Home Media server

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  • ray5
    Senior Member
    • Dec 2008
    • 444

    Home Media server

    Hi!
    I am recently into HT and was wondering what a home media serever is? My objective?
    I do a lot of photography and have a lot of blu-rays and DVD's which I 'd like quick access and playback capability rather than feed them in the tray one by one after locating them. Also would do the same to my collection of CD's. This would I guess also can serve as my back up for my computers in the rest of the house which I want to do wirelessly. Please educate. Thanks,
    Ray
  • Kevin P
    Member
    • Aug 2000
    • 10809

    #2
    Basically it's a computer that you can load your music and movies on to and play them on your home theater directly from the computer. With tuner card(s) the server can act as a DVR as well.

    It's also known as a Home Theater PC (HTPC), though one could have a HTPC in your theater room connected to your TV, connected via network (wired or wireless) to a media server elsewhere that stores all your media.

    At a minimum you'll want a system with lots of hard drive storage and a gigabit Ethernet connection, or a fast wireless connection. If you want to use it as a HTPC, you'll need a fast CPU, lots of RAM (4 GB is cheap nowadays), decent video card that can connect to your TV (e.g. HDMI out), a DVD-R or Blu Ray drive, and a tuner (for OTA/unscrambled cable) or video capture card (to get video from a satellite or cable box). You'll want a SPDIF output, or a 5.1/7.1 sound card as well.

    EDIT: Where in NH do you live? I'm in NH too.

    Comment

    • ray5
      Senior Member
      • Dec 2008
      • 444

      #3
      Originally posted by Kevin P
      Basically it's a computer that you can load your music and movies on to and play them on your home theater directly from the computer. With tuner card(s) the server can act as a DVR as well.

      It's also known as a Home Theater PC (HTPC), though one could have a HTPC in your theater room connected to your TV, connected via network (wired or wireless) to a media server elsewhere that stores all your media.

      At a minimum you'll want a system with lots of hard drive storage and a gigabit Ethernet connection, or a fast wireless connection. If you want to use it as a HTPC, you'll need a fast CPU, lots of RAM (4 GB is cheap nowadays), decent video card that can connect to your TV (e.g. HDMI out), a DVD-R or Blu Ray drive, and a tuner (for OTA/unscrambled cable) or video capture card (to get video from a satellite or cable box). You'll want a SPDIF output, or a 5.1/7.1 sound card as well.

      EDIT: Where in NH do you live? I'm in NH too.
      Thanks. Durham, NH.
      Can I load my blu-rays and DVD's onto to this as well and any recommendations on which one?
      Ray

      Comment

      • PewterTA
        Moderator
        • Nov 2004
        • 2901

        #4
        Yes you can as long as you have enough harddrive space and a blu-ray player in the computer.

        If you going to keep any large amount of them you'll start to need a TB or Two. I'd highly look at picking up a 2TB drive to give you the space you need.

        Blu-rays take about 45GB and DVDs are about 9GB if you don't compress and take all the extras. There are many programs out there that will allow you to "rip" the movie down to your PC, but as that boards the copy right law we can't help you a ton with this on the forum here.
        Digital Audio makes me Happy.
        -Dan

        Comment

        • ray5
          Senior Member
          • Dec 2008
          • 444

          #5
          Thanks. HOw do I go about getting one or DIY? I am not too handy with insides of a computer.

          Comment

          • aud19
            Twin Moderator Emeritus
            • Aug 2003
            • 16706

            #6
            I recommend using a seperate NAS of some sort to store your data. Keep the hot, noisy drives outside your listening/viewing room. They're also easier to expand, add to etc.
            Jason

            Comment

            • ray5
              Senior Member
              • Dec 2008
              • 444

              #7
              Originally posted by aud19
              I recommend using a seperate NAS of some sort to store your data. Keep the hot, noisy drives outside your listening/viewing room. They're also easier to expand, add to etc.
              Please elaborate. I am totally green about this.
              Ray

              Comment

              • Kevin P
                Member
                • Aug 2000
                • 10809

                #8
                NAS = Network Attached Storage. It's little more than a box with a hard drive or drive(s) that you plug into your network, and any computer on the network can access the files stored on the drive(s). They resemble external USB drives but they connect via ethernet (or in some instances WiFi) instead of USB.

                The advantage of them is they're relatively cheap, easy to add more if you run out of space, and you can place them in a location away from your theater to minimize noise/heat.

                Alternatively, if you have a computer already that you run 24/7 or at least all day, you could toss a couple 1-2 TB drives in it and use that as a file server.

                Comment

                • chrispy35
                  Senior Member
                  • Feb 2004
                  • 198

                  #9
                  For serving up media on your network and also backing up the PCs in your house, a Windows Home Server (HP, Acer, others...) is an excellent choice. I have a 1st-gen HP Mediasmart Server and the backups (nightly, weekly and monthly!) have saved my bacon a couple of times.

                  You'd still need some sort of renderer to display the content in your HT though (XBox, PS3, Squeezebox...).

                  Chris P.

                  Comment

                  • ray5
                    Senior Member
                    • Dec 2008
                    • 444

                    #10
                    Originally posted by Kevin P
                    NAS = Network Attached Storage. It's little more than a box with a hard drive or drive(s) that you plug into your network, and any computer on the network can access the files stored on the drive(s). They resemble external USB drives but they connect via ethernet (or in some instances WiFi) instead of USB.

                    The advantage of them is they're relatively cheap, easy to add more if you run out of space, and you can place them in a location away from your theater to minimize noise/heat.

                    Alternatively, if you have a computer already that you run 24/7 or at least all day, you could toss a couple 1-2 TB drives in it and use that as a file server.
                    I don't have a computer which can double up right now. How do I get started and what all will I need?

                    Comment

                    • sikoniko
                      Super Senior Member
                      • Aug 2003
                      • 2299

                      #11
                      if your new, perhaps the hp windows home server will be the best route for storing your growing collection. you can add hard drives as you go!

                      this will be seperate from the actual htpc though. so you'd need two systems. one to centrally store your media and at least one to access-playback your media. there are options coming available to replace your DVR, if you have cable, with the forthcoming cable card tuners and use extenders, such as an xbox360, to access content in remote rooms. keep in mind that extenders are not capable of playing back ISO's of BD/HDDVD content.
                      I'm just sittin here watchin the wheels go round and round...

                      Comment

                      • M.Roberts8
                        Senior Member
                        • Jan 2006
                        • 229

                        #12
                        Not to threadjack but I'm also interested in some sort of all-in-one type of media server. Like a Kaleidescape system but on the cheap. I have over 700 dvd's in my collection and would like easy access to them without going through all my drawers/stacks.

                        Would I be looking at a HTPC/NAS combo or would I need a server? Looking for something that will give me an onscreen menu of movies is that possible with a HTPC?

                        Comment

                        • wettou
                          Ultra Senior Member
                          • May 2006
                          • 3389

                          #13
                          Originally posted by M.Roberts8
                          Not to threadjack but I'm also interested in some sort of all-in-one type of media server. Like a Kaleidescape system but on the cheap. I have over 700 dvd's in my collection and would like easy access to them without going through all my drawers/stacks.

                          Would I be looking at a HTPC/NAS combo or would I need a server? Looking for something that will give me an onscreen menu of movies is that possible with a HTPC?
                          Check the Niveus media:W



                          You can store Blu Ray as well
                          Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field."Dwight D. Eisenhower

                          Comment

                          • mjb
                            Super Senior Member
                            • Mar 2005
                            • 1483

                            #14
                            If you're mainly interested in audio, one of the easiest and cheapest solutions is to get a Mac Mini, and use an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch to control it wirelessly. The software is free. iTunes can be set to start ripping a CD when inserted, and eject when finished. With an internet connection, track names and album art are automatically added. The Mac Mini has an optical Toslink output for a DAC, and so music ripped in AppleLossless is bit perfect.
                            - Mike

                            Main System:
                            B&W 802D, HTM2D, SCMS
                            Classé SSP-800, CA-2200, CA-5100

                            Comment

                            • wettou
                              Ultra Senior Member
                              • May 2006
                              • 3389

                              #15
                              Originally posted by mjb
                              If you're mainly interested in audio, one of the easiest and cheapest solutions is to get a Mac Mini, and use an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch to control it wirelessly. The software is free. iTunes can be set to start ripping a CD when inserted, and eject when finished. With an internet connection, track names and album art are automatically added. The Mac Mini has an optical Toslink output for a DAC, and so music ripped in AppleLossless is bit perfect.
                              Movies was the interest!

                              For music I like Apple TV
                              Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field."Dwight D. Eisenhower

                              Comment

                              • ray5
                                Senior Member
                                • Dec 2008
                                • 444

                                #16
                                Thanks. I am not sure it is doable but my primary focus would be movies and specifically my growing collection of Blu-rays discs, back up for all my computers wirelessly, music streaming and also playing music directly from websites without having to download them.
                                Ray

                                Comment

                                • M.Roberts8
                                  Senior Member
                                  • Jan 2006
                                  • 229

                                  #17
                                  Originally posted by wettou
                                  Check the Niveus media:W



                                  You can store Blu Ray as well
                                  Surely there has to be a way to do this cheaper than $1,600.00! I like the look of it but the "guts" sound like a cheap $400.00 pc.

                                  I was window shopping and had a AMD quad core, 4GB of RAM, 2 500GB HDD's, Nvidia 9800GT Graphics Card and HTPC case for under 600.00. For 1600.00 I could even get a couple of NAS with 1or 2TB in Raid easy.

                                  There has to be some kind of software that can provide the similar type of graphic interface for movie,music (movies mainly) selections.

                                  Comment

                                  • wettou
                                    Ultra Senior Member
                                    • May 2006
                                    • 3389

                                    #18
                                    Originally posted by M.Roberts8
                                    Surely there has to be a way to do this cheaper than $1,600.00! I like the look of it but the "guts" sound like a cheap $400.00 pc.

                                    I was window shopping and had a AMD quad core, 4GB of RAM, 2 500GB HDD's, Nvidia 9800GT Graphics Card and HTPC case for under 600.00. For 1600.00 I could even get a couple of NAS with 1or 2TB in Raid easy.

                                    There has to be some kind of software that can provide the similar type of graphic interface for movie,music (movies mainly) selections.
                                    Windows 7
                                    Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field."Dwight D. Eisenhower

                                    Comment

                                    • M.Roberts8
                                      Senior Member
                                      • Jan 2006
                                      • 229

                                      #19
                                      I think I found a solution. one of these coupled with this software

                                      Looks like a little work to get it up and going but its less than 500.00 bucks so I think I may go this route. Not as refined as the niveus and kaleidescape systems but looks like it'll do what I'm looking for. Just have a few questions for them first.

                                      Comment

                                      • aud19
                                        Twin Moderator Emeritus
                                        • Aug 2003
                                        • 16706

                                        #20
                                        That software may be exactly what I've been searching for! I'll have to look more in to it and I'd love to hear what you have to say about it as well! :yesnod:
                                        Jason

                                        Comment

                                        • M.Roberts8
                                          Senior Member
                                          • Jan 2006
                                          • 229

                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by aud19
                                          That software may be exactly what I've been searching for! I'll have to look more in to it and I'd love to hear what you have to say about it as well! :yesnod:
                                          Personally don't know much about it just got lucky on a google search. If there are any users on here, I would love to hear about it too!

                                          Comment

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