Home Entertainment question for y'all

DrTyore

Hey all

So, here is what I want to do. I have a nice TV, but no cable. I stream and download stuff to watch online. I used to have an external hard drive, and I would download stuff to my laptop, then transfer via USB to the HD. The HD would also plug into my blu-ray player via USB, which then connects to my TV via HDMI. Alternatively, the HD could plug into the TV via USB.

This was great overall, with occasional issues about missing codecs. However, the HD broke recently, and I am considering how to best upgrade / replace it. I have been wondering about wireless since as I mentioned, no cable, but have heard that true HD won't wireless well. I considered getting a NAS drive that had wireless capabilities, and hoped I could wirelessly connect it to my local network, while using HDMI / USB to connect to my entertainment section as the old HD did.

Basic equipment I have:

40" LED TV
Laptop (Old, replacing in the winter I hope, only 180gigs)
Router (standard Rogers kinda thing)
Blu- ray player that cam with the TV.

So, suggestions as to what I can / should do? Goal is to be relatively cheap, and yet still be able to last for years (NAS drive is also expandable which is nice), yet still handle High def media. Also, I know this is lazy, but if I can wirelessly download straight to the HD / NAS / what have you would be ideal mostly due to the limited laptop space, and my preference to not have to unhook / rehook stuff up to transfer.

Mark

BrennerM

I use a WDTV Live Hub. Has a built-in 1TB drive and can stream from network devices. Plugs into TV via HDMI at 1080p (can do any lower res too). Can play almost any video format and includes apps for things like Netflix, YouTube, etc. I will note that I have not used it for Netflix.

You can access the internal drive from your laptop and write files directly to the drive inside the device. It also has USB ports to plug in USB drives for additional local storage.

I think I paid about $170 for it...well worth it IMO.

Oh and it is pretty small, about the half the size of a typical Blu-ray player.

GTA Poker

I have a similar setup but the HDrive is old and faulty at times...what is NAS?

SuitedPair

NAS - Network Attached Storage. A big ass hard drive that is accessible to your other home network devices either wired or wireless (computers, TV, coffee maker, Roomba etc)

Allows you to store a tonne of stuff in one place and use it many places. I would suggest 4tb min if you are going to build one. with the size of movie files these days you can never have too much disk.

GTA Poker

build one? i cant just buy one? is better than an external harddrive or same thing newer model?

SuitedPair

you build the network and you can add a big ass hard drive or you can buy a server/case etc. and load it up yourself. I'm no expert on this topic but if you look here,
Network-Attached Storage (NAS) Reviews, Ratings & Comparisons | PCMag.com
you should be good to go.

Hang to Dry

DrTyore wrote: »

Hey all

So, here is what I want to do. I have a nice TV, but no cable. I stream and download stuff to watch online. I used to have an external hard drive, and I would download stuff to my laptop, then transfer via USB to the HD. The HD would also plug into my blu-ray player via USB, which then connects to my TV via HDMI. Alternatively, the HD could plug into the TV via USB.

This was great overall, with occasional issues about missing codecs. However, the HD broke recently, and I am considering how to best upgrade / replace it. I have been wondering about wireless since as I mentioned, no cable, but have heard that true HD won't wireless well. I considered getting a NAS drive that had wireless capabilities, and hoped I could wirelessly connect it to my local network, while using HDMI / USB to connect to my entertainment section as the old HD did.

Basic equipment I have:

40" LED TV
Laptop (Old, replacing in the winter I hope, only 180gigs)
Router (standard Rogers kinda thing)
Blu- ray player that cam with the TV.

So, suggestions as to what I can / should do? Goal is to be relatively cheap, and yet still be able to last for years (NAS drive is also expandable which is nice), yet still handle High def media. Also, I know this is lazy, but if I can wirelessly download straight to the HD / NAS / what have you would be ideal mostly due to the limited laptop space, and my preference to not have to unhook / rehook stuff up to transfer.

Mark

I like answering questions with questions, so here are some for you:
-You say you watch online streamed stuff, are we talking youtube shit here? How did you previously go about this?
-What outputs does your laptop have?
-Can you live with your laptop in its current state, if you didn't have to use it for this back and forth video stuff anymore?
-I'm assuming you download bluray rips?
-Specs on your internet/router? Is there anyone else on your router?

Alex

RAM_Eh

BrennerM wrote: »

I use a WDTV Live Hub. Has a built-in 1TB drive and can stream from network devices. Plugs into TV via HDMI at 1080p (can do any lower res too). Can play almost any video format and includes apps for things like Netflix, YouTube, etc. I will note that I have not used it for Netflix.

You can access the internal drive from your laptop and write files directly to the drive inside the device. It also has USB ports to plug in USB drives for additional local storage.

I think I paid about $170 for it...well worth it IMO.

Oh and it is pretty small, about the half the size of a typical Blu-ray player.

I have the same set up. Works great. I download vids to my computer and then play across the network.