Anyone here using a media server?

[Arkitech]

I'm just curious how many people actually use media servers at home and how they are setup. If you don't mind, take a couple of seconds and answer the questions below. The reason for all of the questions is that I'm moving soon (downsizing actually) and I'm looking to put a small budget together for a completely media driven home, so I'd like to get a feel for what people are doing in the hopes of coming up with a plan for my own server. Thanks




What do you primarily use your server for? (movies, music, pictures, etc..)

How many devices/machines are attached to your current server?

What kind of devices are on your network that attach to the server? (pc's, mp3 players, gaming devices, etc..)

What type of network are you using? (wireless G, wireless N, cat5, fiber optic, etc..)

Approximately how much media data do you currently have? (20gb, 400gb, 2tb, etc..)

Is your media server capable of handling high definition content? (720p or 1080p)

What frontend software or media player do you use? (VLC, WMP, MS MC (microsoft media center), etc..)

Here's my current setup

Right now I have about 4 machines/PCs on a wired/wireless network, my main rig is acting as the server but I'd eventually like to get a dedicated box as a server with the end goal of serving up video faster and building in data redundancy. Currently I'm primarily just streaming video (720p) over my network, but I'm working on getting my music tagged and sorted so that I can stream that as well. Most of video content is 720p, but I'm hoping to get either a 1080p projector this year or a 60" 1080p lcd, so I'm definitely curious about how to stream large amounts of data without bandwidth issues.


What do you primarily use your server for? (movies, music, pictures, etc..)
90% movies and tv shows, will probably stream more music once I finally get my mp3 collection tagged and structured

How many devices/machines are attached to your current server?
about 4 pcs

What kind of devices are on your network that attach to the server? (pc's, mp3 players, gaming devices, etc..)
At the moment I'm only using PCs, but I'd like to get my PSP, DS and 360 setup to take advantage of the server

What type of network are you using? (wireless G, wireless N, cat5, fiber optic, etc..)
Cat5 on the main rig/server, the rest of the network is wireless G)

Approximately how much media data do you currently have? (20gb, 400gb, 2tb, etc..)
Not really sure but it's probably about 3-5 tb

Is your media server capable of handling high definition content? (720p or 1080p)
720p content plays without a problem, 1080p tends to stutter a bit

What frontend software or media player do you use? (VLC, WMP, MS MC (microsoft media center), etc..)
Currently using MCE for most of my media playing, but will occasionally use VLC for certain things

 

[bobdole369]

Too many questions.

I just set up a PC starting out to just be NAS. I needed shareable space and my wife needed some backup room besides the USB drives. I moved my movie library (just a mishmash of downloaded stuff, and some tivo stuff), and about 20GB of good quality mp3s. Over a 100mbit network it works well enough.

I found Tversity - and got VERY interested in the idea of transcoding to a common format on the fly, most importantly - for the ipod touch and the iphone we have. would be nice to play movies and stuff ont he PC's via a menu as well, but not critical. It also happens to handle mp3's and photos as well. The video stuff - not so well. i haven't got it down yet, it crashes a lot on the videos, and it just doesn't work for me. Then again the server is a 2.4ghz netburst generation xeon with 1GB DDR 266 so I'm not all that surprised it can't transcode 480p on the fly. If I remember right it wasn't until I got up over 3ghz with netburst that faster than playing transcoding happened.

So I've been using it to stream 320k mp3s to the iphone 3g, and while at work for background music. Photos, well I haven't found an application for that yet - flickr works for my good pictures, the server is just a holding area and archive.

Then I found pyTivo - and since it only has to code to 480x480 mpeg-2, not on the fly while watching, but transferring to the Tivo is almost fast enough to watch. Just a couple pauses now and then, I go hit the head and come back for another half hour. So it's basically a jukebox for movies, I xfer to the tivo to watch the movie, then can safely delete it from the tivo, knowing I still have the content.

I have a TV tuner in the server (a hauppauge 1600) and toyed with the idea of using windows Media Center to backup and record stuff that the tivo sometimes has conflicts, and to give me a larger choice, but since MCE doesn't get clearQAM, it only works with analog cable (no second box dedicated, and I'm not getting a cablecard setup to use with it), I might end up with sage or one of the other packages - but I don't know, still undecided.


OK I'll answer your questions:


What do you primarily use your server for? (movies, music, pictures, etc..)
***music, pictures, backups

How many devices/machines are attached to your current server?
***counting the Tivo - 6. (a mac mini, a pc, iphone, ipod touch, Tivo series 2, work PC from time to time)

What kind of devices are on your network that attach to the server? (pc's, mp3 players, gaming devices, etc..)
*** Answers above.

What type of network are you using? (wireless G, wireless N, cat5, fiber optic, etc..)
CAT5, 100mbit switch.

Approximately how much media data do you currently have? (20gb, 400gb, 2tb, etc..)
200GB

Is your media server capable of handling high definition content? (720p or 1080p)
Not quite. It can handle serving the file, but it can't display 1080p directly, or decode it 100%. Its about 90%. 720p is fine.

What frontend software or media player do you use? (VLC, WMP, MS MC (microsoft media center), etc..)
WMP, Safari (via iphone and ipod), Firefox (to use tversity's flash player). (coreAVC and the Nvidia purevideo codec for most content).

 

[Dirigible]

Originally posted by: Arkitech

What do you primarily use your server for? (movies, music, pictures, etc..)

1) Movies, 2) Pictures, 3) Music

How many devices/machines are attached to your current server?
Three computers. Have tried a popcorn hour and a PS3. Both worked just fine.

What kind of devices are on your network that attach to the server? (pc's, mp3 players, gaming devices, etc..)

What type of network are you using? (wireless G, wireless N, cat5, fiber optic, etc..)
Cat 5

Approximately how much media data do you currently have? (20gb, 400gb, 2tb, etc..)
800GB? Something like that. A bunch of ISOs take up the most space.

Is your media server capable of handling high definition content? (720p or 1080p)
Hell if I know. Never tried.

What frontend software or media player do you use? (VLC, WMP, MS MC (microsoft media center), etc..)
XBMC

 

[ZetaEpyon]

What do you primarily use your server for? (movies, music, pictures, etc..)
Video (anime & movies mostly), music

How many devices/machines are attached to your current server?
2-3

What kind of devices are on your network that attach to the server? (pc's, mp3 players, gaming devices, etc..)
HTPC and desktop PC

What type of network are you using? (wireless G, wireless N, cat5, fiber optic, etc..)
Gigabit ethernet

Approximately how much media data do you currently have? (20gb, 400gb, 2tb, etc..)
~4TB, some of which is currently burned to dvd-r

Is your media server capable of handling high definition content? (720p or 1080p)
I guess? I don't transcode, so it's more a limitation of the network than the server itself.

What frontend software or media player do you use? (VLC, WMP, MS MC (microsoft media center), etc..)
Meedio

 

[Modelworks]

What do you primarily use your server for? (movies, music, pictures, etc..)

Movies, tv shows


How many devices/machines are attached to your current server?

2 devices, Directv receiver and PC connected to tv.

What kind of devices are on your network that attach to the server? (pc's, mp3 players, gaming devices, etc..)

Print server, directv receiver, pc 1 , pc2 , runs through a pc running linux that works as my router/firewall/antivirus/mail server

What type of network are you using? (wireless G, wireless N, cat5, fiber optic, etc..)
All wired Cat5

Approximately how much media data do you currently have? (20gb, 400gb, 2tb, etc..)

1.2TB

Is your media server capable of handling high definition content? (720p or 1080p)

More than capable.

What frontend software or media player do you use? (VLC, WMP, MS MC (microsoft media center), etc..)

XBMC , it is free and open source so I can customize it all I want. I use Playon as a server to the XBMC for online sites like Hulu, Netflix, etc.
Also use the Directv receivers media share support to watch content off the server.

 

[robphelan]

What do you primarily use your server for? (movies, music, pictures, etc..)
Movies, tv shows , music + it's my main PC for surfing & gaming.

How many devices/machines are attached to your current server?
1 laptop, 2 modded xboxes, 1 touchscreen jukebox(internal laptop)

What type of network are you using? (wireless G, wireless N, cat5, fiber optic, etc..)
Cat 5, jukebox streams over Wifi G

Approximately how much media data do you currently have? (20gb, 400gb, 2tb, etc..)
2 TB or so

Is your media server capable of handling high definition content? (720p or 1080p)
never tried, but the xboxes upconvert to 1080i for me

What frontend software or media player do you use? (VLC, WMP, MS MC (microsoft media center), etc..)
XBMC on my xboxes, the jukebox uses TouchTone/Itunes to play music

 

[jtvang125]

I just built a dedicated server a few months back because I needed more space. Before that I was using a dedicated HTPC loaded with 4 HDDs with an external hard drive enclosure holding 6 HDDs. I've since then sold the enclosure and built the server and moved most of the drives over. It's a rack mount server case capable of holding 20 hotswap drives. I currently have 9 bays filled. It's running XP pro with everything connected through a gigabit switch. The only thing on there are my movies. Videos and music are still on the HTPC. Total disk space for media is about ~8-9TB.

The HTPC is running Vista Ultimate and VMC is my frontend. I'm using Media Browser plugin for my movie catalog. Once SSDs become more affordable I'm going to put one in for my OS drive to help speed up movie browsing and overall UI.

 

[Riverhound777]

I just have Tversity running on my regular PC and connect wirelessly from my PS3 to watch movies and play music on my home theater.

 

[mc866]

What do you primarily use your server for? (movies, music, pictures, etc..)
My server runs WHS. Streaming movies to various TV's throughout my house, backing up my PC's, storing my music, movies, pictures

How many devices/machines are attached to your current server?
1 PC, 1 Laptop

What kind of devices are on your network that attach to the server? (pc's, mp3 players, gaming devices, etc..)
1 Xbox 360, 1 OG Xbox with XBMC installed, 1 old dell with a P3 and 128 MB or ram attempting to be a HTPC

What type of network are you using? (wireless G, wireless N, cat5, fiber optic, etc..)
Wireless G and Cat5/Cat6 wired where available, wireless bridge on DD-WRT to get a wired connection in some more distant areas of my house

Approximately how much media data do you currently have? (20gb, 400gb, 2tb, etc..)
I have 3.5 TB of storage and about 1.5TB of movies

Is your media server capable of handling high definition content? (720p or 1080p)
My media server can serve HD content, my endpoint devices can't handle them at this time

What frontend software or media player do you use? (VLC, WMP, MS MC (microsoft media center), etc..)
I like XBMC but also use the media center, VLC and the 360 interface. I'm running mymovies on my WHS server to provide cover art and info to my front end devices.

My next project is to buy/build a dedicated HTPC to replace the old P3 Dell that is capable of streaming HD content.

 

[daniel1113]

What do you primarily use your server for? (movies, music, pictures, etc..)
25% videos, 25% music, 40% centralized data storage, 10% web and database server

How many devices/machines are attached to your current server?
4 to 6

What kind of devices are on your network that attach to the server? (pc's, mp3 players, gaming devices, etc..)
2 computers, a PS3, and a Logitech SqueezeBox Duet

What type of network are you using? (wireless G, wireless N, cat5, fiber optic, etc..)
Wireless N for the laptop and gigabit for all the wired connections

Approximately how much media data do you currently have? (20gb, 400gb, 2tb, etc..)
The file server has room for 3TB.

Is your media server capable of handling high definition content? (720p or 1080p)
Yes, it plays 1080p fine, both streaming and directly.

What frontend software or media player do you use? (VLC, WMP, MS MC (microsoft media center), etc..)
TVersity to stream videos to the PS3, SqueezeCenter to stream music to the Duet, VLC to play videos on the computers, and foobar2000 to play music on the computers.

The Setup
SqueezeBox Duet