Home media servers

[joestifff]

Firstly ... are these still a thing?

I have so many DVDs & Blu rays, and I find myself not watching them because I am lazy and they're upstairs. Instead I watch whatever films I have on my hard drive plugged into my Sony TV.

However, the interface Sony has isn't so good, plus I will be running out of space soon.

Now I used to pride myself on being very tech savvy, used to build and sell PCs at uni, massively into my hifi and home cinema, but for some reason, the whole media server has left me bemused.

Is it as simple as build a fairly high spec small PC with huge hard drive and get some software?? This already sounds awful and clunky, turning on a PC ... waiting... etc.

Are there all in one units you can buy whathifi.co.uk doesn't throw up anything really? I don't trust Google and reviews, far to many paid reviews!

Any help would be much appreciated from anyone in the know!

[davek_964]

Just buy a NAS, rip your films to it and stream from that. There isn't much need for a dedicated PC.

Synology are good.

[brman]

davek_964 said:

Just buy a NAS, rip your films to it and stream from that. There isn't much need for a dedicated PC.

Synology are good.

You still need some way of playing them on your TV though so check your TV (or DVD player) can do that.

[Bullett]

Standard PH recommendation is a a NAS tucked in a cupboard somewhere and something like a RaspberryPi running Kodi(xbmc) or Plex as the front end.

Pretty much any small form factor PC from the Pi upwards will do you as a front end.

[weeboot]

OP isn't happy with the interface on his TV.

Depends on what audio output you need, but I use a Raspberry PI running Kodi to play media stored on a 2Tb NAS. Serves my purposed perfectly and can be done relatively cheaply.

[paulrockliffe]

NAS or a micro server, run Plex server on it. Leave the server on 24/7. If you're tech-savvy it's not overly difficult to add bits of software to the server so that it automatically downloads, sorts and adds your favorite programs to your library as they are released, so you can do a lot more than just use it to serve media. Plex gives you access away from home too.

Run Plex Home Theatre on *something*, Raspberry Pi is good, there are faster but more expensive options too. Or use Chromecast and the Plex App on your phone/tablet.

[C0ffin D0dger]

I run a HP Proliant Microserver mainly as I'm a bit of a nerd NAS would do just as well.

Still running Windows Home Server 2011 on it, not a bad OS really just a shame M$ decided they didn't want to support it / develop it anymore.

[KamSandhu44]

A NAS is all well and good using Plex or DLNA.

But it comes down to audio requirements.

OP do you have a need for Dolby TrueHD or DTA-HD MA?

[C0ffin D0dger]

KamSandhu44 said:

A NAS is all well and good using Plex or DLNA.

But it comes down to audio requirements.

OP do you have a need for Dolby TrueHD or DTA-HD MA?

I don't see the problem. If you have you films stored with those sound-tracks embedded (i.e. as .mkv files) then provided the client reports it can play them then a Plex server would send them to it in their raw form (i.e. no transcoding). DLNA is even less intelligent. NAS/Server/Whatever shouldn't make any difference?

[joestifff]

Thanks for all your quick replies.

Yes my main gripe is the interface on the TV. Was great when I had say less than 100 films, but it takes an age to scroll through them all, and all series, all in alphabetical order. I am looking for something that would allow me folders, possibly a thumbnail, easier to read, sort tv series' into folders etc etc

As for audio, this is also an issue current TV only outputs linear PCM. Dolby digital/trueHD would be great. have the speaker setup and amp ready to go. I believe the files are ready to go for this, it is just the TV that wont allow it.

[paulrockliffe]

Audio is a fair consideration; Raspberry Pi won't give you optical output without buying an interface. It's cheaper to use something else for the job if you need it. Some TVs only output in 2.1 from their optical, so even audio over HDMI won't give you surround sound unless you run it through a HDMI equipped surround amplifier before it goes to the TV.

I have a small HTPC that's a few year old that I use in my workshop, because it has optical output. It's not as good as the Pi as it doesn't support HDMI CEC, so needs a separate remote, but it does give me DTS in the shed.

[hoegaardenruls]

C0ffin D0dger said:

I run a HP Proliant Microserver mainly as I'm a bit of a nerd NAS would do just as well.

Still running Windows Home Server 2011 on it, not a bad OS really just a shame M$ decided they didn't want to support it / develop it anymore.

Similar base setup in the HP Microserver, but food more flexibility I installed VMWare ESXi to be able to run multiple virtual machines, and for streaming I run OpenMediaVault with.a DLNA server for streaming. OMV also provides NAS functionality for sharing files, etc.

I preferred this setup, as NAS servers tend to be based on proprietary hardware/software so support is more difficult, and I am familiar with ESX anyway.

[Church of Noise]

Also use a HP Microserver here, running Xpenology.
I'm a bit of a geek, but you don't need to be to be able to set it up. Took me less than 20 min.
Very happy with the result!

[Bullett]

Another HP Microserver user
Mines on Win home as I run a few other Windows services as well and I couldn't be arse to learn Linux.

[bigandclever]

I use a Synology NAS (old enough it can't transcode) coupled with a CuBox-i, and use tablet & phone with Kore for the interface. Works for me, but I've no doubt tech has moved on in leaps and bounds since I dared look

[davek_964]

As an interface to my NAS, I use Kodi on Amazon fire tv / fire stick. It presents a very nice UI to the video library (and photos / music), and does an excellent job of organising the media (alphabetically / by box set / by genre / by actor etc. etc. etc).

[kennydies]

I run a small media PC with KODI on it. This streams from my Nas in the office on a gigabit network.

[Too Late]

Bullett said:

Another HP Microserver user
Mines on Win home as I run a few other Windows services as well and I couldn't be arse to learn Linux.

Another HP Microserver but runny synology (xpenology)
its so good, i have 2

[anonymous-user]

I bought one of these http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/info_0724.html...

SSD boots into Windows 10 in less than 10 seconds from cold. 3 internal 5TB drives and all my films are ripped to MKV and played through KODI to my AV using the on board HDMI. Music is ripped to ALAC and played through iTunes simply because it has an easy interface. You need to set Windows up so it does no music processing and plays everything in raw digital format. The added benefit is you can play YouTube and other steamed web content.

Forget all your stupid fire sticks etc. Do it properly!

Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 1st July 18:51

[ThunderSpook]

Plex server and an Apple TV. Proper 5.1 audio and 1080p. Sorted.