Do I want a Media Centre, and where from?

djmsemcgrath

Here's what I want, and I'm hoping someone can tell me if it's a) possible and b) where to get it from for a reasonable price.

• I want a smallish box to sit under my TV.
• This box should be connected to the TV via HDMI.
• This box should be wireless, and accessible from all the laptops and computers in my house.
• This box should either have a 1 or 2TB storage capacity, or have a USB connection allowing a external hard drive to be attached to it.
• The box should have the ability to play videos, music and pictures from it's in-built storage or the attached hard drive.
• The laptops and computers in the house should be able to transfer (or ideally, access without having to transfer) files to and from the box (or it's attached hard drive) wirelessly.
• When the TV is changed to the relevant input channel, it displays all the video, music and picture content in a user interface similar to Windows Media Center, because I think that looks and operates very nicely, and is nicely organised.
• The pictures should be able to display in a slideshow mode if selected.
• The music should be able to be queued and played in order or "shuffled" like iTunes, Windows Media Player or WinAmp can do.
• It should have support for picture formats of JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, and TIFF at least.
• It should have support for music formats of MP3 and WMA.
• It should have support for video formats of AVI, MPEG, WMV and ideally ones like FLV, VOB, MOV, MP4 and DVD formats (Video_TS and Audio_TS folder/files).
• There should be some sort of remote control, so I can navigate through the menus and select the video/music/pictures I want from my sofa. At a push, I'd accept some sort of wireless mouse/keyboard setup if it needed those to operate but a remote control would be ideal.
• Even more ideally, the box would be internet enabled so websites like YouTube and Flickr could be accessed, as well as the BBC iPlayer.
• There is an add-on available for Windows Media Center called MyMovies which adds in IMDB information, like Cast, DVD Cover images, Synopsis, IMDB Rating, etc. If this could also be visible through the interface on the TV, that would be ideal and enhance the whole experience.

I want something family-friendly, and easy to use.

My overall aim is to then convert all my DVDs to files on this box, or an external hard drive, and have them all accessible at the click of a button. That would be so much simpler than having to find the DVD on a shelf!

It'd be like my own Sky Movies player


a) How possible is this?
b) What equipment do I need? I already have a HDMI enabled TV, HDMI cable and a laptop but that's it.


Thanks in advance.

kwikbreaks

A Popcornhour network media jukebox goes a long way towards supporting those requirements.

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

Rossatron305

You could always build a HTPC if you were that way inclined or buy one that has already been build to your specification, will do all that you require and will be easy as using pc/laptop,

RJ

djmsemcgrath

What does HTPC stand for?

djmsemcgrath

Also, Amazon are selling a Western Digital Media Centre - does anyone have any experience of this, and will it do what I want? The write-up seems to suggest it will do a few of my requirements.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B002LZUHMI/ref=s9_bbs_gw_d1_ir02?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=0BG8QS20S691CR1AV777&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128473&pf_rd_i=468294

superrug_2

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Live-Media-Player/dp/B002LZUHMI

WD Live ticks almost all of your boxes, my mate has one fairy good , im not sure on the abililty to play DVDs files tho

djmsemcgrath

Hmm, well, DVD files might not be that common if I can find a tool to rip all my DVDs into AVI or MPG formats. I can live without the ability to play DVD files.

Hmm, I might research more into that WD one, it seems to be fairly good, and relatively inexpensive.

The WD one is £80, and the Popcorn one is £200+.

What does the Popcorn one do that the WD one doesn't?

bebewoo

I've got the WD one, and it is pretty good, and it upscales too. It will play isos, avis, mp4s mp3s. I have connected it to a variety of external HDs/flash drives and it works with all of them. I like it because it has 2 usb ports so I can connect two hard drives. It also has an av out that I hook up to my speakers.
I've had it for over a year now and it's still working fine. (unlike the cheap sumvision one that I bought that died within 6 months)
They do a cheaper tiny one as well but I haven't tried that.
I'm sure I only paid £60 from Amazon last year.......

forgotmyname

No HD in the WD one? HTPC = Home Theatre PC

I was fed up of the useless controllers and limitations of some of the media players, I wanted something
that would play every format.
I ended up building a PC instead, It doesnt have to be a superfast mega monster, Any reasonable 2GHz+ CPU with 1GB
or more of RAM will be fine.

1TB internal SATA hard drives are under £50 and will hold a LOT of films/music/photo's etc. Just added a wireless dongle to
mine so we can use it as the main server in the house, It can keep backups of important data and be used to stream music
or video. Saves having the same files on all the computers in the house also. No fights over who wants to watch the latest
DVD and not share. RIP to the HD and let them stream it.

A.Penny.Saved

A HTPC is the best solution and could be made to do/replace many separate devices including dual DVB-S2 satellite receiver, Dual DVB-T2 freeview receiver (when these become more widely available), stream any type of media, play every format that a PC can play with no exceptions unlike separate media players which won't play all files because there are limits on the encoding format which they can play. A HTPC can have a gigabit ethernet and the fastest wireless possible whereas a separate media player is usually stuck with only 100Mbps maximum ethernet. The ability to connect more than one TV/display, two is easy and if powerful enough play two videos or one showing satellite, one a video etc etc.

The downsides are they are more expensive than separate media players and they use more power and ideally would require a motherboard which has fast booting capability, a small SSD drive would help.

If done right they can be the ultimate entertainment centre.

forgotmyname

Doesnt have to be dearer, Spotted someone on a forum selling a 3Ghz PC with 1GB RAM complete but the HD was small
i forget how small but i thought that sounds OK at £40, Another £50..ish for a 1TB or 1.5TB drive.

Another stick of memory may be useful if budget allows.

When they bring new formats out that can save your DVD collection in an ever smaller file size without losing quality you dont
need to worry if your PC can play it. You may need a new media player though.

Making backups of all my PC's and saving it to the media centre PC now. So if a computer ever goes down we can recover it easily
and quickly.

Seen some nice handheld keyboards/ mouse pointer on ebay, £30 to £40 though. Bit much at the moment, too many bills.

I would love to get a projector, But way out of my price range.