Media Centre PC - What do you guys do?

[garethEds]

Evening People,

 

I'm looking to get some sort of device for storing my media - films/music/tv progs etc and connecting it to my TV. My wife also wants it to store our pictures so it can be used to distribute to our wireless digital picture frame.

 

Ideally it would also hold all my music for sending over to iTunes (through the wireless router).

 

What would you guys suggest?

 

A small Media PC running Windows 7? What software?

 

What do you guys do for this sort of thing - if anything.

 

Look forward to reading your replies,

 

Gareth

[garethEds]

Hm - just found this post: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/general-chat/83824-help-building-home-server.html

 

But the HP ones don't seem to have an interface that can be worked through the TV. I would like to control it with my Logitech Harmony remote (not sure if it can be done).

 

Gareth

[jinnantonnixx]

Boxee - Make a Boxee

 

demo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrgjBO15b60

Edited October 24, 2011 by jinnantonnixx

[pcstru]

I use one of these as a media PC. But, my requirements are just watching the occasional film either streaming from my main PC or from a USB stick. It's nice though to have HDMI which gives a good feed to my AV amp. I guess for pictures and music the question would be can you live with 500GB storage on the unit?

 

There's a good thread on AVForums about this unit Here

Edited October 25, 2011 by pcstru

[mac_shinobi]

Probably a traitor and you will swear / flame me but I have a mac mini for this

 

Sits under my telly nicely and have a 2tb drive connected via firewire 800 which is plenty fast enough to watch mkv etc

[pcstru]

Probably a traitor and you will swear / flame me but I have a mac mini for this

 

BURN HIM!!! BURN HIM!!!

[mac_shinobi]

BURN HIM!!! BURN HIM!!!

 

For me it was so I could avoid windows and wasn't keen on going the linux route, there is other alternatives as above boxee and I think there is a linux distro that is similar to the xbox 360 GUI etc

[jinnantonnixx]

I'll be using Ubuntu + Boxee.

 

If you want an out-of-the-box solution, you can go for Mythbuntu.

About Mythbuntu | Mythbuntu

[pcstru]

wasn't keen on going the linux route

 

Switch to Linux.

[caffrey]

xbmc, been using it years XBMC

[Dos_Box]

Hi Gareth, I suspect you may be confusing a media centre PC with a media server which is a different beast altogether. With a media centre you would be able to play and record live TV/satellite etc. as well as play games via your TV. With a media server, it would primarily be for storing/streaming and ripping media which is I think, what you are after. In this case I would go for something small, relatively low powered but with enough grunt to play media and stream over LAN/Wireless. If this is what you are after I would suggest you take a look at linitx.com and perhaps get a case that could fit in a small motherboard (if you have an old dual core processor see if you can reuse this) with, say an ION chipset for HD playback, passive cooling and a DVD drive as well as the potential for adding a wirless card (a small b/g/n USB adaptor only costs £7 and does not protrude at all) and bobs your uncle. Edited December 11, 2011 by Dos_Box

[RabbieBurns]

I have a WDTVLIVE with a USB HDD plugged in. It autoshares the drive so it is available to other devices. Its not much bigger than the size of a 20 pack of smokes, and plays every file format Ive thrown at it.

 

Im pretty impressed and it was really cheap

[SYNACK]

Windows 7 on a mini-ITX ION board. Put all your media in Windows Libraries that are indexed by Windows Medi Player and as such Media Center. Hook up the machine to a TV via HDMI and you get full media center, Other network connected TVs can access the content through DLNA - also provided by WMP. Hook up a TV tuner and it can even record live tv and share it out. If you want a consistant interface on everthing get xbox 360s or media centre extenders to hook up to each TV that is not directly connected and you get the MCE interface on everything, games included.

[Dos_Box]

Now if only this had a hard drive: Sony SMPN100B USB Media Player with Built-in Wi-Fi: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

I wish Sony would stop missing the point. They make good products (they do!), it's just they don't fulfil the requirments of the consumer.

[garethEds]

thanks everyone. got to go out for the day but will reply properlymthis evening.

 

@dos-box : yeah I'm hoping to get a hybrid box that does both. maybe I'm better getting the server first to store and then the media pc to do other things.

 

Gareth

[Oaktech]

I have a WDTVLIVE with a USB HDD plugged in. It autoshares the drive so it is available to other devices. Its not much bigger than the size of a 20 pack of smokes, and plays every file format Ive thrown at it.

 

Im pretty impressed and it was really cheap

 

on the minus side for this if find the interface a bit clunky... but otherwise, it is as you says it is!

[RabbieBurns]

on the minus side for this if find the interface a bit clunky... but otherwise, it is as you says it is!

 

True, but its got a lot better with the recent firmware updates..

 

Ive been tempted to try out some of the homebrew/custom firmwares for it as well, but not yet found the time to dabble..

[Oaktech]

True, but its got a lot better with the recent firmware updates..

 

Ive been tempted to try out some of the homebrew/custom firmwares for it as well, but not yet found the time to dabble..

 

then i am missing out! Thankyou for that info. I didn't know there was new firmware/custom firmare. I shall have a play later!

[RabbieBurns]

Now if only this had a hard drive: Sony SMPN100B USB Media Player with Built-in Wi-Fi: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics

I wish Sony would stop missing the point. They make good products (they do!), it's just they don't fulfil the requirments of the consumer.

 

The Netgear Eva9150 is something I looked at to replace my Eva8000 and it has a HDD and does all of that the sony does.

The price tag put me off though it was near 300 quid when it first came out (not sure of prices now)

[Norphy]

I have Plex running on my Mac and a jailbroken AppleTV running the Plex client. Works very nicely

[AyatollahPies]

I have a WDTVLIVE with a USB HDD plugged in. It autoshares the drive so it is available to other devices. Its not much bigger than the size of a 20 pack of smokes, and plays every file format Ive thrown at it.

 

Im pretty impressed and it was really cheap

 

Have you had any lip synch issues with mkv files, particularly if you have either paused, or fast forwarded? I've had to relegate mine to the bedroom.

[garethEds]

Thank everyone for their replies - so maybe as @Dos_Box pointed out it is a media server I need to purchase so I can store everything. I'll look through the other post to see what I can pick up.

 

As long as it can serve my iTunes.

 

GJE

[RabbieBurns]

Have you had any lip synch issues with mkv files, particularly if you have either paused, or fast forwarded? I've had to relegate mine to the bedroom.

 

Cant say Ive had a single issue with any mkv files. The only ones i play though are pirate tv shows in 720p downlaoded from the net tho

[Sheepy]

I have a hybrid of both.. Core2Duo machine with 1.5Tb of Storage with external 750Gb connected and 500Gb NAS to serve what music I don't listen to from Spotify.. which isnt much these days..

 

If I was to buy a box id probably go with the Boxee Box.. I run the software on my machine it's really good and runs flawlessly but my only problem is that there are some applications for Boxee that only come if you own the Boxee Box like for instance the Spotify application

 

Now that I have binned my Sky subscription my media machine will take a hammering

[Flakes]

This: XBMC

This: Acer Aspire Revo R3600 Desktop PC (Intel Atom N230 1.6 Ghz, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, Vista Home Premium): Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

And This: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-Linkstation-Performance-Multimedia-Network/dp/B00308JH2Q/ref=sr_1_7?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1319616699&sr=1-7

 

XBMC is an awesome media server, the revo can be mounted behind your TV and is powerful lenough to play 1080p(theres meant to be a new one soon, but i dont know when its out), and the linkstation for storing your Data.