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Hardware How to set up a Media Streamer

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Lizard, 13 Nov 2010.

  1. Lizard

    Lizard @ Scan R&D

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  2. wyx087

    wyx087 Homeworld 3 is happening!!

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    NAS box -> DLNA/UPnP -> done.

    having your PC turned on idling just for streaming seems a bit wasteful.
     
  3. EvilRusk

    EvilRusk What's a Dremel?

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    I remember setting up a music streamer back in 2004. It was utterly unreliable and completely unusable for anybody but the very tech-savvy.

    Nowadays I just used a cheap laptop plugged into the TV with a remote control for media centre. It's not ideal but it is quiet and doesn't use much power. Of course it has little storage space but considering I didn't have to buy anything else it's not bad.
     
  4. Orderoftheflame

    Orderoftheflame What's a Dremel?

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    Except not everyone wants to buy a dedicated NAS?

    Great guide. :)
     
  5. Snips

    Snips I can do dat, giz a job

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    I have an Asus O!Play and a Cyclone MKV linked up to my WHS. The Asus is better at playing the folders as if they were actual DVD's than the Cyclone but other then that they both stream really well.

    I'd recommend Cat6 and Gigabyte patch panels and switches.
     
  6. Guinevere

    Guinevere Mega Mom

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    +1 for using a laptop.

    I have a freenas box to central store files, and when we want to watch something we just plug one of the family laptops into the TV (cables ready and waiting) and copy over the files.

    Whoever's not opening the wine / beer or putting the kettle on sorts out the laptop. So much easier than my old media centre burning up watts all the time, and as the laptops are macs they "Just work"
     
  7. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    Oh, you mean like Youtube on the MacBook Airs? Straight out the box, right?
    Sorry, just had to. :p I actually fancy one of them, to be honest.

    Anyway... nice guide but I agree with what people already said:

    • NAS > Windows shared folder
    • laptop > NAS for people on a budget or who don't want to go through the "hassle"
     
  8. Senilex

    Senilex Not a Troll. Honest.

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    Nice article Tom.

    Using the "Share..." is adding the user to the ACL. So this can be achieved using the security tab as an alternative option, the advantage here is that you can configure more stringently the appropriate permission for the user or everyone account.

    I personally always just set share in the "Advanced Sharing.." to Everyone regardless of whether I want it private or not. I then set the NTFS permission to control who can view it etc on the secuirty tab as mentioned above. Should you not want to reveal shares when people are looking at your network then you can always hide the share by adding a "$" to the end of the folder share name in the "Advanced Sharing...".
     
  9. MajorTom

    MajorTom Minimodder

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    Thanks for the feedback guys.

    As mentioned at the end of the article, a share on a NAS is definitely preferable to leaving your PC running all the time. I hope those who haven't got round to setting up a NAS yet will find this helpful for setting up their laptop or desktop PC though.

    Senilex - Cheers for sharing your settings. Hiding a folder with a $ suffix is excellent for security. Unfortunately most players will fail to access a hidden folder such as this because you'd have to manually enter the folder path in order to reach it and players typically only support browsing to shares that they can already see.
     
  10. Guinevere

    Guinevere Mega Mom

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    Yeah just like that because I've never heard of anyone who ever had to install their choice software on a brand new computer before.

    At least with a shop bought mac you spend the first half hour installing what you want rather than the first day installing all the crud PC builders install.

    That's why my laptop is a Mac and my powerful beast I put together myself.

    I like the new airs too, but for the slightly extra weight my MBP 13" is good enough.
     
  11. Bumfluff101

    Bumfluff101 Minimodder

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    Unless you want to stream iso files which I dont think work over upnp
     
  12. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    Oh come on, that was sarcasm, mate. :p It actually makes sense not to include Flash out-of-the-box... other than Adobe-hating from Apple. Another security hole less if users are forced to install the latest version.
     
  13. Fod

    Fod what is the cheesecake?

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    Step 1 - buy a ps3.
    Step 2 - install 'ps3 media server'

    Step 3 - there is no step 3.
     
  14. vampalan

    vampalan What's a Dremel?

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    Most (a lot anyway) people have a PS3, so step 2 only.
     
  15. Senilex

    Senilex Not a Troll. Honest.

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    80 quid + for a media player or 250 quid + for a ps3, gee let me think...
     
  16. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    True... but I heard rumours there are other uses for PS3s other than streaming movies. Just rumours though, I'm sure.
     
  17. Fod

    Fod what is the cheesecake?

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    what!? really!? say it isn't so!:rolleyes:
     
  18. phuzz

    phuzz This is a title

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    Funny, as I was dropping off to sleep last night I was thinking about building a media streamer out of an old laptop. Remove the screen, battery, case etc. and just install a basic Linux distro with a remote control. Because it's a laptop it won't be using much power, and should do sleep and hibernation properly. Cheap laptops with dead batteries and/or broken screens should be cheap on ebay, but still have enough grunt to play HD files and flash.
     
  19. [USRF]Obiwan

    [USRF]Obiwan What's a Dremel?

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    Hmmzzz I must go looking for a nas soon. Now my gaming-rig is sharing movies/series using 200w @ socket in idle, plus the xtreamer connected to the Samsung 50" plasma. all that is using around 500w of power all night when watching stuff.

    Now i must say that for the last 7 months I have been monitored the power usage of my gaming rig and calculated that with the KWH price of my energy supplier. Right now the PC is costing me 71.65 euro. So the uptime in total will cost me about 90 euro estimated for 12 months total.

    If I can find a NAS for 90 euro and use that for a year I have almost compensated for the expense of the PC. However since a NAS cost between 250/400 euro. I need to at least use the nas for the next 4 or 5 years. Not even counting the price of the HD's. 180 euro for 2x 2TB hd's.

    Investing in a NAS+HD's now will set me back around 600 euro. Thats 7 years of using my PC if i want to get the investment in energy savings back.
     
  20. Waynio

    Waynio Relaxing

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