Home Media Server

[dirty_30]

Just a bit of research really, I'm thinking about building a media server for home, as will all the music and other media my laptop is nearly filled up and its only going to get filler, would run it over a wireless network with a wireless receiver hooked up to my plasma. blu-ray/dvd burner for recording TV/Foxtel etc.

Just wondering if anyone out is running one or has had experinces with them or would be interested in using one etc etc things like that. Not too sure on the actual specs as yet but would more than likely be running Linux or some sort with large storage capacity-- 2 - 4 TB in RAID config, more than likely just shut away in a cupboard some where in the house.

Seems like the perfect thing really eliminating the need for blu-ray recorders Foxtel IQ etc etc

So yeah if anyon e has any input I'd be keen to hear what you think

Edited March 5, 2009 by dirty_30

[Green_s13]

i have just finished building my home theater pc, i'm using media centre on vista 64, with a decent TV tuner there is no reaons why you can record TV etc, also you should be able to pickup foxtel aswell.

i'm running an AMD 7750, with an asus mboard which has HDMI out 7.1 sound built in blah blah, have 4gig of ram 1TB of disk drive at the moment that will increase to 4TB, and a thermaltake d101 case. for me this works really well and the advantage of media centre is that you can use an xbox 360 as a media extenda which means the home theatre pc can hooked up to the big tv and the xbox to something else and two people can watch movies tv etc. my build cost me about $850 but that includes power supply DVD drive etc.

[dirty_30]

shit you managed to pull that off nice and cheap dude, I will be running linux preuly because it sucks less resources and i am comfortable that it will be stable enough to be running non stop constatly, will also be running it as an FTP and possible a webserver in the distant future, so it means I will have access to any of the files I may want or need no matter where I am, I plan on running it completely wireless to start off with atleast just to see how reliable and if 802g has enuf bandwidth to stream video etc flawlessly but with HD quality i am starting to think that maybe it wont, although time will tell i guess.

[funkymonkey]

My HTPC uses an A-Bit Fatality FI90HD. Its got HDMI out and SPDif for Audio (as well as 5.1 analogue, but I haven't used it as my amp takes digital in). Ram is 8GB with a 1 TB green WD HDD. All sitting in a hollowed out VHS case which I'm currently fitting out with a SATA hotswap where the video tape used to go in. Got a BlueRay DVD/ DVD burner combo drive for playing DVD's.

Awesome thing was the VHS unit already had a power converter that supplied 6V and 12V at 250W so all I had to do was run the right wires with some resistors to get 3.3 and 5.5V to my MB and HDD.

Its fairly quiet and compact, which is what I want out of something that sits under my TV. Plus no one realises that its a HTPC cos of its casing

I've been using XBMC all these days for interface on Vista 64, although I do wanna try out something like Media Centre too for its XBox360 connectivity.

[dirty_30]

Thats an interesting way of doing things bro. I was thinking about forking out for a proper Home Theatre case but im not too sure of their airflow capabilites and things like that. do you gus buy all your parts online? which site do you use if so? what programs do you gus us for media streaming and stuff like that, although if im going to using linux i guess this may not be applicable lol.

[funkymonkey]

All up think it cost me like $400 in parts (already had a Leadtek HDTV tuner). I buy my parts pretty much exclusively from MSY and U-mart. Installed the TV tuner card using a PCI riser (adapter for servers that let you install cards parallel to the motherboard in case of space restraints).

[Green_s13]

also an msy and u-mart for me, basically the case is what cost me most of the money and airflow in the case is really good.

i have had vista 64 running for many months without requiring a reboot, MS seem to have their act together with their 64 bit OS, also windows 7 and media centre is one step better just trying windows 7 x64 at the moment will see how it goes over the next few weeks

[dirty_30]

where abouts did you find a copy of windows 7 x64 dude, ive looked and looked but only managed to find a version that hads to run in a virtual machine and that doesnt really appeal to me to test it out lol, ill have to go check out those sites this evening i think

[Green_s13]

I got copy from the microsoft site, but i think they have stopped the beta downloads.

[radix]

Just a bit of research really, I'm thinking about building a media server for home, as will all the music and other media my laptop is nearly filled up and its only going to get filler, would run it over a wireless network with a wireless receiver hooked up to my plasma. blu-ray/dvd burner for recording TV/Foxtel etc.

Just wondering if anyone out is running one or has had experinces with them or would be interested in using one etc etc things like that. Not too sure on the actual specs as yet but would more than likely be running Linux or some sort with large storage capacity-- 2 - 4 TB in RAID config, more than likely just shut away in a cupboard some where in the house.

Seems like the perfect thing really eliminating the need for blu-ray recorders Foxtel IQ etc etc

So yeah if anyon e has any input I'd be keen to hear what you think

Sounds like you need:

http://linuxmce.com/

[iamhe77]

where abouts did you find a copy of windows 7 x64 dude, ive looked and looked but only managed to find a version that hads to run in a virtual machine and that doesnt really appeal to me to test it out lol, ill have to go check out those sites this evening i think

Microsoft HAS stopped beta downloads.

I was permitted to try Windows 7, but did not download it soon enough and was cut off.

Pirate Bay has 32 and 64-bit versions as ISO's with activation code in the description.

Do a google search for "Windows 7 torrent"... simple.

Edited March 10, 2009 by iamhe77

[dirty_30]

Tried that all I've managed to find is a virtual machine version have gone back to vista ultimate 64 now but still looking out for it, maybe I'm just blind lol, it's more than likely