Home media centre choice help please?
Discussion
Hi everyone
Well - it's coming. I'm moving in with my girlfriend. Yes, you read that right. Mid september, to be precise (her lodgers are being turfed out).
So, I've been given carte blanche on a number of things. 1) my man room. In it is going my drum kits (1 electronic / 1 acoustic) and other such manly stuff. Porn probably.
Anyway; the other thing, is I can do whatever I wish with the networking/tvs etc. And here's the crux of my question. I've done some reading and investigating but now seek the wisdom of you guys.
What would be the best solution for me?
We will be buying a new tele (Pansonic 37X10B was well recommend on here through Der's place which looks like a great buy), and to that I want to be able to watch movies that come from my computer.
I have a good spec PC (on XP) which will be in man room, but I want to be able to play movies on the TV in lounge and also TV in bedroom from that. I'm in two minds whether to get a stand alone media PC or use my current one - for fear of it being slow when watching a movie AND someone's working on the PC at the same time? Anyway, either way, I think a media pc upstrais is the way forward.
How do I then get/use/control it? I've seen mention of media extenders, for example, or little black boxes that house a wireless card that you plug in to TV and stream from PC. Getting wires down to the lounge won't be easy so that sounds tempting!
On the TV itself we'll just have 1 input of a Wii and the media input (whatever that may be). Ideally I'll put some speakers running off the TV to the rest of the downstrais so I can play music (not worried about ace quality) out of it all too.
I've seen so many choices and suggestions from other similar questions that I'm a little lost and this is where I appreciate your thoughts!
So;
-TV, panasonic 37X10B edit; ok, I'm puzzling myself on the DigDir website. I want 1080p (i assume?) and largest size (37 - 42 ish I guess) for my money - around 500-700 quid?!
-Getting media wirelessly to two different TVs?
Thanks one and all
Well - it's coming. I'm moving in with my girlfriend. Yes, you read that right. Mid september, to be precise (her lodgers are being turfed out).
So, I've been given carte blanche on a number of things. 1) my man room. In it is going my drum kits (1 electronic / 1 acoustic) and other such manly stuff. Porn probably.
Anyway; the other thing, is I can do whatever I wish with the networking/tvs etc. And here's the crux of my question. I've done some reading and investigating but now seek the wisdom of you guys.
What would be the best solution for me?
We will be buying a new tele (Pansonic 37X10B was well recommend on here through Der's place which looks like a great buy), and to that I want to be able to watch movies that come from my computer.
I have a good spec PC (on XP) which will be in man room, but I want to be able to play movies on the TV in lounge and also TV in bedroom from that. I'm in two minds whether to get a stand alone media PC or use my current one - for fear of it being slow when watching a movie AND someone's working on the PC at the same time? Anyway, either way, I think a media pc upstrais is the way forward.
How do I then get/use/control it? I've seen mention of media extenders, for example, or little black boxes that house a wireless card that you plug in to TV and stream from PC. Getting wires down to the lounge won't be easy so that sounds tempting!
On the TV itself we'll just have 1 input of a Wii and the media input (whatever that may be). Ideally I'll put some speakers running off the TV to the rest of the downstrais so I can play music (not worried about ace quality) out of it all too.
I've seen so many choices and suggestions from other similar questions that I'm a little lost and this is where I appreciate your thoughts!
So;
-TV, panasonic 37X10B edit; ok, I'm puzzling myself on the DigDir website. I want 1080p (i assume?) and largest size (37 - 42 ish I guess) for my money - around 500-700 quid?!
-Getting media wirelessly to two different TVs?
Thanks one and all
Edited by TonyHetherington on Tuesday 14th July 12:28
I have created a similar setup in my home - Bought a media centre PC (running Vista Premium) / new TV and installed the old TV upstairs.
To run the TV upstairs I used my Xbox (built in media extender) so that I could have a 'gaming' room upstairs, although the Wii remained downstairs as the other half enjoys playing it too much!
I initially had the connection to the Xbox running off a wireless ethernet adapter, but soon changed it over to a hard wired connection due to the wireless signal not being fantastic and problems with the connection dropping for no apparent reason and not being able to reconnect it without rebooting the router. While it was connected via wireless, it did a reasonable job most of the time but there was quite a long delay when trying to skip through recorded TV programs. Once on a hard wired connection, there is barely any delay at all.
If memory serves, the MCE signal strength meter on the Xbox did state that HD streaming was not possible (it may have been possible, but I never actually tested it!)
I'd certainly recommend using a reasonably powerful computer as we occasionally get a bit of stuttering on recorded TV programs when the media centre PC is recording 2 channels at the same time and playing back HD DVD's.
HTH
WNC
To run the TV upstairs I used my Xbox (built in media extender) so that I could have a 'gaming' room upstairs, although the Wii remained downstairs as the other half enjoys playing it too much!
I initially had the connection to the Xbox running off a wireless ethernet adapter, but soon changed it over to a hard wired connection due to the wireless signal not being fantastic and problems with the connection dropping for no apparent reason and not being able to reconnect it without rebooting the router. While it was connected via wireless, it did a reasonable job most of the time but there was quite a long delay when trying to skip through recorded TV programs. Once on a hard wired connection, there is barely any delay at all.
If memory serves, the MCE signal strength meter on the Xbox did state that HD streaming was not possible (it may have been possible, but I never actually tested it!)
I'd certainly recommend using a reasonably powerful computer as we occasionally get a bit of stuttering on recorded TV programs when the media centre PC is recording 2 channels at the same time and playing back HD DVD's.
HTH
WNC
Interesting stuff - thanks.
Sounds fairly similar set up then, bar the XBox.
We have an old PC that I'm considering turning into a dedicated media centre - is that viable? Stick some decent RAM, big hard-drive and check the processor is ok and using that on it's own. Will have to look at wiring then and how I could do it.
How do you get from the PC to the lounge TV? Do you have a media extender?
Sounds fairly similar set up then, bar the XBox.
We have an old PC that I'm considering turning into a dedicated media centre - is that viable? Stick some decent RAM, big hard-drive and check the processor is ok and using that on it's own. Will have to look at wiring then and how I could do it.
How do you get from the PC to the lounge TV? Do you have a media extender?
I can't believe I'm an IT geek, and I'm giong to ask this; what's NAS? (I'ms ure it's going to be obvious as well!).
A colleague here mentioned going a PS3 route - blu-ray capabailty too then! How do you get the movies onto the Ps3 though? Ideally I want to be able to download tv shows/movies (paying legally, obviously) and then play them from the same system.
A colleague here mentioned going a PS3 route - blu-ray capabailty too then! How do you get the movies onto the Ps3 though? Ideally I want to be able to download tv shows/movies (paying legally, obviously) and then play them from the same system.
Tony, I've got a similar setup.
My pc upstairs (quad core pentium, 4gb ram) is the hub, with all movies/music/photos on a couple of external drives. The pc can still be used whenever the media is being streamed (causing no lag or buffering anywhere).
Downstairs, the main tv, got the PS3 hooked up, and networked using the devolo 200Mbps home plug, much better than wireless, and saves hassle laying cat5 cables. I use tversity for streaming to the ps3, this can be set to upscale to 1080 on the fly, nice bit of kit (and free). You can subscribe to online videocasts with it, view raw photos, and a hell of a lot more.
Two tv's upstairs each have a wireless media center running from the devolo plugs. Can't remember the make of my media centers, but they are similar to this linksys one one though, just make sure it supports divx and the likes to cover most movie types.
As for playing music throughout, that's my next challenge. I have the Sony HT IS100, which is capable of running additional wireless speakers.
Hope this is of some help,
Neil.
My pc upstairs (quad core pentium, 4gb ram) is the hub, with all movies/music/photos on a couple of external drives. The pc can still be used whenever the media is being streamed (causing no lag or buffering anywhere).
Downstairs, the main tv, got the PS3 hooked up, and networked using the devolo 200Mbps home plug, much better than wireless, and saves hassle laying cat5 cables. I use tversity for streaming to the ps3, this can be set to upscale to 1080 on the fly, nice bit of kit (and free). You can subscribe to online videocasts with it, view raw photos, and a hell of a lot more.
Two tv's upstairs each have a wireless media center running from the devolo plugs. Can't remember the make of my media centers, but they are similar to this linksys one one though, just make sure it supports divx and the likes to cover most movie types.
As for playing music throughout, that's my next challenge. I have the Sony HT IS100, which is capable of running additional wireless speakers.
Hope this is of some help,
Neil.
Edited by 4hero on Tuesday 14th July 15:03
Bloomin fantastic - that's exactly the sort of thing I had in mind!
A few questions if I may, sorry to trouble you...
1) I have a Wii which will connect to the lounge TV. Looking at Tversity it says I can go to a Wii straight away and access content through that using wireless. Do I need the home gateway ASWELL or will the Wii just connect through the wireless router?
2) What's the difference between the home gateway that you linked to, and the media extenders that you've got on your two tvss upstairs? (I'll do a similar thing and have one for the bedroom TV also). In my uneducated eyes they look to perform the same function?
3) so the only wired connections you have are the HDMI between the boxes/gateways and the TVs, and between the router and the PC? Thus saving a whole heap of cabling worries!
4) Do I need Vista, or is XP ok? If I use TVersity (which looks smart) it seems like I can do it with XP. I have a nice stable system so ideally didn't want to change, but can do if needed).
This seems very achievable and potentially cheaper than I had in mind - thanks
A few questions if I may, sorry to trouble you...
1) I have a Wii which will connect to the lounge TV. Looking at Tversity it says I can go to a Wii straight away and access content through that using wireless. Do I need the home gateway ASWELL or will the Wii just connect through the wireless router?
2) What's the difference between the home gateway that you linked to, and the media extenders that you've got on your two tvss upstairs? (I'll do a similar thing and have one for the bedroom TV also). In my uneducated eyes they look to perform the same function?
3) so the only wired connections you have are the HDMI between the boxes/gateways and the TVs, and between the router and the PC? Thus saving a whole heap of cabling worries!
4) Do I need Vista, or is XP ok? If I use TVersity (which looks smart) it seems like I can do it with XP. I have a nice stable system so ideally didn't want to change, but can do if needed).
This seems very achievable and potentially cheaper than I had in mind - thanks
oops, the develo link on my previous post was wrong, this is the correct one
1) Your WII can connect via wifi to tversity, I also have a wii, and it'll work exactly the same way as the ps3. I would recommend the devolo plug over wifi though (4 times quicker, and no buffering what so ever!).
2) q1 covers that I think
3) Yeah, HDMI from ps3/media centers to tv's, and ethernet from each to the devolo plugs. The devolo plug to the routher is also connected via ethernet.
4) I can't see why tversity won't work on XP, use vista myself. I'll give it a bash on one of my laptops tonight to see how it works.
edited to say, it's a pretty neat solution, and I HATE CABLES
1) Your WII can connect via wifi to tversity, I also have a wii, and it'll work exactly the same way as the ps3. I would recommend the devolo plug over wifi though (4 times quicker, and no buffering what so ever!).
2) q1 covers that I think
3) Yeah, HDMI from ps3/media centers to tv's, and ethernet from each to the devolo plugs. The devolo plug to the routher is also connected via ethernet.
4) I can't see why tversity won't work on XP, use vista myself. I'll give it a bash on one of my laptops tonight to see how it works.
edited to say, it's a pretty neat solution, and I HATE CABLES
Edited by 4hero on Tuesday 14th July 15:16
Great that makes sense now - sounds perfect for what I'm after!
So you COULD use wireless on your PS3 and indeed on your media extender, however you're choosing to use the Devlo plugs simply so it's wired for better speed, no buffering etc?
Those plugs have solved me one huge problem actually - the internet access point is in the lounge somewhere I think and I wasn't sure how to get cable up to my PC; well and truly solved that now!
I think that's me pretty much solved!
Those items you've linked to, they're the ones to go for are they?
Thanks again for your help - I've learnt a lot this afternoon.
So you COULD use wireless on your PS3 and indeed on your media extender, however you're choosing to use the Devlo plugs simply so it's wired for better speed, no buffering etc?
Those plugs have solved me one huge problem actually - the internet access point is in the lounge somewhere I think and I wasn't sure how to get cable up to my PC; well and truly solved that now!
I think that's me pretty much solved!
Those items you've linked to, they're the ones to go for are they?
Thanks again for your help - I've learnt a lot this afternoon.
I found the wireless really sluggish from the ps3, lots of buffering (even playing music). There is no buffering at all with the devolo homeplugs, I can skim down the 200+ movies in the menu and it's all instant. Takes about 2 seconds for a movie to start playing (that's with it being upsclaed to 1080 via tversity).
I'm not sure about the wireless hard drive/media center (wish I could remember the make of mine, not at home just now though), the Logitech one above seems to get good reviews though.
Home plugs are excellent, probably still not quite as quick as cat5, but it does save mucking about.
AVforums is pretty handy, some great setups on there!
Happy to help
I'm not sure about the wireless hard drive/media center (wish I could remember the make of mine, not at home just now though), the Logitech one above seems to get good reviews though.
Home plugs are excellent, probably still not quite as quick as cat5, but it does save mucking about.
AVforums is pretty handy, some great setups on there!
Happy to help
If your screen accepts HDMI (which I am sure it will!!!), then do a bit of searching around as there are a few graphics cards which output to HDMI as the HDMI signal worked straight out of the box for me at full 1920 resolution (although it's not quite so easy to browse the web at that resolution from the comfort of the sofa!!!).
I can't recommend any particular card as I simply use a DVI to HDMI converter as I couldn't find any decent 1/2 height graphics cards with HDMI output.
I can't recommend any particular card as I simply use a DVI to HDMI converter as I couldn't find any decent 1/2 height graphics cards with HDMI output.
Yeah the screen certainly will accept HDMI, and I have a G-Force graphics card that has twin HDMI outputs - but to plug straight into the TV I'd need the PC downstairs which I didn't really want to do (or need a seperate media PC), but with this set up I can stick to one computer (which I like!) and then connect the HDMI of the media centre output into the tele. Nice idea though - thanks!
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