Media server suggestions

NYSpeed Automotive NYSpeed Off Topic
1

It’s time to build a new server at home and I’m looking for some suggestions.

Budget build that I want to do the following:

  1. Have a blu-ray drive and a video card capable of outputting the blu-ray DVD’s to my HDTV.
  2. Rip blu-ray disks to the hard drive.
  3. Serve up those ripped files to my TV.

That’s it. I don’t play games on the PC and I have no interest in starting so expensive memory, processors and video cards aren’t a concern so long as it has the power to display 1080p video via a DVI or HDMI cable. Onboard video would be fine. It would need some way to get the audio to my home theater receiver, dolby 5.1 minimum but would like the option to output HD audio when I upgrade my receiver.

I already have a nice case, as well as a 750GB sata drive to serve as a starting point. So motherboard, processor, memory, video and audio. Onboard audio/video fine if it meets my requirements. Again, I don’t care what frame rate it will play GTA at xyz by zxy resolution.

Go!

2

IN cuz i was going to do this too.

But i was just going to buy a bluray player, and a 1 tb drive and just put all my movies on it. (figure Id need an hdmi/dvi output too)

go go go.

3

Whatever you do, hardwire your media server, and always run RAID, 0 would be best, 5 would be ok also.

4

I just got a laptop that had a HDMI port on it and a external hard drive. Now my TV is just another monitor so play anything in Windows Media Player and drag it to the TV.

BluRay, TV shows, etc. Interested in checking out a game on a 42" screen over HDMI but the full 1080p and audio support is there. I left the idea of having a dedicated server that did my recording and stuff just becuase I found it easier to download and store to a hard drive.

5

I want a permanent fixture next to my tv. sick of moving my work laptop around.

6

PS3?

Blueray, DVD upconverting, 80gb hard drive, wifi, USB, optical audio out, hdmi out, non-windows OS that can still read files from your PC, nice shiny package. It’s a gaming loss-leader, so you’re getting better than $399 equipment. I wonder if it can DVR stuff? I haven’t figured that out yet.

I’ll probably do that when I finally jump from DVD to blue ray. Of course by then there might be a PS4. :lol:

7

RAID? elaborate please.

8

Apparently standard HDD read/write speeds can’t keep up with streaming HD?

What’s raid 5?

EDIT: Oh, two stripes and a mirror.

9

Mac OS X with Front Row.

I added some plugins to play all sorts of common high def formats. Also bought a remote online. Couldn’t be happier.

10
11

http://www.byopvr.com

Does this help? Building your own Personal Video Recorder forums…

12

Not interested in going the PS3 route because I also want this thing to be able to rip blu-ray movies that I get from netflix.

Right now I’m leaning toward an Nvidia 9300/9400 based motherboard.

13

cool. thanks

14

4gb of DDR2 800

Still need to look into it a little more to verify it will do what I want then need to look for good prices.

15

arstechnica has tons of guides on all variants of HTPC builds.

http://arstechnica.com/hardware/guides/

I also posted a link to an avsforum thread that was pretty epic as well, however I must have the bookmark on my home computer.

16

^ Probably this one, where I’ve been wasting way too much time today…

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1055454

17

Actually, it was a different one. I’ll post it when I get home.

-edit-

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940972

Found it, just need to work the search function properly :-p

18

Hmmm:

https://secure.newegg.com/WishList/MySavedWishDetail.aspx?ID=6130409

$387.95 + $11 shipping.

19

Or… http://www.popcornhour.com/

20

PS…

I already have an xbox360 so I will probably end up using that as the media center for accessing any movies stored on the server. The server would still need to be hardwired to the TV for blu-ray disk viewing though.