Home Media Network

[Abfarris]

I know very little about setting up home networks and what not but I recently have decided to switch from DSL to Cable internet and had to get a new modem. Here is what I have:

-Motorola Surfboard SB6121 Modem
-Netgear WND 3800 N600 Dual Band Premium Edition Router (with Readyshare USB Storage Access and DLNA Media Streaming and Time Machine Compatable)
-(2) HDTV's
-(1) MacBook Pro
-(2) External Hard Drives 759MB
-(1) Panasonic BMP-BD60 BluRay Player (can connect to internet but not wirelessly)
-(1) wii that is rarely used
-(1+) iPhone
-(1) iPad Mini


I am wanting to be able to watch or stream movies that are stored on my laptop and/or external hard drives on my two tvs (ideally without the computer being on). Do I have what is needed or what do I need to buy for the TV's to have the ability to connect to movies stored on computer/hard drive?

I am also interested in streaming from the internet (hulu, netflix, etc) although this is not as important as I can already access netflix through the wii.

Will I need to purchase something like a Roku, WDLive, Apple TV, Fetch TV, Boxee, etc? What do you suggest?

 

[bt22]

I have multiple Apple TV's and enjoy them and they work well with all my other Apple products. If you choose the Apple TV you can easily convert movies to an Apple friendly format that will import into iTunes. You can use Handbrake and Meta-X or other software options to tag your movies to look just like movies purchased from iTunes. If you do not want to have to put your movies into an Apple format you might choose one of the other options you suggested. The Apple TV's work wireless or wired and only require an HDMI connection. I have just started ripping Blu Ray movies and I am previewing one of my rips and my 3rd generation Apple TV is playing a 1920 x 1080 rip with no problems. It is connected via an ethernet cable. Hope this helps...

 

[Abfarris]

Thanks, I'd prefer something that didn't require a convert but I'm still keeping the option on the table. Anyone use Xbox 360 or PS3?

 

[oldgeezer]

I use and Iomega Store Center 4TB RAID network storage drive to hold and stream all my media. It has a built in DLNA server and doesn't care what format it passes. That's up to the device at the other end. In my case I have a BluRay player at each TV that is DLNA compatible. The BlueRay players support a variety of formats including both MP4 and MKV.

I have ripped all my DVDs to the server using Handbrake and generally store them in .MKV containers.

The BluRay players are network connected and both are capable of either wired or wireless connections. I have one wired and one wifi but find the wifi a little too slow for high def video.

 

[Abfarris]

Thank you. From what I can tell I think I may just need two receiving devices (possibly just 1 if the Panasonic BluRay player will work as one)

 

[GimmeSlack12]

What TV's do you have exactly? Or at least, how old are they? TV's these days are introducing network ports on them that may have the DLNA option.

 

[Abfarris]

One is Visio and about 5 years old. It is pretty basic. The other was received as a gift this Christmas and is a Samsung LN32D403 that doesn't have wifi or Ethernet port.