Been ripping my DVD's with Handbrake software to watch on my iPad/laptop. It got me thinking it would be really nice to have a media server with an easy to use interface to select & view the movies and am looking for opinions from anyone who's done this.

I'm thinking a Wintel system since I already know the OS. Any suggestions on the other software pieces to use/consider.

I did some looking into it for a combo music/video server. Mac with iTunes does a fantastic job. The same server will also handle DVD and you can add a TV tuner.

I have my home PC setup to do that... it's stationary and always turned on. I stream using PS3 or I connect my Zenbook to the TV via HDMI.

If you know what you are doing around linux, Debian running Mediatomb . I'm running such a machine in a school with our entire library of DVDs hosted on it. An old HP DL380 runs the show on a single P3 1.2Ghz CPU.

If none of the above makes any sense to you, can't beat PS3 Media Server for easily hosting a video library on a Windows machine. You won't ever have any codec issues either.

In both cases, running XBMC as the front end looks good and works beautifully.

an external HDD and a POGO PLUG device.

buy.com sells one for $30.

nice setup. has apps for desktops, tablets and phones.

with it, you can browse the attached HDD and view by categories.

my PS3 actually "saw" it without additional software.

http://www.buy.com/prod/pogoplug-personal-cloud-media-sharing-solution-black/221688297.html

oh it makes a great backup setup also which you can have access to, anywhere on the web...

Now this is what I was looking for. I don't need the entire hardware solution. I was initially asking about the front end software piece. Any others software front ends I ought to check out? What's this class/type of software called?

I already know how to build a PC albeit it's been ~6 years since I built one. Do current motherboards come with hdmi built in or will I need to buy a video card with an hdmi output? If a separate card, any preferences on brands or even specific card models?

Again, TIA! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Windows Home Premium (7 or Vista) comes with Windows Media Center built in, which is also very good, but won't play as many formats out of the box without some work.

You are looking for media center front ends. Google will turn up many options. I have a buddy on another forum that has a sweet setup, I'll try to dig up his posts and see what he uses, but I think it's a combination of Media Center and a plugin called Media Browser.



Yes, many new motherboards come with on-board HDMI, and most on-board stuff is good enough for movies and Blu-Ray. the cheaper motherboards leave off the HDMI connector, so read the specs carefully before buying.

I have this motherboard:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186211

in this case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163172

with this processor:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115090

with 8GB of DDR3, a 60GB SSD boot drive and a 1TB storage drive. Runs cool and quiet and boots up in 10 seconds. The core i3-2105 is the best value (in an Intel CPU) for a media center because is packs the higher performance HD3000 graphics. The Core i3-2100 only has the HD2000. AMD's chips are also worth considering.