DIY Home Entertainment Network in 3 Easy (Nonbankrupting) Steps ...
Years
of BitTorrenting and lossless CD-ripping have finally paid off: Your PC
is packed with enough high-fidelity digital entertainment to trigger
palpitations in the snobbiest mediaphile. Meanwhile, you've got that
1080p tyranno-vision LCD and eardrum-pounding 7.1-channel sound system
just aching to play it all. But how to meld the two? It's time to build
a home network. Don't fret — it's a lot easier than you think.
Step 1: Get Storage Device
Stop stockpiling
media on your PC — its anemic hard drive will crash harder than a sugar
junkie if you cram it full of HD content and force it to run a bloated
operating system. Get a network-attached storage device to serve as a
central media repository for every computer in the house. Good ones
create backups of your data on multiple built-in drives, so even if
half of them somehow fail, season four of The Simpsons will remain intact.
Step 2: Set Up Streamer
Scolded by your S.O.
for spending too much quality time with the game console? Share the
love! Both
Xbox 360 and PS3 can stream media from a PC to a TV (a Wii
can, too, but it takes some clever tweakery). No console? The recently
retooled Apple TV should do the trick. Its slick new UI, movie rental
options, and ability to operate sans PC is a home-entertainment
breakthrough. Caveat: Unlike the consoles, Apple TV's lack of native
support for DivX/Xvid means it's useless for all those Torrent files
without performing a warranty-busting hack.
Step 3: Link It All Up
You can shoot music all
over a Wi-Fi network with nary a digital hiccup — but hi-def video
files approach 6 GB per hour of footage, making wireless streaming a
jittering nightmare. Best to connect your machines with good
old-fashioned copper, like a CAT6 Ethernet cable, which at 1,000 Mbps
is nearly five times faster than the fleetest 802.11n connection. Then
grab a gigabit switch — basically a traffic cop for your network — and
route all of your connections through it. You can even allot more
bandwidth to movie files so the picture won't stutter.
Read more HERE at WIRED.
By Daniel Dumas
This post is a part of Techie Tip Tuesdays
