Film and music home networking help please.

[joeteds]

Hey all

Im after suggestions, advice and simple explanations from you lovely people on what I need for this -

Im after something that I can store all my films and music on and then play them on my tv without having my laptop on and then also be able to play them on the upstairs tv too.Is there something with hard drives to store all my stuff on that I can access through the TV (I have a samsung smart tv) ? Also am I right in thinking that for upstairs I could get a network blu ray player, 2 homeplugs and access my stuff like that ? Or is there a better more advanced way ?

At the moment all my films and music are on my laptop and I have to keep that on and play the files wirelessly from laptop onto the tv, which is not ideal as I have loads of problems with freezing, cut outs etc, plus Id like a more up to date sophisticated way of doing it.Sometimes I use the PS3 to stream from laptop but thats rubbish too.

If anyone can explain in simplish terms (coz I struggle to get my head around all this networking lark) or even provide links to what I need I would be very very grateful.

Btw my budget is rpobably around £400

Thanks a lot in advance everyone

Joe.

 

[nads]

Any DNLA enabled NAS will be readable by the TV and a BD. player.

Very clunky and slow compared to a media player.

Thry may also not like the same formats.

I would look at a dedicated media streamer to play from the NAS.

 

[D3CYPH3R]

Sony have released some free software called Homestream, that should help with codecs at least, and will work with other sony products not just the PS3, been using it with my blu-ray player and it seems to work a treat.

 

[John Duncan]

Sony have released some free software called Homestream, that should help with codecs at least, and will work with other sony products not just the PS3, been using it with my blu-ray player and it seems to work a treat.

Interesting: a free DLNA server for Mac and PC. Slipped that one under the radar...

I shall be downloading forthwith.

 

[joeteds]

Any DNLA enabled NAS will be readable by the TV and a BD. player.

Very clunky and slow compared to a media player.

Thry may also not like the same formats.

I would look at a dedicated media streamer to play from the NAS.

Thanks everyone

So the NAS is used to store everything on and the media streamer reads from the NAS and plays it on the TV ?

 

[nads]

Any DNLA enabled NAS will be readable by the TV and a BD. player.

Very clunky and slow compared to a media player.

Thry may also not like the same formats.

I would look at a dedicated media streamer to play from the NAS.

Thanks everyone

So the NAS is used to store everything on and the media streamer reads from the NAS and plays it on the TV ?

In a nut shell yes.

I have both a smart TV and a BD. player tht can play movies from a NAS. But my media PC does an easier and better job. No media player for me as I decided not to have one. Well having 4 PCs kind of ruled one out and as I need to run a VPN for most of my needs a media player was not as user tweekable.

 

[wilsmusic]

What a fantastic bit of software! Loaded 5 minutes ago and already streaming video content through my s370. Nice tip.

 

[wilsmusic]

What a fantastic bit of software! Loaded 5 minutes ago and already streaming video content through my s370. Nice tip.

 

[joeteds]

Any DNLA enabled NAS will be readable by the TV and a BD. player.

Very clunky and slow compared to a media player.

Thry may also not like the same formats.

I would look at a dedicated media streamer to play from the NAS.

Thanks everyone

So the NAS is used to store everything on and the media streamer reads from the NAS and plays it on the TV ?

In a nut shell yes.

I have both a smart TV and a BD. player tht can play movies from a NAS. But my media PC does an easier and better job. No media player for me as I decided not to have one. Well having 4 PCs kind of ruled one out and as I need to run a VPN for most of my needs a media player was not as user tweekable.

Thanks Nads, sorry about the delay been very busy.

So do you think I would do well to get this http://www.whathifi.com/review/ds212j to go with 2 of these http://www.boxee.tv/ (1 for downstairs and 1 for upstairs) ?

Looking at the reviews on here for media centre pcs they seem to be out of my price range anyway but out of interest why does a media pc do a better job, as I dont know anything about them.

Thanks again

Joe

 

[AnotherJoe]

For mediaplayback I have never seen anything better than the ACRyan playon! hd mini2 (£85). It will play practically any video/audio format including dvd-iso, and bd-iso from your NAS without any stutter and with HD sound.

It also only uses 8W while playing.

You can also choose to select basic list or thumbnails if you prefer.

 

[joeteds]

Thanks Joe

I actually went out and got the WD TV Live, its good so far not that I have any experience to compare it with anything else but its doing what I wanted at the moment.