Does anyone use a Media Streaming Centre?

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 20 Jan 2008, 16:12

I'm just watching Click on BBC News and they have a section on all the multitude of Media Centre devices at CES2008 (I think that's it).

All look pretty impressive but I'm still not convinced how useful in reality they are. I plug my DVD Player in, or maybe my HD Player or even PVR and it's up and running in 10-15 minutes maximum. It then never lets me down and does exactly what is says on the tin (most of the time).

It's all dead simple. However to stream music, pictures and lets not even mention video is still considerably more complicated. I'm not at all impressed with Microsoft Windows Media Center. Sure it generally works but boy it's clunky.

In my case I can see a use for streaming music and pictures but the amount of video content I have is minimal and even then there are so many flipping formats. Add to that it takes minutes to rip a CD or copy pictures to the PC but hours to convert a DVD to either DivX or an ISO file.

Also in my case an ISO or DivX file just cannot compete with owning the Movie either on DVD or HD Disc. I cannot see my opinion of this changing any time soon. As I already own the physical product why would I want to spend time putting it on my Hard Disk? The amount of video files I've downloaded from the web is so small. Sure DVDs take lots of space up (CDs too) but I have a clear out every now and again so it's really not a problem.

I may have a use for streaming my music and pictures though over Wiresless one day but for now I just cannot see the real world benefit. In my case my laptop is only about 2-3 metres away from my PC so it's even less useful, but I supose I may find it useful when my PC is in another room entirely.

In my case I still buy CDs (call me old) and this isn't going to stop any time soon. I already have the CD so may as well use it. That said I tend to use CDs half the time and MP3s the other half so I could see a use for it. I can see it being more useful for pictures which are all locked inside my PC.

The trouble is the dedicated operating system in DVD Players and PVRs is designed specifically for that purpose but the all-in-one approach of Windows simply isn't. I think Windows is a great OS but it's not really there yet to replace the simplicity of my DVD Player or PVR, IMO.

Right now a simple VGA cable from my laptop to TV cannot be beaten for simplicity and ease of use, which as it happens I cannot get working (over the distance I need it to) but that's another issue entirely.

So has anyone got into Media Centres and Streaming Media around the house? How sucessful has it been? What device(s) do you use?

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 20 Jan 2008, 17:29

I used to stream XviDs from my PC to the Xbox in the lounge. But it got to be a real pain having an ethernet cable running from end of the house to the other, with a high likelihood of being tripped over. I can't be bothered tracking down a wifi adapter for the original Xbox (and it's probably hard to find in NZ anyway); so I just run the cable when there's the need. Copy files over to the Xbox's HDD and then unplug the cable from our router and finally coil it back up.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 20 Jan 2008, 18:00

I didn't know the original Xbox supported Wireless, that's cool. How do you plug it in? Any idea how much it costs?

My DVD Recorder can read Xvid/DivX so I burn straight to a DVD-RW. It works really well. It even reads subtitles but annoyingly it ignores the font and uses a courier new like font for everything but it's way too small. For English stuff it's fine.

Most web content worth playing on a TV screen is in DivX/Xvid anyway and it doesn't take long to convert the odd stuff which isn't. Not that I download a lot. I tend to mostly watch stuff on TV and DVD.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 20 Jan 2008, 18:23

Not exactly the same but Orb looks cool, it allows you to share parts of your hard disk across the web and stream Media to any Broadband PC in the world. It will even re-encode Media to suit the device it's playing on. If your PC has a TV Tuner you can even stream TV to your Mobile:

http://www.orb.com/

I've not tried it myself though.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 21 Jan 2008, 10:30

bradavon wrote:I didn't know the original Xbox supported Wireless, that's cool. How do you plug it in? Any idea how much it costs?

The official MS wifi adapter? No clue sorry, shouldn't be too expensive off of Ebay or something. There's a Linksys wifi adapter that supports Xbox1 and 360 as well, probably easier to get a hold of that (at least in NZ).

EDIT:-
Here ya go, Linksys wireless game adapters.

PS3 has built-in wifi.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 21 Jan 2008, 12:29

If it's not much I'd pick one up.

When/if I do it I will be going the PC/WMC route or a dedicated Media Centre. I'd not buy a Games Console as I've no interest in it's Games playing abilities.

Despite WMC's clunky nature I'll probably get a Media Extender from my PC.

Questions: Do the Media Extender's have WMC built into them? I presume they do and the Media is streamed in the background on your PC. How much resources does it use on your main PC? I'm wondering if I could be browsing the web or even converting a video while it's also streaming media to the TV.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 22 Jan 2008, 17:27

Check out this dedicated Media Centre with soon to have BitTorrent Client built in:

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives ... client.php

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 30 Jan 2008, 20:19

An Auzentech X-Meridian sound card + X-Tension board probably destroys a lot of high end receivers quality wise.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 30 Jan 2008, 21:00

The trouble is as soon as you get into the "Computer world" trying to compete with the "AV world" it always gets way more complicated.

A High End DVD Player and Receiver I plug in and it works, job. Even at it's simplest it's just not that simple when computers get involved. I love PC's for what they are but they're not the be all and end all.