I was hoping I could solicit some advice from people who have already successfully accomplished what I am looking to do. I have an HTPC with a Ceton TV tuner that I use to watch/record TV and ripped blurays in Windows Media Center. I am getting to the point where my media library is growing enough that I would like to expand to a centralized home media server. In doing so, I would like to be able to stream the content to the other TVs in the house and my mobile devices (ipad/iphone) and outside computers. I do not have a lot of money I am willing to throw at this, but I figured I will be able to build a pretty good server rig using an AMD sempron 145 processor and a decent mobo with 4 built in SATA RAID ports. Below I have outlined my basic goals. Any advice on how to best obtain these goals (including server OS, hardware, etc.) and any other thoughts for a fairly new beginner would be appreciated.
-provide a home media server for storage -allow seamless, hassle free access of media storage from server to HTPS and all other TV's in house (possibly Apple TV or logitech revue?) -allow remote access to server to watch streaming media and also data storage (i.e. replace my dropbox) -be able to access recorded TV from HTPC on all TVs (can you set windows media center to save recorded TV on a networked server? My energy hog HTPC goes to sleep when not in use so file sharing from this machine is not an option.)
I think most of my questions deal with what type of OS to use for the server. I have read many forums that advocate using a free OS. While I like the free bit, I also like the idea of having a more simple, hands off OS like WHS.
As far as streaming content to my non-PC TVs, what type of device would best suit my needs? Is it as simple as telling them where to find the files and they take care of the rest like in WMC (artwork, movie info, etc.). I know that some require apps to be downloaded for home streaming, but the ones I saw also require a special media library to be installed on the source computer and to me that does not sound like something that should need to be done on a server who's only purpose is raw file storage.
BOTTOM LINE: I want a simple way to store my files centrally so that my devices may retrieve and display my media in a neat and organized way (like in WMC). Also I want to be able to access the files outside of my home network.
Thank you
TN
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