Wireless Media Coverage

[blacksheep312]

OK, So I have the following setup:

Macbook, Home PC, and a 1 terabyte raid 1 server on my network.

The macbook and Home Pc is using Xtreme N wifi, The server is hard wired into the router which has 4 gig ports. The server does not have a 1 gig nic, but I can change that down the road if needed.

Macbook running latest 10.5.2, Home PC running XP Pro SP2, and server running Windows 2000 Pro.

My wifi Router is the D-Link Xtreme N? Gigabit Router (DIR-655) is a draft 2.0 802.11n compliant device that delivers up to 14x faster speeds* and 6x farther range* than 802.11g bla bla bla.

Here is what I want to be able to do:

I have a 50 Inch plasma, and want to connect my network to the TV. I want to be able to stream music off the server, or macbook or home PC. Is this possible, and what do I need to add to my TV?

I have looked at Apple TV, but it is un-clear if I can connect my server mucis into it! It would be nice to enjoy HD movies and rentals instantly! Any info on the setup I am trying to build would def. help. Thanks!

 

[blacksheep312]

I forgot to mention, I want to buy a PS3 for Blu Ray playing capabilities, and heard I might be able to watch movies from the console soon, or was that Xbox360? Anyways, if there is a linux app I could run on the PS3 to accomplish what i want, I would not have to buy the ps3 and apple tv or similar hardware, knock it all out in one purchse! Is this possible?

 

[rickeo]

If i was in your position, i wouldn't hesitat to get a either a Mac Mini and run XBMC on it, or an equivalent mini Linux pc and do the same thing. Personally i would go with the macmini, as I already have one, and XBMC is one of the greatest things to ever happen to the Mac/Mediacenter arena. Info here: http://xbmc.org/forum/ and http://www.osxbmc.com/ That second link is the developers blog, and all the new updates can be found there. I would seriously look into it, it has great network support for many different protocols, and souldnt have any issue playing/streaming media from you're server.

 

[blacksheep312]

Does the macmini offer a high definitaion audio out such as opticla out as one of my fav.? That interface seems to be very nice. I like your idea, I am going to read up on it. Thanks for the info Rickeo.

Keep the info coming along!

 

[blacksheep312]

Hey Rickeo, since your running this setup, are you able to run pixelixel ratio resolutions for plasma's?

 

[rickeo]

You're welcome. Yes the Mini has optical audio out, and XBMC passes Dolby Digital and DTS out to you're receiver or pre/pro. Most of the time you can match you're displays resolution with OS X's built in display control panel, but if you run into troubles, SwitchResX will solve all you're troubles. http://www.madrau.com/html/SRX/About.html

I have to vote for XBMC again, i cant believe how awesome it is. Its a currently ongoing project, and new releases are coming out almost every week. With great new features and fixes each time. Best part is, its stable enough already to use it full time, I am and have never had it crash once. Plays all my 1080p x264 MKV files beautifully, with absolutely no dropped frames or skipping. Go OSXBMC! .....yea, i love it...haha

 

[Griffinhart]

Depending on your PC. I recommend running either Windows Media Center Edition 2005, or Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate. Then you can attach either the XBox 360 to your TV and use it as an extender. You can also use the 360 with any flavor of windows for playing video and music streams from your PC. Extenders are much better though. Throw a couple of Tuners in the PC and you can stream Live and recorded TV (like a tivo box without the monthly fee), recorded Video, photos, music, movie rentals from a number of services like Vongo and soon Netflix and even FM radio stations. And you can do it from the PC to several TVs around the house.

You can also use just a plain extender box if you don't want a game console.
http://accessories.us.dell.com...=en&cs=19&sku=A1309967

That one is pretty nice since it has the .11n support built in and also has a pretty nice upscaling DVD player built in.

More info on Media Center can be found at www.thegreenbutton.com

 

[blacksheep312]

Hey Rickeo, I had this great idea. Instead of buying the ATV, I would jsut get a Mini-DVI to DVI and connect the Macbook to the tv and use it like a ATV. So I went out and bought the cable, and opened up an account on Itunes, to try and watch a movie.

I had it connected and looked great on the big screen. Only on problem,

YOU CANNOT WATCH HD MOVIES UNLESS YOU BUY THE ATV. NO FULL SCREEN MODE'S EITHER.

How gay

Unless someone can hack the Itune and make it work as a ATV. I hope Itunes will put out an update to allow this. I mean, what do you do if you have a 30inch apple display and you want to output a movie your watching on itunes full screen, you can;t take advatage of HD? Thats just restared!

I think for now, Im going to buy a $140 blu-ray drive, slap in my home pc, and rent movies and play them like that and have all the features I want, until I can build a dedicated HTPC.