Please help someone with no idea - NAS type media adaptor thingies

Don
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I want to set up something on my LAN which allows me to play media files on my TV

do I need a NAS box and/or something else

sorry if I sound clueless but I am :)
 
I have a cheap Nas with a WDTV Live and it works great. All my household can access the Nas to drop things on and the WD is easy enough for them to use.

You could just use your PC as the storage too but that would mean always having the pc on but if you don't mind that, you can get one of the many many media players available.
 
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Similar here. I've got the original WDTV (USB only). I just drop the media on a USB hard drive that's plugged into it. Not found anything it won't play yet.

I'm tempted to upgrade to the latest networked version and NAS-ify the USB hard drives...
 
thanks folks

so if I were to get something like this

WDTV 1TB Live Hub Media centre

that would be everything I need, I just connect wirelessly to my network and vis HDMI to my TV and evrything is good ?

is wireless ok or would I be better using a cabled connection ?


just a though, it would be hard wored to my TV so the wireless is just data aceess over the network, it wouldnt strem over netwrok so wouldn't matter , is that correct ?
 
I think you can buy them tv media players with built in drives? but if you like me with loads of content it prob best to get something like a ps3 or a device that can find a nas, get a nas with 2 bays and allows streaming and put some drives in it..

As for wireless, I found wireless to be ok if not far from the router but we have everything plugged in by cable as me and my dad love things to be quick lol
 
cheers

the WDTV 1TB doesn't have wirelless anyway unless you use usb adaptor



so I am heading towards the WCTV 1TB as that seems an easy solution, as I right that this is all I need and a way to connect to netowrk ?

my TV is nowhere near the router but I do have a poweline thing which is behind the TV and used to connect a slingbox to the router

could I just put a cheap 4 port ethernet hub attached to the powerline and connect the slingbox and media server to that ?
 
I take it these boxes do all of the decoding "on board", so to speak? The only solution I have in place for HD streaming (.mkv) is PS3 Media Server to the Xbox 360. Obviously, this is reliant on my computer's processing power alongside network bandwidth, so I tend to have to drop the quality a bit to prevent pausing.

Should players like the WD Live work just as well as plugging a USB stick with the videos on straight into the TV, if the TV were one with a USB port?
 
Boxee box, I love mines :D

looks great for stuff like 4od and iplayer but from what I can see I would need NAS boc as well and so would end up costing about 300, the WDTV has the NAS type storage built in

looked at the xstreamer but can't really tell if it's what i need or not
 
Just bit the bullet and ordered the Viewsonic VMP74. I'll mainly be streaming over the home network so the option to add an external USB drive is all I need in case I decide to do it. Also does iPlayer, too.

I should have it tomorrow, so will let you know what it's like!
 
I use a synology ds110j NAS with a 1.5Tb drive connected to a sony bd370 blueray player which I use to stream films/music. Also connects to iplayer etc for internet streaming.
 
Well, the Viewsonic's in and it's doing pretty good so far! It's a very small and good-looking piece of kit. Attaching a USB drive to it, you can access it as a network share and add files in case your network can't keep up with the hi-def streams.

I only tested a few divx and mkv files on it, both streaming and from USB, and they all played perfectly fine (even files that caused the Xbox 360 through PS3 Media Server to go all screwy and out of sync).

I did notice an issue where it suddenly stopped connecting to the network shares (though uPnP still worked, strangely), and wouldn't play any mkvs - instead just coming up "file not supported" - but I just restarted the box and it worked a treat after that.

iPlayer worked first time, and watched "How TV Ruined Your Life" with no issues whatsoever, though as far as I'm aware you can't pause/rewind/ff iPlayer on this box but I didn't try that.

Over the weekend I'll be hooking it up to the amp via optical to test the surround capabilities. I did get some jerkiness from a 720p Blu-ray rip when streaming on the network during a fast-moving sequence in a forest, but I assume that's more down to my network speed than the box itself. I'll test the same file off USB tonight to be certain.

All in all, at just about £60 I can't complain at the moment. Does everything I wanted it to, even if there are a few little niggles.
 
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