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Topic: Create own Media centre (Read 3832 times) previous topic - next topic
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Create own Media centre

I have an old pc here, (266mhz, 64mb ram, 3.2gb hdd, sound card, vid card, and usb ports.) and id like to use it as a media centre  for playin movies, and mp3's/aac's flacs etc. Maybe even use a wireless (bluetooth?) connection between my main PC and the media centre. Anyone have any experince to help me?
Thanks in advance,
Jay

Create own Media centre

Reply #1 –
You might be able to get away with using a 266MHz processor if you use an older operating system such as Windows 98.  If you want to use this as a media center for play movies and music I would seroiusly suggest buying a larger hard drive.  3.2GB will not hold much in terms of movies and music.  By 'media center' do you mean you want to set this computer up as a media server for a network or use it to play music and watch videos on that specific computer itself?  If you want to use this computer as a server then a wireless connection would work.  I have a Linksys Wireless-G setup at my house.  I have a WRT54G Linksys wireless-G router and Linksys Wireless-G network cards in my computers.  I use my 800MHz, 512MB RAM, 120GB HD machine as my media server and stream all my music over my network to my other computers.  I have found iTunes is excellent for this if you are using MP3, WAV, AIFF, or AAC.  Winamp and Foobar2000 also do a good job with streaming across a network.

Create own Media centre

Reply #2 –
well, i was thinkin of my main pc (2.2ghz) usin that as the server, and the old one as the player. Will that work? will i still need the huge hdd if i just want to stream?

Create own Media centre

Reply #3 –
A large HD is not required to stream.  A server, however, should have significant HD space available to it to store information to provide to network users who want to get things from the server such as music.  The server has to store the music and videos for other computers on your network to get.  The other computers on your network will stream the music and video from the server without using their own HD space.  A small temporary file may be created on the PC receiving the stream but that's it.

Create own Media centre

Reply #4 –
thats fine, the server has well over 200Gig free. How would i go about connecing them then, it must be wireless, and as cheap as possbile. (would bluetooth be of use?)

Create own Media centre

Reply #5 –
I don't think Bluetooth has much use with a network.  I believe Bluetooth is used more with wireless connectivity to devices such as mice, keyboards, etc.  Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong here.  What you want to go for is a Wireless-G router and adapters.  Wireless-G is a wireless networking standard that has a transfer rate of 54mbps.  The older Wireless-B standard is just 11mbps.  Mbps stands for megabits per second.  Considering your music is encoded in kbps if you are using MP3 or AAC that's more than enough bandwidth to stream those.  A CD quality WAV file is roughly 1.4mbps (1411kbps) so you will also be able to even stream that across the network.  Below are Linksys hardware components to check out.  I highly suggest going with Linksys as I had problems when I bought wireless Belkin routers and network cards before I got my Linksys stuff.  You can order these online at Amazon or go to a local store such as Staples.

Wireless-G Router

Wireless-G  PCI Networking Card (goes inside computer)

Wireless-G USB Networking Adapter (connects via a USB port)

Edit: To avoid confusion, you do not need both a PCI networking card AND a USB adapter.  Just one or the other.  The main difference is the PCI adapter card goes inside your computer while the USB adapter sits on the outside of your computer and connects to a USB port.

Create own Media centre

Reply #6 –
I use an old Pentium 266 MMX laptop with 128 MB RAM for a media player.  It only has a 4 GB HD.  The processing speed is fine for audio.  I use both Winamp 2x and Foobar as the player for MP3, AAC, and APE files.  It also decodes SHN files with no problems.  I have not tried FLAC yet.  I have never tried video but I think you need a faster processor for DVD video.

The only problem I run into is I get audio dropouts when the screensaver goes to a blank screen and from a blank screen back.

John

Edit: I use a wired 10/100 ethernet card.

Create own Media centre

Reply #7 –
ok, bluetooth is out of the window then, it was just an idea. Someone else i asked said that the processor would be to slow for video/mpeg4. Would it make a difference if i used a different o/s? I have a little experience with linux if it helps! Thanks, jay

Create own Media centre

Reply #8 –
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Would it make a difference if i used a different o/s? I have a little experience with linux if it helps! Thanks, jay

No, I think you would at least need 500 MHz for Divx/Xvid, better 700 MHz if advanced parameters are used. You should either consider a CPU upgrade or a Sigma Xcard, which offers MPEG2/MPEG4 hardware decoding.

For audio your setup should be ok (I'm running an audio jukebox with 200 MHz perfectly ok).

Create own Media centre

Reply #9 –
Quote
The only problem I run into is I get audio dropouts when the screensaver goes to a blank screen and from a blank screen back.

just dont use a screensaver, monitors nowadays have no problems with burn in which is what a screen saver is meant to protect against

Quote
I highly suggest going with Linksys as I had problems when I bought wireless Belkin routers and network cards before I got my Linksys stuff.

make sure you change your ssid, and the login password for your wifi router, or someone like some of my friends can come along park infront of your house and totally screw up you network and delete all your audio files.
more on securing wifi