Streaming movies and music to my HT

[f0rge]

Hey all it's been a while since i've been around, work has been obscene as of late.

Anyway i thought I'd let you in on my new little setup for streaming music and more importantly movies to my home theater via some network storage.

Basically it revolves around two things, the storage and the streamer itself.

For the storage i picked up a HP Mediavault MV2120, then crammed 2TB (2000 gigs) worth of hard drives in it. I picked this up because it has a DLNA media server built into it, that way i didnt have to make my own, and it could operate independent of a computer.

I hooked it up to my network wired to my router with gigabit ethernet, then transferred all my music and movies and tv shows off my computer and onto the Mediavault.

My router is right beside my main HT, so i ran more wired ethernet to my PS3 and Xbox360 which i was going to be using for my media streamers. Both support many video codecs including DIVX and XVID.

Then the moment of truth, i booted up my PS3 and browsed over to the "Videos" and there it was, my Mediavault, so i clicked on it, browsed to a movie i wanted to watch and it played, all without a computer.

In fact it all worked so well that i bought a second Xbox360 for the bedroom and I use wireless G to stream videos there.

The same principal applies to music, I can play music via my 360 and PS3 but instead i use a couple of Apple Airport Express things to get music to my main stereo as well as the bedroom. I need to use a laptop for this, but I found that browsing through that many files (35 gigs of mp3s) was too cumbersome on either the 360 or PS3.

For safety I protect the Mediavault (and router and modem) with a UPS.

Now the hard part is going to be converting all my physical media to digital. Of course when I want to be blown away I still have a growing library of Blurays to satisfy my needs.

[Woochifer]

Amazing versatility built into the PS3 (I've yet to use it for gaming). I use my iMac as the media server, and have the music and video files stored on either the iMac or the external backup drive. So far, I've got over 200 CDs loaded onto the hard drive, and the PS3 reads all of my iTunes playlists.

I originally wanted to use the PS3 with a NAS device, but that doesn't seem to be an option, so I just set everything up through the iMac.

[f0rge]

I originally wanted to use the PS3 with a NAS device, but that doesn't seem to be an option, so I just set everything up through the iMac.

that used to be the case, but update 1.9 added DLNA compatibility.

up until then i had been using my 360, which can do everything the PS3 can streaming wise. the PS3 does benefit from the gigabit ethernet though.

[Rich-n-Texas]

Good to see ya posting here again f0rge.

Getting away from the PS3 a bit, what do you think about Denon's upgrade pack that can be purchased for $100 bucks? My boss has a 3808; he installed the upgrade and he likes the way the dynamic volume leveling evens out the volume across sources. Have you purchased it?

[f0rge]

i saw that feature pack but it didnt really seem worth the $100 since th volume thing was the only part i was going to use.

maybe i should reconsider since it sounds like it works, my cable company is terrible at volume leveling their channels, sometimes the commercials are almost twice as loud as the show. scares my gf all the time lol

[chadjay]

The feature upgrade was free for a time period. I think it has ended now. I went ahead and payed $100 for upgrade then sent in for rebate check, which only took two weeks to get.

I think if you have issues with various volumes from SAT or CABLE the upgrade is well worth it. The dynamic EQ seems to work well also. DTV shows alot of programs that are 5.1 and with dynamic volume and dynamic EQ enabled in the evening the sound is listenable in 5.1 (at low levels).

If you have ever used Rhapsody online, being able to stream it through the 3808 is even better. $12.99 month for unlimited streaming of millions of songs is pretty reasonable.

So, all in all if I had to pay $100 out of my pocket I would do it for this upgrade. Just my opinion though.

[f0rge]

hmmm that sounds pretty useful, i bought my 3808 before they even had the feature pack so i didnt get to take advantage of the free offer.

i do have pretty serious problems with various volumes from cable, especially for shows in 5.1 with commercials in stereo, it's jarring actually.

one question tho, do you have to have the mic running all the time? how else can it tell the volume?