i want a media center (1 Viewer)

[Anthony Moore]

Ok,

So I have a lot of music (1 terrabye of lossless wma format CD's), and quite a few divx movies and whatnot on my computer hard drives.

I have a wireless internet connection also for my laptop. And I have a wireless card for my PC to connect to the wireless router.

Now Ive seen this: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...08968?v=glance

which, i think, connects itself wirelessly to the pre-existing router. Then I go onto my computer and "share" all the folders I want the media adapter/router to look for movies and music in.

Then it has the 3 RCA's in the back (red, white, yellow), two that connect to my Denon receiver and one to the TV.

So with an interface that seems to come with the software in the media router I can scroll my music and movies on my TV that are on my harddrive and play them from there.

This is what I want: to be able to play my movies and music from my computer hard drive on my receiver and my movies from the computer on the TV.

Is this the best way to do it? Is there another? This setup seems pretty cheap ($150-200), and as long as the sound quality is good it sounds great to me.

For what I want to do, is this the best thing for me for the money? Im open to any suggestions..anyone familiar with this product or others like it that will help me accomplish my goal?

Thank you

 

[Chris]

No, won't work.

Right now, most of the stand-alone independent media-center-type devices (like this, D-Link, Linksys) do not support Lossless CODECs nor DiVX, so neither of those will play over your network.. more then that, the wireless bandwidth would not be sufficient to really pull it off very well.

If you need, very cheap "media centers" can be done, complete, with basic purposes (DiVX, lossless formats, etc.) cheaply with either linux or a basic windows PC if you're not after PVR purposes or HDTV.

Anyway, YMMV, but before you leap into one of these integrated box, I figured you might as well be aware it won't work out for you

 

[Anthony Moore]

Thats right. thanks for the idea.

So I guess I would need at least a P4 with WinXP?
And a solid video card? Will that make a difference?

All I really want to use this for is to avccess my network for music and movie files trough my wireless router, and play them out to my TV and stereo.

Anything else I need to know ?

 

[Rick Marsh]

Chris,
What about the Play@TV NMP-4000? I understand that it supports most of the popular formats for video and music and it is wireless. I've been looking for other options as well, but this seems like the best option. Also, Slim Device's Squeezebox is another option but it only supports music.

 

[Chris]

The Play@TV NMP-4000 is a pretty cool box. Much more functional for a lot of people then some of the others out there. However, it still doesn't support DiVX, it also doesn't support WMV9, only WMV8 and prior and older ASF formats. No support for lossless CODECs, as was one of the requirements above, and no support for anything but baseline MP3s (192kbps and below).


Far from it! Do you need to do just regular S-Video, no TV capture, access to your lossless video? Grab an ATI Radeon7000 series, an AMD Duron 1.6G (about $40) or a Pentium III 1Ghz (if you've got one hanging around) or higher, 256MB RAM and a very small harddrive say 40GB, and walla! You have a mediacenter that is very functional for MP3 streaming, basic DiVX in the case of the duron or some of the lower end athlons or a celeron-D, you'd be able to handle some of the home-theater rated DiVX, etc.

Putting together a MCE doesn't have to be super expensive.. lots of people do it out of recycled parts they have laying around

 

[Grant B]

I put one together pretty cheap that hooks into my preamp etc. and is in my audio rack. Looks like a nice HT component.
You want it quiet since you'll be listening there and the case I found out is important.
If you can put it somewhere remote that fan noise doesn't matter, you can have my 1st case for postage.

 

[Rick Marsh]

Chris,
Just found something from an old ebay notice that I had bid and lost on. Do you know anything about the Media MVP by Hauppauge?** They say it now supports WMA & DivX. Just found it and haven't read totally through it yet. I guess it sounds like to get what I really want is to build my own. Where cam I look for options to add to a case? I've been around computers since the mid eighties and can consider myself a step above a novice as far as putting something together.
I also own a business and have several PC's just gathering dust. I would rather start with a case that would fit in with my existing equipment though.


**I'll send you the page, just email me.

 

[Chris]

The item you're talking about didn't support DiVX correctly, we'll say it that way.. the only devices that officially support DiVX are registered here: http://www.divx.com/ and they are relatively scant. :frowning: As for WMV, there are more players now that support WMA (Windows Media Audio) but not a lot support WMV, and I cannot think of any right now that support lossless CODECs like FLAC, etc.