Stream Music & Film Between several rooms

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Aug 10, 2019
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Hi

Need a bit of help.

I have an AV home cinema set up and a hifi and what to bring it all upto date with a Home Entertainment PC. I have a bit of Home cinema and Hifi kit. I want to get an enertainment PC, and start streaming music and films.

I have the following kit...

Home Cinema Room: Have an Samsung LCD tv with a KEF 2005.3 5.1 surround sound system. In a walk in cupborad in this room I have an Arcam DV135 and AV Amp. They are linked with an HDMI and Optical digital lead through the wall to enable suround sound from the TV.

Kitchen: Bog standard wireless Broadband conection from Virgin

Sitting Room: A second LCD and som mid-range Hifi seperates form the early 90's (Marantz, Kenwood and Tannoy kit)

Want I want to do is be able to watch films through a PC in the home cinema room and at the very least music in the sitting room, but would bre great to also watch film. I bascally need all the kit to make this happen. Thought I would get ...

1) an enterainment pc - something like the HP Pavilion p6315uk Desktop PC wih something like "Spotify" as a front end

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pavilion-Processor-Networking-Graphics-Wireless/dp/B0033PRQJM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1275161566&sr=1-1

put that in the home cinema room cupboard, attach this to the home cinema AV kit and tv to enable me to watch films and even iplayer etc.

2) get a streamer of some description to play music throught the HIfi in the sitting room (Squeezebox duet maybe)

I guess I will need a router, and all sorts of other bits of kit.

Keen to hear from anyone who has done something similar or anyone who has any suggestions on what kit i need and what would be good. Dont have a budget in mind but would be keen to keep under a £1k.

Thanks

Johnny
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
For an upgradeable high performance setup costing around your budget your requirements would be :-

NAS box - from £170 (*SEE BOTTOM FOR MORE INFO)

4 Belkin 1Gbps Powerline AV Enclosures (2x £72 amazon)

Tp Link TL-SG1005D gigabit Hub (£13 amazon)

2x streamers - from £120 each (**SEE BOTTOM FOR MORE INFO)

6 - cat6 network cables (around £2.50 each on ebay)

2 HDMI and 1 optical - £60

PC - for spotify and ripping CDs and DVDs onto the NAS.

(The powerline AVs expand ur network using your exising mains and are faster than wireless without having to have leads running between
rooms)

Home Cinema Room

Connect Nas Box + streamer + PC to the gigabit Hub (3x cat6 network cable)

Connect hub to 1 Powerline AV (cat6 network cable), and plug powerline into mains socket

Connect Streamer to AMP (HDMI)

Connect PC to AMP (Optical)

Sitting Room

Connect streamer to hifi & TV (HDMI or component for video and optical for sound)

Connect streamer to 1 Powerline AV (cat6 network cable), and plug powerline into mains socket

Kitchen

Plug router into PoweLine AV (cat6 nework cable), and powerline into mains socket.

If your current router is not gigabit u may need to replace it with something like Wireless Router DSL modem (Belkin N1 Vision gigabit DSL Modem router -
£80 amazon)

You have a powerline left over so could even get another streamer for the kitchen or a bedroom perhaps !

Now the fun begins - how much storage space do u want and do u want one or both streamers to be capable of playing ripped blu-rays as well as dvds and music.

*Nas drives

cheap and easy example - Western Digital MyBookWorld 2TB (£180 amazon)

or if u want a more expandable solution maybe a QNAP 410 (around £270 for bare drive, and fill it with 1.5TB 3.5 harddrives for £70 per drive. You can add extra drives as and when u want).

**Streamers

For your home cinema room I'd suggest something like a Popcorn C-200 as this will stream both ripped DVDs and BluRays. Its around £300 with a 320gb hard drive - although u'd be using the NAS instead of this drive.

If ur not interested in ripping blurays then a PopBox might be more useful at around 1/3 pricel.

This will be around £120 and would be ideal for the sitting room. Lots of other streamers around also.

These streamers all do music as well as video.

PC Software -

You will need something like Slysofts AnyDVD to rip dvds (69 euros for lifetime updates) or AnyDVDHD if u want to rip blurays as well (109 euros for lifetimes updates).

For ripping CDs something like db poweramp cd ripper ($36)

If ur not going to be streaming Hi-Def u could drop the Powerline AVs and do it wirelessly. But personally I'd go with future-proofing in mind.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Thank you for the awesome post. Much appreciated.

However I have a few problems with the solution and a few more questions.

1) The Kitchen:

a) Powerline V Wireless: The "Powerline" idea is great, but unfortunately the home cinema room was built in an extension and is has its own fuse box so I think that is probably not a workable solution (kitchen & Cinema on same mains box).

- Anything else I can do or am I stuck with Wireless? And

- Is wireless good enough to watch film over?

b) Router: I will get an 'N' router as suggested, but I was thinking that possibly I could put an external hard drive attached (N+1) so that both systems can access the data (i.e. films and music) and I could access the network

2) Home Cinema Room:

a) Webcam: Thinking I would add a webcam into the mix so (I am thinking probably doesn't need to be a quality link but wireless) - any suggestions gratefully received?

b) Controller: I need to do something about a controller for all the kit (wireless keyboard? Or Ipod touch or something?) It is going to get very messy without some sort of common controller - again any suggestions gratefully received?

And In the Home Cinema Cupboard..

a) Desktop PC - I have been told I need a PC with minimum PCi Network card (N) to make it wireless and comparable with the router. Then to have a Graphics card (something like a GT240 Mvida graphic card) and a processor 4 or above

- Is this correct?

- is there anything else I need?

- I would rather get one that is ready out of the box (pref from Amazon.co.uk) and doesn't need messing about with - suggestions please

- If I attach the PC to the TV through the wall - with an HDMI splitter do I still need a NAS box and a streamer as well? (surely a lower cost but same quality option)

- FYI I want capacity for about 1000 cds and perhaps 300 films



b) Software:

- Slysofts AnyDVDHD (for HD & Blurays) ?109 with lifetimes updates.

- Db poweramp cd ripper (for CD ripping) $36

- Spotify for user interface

3) Sitting Room:

Streamer: Connect streamer (popbox) to hifi & TV (HDMI or component for video and optical for sound) I this going to work over the wireless connection?

As an aside, I understand that some people do this sort of multi room networking with Sony Play stations and a PC. As a non-gamer, is this a serious quality option, or should I disregard.

Thanks again
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Wireless N is fine for ripped dvds and music. Only streaming high-def(mainly blu-ray rips) should cause you problems. If you're not going to stream ripped blu-rays you should get away with wireless for now.

Try to avoid having any wireless G or B devices or your wireless network. The network will only run at the speed of the slowest connected device - so be careful if u have a wireless webcam - u may have to turn the cam off when u stream films, and if u run in N mode any G or B devices wont be able to connect - so u have to use slower mixed mode.

Most streamers support the TPLink TL-WN821N wireless N usb dongle which is £15 from amazon - but check compatability. This would also be ok for your pc if u dont want to open it open to install a pci wireless n adaptor.

Looking at you space requirements 1000 CDS in flac (lossless) will take around 350GB, and 300 DVDs around 1800GB - so a single 2TB NAS like the WD Mybookworld might suffice. If that was to get filled u can just buy another one and plug it into a spare router port. If your space requirements are likely to exceed 4TB then a 4-bay NAS would be more cost-effective long term. A 4-bay will almost certainly be quicker to write to as well.

A NAS really is the way to go rather than adding a USB drive or an internal HD to your pc. As long as the router is on any DLNA player (PC, PS3, streamer, DLNA-tv, DLNA-phone etc) can share the media.

I dont really want to suggest a pc as that is subjective and depends what u want to use it for.I wouldnt want to name a model and then u find out later it doesnt do all you wanted.

Do u want a budget pc or some gaming or a dedicated media pc with remote control for example? I will say that Dell are very competitve on desktops deals at the
moment. And I know that there are Spotify remote control apps out there
for Android phones or iphone. I would just use the pc for ripping and controlling spotify.

I have a high-end pc but I dont use it for playing media - I dont like the video quality - so cant really help you on that.

Personally I use a HDX-BD1 and a PS3 as streamers over a wired network. Add a PSP to the PS3 and u can watch ur films from anywhere in the world usig the PSP as a remote screen, as long as u have wireless internet connection.

-----

The PS3 is a pretty good streamer and a decent blu-ray player with iplayer support - though not as good a a dedicated £120 blu-ray.

PS3 has good format support for streaming with DLNA but u do need to be careful. DVDs need to be ripped to .VOB format not .ISO and it doesnt support FLAC but does wma/mp3/aac etc.

Though if you run a mediaserver program like Tversity(free) on your pc then the
PS3 can stream virtually any format using this, though ur pc needs to be on.

Other software.

DvdShrink (freeware) works well in conjunction with AnyDvd for ripping DVDS. It lets u re-author dvds so u can just take the main movie track and gives u the option of saving in .ISO or .VOB format.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
again, a massive help.

Re PC, I only want one for this Home entertianment set up. I don't game ever and have a laptop for work (Which I am not aloud to do any of this stuff on it) and surfing the net. It would simply be for home entertainment, hence why I thought using it solo rather than with a NAS.

Any suggestions most welcome.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Okay, maybe making some progress. I have been trying to pull together what I need to get an integrated Home entertainment system set up between 3 rooms. Would be great if someone could give this setup the once over before I splash the cash and get it all wrong.

1) Home Cinema Room:



Already have:

£ Samsung LCD TV & KEF 2005.3 5.1 Surround sound speakers

£ In an adjoining walk in cupboard I have the AV Home cinema kit (Arcam DV135 and AV 280 Amp). Linked with an HD & Optical cable through the wall

Planning to get the:

£ Network Media Player - Popcorn C-200 (c£320 Amazon) to stream both ripped DVDs and BluRays

£ Controller - 8G Apple Ipod touch (c£155 Amazon) to use as the controller - need to have a wireless controller as all the kit is out of site in the cupboard

£ webcam - so we can skype etc but will need to be wireless so we can have

£ PC - HP Pavilion p6315uk Desktop PC (Windows 7 Home Premium, AMD Athlon II X4 630 Processor, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, 500 GB SATA HDD, 802.11 b/g/n Networking, GeForce G210 Graphics, Wireless Keyboard and Mouse) (Amazon c£480)

£ Software -

o For ripping CDs db poweramp cd ripper ($36)

o Slysofts AnyDVDHD if u want to rip blurays as well (109 euros for lifetimes updates).

o DvdShrink (freeware) works well in conjunction with AnyDvd for ripping DVDS. It lets u re-author dvds so u can just take the main movie track and gives u the option of saving in .ISO or .VOB format.

o MediaPortal as a front end software (free)

2) Kitchen:



Already have:

£ Bog standard wireless Broadband connection from Virgin

Going to get:

£ A decent N router - Belkin ADSL2+ ROUTER W/MODEM * N1 VISION (£78 Amazon)

£ Will set up a wireless Lan network

3) Sitting Room:

Already have:

£ A second LCD and some mid-range Hifi separates form the early 90's (Marantz, Kenwood and Tannoy kit)

Going to get:

£ Network Media Player - LaCinema Classic HD - 1TB of additional storage space (Amazon c£155) (http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11389

£ Connect streamer to hifi & TV (component for video and optical for sound)

Basically what I am trying to understand is .Is this a good use of £1,300, is it going to work and have I missed anything?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Be aware u can't stream HD videos files over wireless. DVDs should work
fine though. And u may have to turn your wireless webcam off when u are
streaming movies to get maxspeed from your wireless if u experience stuttering.

Both streamers will need an optional wireless n adapter - be careful only certain adapters will work with each

Popcorn Hour WN150 is compatible with the C-200 (£23)

http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=y7i&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:eek:fficial&channel=s&q=Popcorn+Hour+WN150&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=jRkMTL7yA4HWM_-q3MMM&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CC4QrQQwAg

The Linksys WUSB100 Wireless N USB Adapter is compatible with the Lacie (£20)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Linksys-Cisco-WUSB100-Wireless-Adapter/dp/B001D5HAM2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1275861089&sr=8-1

That pc is fine for playing media on (should u want to) and for ripping stuff quickly.

The Lacie comes with Twonky so u can use that to act as a media server for the 1tb harddrive and that can be the main storage for ur network. Each streamer should be able to see the contents of the others harddrive, and the pc and vice versa.

With the router - make sure u get the version with the gigabit ports.This is the correct one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-ADSL2-ROUTER-MODEM-VISION/dp/B0015Q54Q8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1275862099&sr=8-3

Good Luck !
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Because all the Hifi, AV, PC and media devices are going to be hidden away in a cupboard and only the TV and webcam visible, I need a wireless controller to work the systems.

I was going to put on a front end software to the PC like Media Browser and wanted to be able to control it through the remote. I can then scroll through and play music and films when they are displayed on the TV monitor.

I was going to get an Apple Ipod touch to do this (as you can get them free when you upgrade your phone) but if they are not on 'N' then it is going to mess up the speed of the network.

Therefore really need another solution for a handset

(actually wondering if reconfig the entire solution might be better something like a PC at each end straight into the TV?)
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Well the popcorn c-200 has an rf remote so doesnt need line of sight.

I dont know what to suggest for remote controlling a pc - not something i've look at. An new iphone 4 would have wireless n.

The touch would only slow ur network down when its connected. So once u've set up ur playlist or whatever i suppose u could disconnect. Depends what u want to use ur pc for - personally i wouldnt use it for playing anything.
 

Gerrardasnails

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Sep 6, 2007
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At last, a fellow BD1 owner on here!! How do you find it? For meit has it's issues but on the whole, it's great. Which USB network adapter do you use with yours? I can't wait to be able t use YAMJ with mine
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
well gerrard - the BD1 will be great once they fix the playing of dvd-iso over network. Its great for playing other movie formats and for music though.

At the moment I cant quite recommend it to ppl until the firmware update comes along, which is why I havent suggested it here. And the slow progress has been disappointing. At the moment my old hdx-1000 is still better.

I use a Tplink Wn821n wireless n adaptor which was about £10. Again though waiting for the firmware update to allow security keys. Its better to used wired though.
 

Gerrardasnails

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Sep 6, 2007
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edsib1:
well gerrard - the BD1 will be great once they fix the playing of dvd-iso over network. Its great for playing other movie formats and for music though.

At the moment I cant quite recommend it to ppl until the firmware update comes along, which is why I havent suggested it here. And the slow progress has been disappointing. At the moment my old hdx-1000 is still better.

I use a Tplink Wn821n wireless n adaptor which was about £10. Again though waiting for the firmware update to allow security keys. Its better to used wired though.

My thoughts exactly really. I use mine with an external HDD and it plays everything superbly.

From what I've read, YAMJ should be here soon - someone has just posted photos of it working with the beta firmware (with a couple of glitches only). I've not used this before and have a couple of questions. I understand how it works but when you say that wired would be a better option, do you mean ethernet directly to my router? This isn't possible. Could I connect the BD1 to a modem/router and have that linked wirelessly to my upstairs router (which is wired to my pc). I don't plan to play media files wirelessly, just update the YAMJ and send files from PC to external HDD connected to BD1.

Hope this makes sense.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
see my original reponse to this post about using the powerline av to expand the network. This would allow u to have near wired speed (100Mbs+) using the electrical mains in ur house. Much faster than wireless.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Hi Edsib 1

Sometime ago you recomeneded using the Lacice LaCinema HD with The Linksys WUSB100 Wireless N USB Adapter to make it wireless ( as I cannot easily use wires) I am just trying to connect the too together. I have set up the USB adaper on my laptop to get it working, but can't get it work on the Lacie.

Are you sure it can be made wireless? and if so do you know how?

Thanks again

Johnny
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
not convinced I've recommended the Lacie as never tried it (more likely to have recommended ones I've used popcorn, hdx bd1 etc).

But anyway the Lacie does support wireless n including the adapter u mention.

Remeber WEP does not work with wireless N, so u will need to use WAP for security on your network.

http://www.lacie.com/uk/support/faq/faq.htm?faqid=10735
 

Gozaradio

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Just to chuck my tuppence in about Media Players, I've been really happy with my Xtreamer since December (which I don't believe has been reviewed by What Hifi yet).

It plays DVD ISO's over the network a treat and handles just about any video format I've chucked at it. It plays HD MKV files fine and although I haven't tried it, it should play BD rips and disc images.

The current incarnation is also able to pass through 7.1 HD Audio with the latest firmware (I think the only other one which does this is the Popcorn hour C-200).

The small Xtreamer Sidewinder is under £100, it's silent and you can fit a 2.5" HDD inside. It can also be controlled by iPhone / iPod Touch with free app.
 

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