Rather than continue to whine that the AppleTV or Xbox 360 don't do what I want them to do (much as I love to!), I've decided to build my own home media solution instead.
I'd appreciate any help in figuring out how the heck to get all this together. So far:
Plan:
1. Rip all of my CDs, DVDs and HD-DVDs (grrrr!) to a high-capacity RAID, which will be used for backup.
2. Copy everything to a media-server (a high-capacity NAS RAID).
3. Stream from the media-server to my TV via a media extender.
4. ???
5. Profit!
What I have:
- TV/sound system with free HDMI & component inputs.
- 802.11g network.
- 1 Mac, 1 PC to do the ripping/transcoding etc.
- 1TB RAID for ripping & backup.
- Remote control power adaptors for powering down all the devices around the house with a single click!
What I need:
Media Extender - to get the content onto the TV.
Media Server - an NAS to store everything.
Fast network - 802.11g doesn't cut it, and I don't know if 802.11n will. Ethernet would be better but messy. Power circuits might be an option?
Media Extender
An AppleTV might work, but I doubt it can stream content from anything other than a Mac/PC running iTunes. (Can it?). If not, it's not much use.
I have a Xbox360, but it's limited to .wmvs as far as I know, plus it's difficult to find an NAS that will work with it. I could plug a hard drive with media directly into the 360 and that would work well, but I'd have to disconnect it and plug it into the PC every time I wanted to make changes. Ick.
There are others such as Network MediaPlayer 350, but reviews have been poor - playing back HD content can stutter a lot even playing from its internal hard drive.
Any other good (high performance!) media extenders?
Media Server
The TS-109 Pro looks promising, and 'claims' it can stream audio & HD video to a 360 or PS3, but so do many others. Has anyone tried this? How well does this work?
Another option would be the Linksys NSLU2 (or just "Slug"). This doesn't have any storage, but attaches onto a USB2 drive to share it over the network. Apparently it's easy to flash the firmware and install Linux onto it, plus TwonkyMedia to share media to devices like the 360, but that's a bit daunting for me with no Linux experience.
Fast Network
An 802.11n network (if that's fast enough) would be ideal. The only complication is my broadband router is in another room, so I'd need two 802.11n routers. (So for example, my 360 would then connect via Ethernet to an 802.11n router under the TV, wirelessly to the second Wifi router, then via Ethernet to the broadband router, and out.) Is that too complex?
Ethernet is straightforward, but involves lots of messy cabling.
Using the power circuitry is a tidy option, but the speeds seem quite slow, probably about the same in real life as a 802.11g network. Example: SlingLink Turbo
So, any advice on media extenders/media servers/home networking?
Many thanks (and kudos!) to any hardened geeks who made it down this far.
I'd appreciate any help in figuring out how the heck to get all this together. So far:
Plan:
1. Rip all of my CDs, DVDs and HD-DVDs (grrrr!) to a high-capacity RAID, which will be used for backup.
2. Copy everything to a media-server (a high-capacity NAS RAID).
3. Stream from the media-server to my TV via a media extender.
4. ???
5. Profit!
What I have:
- TV/sound system with free HDMI & component inputs.
- 802.11g network.
- 1 Mac, 1 PC to do the ripping/transcoding etc.
- 1TB RAID for ripping & backup.
- Remote control power adaptors for powering down all the devices around the house with a single click!
What I need:
Media Extender - to get the content onto the TV.
Media Server - an NAS to store everything.
Fast network - 802.11g doesn't cut it, and I don't know if 802.11n will. Ethernet would be better but messy. Power circuits might be an option?
Media Extender
An AppleTV might work, but I doubt it can stream content from anything other than a Mac/PC running iTunes. (Can it?). If not, it's not much use.
I have a Xbox360, but it's limited to .wmvs as far as I know, plus it's difficult to find an NAS that will work with it. I could plug a hard drive with media directly into the 360 and that would work well, but I'd have to disconnect it and plug it into the PC every time I wanted to make changes. Ick.
There are others such as Network MediaPlayer 350, but reviews have been poor - playing back HD content can stutter a lot even playing from its internal hard drive.
Any other good (high performance!) media extenders?
Media Server
The TS-109 Pro looks promising, and 'claims' it can stream audio & HD video to a 360 or PS3, but so do many others. Has anyone tried this? How well does this work?
Another option would be the Linksys NSLU2 (or just "Slug"). This doesn't have any storage, but attaches onto a USB2 drive to share it over the network. Apparently it's easy to flash the firmware and install Linux onto it, plus TwonkyMedia to share media to devices like the 360, but that's a bit daunting for me with no Linux experience.
Fast Network
An 802.11n network (if that's fast enough) would be ideal. The only complication is my broadband router is in another room, so I'd need two 802.11n routers. (So for example, my 360 would then connect via Ethernet to an 802.11n router under the TV, wirelessly to the second Wifi router, then via Ethernet to the broadband router, and out.) Is that too complex?
Ethernet is straightforward, but involves lots of messy cabling.
Using the power circuitry is a tidy option, but the speeds seem quite slow, probably about the same in real life as a 802.11g network. Example: SlingLink Turbo
So, any advice on media extenders/media servers/home networking?
Many thanks (and kudos!) to any hardened geeks who made it down this far.
TV and love it. If you had the NAS connected to your Mac/PC by gigabit ethernet and used wireless N, it would perform very well. I use AEBS with WDS to extend my wireless N and it streams beautifully. Ideally I would use all hardwired but I don't want wires everywhere. Gigabit ethernet for all connections gives you much smoother slow/FF/RW.