whole house media server/htpc build (music,photos,movies,TV) Suggestions appreciatedm

wow, that's a lot to tackle. I'm pretty sure direct tv has a program where you can watch what was recorded on the directv dvr on any computer in your network. So what if you had directv on your primary tv/movie viewing room and two HTPC's running in the other two rooms, one of which would double as a NAS? Wait, you couldn't stream back to your primary room unless you were to use a media extender there. Either way I think you want to use your directv dvr to record premium content, remember you cant copy off the dvr but you can stream to other computers.

You could go fairly cheap on the HTPC's if you aren't using them to playback 3d blue rays. I think it might be possible to build amd e350 systems for around $300 minus the OS.

You could even drop a $30-40 radeon 5450 into any computer around 2-3yrs old and make a decent htpc

I cannot offer a solution for all of that....but using jriver Media Center 15 (http://www.jriver.com) with their new GIZMO Andrioid tablet application is pretty cool and gets you alot of bang. They also have a new DLNA music appliance called the Id that is pretty cool for playing music where you don't have a PC handy.

Here is the link: http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/conten...ogy/directv2pc

You could use TVersity Pro ($39.99) and that's what is - A Media Server, it also handles trans coding. http://tversity.com/

All your devices should access it, including DirecTV DVR's as long as you have Ethernet and Media Serve enabled.

What is your main concern? You wanna access your media from anywhere in the house? You can access TVersity from anywhere you can bring up the URL...

I think TVersity will cover that. As for automatic backup, can't you do that in W7 using its automatic backup feature?

To access DirecTV files directly from DVR on your PC, DirecTV2PC is basically your only choice.

Finally TVersity Pro has access to several streaming web sites

Start small.
Build ONE HTPC and build up from there, don't try to do everythign at once.

I am using J River MC15 with an HP EX485 and a HTPC.
I use it for all video, audio and photos. It works really well and version 15 has really excelled at working with zones. I have 6 zones(4 audio and 2 video) set up in my house and all are able to play different material simultaneously or play the same thing in sync. I am using an M-Audio Delta 410 soundcard to 4 of the zones. The Gizmo Android app to control all of the zones has worked flawlessly for me over WiFi and 3g. The only thing I am disappointed in is that as far as I know Gizmo is not able to combine zones to sync. This has to be done from a PC. The team at J. River is continuously updating the software and the app so hopefully this will be added in future releases. I love being able to control my media using JRMC from any connected client with the software installed as well as gizmo installed on any Android device. Gizmo also works to stream your music and photos to your Android device for playback. Video playback is planned for the future. It is not possible to control power of your AVR from within the app at this time. There have been requests made on the JRMC Forum for this feature.
As far as Itunes and Airport Express.been there done that.returned the T-shirt. Itunes is slow and clunky with large libraries. I have over 15000 audio files, 20000 images and 600 movies in my JRMC database and it is lightning fast. The team continues to tweak it and speed things up. It really is a joy to use. I do not see Itunes ever fitting into ANY system I ever build. But I do not want to turn this into a debate as to which is better or worse. All I can say is that JRMC is the choice for me. I know that XBMC can do a lot but, JRMC has not let me down yet. The evolution of JRMC from v15.001 to v15.173 is really amazing. I see great things in the future. My system is similar to what you are looking to do and I will tell you that many of the issues or shortcomings of my system by MY OWN DESIGN have been remedied by the this evolution in JRMC over the last 11 months. I did not have to look for work arounds or alternate methods to do certain tasks. The software updates kept adding new features and tweaking old features making me look forward to each release.

As far as the server goes, I have an HP EX485 running WHS and that is where all my media is stored. I thought about installing JRMC on it but I run a dedicated HTPC using WIN7 Pro which then in turn outputs HDMI to a 4x4 Matrix Switch for distribution to the TV's in the house. Up until now I have not had a need for any more media extenders, but it is on the horizon. I will probably go for another HTPC so I can use JRMC's interface for simplicity. The server does the automatic back up of all the PC's in the house. This just works.
I just picked up an HD Homerun and am just starting to play around with it. It is for OTA only and I am on the fence as whether I will be using JRMC's TV interface or WMC for playback and DVR functionality. I think this is the one area where WMC beats JRMC at the moment. I just need to work out how I am going to implement this with my Harmony remotes so one button will take you to WMC Live TV on activity start and then back to JRMC Theater View when done watching TV. Not hard to do, just need time to implement.

> backups - Windows Backup with a sync software like skydrive.
> use Airfoil by Rogue Ameoba to select output. I have used Oremote for Onkyo receivers with success. Use Remote App by apple to select songs.
> torrents - map a drive on your laptop that would allow you to start torrents that would store on an htpc.
I don't see the point in building a dedicated server, just use 7200rpm drives, 10/100/1000, extra ram in whichever htpc and use it as an htpc and server.
> I really like my Logitech Harmony 900, but it's weakest area is htpc. It just can't replace a mini keyboard/mouse/touchpad. speaking of... - I use Synergy+ to share my keyoard and touchpad from my laptop to control my htpc.

This is the most valuable advice so far...

If you have some experience in project management, you might want to use it in this situation...

It is already a good thing that you know what you want, you just need to carefully determine what comes first before the other.

Not big on any Apple products but have you considered XMBC? You can use it to access your network files and play ripped content through it.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/20/x...-new-apple-tv/

my personal choice would be to just run sage on the WHS and then put HD300's at each TV and call it a day...

~$50 for Sage server, $150 per zone

no cablecard support though, so if you insist on keeping cable you would need one or more HDPVR's... but since you are not handicapped with crappy Cablecard DRM that doesn't seem to be of any value to us end users you wouldn't need to worry about what was recorded where... just record anything once and watch it anywhere...

Right now, the ATV2 will only play iTunes formatted video content.....it's been jailbroken but nothing ready for prime-time.

As to DVD playback, i'm half way through encoding my DVD library to iTunes format using AnyDVD and Handbrake. Really simple and does a great job. Time consuming though.

The Apple TV has 2 outputs....one HDMI for digital audio and video and one Optical for digital audio only. It's one solution for both audio and video. Dedicated zones that won't be using video can use the Airport Express instead.

After reading your thread, i tried all of my zones playing different content of both audio and video simulotaneously(4 zones now!) and it worked flawlessly. Walked around with the iTouch changing songs and movies as i went. At my last stop i even gave Airplay a try with all zones running and streamed Pandora directly from the touch to an Airport. Pretty not bad for an all Apple, inexpensive streaming solution......IMO of course!

satellite doesn't use cable cable card? only cable uses cable card, and only then when they have too...
for satellite (or cable) just use a HDPVR, or better yet the new and improved version that should be out sooner or later... no DRM, no restrictions, use the content you paid for however you want...

the HDx00's are also good with Pictures, DVD's, Blurays, HDDVD's (ripped as MKV's maybe some other formats are supported too?), some web content, other web content with the addition of Playon, music (kinda sorta... it works, plays my flac files just fine, but my Sonos setup has a much better UI for music)
auto commercial skipping DVR usage (OTA with tuner, FTA with tuner, any SAT/Cable premium, PPV, anything really with HDPVR/capture device)

Worked well on the 1g ATV, but nothin yet on the 2g. The horsepower and memory are there, more so than the 1g. It's just gonna take some time. Truthfully i like the ATV2 factory GUI enough to not wanna sacrifice relaibility long term but that's just me.

Will be rippin some Blue Rays this weekend so i'll let you know how it goes. Others have had good success so far.

The nice thing about the adio side is there's no TV/Display needed for operation, just the iTouch,Pad,Phone. I HEAR that the new iPhone and upcoming iOS will allow airplay streaming of videos and pics captured on the phone. That's gonna be a real game changer for a lot of folks. Imagine the Amateur porn possibilites?

http://xbmc.org/theuni/2011/01/20/yo...-ipad-iphone4/