Home Media Server Suggestions?

Any ideas of the best way to make a home media server/entertainment center? I want to be able to load all of my movies on a server, along with all of the music I have and be able to stream it to my surround sound system. Suggestions? I am more concerned about the software side than the hardware side.

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iBrokeIT

I use XBMC on a raspberry pi for the front end and have a NAS that acts as a DLNA server.

edit: if you have a newer TV that supports DLNA or gaming console and dont want the XBMC interface then those are options as well.

MrAgent

I use "air video" to stream my movies to my ipad, which I plug into my TV. Pretty simple setup and it gets the job done. I have all of my movies on a NAS, and I have a drive mapped to it from my server. The air video server software is free, but the app for the ipad/iphone costs $4.99

NetworkingStudent

How I Built the Media Center of My Dreams for Under $500

I didn't build this, but found the link on another site to lifehacker

kaneohe7

Plex (Plex - A Complete Media Solution) has been a great solution for my needs. It streams music and video, its free, and is stable. The also have an app that lets you view your content on your phone.

gbdavidx

Amazon.com: Ceton InfiniTV 4 PCIe - 4-channel Internal Cable TV Tuner Card for CableCARD: Computers & Accessories

this on a htpc pc and windows media center

Xonis1

I run this with a dual boot with XBMC and windows. load it up with some 3TB red western digital hard drives.NMEDIAPC.com - the leading Home Theater PC componenets manufactory who provide one stop shop for your HTPC needs. Visit us to build your dream HTPC, Media Center PC and Home Media server. We offer the most quiet, cooler, compact and multi-functional

Asif Dasl

Get a ReadyNAS, it's a NAS & media server and it's RAID-5 so your files will be safe if one drive dies on you. Runs about 50-60 watts so it doesn't use as much electricity like a full server as well. You can use it to download torrents if you are in to that also.

BoneSpur

I was looking for the best software to install/use on a Windows 7 Pro machine. Thanks for some of the suggestions above. I will look into them. Has anyone taken the time to actually d/load their movie collection to a HDD?

Haswell

BoneSpur wrote: »

I was looking for the best software to install/use on a Windows 7 Pro machine. Thanks for some of the suggestions above. I will look into them. Has anyone taken the time to actually d/load their movie collection to a HDD?

I have and it works great with Plex and a Ruko box.

knownhero

I use a combo of the following:

Mac Mini
XBMC
AirVideo Server

I have XBMC running on the actual MacMini with a 2tb Hard Drive plugged into it (still need to get a NAS). Which also acts as my download box.

Seeing as my iPad is not jailbroken in anyway to get XBMC on that, I use AirVideo to get over it. Works great and as a bonus I can get it while at work as well.