The Utopia of media streming

[theantman66]

If anyone knows of any media streamer - alive, breathing, and truly existing in the physical realm - that can satisfy three simple criterion, please put me out of my abject misery.

I want to connect to both a PC and NAS device and be able to do the following:

a) Link to iTunes to stream a large library of audio in Apple Lossless format

b) Play VOB files

c) Connect to BBC iPlayer

Wireless connectivity is not a necessity as I have wired Ethernet to let it play with to its heart content.

Yes, I know wanting these three requiremnents simultaneously goes far beyond any reasonble request

 

[Helmut80]

budget?

 

[theantman66]

Cheers TechMad, a surprising good answer - one I hadn't actually considered at all as I didn't realise it was that versatile - but I suppose I just feel a tad uneasy about buying what is ostensibly a games console when I never play games. I don't know my Call of Duty from Duty Calls. Perhaps I'm just too old or unhip for a PS3

Ah, budget, Helmut80, is a very good question and one I don't really have a complete answer to. There's no strict amount dedicated, it really is a case of the right bit of kit will make me consider/reconsider the budget (though once we can buy a cheap secondhand Porsche for the same money we are too far gone down the path of madness; I'd rather buy the Porsche and listen to an iPod!).

I once bought - rather rashly and foolishly I confess - a WD HD Live and AppleTV thereby wasting good money that I could have just spent on decent wine whilst watching Sky HD.

 

[Messiah]

What about a dedicated laptop??

Can either use the screen or output it to a TV.

Will do what you require.

 

[Anonymous]

A Playstation 3 will.

Run PS3 mediaserver on your pc, and point it at the Itunes Library. The PS3 will recognise the ALAC songs as PCM.

It also plays vobs, and has Iplayer, 4ond, ITVplayer, Qriocity, Lovefilm, Videzone.

If u get playtv for it, it can double as a pvr as well.

Add a psp and u can watch/listen/control all this remotely on the psp over wireless or the internet.

Oh and it plays blu-rays and the odd game.

 

[Anonymous]

Not many people know the PS3 will play ALAC - (with the aid of ps3 media player of course)

 

[PJPro]

I used to use my PS3 as a media player but it was a noisy brute and I ended up moving onto other things. Not sure if the slim version is quieter than the old fat 60GB version I have.

 

[rjb70stoke]

The PS3 is a truly great machine. Very flexible in what it can play, and excellent quality both Audio and Video.

My only flaw is the inteface for navigating Music or Movies. If ever they updated the dreadful X-bar interface to something more akin to Apple TV, or Windows Media Center, any argument/conversation about the merits of media players/streamers would be over.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Could be a 'hell freezes over', that one: Sony seems very proud of its XrossMediaBar thingy, to the extent that it's been rolled out from the PS3 to all sorts of other products!

 

[nads]

A Playstation 3 will.

Run PS3 mediaserver on your pc, and point it at the Itunes Library. The PS3 will recognise the ALAC songs as PCM.

It also plays vobs, and has Iplayer, 4ond, ITVplayer, Qriocity, Lovefilm, Videzone.

If u get playtv for it, it can double as a pvr as well.

Add a psp and u can watch/listen/control all this remotely on the psp over wireless or the internet.

Oh and it plays blu-rays and the odd game.

but does that not require the PC to be on?

 

[Gozaradio]

What about a dedicated laptop??

Can either use the screen or output it to a TV.

Will do what you require.

I'm with Messiah on this one. For the very specific tasks that you have asked for, only a PC or Mac would do everything you ask for out of the box without any major tweaking. The PS3 is a great idea but, as has already been pointed out, requires a PC on the network to be on as well.

It wouldn't have to be anything full size; if not a laptop, then could be a small form factor PC or a Mac Mini (new or second hand). There are some impressively small PCs running Windows such as the Asus EeeBox but I have no experience of them myself.

 

[Anonymous]

The ps3 only requires a pc media server to play ALAC. (Apple users are used to having to have their pc on anyway).

The rest of the stuff mentioned (vobs, catchup tv, pvr) the ps3 does natively.

 

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