Media center question

BrookieD

HI folks,
who can provide the answer?? I am looking to move house soon and in the new place want to set up a server with my entire DVD/Music collection on it networked to each main room etc... whats the best option here. The setting up of points in each room is easy enough its the DVD/Music sharing that i need help on.

Cheers
D

SouperComputer

MythTV is the best IMO. It has the most scalabilty, but the backend MUST be run on linux. There are frontends available for OS X and Windows, but I havent tested them in anger yet. Its more invloved to setup, but when its running its the absolute dogs danglies.

Windows MCE as a server in combination with MCE extenders/xbox360's is another way of doing it. Not quite as flexible as MythTV, but a lot easier to setup.

Lastly, a application for windows called mediaportal can be used.

How many client machines do you plan using?
Do you plan having a "computer" interface, or somthing more intuitave?
Do you want to watch live and recorded TV on each/any of the client machines?

BrookieD

Hi
Thanks for the reply,
I would like 1 server, at most 2 client machines and an xbox
I have Sky+ so recording TV and such like will be left to this the main reson for the server is for the DVD/Music collection can be shared in the Living Room/Master Bedroom/ Kids room and music in the Kitchen(streaming radio from the net if possible?) also if and when needed viewing pictures when the inlaws are over.

Never used Linux before? must look into this option

fatherdougalmag

If you don't need the TV side of things you could buy a cheap XBox (current/old version €135 in Game - you have to buy a game to avail of the €125 deal so buy a pre-owned game for €10). You can then softmod it and install XBox Media Centre (XBMC). Hey presto a multimedia player STB.

Then put all of your audio/video content onto an external HD (about €150 for 200GB) and plug it into a Linksys NSLU2 (€100) on your network. Bing bang bong - distributed multimedia set up for less than €400. You can then pick up additional XBoxes and set them up as receivers in different rooms. And if you are connected to broadband with your home network you can access the web from XBMC.

BrookieD

cool, i have the xbox already.

this sounds like it might need some planning or might not work at all.

Project
A small room with my Server, a few slave drives to store the DVD's and music etc... aircon to protect aginst over heating and a battery backup UPS or some such
hardwired cat5 network throught the house in each room with Broadband so in the homeoffice i can have my PC hooked into the nic point and access the internet and stream music from the server while surfing the net?

in the living room at night i wonder in and call up the media center select films and run "The Lion King" from the server for the baby?

in the kitchen and small maybe touch screen unit to call up recipes and stream a "Dido" album while cooking said baby's dinner?

All DVD's and CD to be stored in the Server room under lock and key and easy to copy new DVD's etc to server as and when needed.


I know there is a lot here but its built on something a friend of mine has and further upgraded in my head
Can this set up be done?

SouperComputer

yea, TBH what you want is easy enough to setup.

An old-ass PC PII with 128Mb RAM is enough for the server, try www.clarkconnect.org for the Operating System (linux). you can use PCI HD controllers that way the size of modern HD's is not a concern.

All you are doing is creating a shared network drive and allowing other machines on the netowrk to connect to it. Of course you can just use windows to do this too, but its a good chance for you to learn a bit about linux.

XBMC is a good way of doing this thru the Xbox, but your unit(s) will need to be modded to install XBMC (Xbox Media Centre). Xboxs can be bought pre-chipped as well.

You also need to decide what format you are going to store the DVD's in

ISO?
Xvid?
Divx?
Rat DVD?


Rat DVD is probably the best as it keeps the entire structure of the DVD disk (menus, extras etc) but in a lot less space. That said, im not sure if XBMC will play RatDVD. It will however play DIVX and XVid

Web browsing on XMBC is limited as the Xbox has a small amount of RAM. Try to decide what rooms just need deidcated media boxes (Xbox) and ones that would be better off with a PC of some description(Thinking of the kitchen here). Naturally the PC's can be mapped to the network drive on the server to access the media.

I dont know of youll need aircon for the server, unless its REALLY warm in the room. Its going to be doing feck all work. Good cooling for the HD's is always a good idea though, as is a UPS.