Hi AVS forum,
I recently purchased a new condominium in Toronto, and while it is in the progress of being built (parking garage is done, yay!), I wanted to dedicate some planning time to my media consumption solution. The size of the condominium prohibits me from having anything but the most simple of setups, so my ideal solution would be to wallmount a plasma or LCD and run all the necessary cabling through the walls, and feed the television streamed content from the computer I am intending to place in the den (the entire condo is wired with CAT5E, there will be no bandwidth issues). I will not be using cable television, although I will likely attach an OTA HD antenna for local news at some point, if I can't find an adequate streaming option online. Put simply, my ideal solution is a wallmounted TV with no media stand, cable box or HTPC below it - just nice, clean wall, which will definitely make the place feel bigger.
Given that I am subscribing to minimalism, my ideal solution would be to have the television with built-in media streaming capabilities, with an added bonus of being able to access services like Netflix (my father's Samsung TV has Netflix built in, and it works exceptionally well - all he has to do is turn the TV on, hit the apps button, select Netflix, select a movie and he's watching in under 20 seconds - thats the kind of experience I want). In the opinion of AVS forum, have media streamers in smart TVs advanced to the point (or will advance in the next 1.5 years, when my condo will be complete) that, when combined with a relatively powerful office computer with something like Serviio installed, they are able to replicate an external media streaming device? Am I setting myself up for endless frustration, and should I instead just bite the bullet and build an HTPC that I can perhaps hide behind the television?
Thank you very much for any assistance!
I recently purchased a new condominium in Toronto, and while it is in the progress of being built (parking garage is done, yay!), I wanted to dedicate some planning time to my media consumption solution. The size of the condominium prohibits me from having anything but the most simple of setups, so my ideal solution would be to wallmount a plasma or LCD and run all the necessary cabling through the walls, and feed the television streamed content from the computer I am intending to place in the den (the entire condo is wired with CAT5E, there will be no bandwidth issues). I will not be using cable television, although I will likely attach an OTA HD antenna for local news at some point, if I can't find an adequate streaming option online. Put simply, my ideal solution is a wallmounted TV with no media stand, cable box or HTPC below it - just nice, clean wall, which will definitely make the place feel bigger.
Given that I am subscribing to minimalism, my ideal solution would be to have the television with built-in media streaming capabilities, with an added bonus of being able to access services like Netflix (my father's Samsung TV has Netflix built in, and it works exceptionally well - all he has to do is turn the TV on, hit the apps button, select Netflix, select a movie and he's watching in under 20 seconds - thats the kind of experience I want). In the opinion of AVS forum, have media streamers in smart TVs advanced to the point (or will advance in the next 1.5 years, when my condo will be complete) that, when combined with a relatively powerful office computer with something like Serviio installed, they are able to replicate an external media streaming device? Am I setting myself up for endless frustration, and should I instead just bite the bullet and build an HTPC that I can perhaps hide behind the television?
Thank you very much for any assistance!
