Home Media PC

[harveymt]

A few questions about a home media PC. I need a NAS drive to store all my music on. I was wondering if instead I could get a desktop PC with a big hard drive and connect it to my router via an ethernet cable. My router is set up beside my home cinema stuff so the PC would be there also. This would mean I could connect the PC to home cinema and use the internet through my TV or play games if I wanted. I could also then stream music through the PC's hard drive to my Airport Express.

What would I need to do to make this work?

I presume I would need to switch the computer on every time to ake the hard drive accessible? Any way round this? External drive etc?

 

[Anonymous]

I have my PC upstairs and use homplugs, and use my ps3 to stream

But in your case, no probs at all, just buy a pc and hook it up to the tv/amp, cant see it being a problem

 

[Anonymous]

harveymt:

A few questions about a home media PC. I need a NAS drive to store all my music on. I was wondering if instead I could get a desktop PC with a big hard drive and connect it to my router via an ethernet cable. My router is set up beside my home cinema stuff so the PC would be there also. This would mean I could connect the PC to home cinema and use the internet through my TV or play games if I wanted. I could also then stream music through the PC's hard drive to my Airport Express.

What would I need to do to make this work?

I presume I would need to switch the computer on every time to ake the hard drive accessible? Any way round this? External drive etc?

This should work. But yes, you will always have to switch on the PC to have access to the drive, internal or external. A NAS (or a "network hardisk", which is basically the same device, but usually cheaper) is your option if you want access to files without switching a PC on.

 

[Anonymous]

Not sure if this would be of help but if you have a network switch and an existing USB external drive you could use one of these network storage links (very small device about 15cm tall x 2cm wide x 10cm deep)

http://www.pctvhifi.co.uk/infopage.asp?infID=1916

which would turn an existing external drive to a NAS drive and all for less than 50 quid. It supports two USB connections so you could even add a second drive later if you need more space perhaps.

I did this and set up is very easy - I am not an IT expert by any stretch of the imagination. If it does not work after I have followed the set up guide then I am in trouble!

 

[dapouch]

A NAS box will only work if you have something that can read the data stored on it and play it on your home cinema equipment. Which means you will still need a PC or a Mac or a Games Consoles/Networked Media Players or a DNLA device.

You could share everything from your other PC (I'm assuming you have one) to a WDTV (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/WDTV/) in the living room using powerline adapters (send networked data through electrical cables). £200 would get both items.

I've a HTPC in my lounge and I've taken most noisy components out of it but the fans can still be quite loud. My advice would be to not have a PC in the lounge unless it's acoustically insulated.