If you were going to set up media streaming through the house...

clarabella23

Gosh, there are some dedicated people on that forum, Pedro! Just looking what some of them have done, must have cost a fortune.

I am definitely going to get a portable hard disc, closed, it's something I've been meaning to get round to for ages, always seem to find something else to burn money on! I think a WDtv is the next step from there. I like the thought of having a NAS to keep my laptop freer to, but that can be further on.

Ivrytwr3

The WDTV live hub has a 1TB hard drive built in. Something most other media players don't. I only bought an external as i needed more space,

martinthebandit

clarabella23 wrote: »

Definitely not just to keep up with the Jones'! This sort of stuff is something none of my friends or social group is into, so to be honest they wouldn't care less! It's something I find interesting, I do download, and think that rather than sitting in front of a laptop or messing about with discs, providing storage, etc, I would quite enjoy being able to do it all in front of the TV.

If that's all you want to do then there is a very easy and cheap way to do it.

Get yourself a vga cable and a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Connect laptop to tv with vga cable, plug in keyboard and mouse adaptor into laptop,

And voila, you can now watch anything on your laptop on your tv.

Gonna cost you £30 ish, OK Its more than £3.50 but its not that far away

That's the setup I have anyway because I don't need it throughout the house.

clarabella23

With the WDtv, does it only run to the tv it's wired too? Eventually I would like a full house system, if that's possible- nothing much, but run to the tvs in the bedroom/s, mp3 type thing in the kitchen, etc.

Johnmcl7

Yes, if you put the WDTV on your home network then any other devices such as PCs, phones, tablets and smart TVs on the same network could then access content stored on the WDTV unit.

John

Ivrytwr3

you can also buy WDTV live - ie you have the hub and each extra live box is put in a diiferent room - the hub streams to each box.

Pinkypants

As I have children who like nothing better then to scratch DVD's I've ripped all theirs put them onto a SD card which are cheap as chip at the moment.

I then stick into this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Designer-Habitat-Nano-3-0-Flashdrives/dp/B005ERNITE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339405449&sr=8-1

Cheap option in my book, not streaming I know but allows PC stuff to be watched on the big screen.

Jammyb

I have a 7TB server in the garage with all my music, photos, movies etc on it.

I remote desktop into it and maintain it via iPad/iPhone

It streams to an acer Revo 3700 running XBMCbuntu. It has AirPlay built in for anyone who comes round with an iPhone/iPad who wish to play stuff on tv wirelessly.

Did have an airport express that would do the music to the stereo controlled by iPhone/iPad. But it broke (kids) and wasn't used as much and spotify app on iPad plugged into stereo is fine

You're only limited by your imagination and budget. If you have a need. It exists. I don't use iplayer etc as sky records it or I download it. Any TV can watch it as they're linked back to my HDMI matrix box as well.

clarabella23

Pinky, that sounds like a good way to start out, I might buy one of those while I'm researching into the bigger stuff- I don't want to rush into the big stuff, the more I read the more intersted I get, and I can see it costing me a fortune!

Jammy, yours sounds fab! Is it all stupidly expensive? And, daft question, but I assume it doesn't have to be Apple stuff? I love it all, but think you are paying for the name, so have managed to avoid it so far. Much rather have Android, it's much more me!

clarabella23

A squeezebox is definitely going on my list, they look cool.