Wanting to have a sort of "media centre", help please!

jahujames

jahujames

jahujames

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6 Feb 2009
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525
Location
Stoke
Alright, so here's the deal. I've got my computer in my office, my fiance has her computer in another room. And my mother has a Samsung Smart TV downstairs. The idea would be to hopefully have the TV and my fiance's computer connect wirelessly to a network/router and then be able to view films/TV shows at a moments notice.

What'd be the best way to go about achieving this? Currently my fiance connects up to my router, and views files from my 2TB hard drive which is solely for storing films and the like. I'd hopefully want to move that over to some 'central' unit whereby everybody can access the files they want.

How easy would it be to go about doing this, and what components/solutions should I look to be buying to help me get this off the ground. Would a NAS station do the trick, or would I be looking to buy some sort of 'server'? I'm a complete numpty, when it comes to this stuff. Not looking for anything too complicated, and any advice would appreciated as this is new learning grounds for me! I've done a bit of internet research, but I don't want to buy anything without getting a first-hand opinion on the matter!

That's all I can think of at the moment, that I'd deem relevant... but it is 4am in the morning, almost, so I've probably let some details out! Sorry if I've not made myself very clear.

Cheers guys and gals.
 
A NAS is what you need. The best solution for a NAS atm is the HP microserver, the can be had for under £100 after cashback. You need to install your own operating system, I'd suggest FreeNAS for you. But you could put anything you want on it and use a a full blown server. I have Ubuntu on mine, with a Xbmc database, then Raspberry Pis around the house running openelec.
 
Oh you need to consider if your smart pc can play all the file types. If not then you need a device like raspberry pi or WD Live player Or your server needs to transcode with something like Plex. If you go the transcode route then the microserver does not have enough power. You could also put a gfx card in the microserver and xbmc and use as a media centre behind the Tv, but it's not silent.
 
A final option is to have a router that supports usb hard drives and shares them over the network. These tend to be slow though and cannot transcode.
 
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