Topic: Media Server and all things related thread

[Stogi]

I have about 150 GB of music and I need more space. I'd like to buy at least a Terabyte external HDD, but what's most important is my ability to access the information on my HDD through my computer and some form of digital media player that's attached to my receiver by HDMI.

I'm not savvy when it comes to any of these things, yet I can see the massive potential it has. I have a couple of questions to anyone who knows.

1. I know I can access a Network HDD through my wireless network, but is it possible to access the information of the HDD through the internet? Can I access the HDD from across the globe?

2. Digital Media Players: what can they really do?
    - Can they stream media flawlessly?
    - Can they record media back to the HDD?
    - Are they essentially a computer (can I organize everything)?

What I want is exactly this: I come home, turn on my receiver and DMP, and play my entire collection randomly. I start preparing some food, then while it's cooking, I look up some new music I want to hear and download it DIRECTLY to my new HDD. After eating, I call my girl over and put on a slide show of pictures of her while my music is still playing. Later, as we're watching futurama, I decide to record it with my DMP (which then automatically backs it up on my HDD, but it doesn't have do that instantly. If it could be scheduled, that would be perfect). Later, we watch a dvd-rip of Emperor's New Groove.

The next day I leave for Hawaii and decide to listen to this one song I forgot to put on my iPod. I access my HDD through the internet and stream the song (or even download it), then listen to it. The same should work if I wanted to watch a movie. After coming back from a night at the beach, I upload my pictures to my networked HDD.

After a week, I come back and find that my DMP media is all backed-up on my HDD and that the original media has been deleted; completely freeing up my DMP for more scheduled recordings.

If I can have all that with the advanced options of selecting exactly how media is converted (what file type) and when, it would be perfect.

I wouldn't mind spending as much as it takes because this to me sounds like the coolest, most seamless media playing/sharing/storing setup ever.

EDIT: I just stumbled on what is called a media server. Anyone heard of such a thing?

[bustin98]

'Home media server' is just a fancy term for any PC on a network that has media open to share over the network. I have music and images on my PC. I also have them open to share. Both my 360 and PS3 have the capibility to connect and stream data off my PC. The Wii can as well but I believe it works through the web browser.

If you want to share your media on the Internet, you will need a static IP Address. How would you like to be in Hawaii and your ISP resets your IP while you're gone? You won't be able to access it till you get back home to find out what the new address is.

Well, I guess you could have a program that reads the IP address on the router every day and sends the result to an email address, but that could be easier said than done.

But you could put up a neat little server package on a PC, like XAMPP. That will turn your PC into a web server. Then you could find some PHP programs that will list all music files in a directory, all displayed and linked on a web page. Since Apache is the server program, it would be fairly simple to password protect the information.

The downside is you are opening your pc to the world. You'd want to make sure that the router only forwards port 80 to your pc. Other ports could be vulnerable to attack. Also make sure the password on the router is tough, complicated, and changed every so often.

Well, some of that probably went over your head. And there may be easier ways to go about it. But this way is free... That Wii Media thing may be accessable over the net, too. I haven't looked into it.

EDIT:

Thinking about it, you might be interested in a little project I'm working on. I'm going to be building my own DVR. Its a bit more expensive than renting from Road Runner, but I will be able to burn recordings to DVD instead of choosing which program needs to bite it. Also I get to control how much hard drive space is available. And I'll be able to play PC games on my TV, which I could do now but I'd have to move my rig around and its just not worth the effort.

[Shift Key]

I've wanted a good media center setup for years (stupid lack of income), and I've always had in mind to build a home theatre PC (looks like a piece of HiFi equipment) to handle all my media and plug into a sound system and HDTV. But I was planning on building my own system that I could customise accordingly, rather than buying something off the shelf.

1. I know I can access a Network HDD through my wireless network, but is it possible to access the information of the HDD through the internet? Can I access the HDD from across the globe?

Its possible. See Bustin's post.

2. Digital Media Players: what can they really do?

As bustin said, its just a dumb computer. Some of the media players will have storage space. But typically, the media player will stream content over your network from another computer. So essentially what a DMP does is identify shared folders on other computers, read the files on there to a temporary storage, and play the video/music on your TV/speakers.

'Flawlessly' depends on the unit, but if you find a review of the product you're interested in, it'll probably test the performance of the unit. If you've got Fast Ethernet (100Mb/s) or 802.11g (54Mb/s) you should be able to stream most media over your network without issue.

For the rest of it, I'll walk you through what I think is capable currently.

What I want is exactly this: I come home, turn on my receiver and DMP, and play my entire collection randomly. I start preparing some food, then while it's cooking, I look up some new music I want to hear and download it DIRECTLY to my new HDD.

The new external hard drive you have would be plugged into your normal PC. If you're looking for something a bit smarter, google for NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices. Its a network share without powering up a computer. All you need to do is plug it into a power socket and ethernet port ( or inbuilt wireless in the better models). Some even do Bittorrent downloading. But yes, you can definitely do this. And if you share the new hard drive over the local network, it'll become available to your DMP when it is downloaded.

After eating, I call my girl over and put on a slide show of pictures of her while my music is still playing. Later, as we're watching futurama, I decide to record it with my DMP (which then automatically backs it up on my HDD, but it doesn't have do that instantly. If it could be scheduled, that would be perfect).

Don't think you can do recording with all DMPs. Maybe someone else can point to some devices which can.

Later, we watch a dvd-rip of Emperor's New Groove.

Same as downloading a new song - if it is available on the network, the DMP will be able to access it.

The next day I leave for Hawaii and decide to listen to this one song I forgot to put on my iPod. I access my HDD through the internet and stream the song (or even download it), then listen to it. The same should work if I wanted to watch a movie. After coming back from a night at the beach, I upload my pictures to my networked HDD.

See Bustin's post - he's covered a lot of the technical issues you have to get around.

After a week, I come back and find that my DMP media is all backed-up on my HDD and that the original media has been deleted; completely freeing up my DMP for more scheduled recordings.

Many DMPs don't store the media - if you backup your new HDD it'll be safe. You could get around this by having a backup arrangement on your computer which moves new media from #CURRENT to #ARCHIVE but that's going into the technical realm.

If I can have all that with the advanced options of selecting exactly how media is converted (what file type) and when, it would be perfect.

Most DMPs support a wide range of formats, but don't do conversion. You'll know with each model what you can play and what you can't.

I wouldn't mind spending as much as it takes because this to me sounds like the coolest, most seamless media playing/sharing/storing setup ever.

You don't have to spend an arm and a leg to have this sort of setup, but it comes down to the features you want.

[Stogi]

Wow. I must say, you guys did a fantastic job of answering my questions and laying out the possibilities in a very concise, yet descriptive way. I love this forum.

NAS sounds very interesting. It seems like exactly what I want....for storage anyway. I'd much rather have my HDD connected to the router directly than through any PC. Also, building my own DMP PC sounds like a lucrative project. I could put Linux on there, play basically everything and even use my favorite MP, Amarok. I'm not very proficient in building PC's though....Still, I wouldn't mind learning.

As for accessing my files over the internet, I always knew it would be hard. If I didn't hate Winamp FULL so much (not the tiny player), with it's capability to stream content from PC to PC, Wii, PS3, etc., I would have settled on that. XAMPP sounds interesting. I'll have to put more thought into this and decide what I want to do.

Many DMPs don't store the media - if you backup your new HDD it'll be safe. You could get around this by having a backup arrangement on your computer which moves new media from #CURRENT to #ARCHIVE but that's going into the technical realm.

You'll have to explain more about that at a later date. That sounds ideal.

[Shift Key]

NAS sounds very interesting. It seems like exactly what I want....for storage anyway. I'd much rather have my HDD connected to the router directly than through any PC. Also, building my own DMP PC sounds like a lucrative project. I could put Linux on there, play basically everything and even use my favorite MP, Amarok. I'm not very proficient in building PC's though....Still, I wouldn't mind learning.

The actual "putting stuff into other stuff" isn't the hard part - its actually fairly hard to put RAM in the wrong way or plug in a hard-drive incorrectly. The stuff you need to watch out for is anything electrical - ensuring the power supply is set up correctly (or already installed), and that the motherboard is installed in the case correctly. Otherwise you'll nuke you motherboard when you switch it on (and possibly everything else attached) and blow a lot of money.

A bit of care with that - and making sure the parts you get work well together - and I think its within the realm of possibility.

As for Amarok, the 2.0 series (KDE4 version) is still in beta (works with a bit of head-smashing-against-wall time). Give it a few months (KDE 4.2 perhaps) and it should be awesome enough for everyday use. But yes, it kicks major arse. I should try the Windows port or Amarok (it is beta though).

Many DMPs don't store the media - if you backup your new HDD it'll be safe. You could get around this by having a backup arrangement on your computer which moves new media from #CURRENT to #ARCHIVE but that's going into the technical realm.

You'll have to explain more about that at a later date. That sounds ideal.

What's involved with it is a bit of scripting in *insert programming language here* to move files around. Whether its on your computer or on the network, its just moving files around. The automated part is setting up the script to run periodically (differs by your OS of choice).

I'm not sure if there are NAS devices which support automated scripts (i'd probably jump at one if it did) but if not, you could do it across your network (set up a service on your Windows box to rearrange your media which runs at 3am on Wednesday morning).

[NWR_Lindy]

Check out Popcorn Hour.  A buddy of mine bought one of these and it's apparently sick.  You can add your own hard drive and have it directly download torrent files.

http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

[Stogi]

Wow, that does look ideal. I wonder how much it would cost for me to make one though.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

I was thinking of hooking up my media friendly laptop to the TV and navigating the OS using a Wii Remote plus bluetooth.

[Stogi]

What happens when you want to play Wii with your buddies?

[bustin98]

I've spent about $1000 on my media computer that can record tv and vhs. And I'm afraid I'm not done yet. I only have regular cable. At some point I'm going to have to get a couple of cablecards. And not thinking ahead, it may require a different motherboard. Dang it.

I also need a video stabilizer for those vhs movies.

[NWR_Lindy]

Wow, that does look ideal. I wonder how much it would cost for me to make one though.

DON'T DO IT.  I had a couple of buddies that thought it'd be a great idea to build a MythTV box, which worked really well until their Linux distribution started to crap out all the time.  And God forbid their power went out, because something would always get corrupted.

Now MythTV is more complex than what you want to do, but the PopcornHour is only $200 and you'll have zero headaches with it.  Let somebody else do the testing and troubleshooting on the design.

[Stogi]

Good looking out, Silky Smoove.

I wonder when they are coming out with there next iteration (cuz this one doesn't support all the music files I use, such .ape)....

[NWR_Lindy]

That, I don't know.

My buddy got the A-110 I believe.  Apparently they do them in monthly batches, so you put your order in and wait a few weeks.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

What happens when you want to play Wii with your buddies?

I. don't. know?

[vudu]

Bump for a totally subjective question that I want an objective answer to.

What's the best free media player available for Windows?

I don't care about all the stuff Stogi does (although, I must admit it sounds cool).  I just want something that can easily sort through my entire music collection by artist, album, genre, year, etc.

[Stogi]

I use MediaMonkey Gold. For one, it plays everything. Number two, it's easy and simple. And three, you can hook up any PMP to it and even customize how music is transferred to it (as in what kind of files and their quality).


There's a free version, but if your like me, the Gold version is the free version.

[vudu]

I tried Media Monkey and decided it sucks.

After spending a few hours importing my library and setting it up just the way I like it the program decided it wanted to delete my library and all my settings.  Thankfully, it didn't actually delete any of the files on my computer, but I'm still put off enough that I think I can safely swear off the program without feeling too bad.

[Stogi]

I see. Sorry about that. If you find something better, you should share it here.

Here's what mine looks like

http://i39.tinypic.com/oi9c75.jpg