Upgrading my streaming system - help?

XSnPX

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May 14, 2008
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Hi there,

For a while now I have been using my PS3 as the heart of my Media streaming needs for both movies and films. I have an old desktop PC with plenty of films and music on it. My wireless modem has 4 Ethernet outputs, all connected to my Onkyo, Blu-ray player, PS3 and Desktop PC.

I use a software package called PS3 Media Server v1.50 in order to find my media on my PC. My laptop connected wirelessly accesses my desktop via RDC to control everything as a server and I use the PS3 to connect to my desktop media with the software and thus far has served me very well.

My old desktop is a loud machine (bought gaming machine in 2004) and dont use it anymore as i have a laptop and is only used as a media server to stream music and films to my PS3 and for the odd conversion there and there. I want to buy a small quiet PC that will still have the capabilities to do conversions by connecting to it RDC from my laptop.

Now, the questions... Would buying a Lacie LaCinema or Boxee (or other) be a better streming device than my current set-up? Is it worth spending circa £180 to have a dedicated streamer instead of using the PS3 set-up? I understand that the metadata already helps straight away, but in terms of audio/visual is it a step I should consider and what recommendations may you have.

Thank you

Ben.
 

AnotherJoe

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Jun 10, 2011
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Before I go on I will just say that the options wont improve the quality of your streaming - the PS3 is a very good streamer - though it may improve the convenience (ie PC not needed).

Depending how technical you are with LINUX - you might want to look at getting a QNAP NAS and installing PS3 Media server on that. Then the NAS can do the converting so you no longer need your pc.

http://wiki.qnap.com/wiki/PS3_Media_Server

Failing that....

I used to have a similar setup to you, and went through 2 stages to upgrade.

The first was I bought a Netgear ReadyNAS to store all my media on. This gave me more space, and if the media was in a PS3 compatible format (VOB/divx for films, mp3 for music) I didnt need the pc on. To convert other formats obviously the pc is still required.

Then I added a ACRyan playon!hd mini2 which plays virtually any format so the PC and PS3 are no longer required at all. Now all my dvd/bd rips are in .ISO format, and the music in FLAC.
 

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