Home Media distribution help

[angels128]

So essentially i am using one pc now as a storage solution for my house sort of like a nas minus the fact that it is still being used as an every day pc, anyways. I am looking for a digital box similar to the WD TV that can grab all the media from it wirelessly and stream it to the tvs in the house. Originally i was going to use WD TV's but every review says they are horrifyingly slow. My router will not be a problem being an Asus RT-AC68U, the box must be able to stream uncompressed file types or just in specific alot of my content on the drives is .mkv, what would you guys suggest. Also the house is just a small bungalow and the tvs are not situated to far from the router so i just need a box cable of handling the bandwidth and not taking forever.

Thanks for the help once again!!!
 

[Vitalius]

I personally would use Chromecast ($35) and Chrome on your PC.

Basically, buy an external HDD and attach it to the RT-AC68U (I own one as well, so I know you can do it). Then stream the video on your PC or mobile device using the Chrome browser (for the PC) or the Chromecast app (for the mobile devices). Then cast it to your desired TV. 

Note that you'd have to move the thing around obviously but I don't see how you can avoid that regardless. And it's wireless so it's easy to move around anyway.

[angels128]

issue being i have about 11tb as it is just off blue ray and uncompressed music. so the option would have to stream from the new pc that is acting as the storage from the home/nas that is about to be built

 

I personally would use Chromecast ($35) and Chrome on your PC.

Basically, buy an external HDD and attach it to the RT-AC68U (I own one as well, so I know you can do it). Then stream the video on your PC or mobile device using the Chrome browser (for the PC) or the Chromecast app (for the mobile devices). Then cast it to your desired TV. 

Note that you'd have to move the thing around obviously but I don't see how you can avoid that regardless. And it's wireless so it's easy to move around anyway.

[Vitalius]

issue being i have about 11tb as it is just off blue ray and uncompressed music. so the option would have to stream from the new pc that is acting as the storage from the home/nas that is about to be built

So... wait. 

You can build a NAS and stream from it at the same time... I do it at least. From that sentence, I'm getting that there will be 2 new computers. One for the streaming, and one for the NAS. Or do you want one that will do both? 

I assume one PC that does both (stream and store content). 

For that much content and for streaming, I really suggest FreeNAS in this case (I know others who read this, I always suggest FreeNAS. lol). Plex Media Server converts any video by transcoding on the fly into whatever format your device needs (i.e. from MKV to MP4 or wtv) and whatever resolution fits it best (i.e. 1080p for TV, 480p for phone, etc). And it works pretty well if it has a lot of good hardware (Big Caveat there) while FreeNAS is a fairly good home NAS OS. 

So, to start with, what is your budget for this PC? Are you wanting people to suggest builds? Or are you wanting people to just suggest setups to get you what you want and then you take it from there?

[angels128]

Right now i have 2 pcs. my pc, and another in the basement that is used just for emails. it has a ton of storage in it and is just content sharing them. I am building a nas to replace it that will be running free nas the build is already planned and is around 550 dollars candian. All im looking for is a box like the WD TV that can take the information from the pc or nas in the future and play it on the tvs and sound systems. Im pretty much just looking for a faster wd tv but idk what there is out there that would work for all media types. well say it would be nice for this solution to be cheaper because im looking to buy two of them. Unfortunately the way it is right now i have to lug a laptop to what ever tv or sound system we want to use with a good network card just to listen or watch stuff in the house (first world problems i know) but i would rather there just be a box there that anyone could use at any time without technical knowledge. im the only one in the house that is tech savy so im looking for a very simple solution for them to just sit down grab the remote and watch/listen to the content i have moved to the storage pc/soon to be nas for them

[angels128]

So... wait. 

You can build a NAS and stream from it at the same time... I do it at least. From that sentence, I'm getting that there will be 2 new computers. One for the streaming, and one for the NAS. Or do you want one that will do both? 

I assume one PC that does both (stream and store content). 

For that much content and for streaming, I really suggest FreeNAS in this case (I know others who read this, I always suggest FreeNAS. lol). Plex Media Server converts any video by transcoding on the fly into whatever format your device needs (i.e. from MKV to MP4 or wtv) and whatever resolution fits it best (i.e. 1080p for TV, 480p for phone, etc). And it works pretty well if it has a lot of good hardware (Big Caveat there) while FreeNAS is a fairly good home NAS OS. 

So, to start with, what is your budget for this PC? Are you wanting people to suggest builds? Or are you wanting people to just suggest setups to get you what you want and then you take it from there?

Also sorry for the confusion there the sentence was a little wishy washy just looking for a box to stream the content already available on the network. at non snail pace. and if you can install crunchy on it even Better!

[Vitalius]

Right now i have 2 pcs. my pc, and another in the basement that is used just for emails. it has a ton of storage in it and is just content sharing them. I am building a nas to replace it that will be running free nas the build is already planned and is around 550 dollars candian. All im looking for is a box like the WD TV that can take the information from the pc or nas in the future and play it on the tvs and sound systems. Im pretty much just looking for a faster wd tv but idk what there is out there that would work for all media types. well say it would be nice for this solution to be cheaper because im looking to buy two of them. Unfortunately the way it is right now i have to lug a laptop to what ever tv or sound system we want to use with a good network card just to listen or watch stuff in the house (first world problems i know) but i would rather there just be a box there that anyone could use at any time without technical knowledge. im the only one in the house that is tech savy so im looking for a very simple solution for them to just sit down grab the remote and watch/listen to the content i have moved to the storage pc/soon to be nas for them

 

Well, if you do install Plex Media Server onto your FreeNAS machine, all you need is a Chromecast. Plex will convert the media into whatever format/resolution the device needs and then you can stream it to your Chromecast via that device. 

However, you might need a tiny bit of tech savy for that. To use Plex, you just go the plugins web page (for me, it's 10.0.0.99:32400/stuff) which can easily be bookmarked. Then you select the content which is categorized by TV shows, Movies, Music, and Pictures (as well as Home Movies, but who uses that? lol). Then you stream it to the Chromecast. 

So that machine you use for storage/emails could be the plex machine, or you could just do it with the Laptop which doesn't have to be in the same room as the Chromecast. It just have to be connected to the network via WiFi or Ethernet. 

From an end user's perspective (someone who isn't tech savvy), it's pretty simple. You'd just have to teach them. It's 3 steps. Plex media page > Select/Play Content > Stream to Chromecast.

Also sorry for the confusion there the sentence was a little wishy washy just looking for a box to stream the content already available on the network. at non snail pace. and if you can install crunchy on it even Better!

It's cool. I understand. 

Well, you can basically put anything on a Chromecast that you can access with a Chrome browser. So go to Crunchy then throw that to the Chromecast. Or Hulu, or Amazon Prime, or Netflix, or wtv. You could use your Laptop, Phone, Tablet, Desktop, wtv. Anything that's connected to the network the Chromecast is on and is compatible which is most things.