Help making my iMac ultimate media server

[FerraraZ]

This question may be too specific but I'll ask it none the less. I have a Google TV but truthfully I wanna get rid of it and solely use my Xbox 360 for media on my TV by way of extension from my iMac.

Now I've purchased Connect360 from the App Store and that seems to work however not ALL the time. I dont believe Xbox 360 reads .mkv files but I'm not sure. Basically I'd like to just be able to share my .avi and .mkv files over WiFi to my Xbox 360. I grabbed Lion Server as well but havent spent time to set it up and learn about it.

Anyway does anyone else do something similar to this?

 

[alfa147x]

Consider selling your Google Tv for an Apple Tv. I have PLEX (free) running on mine streaming media from my Hackintosh. It steams 720p + 5.1

Also with plex you don't have a rename or find the data that goes with your video files. Plex does it all for you. It's a small application that runs in the background of your mac. It also streams to iOS devices over wifi or 3g ($5?)

You literally don't have to do anything. I just have a harddrive with two folders (Movies, TV Shows) and I just drop files into them. PLEX organizes everything for me.

Images:
http://imgur.com/a/By0GN

 

[FerraraZ]

What about file formats? Do you have any issues with Plex streaming certain files?

 

[alfa147x]

What about file formats? Do you have any issues with Plex streaming certain files?

Nope. I just drop anything and everything in the folders. I'll PM you a picture of my two folders when I reach my apt again.

 

[ponyo]

What about file formats? Do you have any issues with Plex streaming certain files?

Plex will transcode videos it can't direct play so you technically shouldn't have any problem. But AppleTV isn't natively supported by Plex and last time I used Plex on AppleTV, it was still rough beta and had problems with some of my videos. I found XBMC vastly superior on AppleTV and that's what I use now. No need for server app like Plex. But Plex is easier to use than XBMC.

Current version of AppleTV firmware only support tethered Jailbreak. So til untethered method is available again, I don't recommend people buy AppleTV for JB apps.

Roku might be better option if you want to use Plex.

 

[FerraraZ]

What about Tversity? I'd rather not spend more money on hardware especially if Apple TV cant output 1080p.

 

[alfa147x]

Doesn't the Roku to 1080p?

 

[Ka0t1x]

Just as a warning if you use Lion with XBMC on AppleTV2 it will not work with Samba (SMB). You need to setup NFS, build your own Samba via homebrew or install an XBMC Nightly for AFP (somewhat busted, crashy).