I have read so much on this site and others and have a Big headache.. and yet I’m still lost on how to set a media server up..

I’m posting this on this site because to me it seems to be the most knowledged when it comes to home theater setups ( my current projector screen was painted from help of others on this site.. thanks for that )

Here is my next project:

A media server that streams video/audio via Ethernet strait to 3 different TVs in 3 different rooms.. For now I’m just wanting to stream movies ( AVI, MPEG etc ) to the TVs.

A couple of things that I am confused about.

1 – Hardware requirements to stream HD video/audio
2 – Can I actually stream from server ( via Ethernet ) directly to a TV without a PC client
3 – OS/ software best to do this


For the 3 TVs I was thinking of using the following
hxxp://www.hometheaterblog.com/hometheater/2006/05/component-dvi-and-hdmi-over-cat-5

But this is were I’m lost and reading and reading has not paid off for me, maybe I’m just over thinking this and it will just work.. but my luck and guess it will not.

How do I control the video in the rooms ? I’m missing a Big peace here and I’m just not seeing it… please help .. maybe someone has this same setup at home???:confused::confused:

Now I know some of you are gona say to go out and buy a media server, but my goal and what makes this hobby a great one is to make one myself.. buying a media server is the easy way out .lol

Anyway hope someone can help or guide me to the answers..
Cheers!!

Here is my next project:

A media server that streams video/audio via Ethernet strait to 3 different TVs in 3 different rooms.. For now I’m just wanting to stream movies ( AVI, MPEG etc ) to the TVs.

A couple of things that I am confused about.

1 – Hardware requirements to stream HD video/audio
2 – Can I actually stream from server ( via Ethernet ) directly to a TV without a PC client
3 – OS/ software best to do this

Cheers!!

1. I would recommend buying some streaming media player like popcorn hour, tvix, etc. You can read about them in this forum. It will play files from an internal hard disk or from the network. Some even do wireless. I prefer to have a main storage server and I use Ubuntu (linux) for this purpose and the server's hardware is modest since I am only sending the files to the media players.
2. You can not stream straight to the TV via ethernet without some type of media palying device as notes in 1.
3. I prefer to have main storage server and I use Ubuntu (linux) for this purpose and the server's hardware is modest since I am only sending the files to the media players. You can use Windows as well. There are even NAS media server boxes that can be bought that work straight out of the box.

This is the easy way to setup streaming media players and probably the cheapest. Each of the media players have thier own strengths and weaknesses so you need to figure out which one would work for you and it requires reading the various threads to do that.

With the right TV you can stream directly to the TV via ethernet. The Pioneer Kuros support it.

With the right TV you can stream directly to the TV via ethernet. The Pioneer Kuros support it.

So does Samsung 7 series. I am streaming all the movies from upstairs to the TV directly.

There are extenders that could support audio/video via cat5, but I'm not sure I see the advantage to that.

Wireless-N, with the correct setup, will support 300 Mbps. Regular ethernet is 100 Mbps.

Although both might serve your purposes (100 Mbps should be adequate in most circumstances), the added bandwidth and freedom of wireless along with the ability to add on to the network (and extended support for other devices) is more than worth going for a wireless solution IMO.

There are extenders that could support audio/video via cat5, but I'm not sure I see the advantage to that.

Wireless-N, with the correct setup, will support 300 Mbps. Regular ethernet is 100 Mbps.

Although both might serve your purposes (100 Mbps should be adequate in most circumstances), the added bandwidth and freedom of wireless along with the ability to add on to the network (and extended support for other devices) is more than worth going for a wireless solution IMO.

Bandwidth isn't going to be your limiting factor with wireless-- it's interference. Hard-wired ethernet, even fast ethernet (100mbps), will out-perform wireless in most cases.

There is another OS which will work for streaming, Windows Home Server. Very reliable in this role. Of course, as is ubuntu. Streaming can be more RAM intensive than processor intensive, I would suggest at lest 2 gb's.

Ben

There is another OS which will work for streaming, Windows Home Server. Very reliable in this role. Of course, as is ubuntu. Streaming can be more RAM intensive than processor intensive, I would suggest at lest 2 gb's.

Ben

I think you mean transcoding-on-the-fly, not streaming. Streaming itself is not intensive in anything. My RAID box (Synology CS-407 w/ Twonky) has 128mb of RAM, and is perfectly happy streaming to multiple boxes simultaneously. But I don't ask it to transcode on the fly.