Expanding Media Library to Multi-Room

Myrddin

Hi guys, Im mulling over the idea of providing my media library to more than one room as it currently is. The pc is based in the room, as a dedicated media pc - alongside a standard pc for internet/games etc. Im thinking if I park the media pc in an unused room, and set it up for providing its library to three different pc's around the house...what would be the best way to go about it?

Would a server/client model be needed?
Or would a workgroup suffice?
Im aware of wake on lan, but how could I put the media pc on standby after use?

C14N

Have you considered multiroom audio from the likes of Sonos or Logitech's Squeezbox? It's simple to set up, fairly high quality, completely wireless and you can put that media PC anywhere.

Or if you just want the stuff streamed between PCs, why not get a NAS? That way you can access the files on there from anywhere on the network.

Myrddin

Thanks for the reply. Im interesting in audio AND video streaming however, although that solution is nice for audio. With regards to NAS, is there a limit to how many hard drives an NAS device can run? Or are there different models allowing differing amounts of drives?

Currently my media pc has 6 hard drives - so Id need at least that amount available in an NAS device...

Also, are the drives constantly powered up when running from a NAS? Or do they sleep/power down?

C14N

EnterNow wrote: »

Currently my media pc has 6 hard drives - so Id need at least that amount available in an NAS device...

Also, are the drives constantly powered up when running from a NAS? Or do they sleep/power down?

I actually don't have a NAS myself, it's just that I'm planning on getting one soon for pretty much the same purpose. I've been quite interested by the ones from Western Digital. They have two that I've been looking at. There's the My Book World Edition II which is a smaller enclosure that takes 2 drives and which is offered with up to 4tb storage. It's easily upgradable though since all you have to do is pop out the old drive and slot in a new one so a year from now when drives are at whatever size they'll be, you can just upgrade it.

They also have the ShareSpace network drive which is more aimed at the likes of small workplaces but should do media streaming quite nicely. This one takes up to 4 drives and can come with 8tb of storage. Even easier to upgrade than the previous one and more secure.

I know you said you wanted 6 drives but you could always buy a second NAS drive if you needed the space urgently. It would still probably be a fair bit less hassle than a server if you don't mind taking up an extra ethernet port. I'm not entirely certain but I think it might be possible to daisy chain the ShareSpace ones too.

I don't think they need to be constantly powered down and up again, it seems like they're designed to be left on all the time. Of course, if you wanted to save money on electricity, you could always just power them down at night and up again in the morning. External drives generally only take a few seconds to do this so it's a lot less trouble than booting up a computer.

deadl0ck

You could throw your media server PC in a single room and then use something like the Xtreamer in each room you want to play content from.

If you already have PC's in the other rooms, just set up shared drives on the server PC, and map them on the client machines so they appear as extra drives.

You could use remote desktop to put the server pc on standby when you're finished with it.
Alternatively you could use the power settings in control panel to put it into standby after 10 mins if there is no activity...

Myrddin

Thanks guys, Im going to look at those suggestions now. Regards the NAS, to match my current storage space, Id need to buy a few 2TB drives and bin my existing ones by the sounds of it...cant see that happening at the moment due to costs.

Standby after 10/20 mins of idle time is a super suggestion - its always the simpler the better! I dont want the hassle of remote desktop'ing into a server, becasue I dont leave a keyboard/mouse connected to my media pc. Its control by the windows remote for all its purposes. Hitting the standby button and not having to get outta bed is the beauty of the whole thing

Electricity isnt a concern regarding keeping the drives running, Id be more concerned about wear & tear/heat with the drives. Having 6 drives means creating a raid array would be prohibitive, so Ive next to no redundancy if any of the drives fail. Have you any idea how long it took to put 9 seasons of X-Files, grouped by season & individually named? Not something Id care to repeat

illingworth22

EnterNow wrote: »

Thanks guys, Im going to look at those suggestions now. Regards the NAS, to match my current storage space, Id need to buy a few 2TB drives and bin my existing ones by the sounds of it...cant see that happening at the moment due to costs.

Standby after 10/20 mins of idle time is a super suggestion - its always the simpler the better! I dont want the hassle of remote desktop'ing into a server, becasue I dont leave a keyboard/mouse connected to my media pc. Its control by the windows remote for all its purposes. Hitting the standby button and not having to get outta bed is the beauty of the whole thing

Electricity isnt a concern regarding keeping the drives running, Id be more concerned about wear & tear/heat with the drives. Having 6 drives means creating a raid array would be prohibitive, so Ive next to no redundancy if any of the drives fail. Have you any idea how long it took to put 9 seasons of X-Files, grouped by season & individually named? Not something Id care to repeat

I have a DLink NAS and it wors a treat! Powers down when I don't need it and auto stars when requested. Connects to my Gigabit LAN.
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=509

Myrddin

illingworth22 wrote: »

I have a DLink NAS and it wors a treat! Powers down when I don't need it and auto stars when requested. Connects to my Gigabit LAN.
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=509

Looks sweet, but with only 2 bays Id be seriously reducing my storage space. I need about 6 TB to see me through the next 2/3 years. Ive ALL of my dvd's ripped onto it, and because quality is paramount for me, I ran them through video redo to convert from vob to mpg (no compression) - this means my films are 1:1 quality wise, but are rather large (3/4 gigs average)...

illingworth22

EnterNow wrote: »

Looks sweet, but with only 2 bays Id be seriously reducing my storage space. I need about 6 TB to see me through the next 2/3 years. Ive ALL of my dvd's ripped onto it, and because quality is paramount for me, I ran them through video redo to convert from vob to mpg (no compression) - this means my films are 1:1 quality wise, but are rather large (3/4 gigs average)...

I have just purchased a server and plan to install WHS (Windows Home Server) on the box! 4 x 2 Gig Sata's for storage. Possibility to install one of these http://www.buydvb.net/pcie-dvbs2-dual-tuner-tv-card_p11.html for Freesat TV. I will need standalone PC's looking at somthing like Apple TV or PC (Cube) at each TV point for Media distrebution (<- spelt wrong I know!)

AntiVirus

So you have one media PC and 3 normal PC's and you want to be able to play the media on any PC. All you need is a router and some wifi cards, or get lots of cat5 cable.

I've 2 WDTV Lives hooked up to my router upstairs, shared my media drives on my main PC and both WDTV Lives can access all my SD/HD movies in each room perfectly.

BigEejit

Streaming video over wireless? maybe youtube...

I have devolo 200mb(my arse) powerline adapters and they stream 7 - 8MB/s. I think blu-ray maxes out at 50Mbit (~6MB), so 100Mb should be ok if that is all that is going across the network.

However downloading something on one pc and someone looking at youtube on another while you are watching a good quality 1080p movie will definitely end in tears.

If you are doing it to last, put in good cat5e and get gigabit all round; end of bottlenecks.

AntiVirus

BigEejit wrote: »

Streaming video over wireless? maybe youtube...

I was streaming SD videos over wireless years ago on the Mvix media player without any problems at all. It's been done for years!

BigEejit wrote: »

I have devolo 200mb(my arse) powerline adapters and they stream 7 - 8MB/s. I think blu-ray maxes out at 50Mbit (~6MB), so 100Mb should be ok if that is all that is going across the network.

I've recently use the Belkin Gigabyte powerline plugs and they worked great for all 720p movies and most 1080p movies. It would stutter on some of the very high encoded mkv's so I switched to cat5 which works a treat for every movie.

BigEejit wrote: »

If you are doing it to last, put in good cat5 and get gigabit all round; end of bottlenecks.

The best and cheapest option. Check out ebay for you cat5 cable, I got a 50 foot cable for 5 euros and it works a treat!