Viewing movies on-line

[schmenke]

Anybody do this?

Having owned it for several years, I recently ( :erm: ) discovered that my XBox console will double as a media extender, which means that I can stream media from the 'net to my t.v./home theater. I can't see that I'd actually ever want to do this, unless I can, with stable connectivity through my 802.11n wireless router, stream in HD and surround sound.
Can I actually achieve this? Do I need an acount with Netflix or some other "provider"? What's it all cost?

Where's Daniel? :p :

[GridGirl]

After owning our tv for about 10 months we actually connected it to he Internet for the first time yesterday. I don't know about streaming video but the other half hooked up his flickr account and streamed a slideshow of our pictures which looked OK.

The other half got a bit too technical for me, but from what I gather he is also looking at ways to stream stuff through the tv too. He was looking into Apple tv as a potential way of doing it but I'd already switched off from listening at that point. I'm sure Daniel can give me 101 reasons why Apple tv is evil though. :p

[Dave B]

Apple TV is kind of pointless as - guess what - you're locked into iTunes (although like any Apple product they can be hacked and made halfway useful). The "new" iTV works on the razorblade business model: the box is dirt cheap (£99) but they plan to make their money on rentals.

Our TV can play DivX files, so we're not tied to any one supplier. Downside is the quality's not great as it can't handle HD. For xmas I'll be treating myself to a nice 2TB networked HD media server.

In the meantime, most people forget that their PC can be connected to the TV, and any halfway decent modern-ish graphics card should support the screen's native resolution. Add a cordless mouse and you've got a media player which will handle just about any format, be it online or in local storage.

[Daniel]

Apple TV is kind of pointless as - guess what - you're locked into iTunes (although like any Apple product they can be hacked and made halfway useful). The "new" iTV works on the razorblade business model: the box is dirt cheap (£99) but they plan to make their money on rentals.

Our TV can play DivX files, so we're not tied to any one supplier. Downside is the quality's not great as it can't handle HD. For xmas I'll be treating myself to a nice 2TB networked HD media server.

In the meantime, most people forget that their PC can be connected to the TV, and any halfway decent modern-ish graphics card should support the screen's native resolution. Add a cordless mouse and you've got a media player which will handle just about any format, be it online or in local storage.
Exactly. I'm looking at replacing my PC soonish and I'm probably going to build a Windows Home Server and a HTPC as I've always wanted to build a home server and I've got a spare Vista Ultimate licence for a HTPC as well.

[Daniel]

Schmenke, in response to your PM.

Basically what you do is to for want of a better word, "pair" your PC and 360 together and the PC will stream the content to the 360. So for instance you could have a library of content like videos and photos on the PC which are then available on the 360.

Being able to stream depends on what version of windows you have. Vista and Windows 7 will almost certainly enable you to do this. An older PC might need replacing to be fair but your idea of "old" might not be that bad :) how old are we talking?

http://www.internetbits.com/netflix-killing-dvd-sales-begins-streaming-media-service/55411/

netflix have launched a streaming only service which may be of use to you :)

On a related note I'm currently mulling over whether to
A) do a very very cheap upgrade now and then a stupidly powerful PC in the 2nd half of next year
B) Just wait till February and get something which will be pretty darn powerful
C) Just wait till the 2nd half of next year and build something stupidly powerful.

The advantage of plan A is that my current machine and the cheap machine become a Windows Home Server and a HTPC and I don't have to settle for option B which will be good but not quite as good as if I wait till the 2nd half of next year *strokes chin* decisions decisions! Also need to get a decent TV so the HTPC is actually of some use :p

[LanciaDeltaIntegrale]

You can do this, but streaming online really depends on your internet speed. It might be easier to download the movies instead of watching them online, and connecting it up to the xbox (which is in turn connected to the tv)
This is what one of my friends does.
Sorry I can't help with the more technical details

[DexDexter]

I had a WLAN media player in my home network for years but it's not really worth it. It's best to download the movies and then watch them especially if you like HD since your Internet connection might be the bottle neck in that situation. Streaming from a computer to another is not a good option either since even these new N-standard networks aren't necessarily quick enough. I actually sold my media player and built a nice PC connected to an LCD TV and that does the trick to me.

[CNR]

an extender is better used with a vista / win 7 mediacenter PC

http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/forum.php
http://www.mediabrowser.tv/

[CNR]

Schmenke, in response to your PM.

Basically what you do is to for want of a better word, "pair" your PC and 360 together and the PC will stream the content to the 360. So for instance you could have a library of content like videos and photos on the PC which are then available on the 360.

Being able to stream depends on what version of windows you have. Vista and Windows 7 will almost certainly enable you to do this. An older PC might need replacing to be fair but your idea of "old" might not be that bad :) how old are we talking?

http://www.internetbits.com/netflix-killing-dvd-sales-begins-streaming-media-service/55411/

netflix have launched a streaming only service which may be of use to you :)

On a related note I'm currently mulling over whether to
A) do a very very cheap upgrade now and then a stupidly powerful PC in the 2nd half of next year
B) Just wait till February and get something which will be pretty darn powerful
C) Just wait till the 2nd half of next year and build something stupidly powerful.

The advantage of plan A is that my current machine and the cheap machine become a Windows Home Server and a HTPC and I don't have to settle for option B which will be good but not quite as good as if I wait till the 2nd half of next year *strokes chin* decisions decisions! Also need to get a decent TV so the HTPC is actually of some use :p

what do you have ?
i have a 5 year old pentium 4 cpu 3 ghz new motherboard and new ddr3 memory it works ok

is it good enought to run mediacenter

[odykas]

Download -> usb stick -> tv

It works fine for me :p :

[Daniel]

what do you have ?
i have a 5 year old pentium 4 cpu 3 ghz new motherboard and new ddr3 memory it works ok

is it good enought to run mediacenter

Currently?

I have the following

Core 2 Duo E8400 (wolfdale)
Asus P5K Premium motherboard
4 x 1gb Corsair DDR2 Dominator RAM
Sapphire HD4870 512mb

It's good but for gaming it's starting to get on a little bit. It will live on as a HTPC or a home server though and it's plenty good for that :)

One thing, you say your PC is 5 years old yet has DDR3, I doubt it tbh. At that age it would be ddr2.

[odykas]

I abandoned my mediacenter project long time ago as I'm not much into TV/Movies/Games.
So, it will be interesting to find out how you use them.
Maybe there are benefits I was unable to identity...

[schmenke]

Update:

I enabled the media extender and file sharing between my XBox and PC, via my home wi-fi. Although it was simple to set up, the idea of streaming content from the PC was quickly abandoned because it's slow as molasses.

I think I'll try Ody's suggestion :D

[Daniel]

via my home wi-fi.

There's your problem :) Well at least one of them, wi-fi is simply not reliable enough for streaming.

[Dave B]

You shouldn't have any problems on wireless-n and a channel unused by your neighbours.

[Daniel]

You shouldn't have any problems on wireless-n and a channel unused by your neighbours.

The problem with wireless is not necessarily bandwidth but it's the fact that it's not always consistent. At work we support a lot of homeworkers working through a Citrix Access Gateway which needs a constant (and I mean constant!!!!!!) connection and as soon as the connection even drops just a teensy weensy bit their Citrix connection goes and they're calling us up complaining that it's dropped. Whilst wireless can and does work for a lot of people it's always best if possible to CAT6 it or if you're not going to be sharing banddwidth between different devices then powerline networking works well.

[CNR]

Currently?

I have the following

Core 2 Duo E8400 (wolfdale)
Asus P5K Premium motherboard
4 x 1gb Corsair DDR2 Dominator RAM
Sapphire HD4870 512mb

It's good but for gaming it's starting to get on a little bit. It will live on as a HTPC or a home server though and it's plenty good for that :)

One thing, you say your PC is 5 years old yet has DDR3, I doubt it tbh. At that age it would be ddr2.

it is a new motherboard with ddr3 memory 3 months old
the cpu is a LGA775 Intel Pentium 4 processor
upgraded mother board and memory for $150.00