Media Server possibilities serve/stream wireless/wired

urville

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Aug 6, 2008
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I've got a bunch of stuff laying around...

centurion case, evga geforce 6800gt PCI-E card, 2 gigs of corsair ram, 2 twin 250 gig ide drives a 200 gig sata drive, evga 680i motherboard <which never got used> power supply, and a dual core duo 1.8ghz chip...

So I'm thinking a media server... That or sell it all as a system

I was thinking stream music to stereos, stream video to the tv, hold the files off my main system, remotely control it, convert my dvds to avi's... etc...

I have all of the physical stuff, and all the know how to build it. But I'm pretty knew past just hooking up tv-out... unfortunately I cant run a svideo this far, plus I want something easier to expand than running cable in walls if at all possible. Though i am not currently against it./

I'd really appreciate any advice.

Do i need an x-fi card? I dont currently use 5.1, but my integrated has it if I want it.

Did I forget to include any info?

Thanks in advance
 

urville

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Aug 6, 2008
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Well, I'm stumped as to why no one has replied. I searched this board endlessly and found little to nothing in the way of info on this subject. Especially not focused on having a decently powerful spare PC that can easily handle streaming. Seems there used to be some talk about h.264 being ridiculously high in it's requirements, but I play h.264 on an old Turion 64 with an ATI mobility xpress 200, so...

I forgot to mention I had a LiteOn cd/dvd combo burner as well.

Having this complete system I know now leaves me a couple of options.

I could use Media Center 2005. I wont touch anything Vista... again... ever. Using that I'd need a remote package, and most likely I'd have to spend more money to get a media center extender. Not really wanting to spend hundreds more with that level of hardware committed already.

I could use ridiculously long cable runs. Doable... but not preferable.

Other issues:
I read a MaximumPC article stating they refer regular old WinXP Pro over MC. Plus, it's plain expensive and I'm apprehensive having never seen it in action myself.

If I choose not to use MC, I could control it all with my laptop via remote PC or some equivalent, but I'm not positive of the logistics, security, and/or cost factor. Ease of use comes to mind.

Are there viable alternatives to MC? I've read the Linux articles. I need something that's a bit easier to maintain. I dont expect to be keeping national secrets on it, and anyone needs to be able to work it, and it needs to work. I'd like a high uptime, not a constant tinker. Don't attack me just yet, it's just me personal experience ymmv'd. I'm not ruling it out, but I'm not convinced either.

I'm not for sure but I assume, pretty safely, that upgrading to a gigabit router, assuming gigabit streaming devices exist, would not hurt. If I choose not to even use CAT-5, then a N spec router is more than likely not a bad idea as well, I assume.

Aside from all that, how to get it to older TV's. Some only have one coax, and a set of RCAs. Without a set top box of some kind, that leaves long cable runs.

It's dizzying how little there is in DIY of this paticular subject period, let alone when you factor in the varying ways it might be tackled as in homebuilt vs. consumer box product, network vs. cable runs, wireless, wired, etc etc
 

urville

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Aug 6, 2008
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I"ve looked art MythPC... This is more PVR than Media Center. I need something to host and play my existing AVI's, music, and photos as well.