvs through 2 cat6 wires into hdmi throughout the upstairs. So thought if i could cram it into one machine that would be sweet.

without virtualization just in normal windows can I run 2 copies of xbmc?

Hi Cash. I have only been playing around with running 2 XBMCs from 1 win7 machine and even mine didnt have super specs (4GB RAM, 2.4GHz C2D) it worked quite well actually.

Basically, you need to have your own compile of XBMC to remove the 1 instance limit on windows (totally pointless imho) from code. And then its totally up to you on how to share the DB/Thumbs between all the instances. I would do something like using MySQL and hard linking together all the addons/thumbnails dirs while keeping different data for each xbmc instance that is run towards a different portable data dir. Best of luck to you

It's very easy to get a small box (like a nettop or an ATV2) and mount it on the back of the TV so you don't see it at all. A bunch of jailbroken ATV2s running XBMC might be your best bet, since they are about 3" x 3" x 1". Really easy to hide that, and then you only have to run one ethernet cable to each TV.

Also:
http://innovelis.com/totalmount_pictures.html
http://www.pulse-eight.com/store/product...mount.aspx

I don't think its a good idea to have one central PC running each xbmc. It would be safer to have each tv linked to its own video hardware. Imagine that one central pc crashing / some OS files become corrupted, this means all the TVs lose their media capability and you cant watch anything anywhere until you fix that PC.

All great feedback, this is all being installed in a brand new house with the wires already ran for this intent. Thanks for all the input still going to read some and post back the outcome. Anyone else want to chime in?

Don’t know much about these ATV2 things and will look em up soon. But I assume they can have 1080p?

The original plan was to have 5 HTPC side by side in basement then streamed from there to each individual TVs through 2 cat 6 wires converted to hdmi using baluns. It’s all new to me and wasn't around 4 years ago when I did my house.

So I figured instead of 5 ugly PCS side by side even though still hidden and no were near the TVS and the all that extra money, why cant it all be crammed into one?? So that’s were I’m coming from. So I guess I should just go back to original way, or maybe 2 XBMC per computer like odt_x said. How do you modify the code like u stated? Or is it just in the config file?

Thanks again everyone

The bad: ATV2 can play 1080, but only outputs 720

The good: it only costs $100 USD

still, $200-300 is all you need to spend on a tiny (8"x8" or less) and totally silent HTPC. A lot of people mount them on the TV's VESA mounts so you never see them.

Much much easier (and cheaper) than trying to get multiple XBMC sessions from one powerful box.

@Cash
I'm with you on that one. I've also been looking into multi-output from one PC to multiple TV's.

Right now i have an HDMI to ethernet wall plate from monoprice.com that sends audio and video to the living room TV over two 75ft cat6 cables, and even sends the IR data from my remote back to the PC. I thought it would be cool to have the same setup for other TV's and all from one centrally managed box.

For me, i'm researching into the linux "multiseat" concept. Where you can create multiple sessions on the same PC and every one can have it's own display, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc. Windows has something similar called "windows multipoint server", but it's got to cost an arm and a leg and it's built on top of windows server, so who knows what it's media capabilities are.

I see the pro's for this kind of setup as lower power, less wiring, less management. The ATV2 and other small boxes may be nice, but it's one more box of wires to plug in, setup and manage. Each with it's own operating system to upgrade and maintain. Plus XBMC has no server/client setup at all, meaning you must make all the PC's try and play nice with data and databases. It's been done, i know, but it's not simple and elegant for sure.

As for the super PC part. From my understanding, if your chosen graphics cards have on-board video decoding, then all the work is done on each cards processor and the systems processor is hardly touched. Correct? If that's the case then you really don't need a power horse to handle everything.

I could be wrong and to each his or her own, but i think it's an awesome idea. If nothing else, it should be a really fun learning experiment.

Good Luck!