Entertainment system setup

pledgeX

Hi all.

I’ve just moved into a new house and one of my many jobs is to sort out some kind of entertainment system!

I’ve got a TV and PC that has a blu ray drive so this is what I’ve been using for the last few years. However, in my new house the PC is upstairs and the TV is downstairs. So running a cable between them is a no longer possible, and even if it was, running upstairs to change disk, play, pause etc would be annoying.
What are the alternative solutions?

I want to be able to:
- Play blu ray/dvd disks
- Stream music/videos stored on my pc
- Stream video off the internet, youtube, iplayer, 4od for example

What kind of setup do I need to do this? I was thinking of something like the following:

- A standalone blu ray player
- NAS box
- WD Live or equivalent set top box
(Either the NAS/set top box would need to have internet accessibility though)

However after pricing this up it seems like quite a costly option.

I think the other option would be to buy a very low power and small pc that I can hide near the tv and leave on 24/7. But that would be tacky and fiddly having to get the mouse and keyboard out to do something. Although with some kind of media software running it might be a bit more reasonable. I might still need a stand alone blu ray player though if this is the case as I'd imagine a blu ray drive in a small pc would either be too hard to fit, loud, or power sapping.

What kind of setups do other people have running in similar situations? Any rough idea of the setup costs?

[FONT=&quot]Thanks for any help.[/FONT]

gonzo127

i am thinking a PS3 would appear to meet most of your needs as it has a Bluray player, can stream from your computer over the network and allows streaming from some of the online tv services

almillar

Yep, as above, the PS3 will play Blu-Ray, upscales DVDs very well, streams music & videos, has a web browser and even dedicated buttons on the menu for iPlayer, 4od etc. Check video formats to see what PS3 likes compared to what you own, and check if the music player is too clunky, dunno how it works. Loads of info on this all over the net. PS3 Media Server may be the name of a program you wanna run on your PC, which transcodes anything on the fly if necessary to whatever formats the PS3 likes (for video mainly).
You could spend a lot more money and be stuck with a mouse and keyboard on your lap.
One last point, if you're just moving in, you would be wise to look into installing a network lead between your living room and upstairs computer, which will be much more reliable than wireless. If you're redecorating you can do some routing. Better to do this now than later...

Hammyman

Another here for the PS3. On the PC if you're running Windows Vista or Windows 7, it'll see the computer as a DNLA media server and list its contents in the menus. It also has iPlayer, 4OD, ITV Player and will do Youtube via the web browser although TBH, my Panny TV does a better job of youtube in the Viera Cast.