[MicTig]

What hardware? What software?



I am on Windows 7 and our television is a 52" plasma display. Both are in good range of our "N" router.

[tek101]

This should work for you.........:



blogs.zdnet.com/ip-telephony/?p=1188

[smax013]

What format is the media? General, unprotected (i.e. no DRM) files? Or some DRM'd files? If DRM'd files, are they in iTunes or Windows Media Player or something else?

Pictures? Music? Video? etc.

Do you want to watch streaming content from webpages (i.e. Hulu or YouTube or a Network TV website)? Internet radio stations?

[MicTig]

Unprotected video is what I mostly want to view. I don't need to stream any DRM files. And thanks for the suggestion tek101 but that's from 2006 which is a little old, and I would prefer a device with WiFi N capabilities =) .[~207675]

[smax013]

If it is mostly unprotected video files, then your options are rather wide open.

My only direct experience is with an Apple TV, which you can either stream to or actually sync the video (and audio) to the device and store it on the hard drive. If your videos are in WMV format, then you might have some conversions to do first (I do not know if the Apple TV will play WMV...never looked it up...I do not believe it does).

But, there are lot of other options...

Here is something from Linksys:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16833124282

But, there are other similar, cheaper, and more expensive devices.

[RonSWinTeam]

Do you have anything like an Xbox or other media extender? Here's a little info on media extenders: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WindowsMediaCenter_Extender.

With Windows Media Center and a media extender, you can watch your videos, view photos, and listen to music basically anywhere in your home. We've got a couple Xboxes in our place, so it makes it kind of easy to start a movie in one room, finish it in another and not ever have to worry about moving a disc or plugging in/unplugging anything.

Now, you don't have the Netflix ability in Windows Media Center on Windows 7 just yet (it's coming), but if you have a Vista machine in your home, you can use Netflix as a plugin with Windows Media Center as well, basically expanding your library.

Here's some other helpful info: http://www.microsoft...ows-vista.aspx.

Cheers,

[MicTig]

Great, thanks for the info guys. I think I'll sit on this one for a while, and maybe just buy a laptop with an HDMI port (maybe one from Apple, which I'm curious to try out).

[smax013]

MicTig said:

Great, thanks for the info guys. I think I'll sit on this one for a while, and maybe just buy a laptop with an HDMI port (maybe one from Apple, which I'm curious to try out).

Apple does not sell any laptops with HDMI ports...they now all have "mini Display" ports...you can buy an adapter that goes to DVI and then use a DVI to HDMI cable.

[MicTig]

Why Apple, why? Anyways I'm starting to not like the sound of buying an Apple laptop because of 1) They slow down the SATA by half (might want to upgrade to a SSD which could max out the I/O) and 2) I read somewhere that the Apple 13" (and maybe 15" and/or 17") Macbook Pros which are marketed as being media centered do not display millions of colours!

[smax013]

MicTig said:

Why Apple, why? Anyways I'm starting to not like the sound of buying an Apple laptop because of 1) They slow down the SATA by half (might want to upgrade to a SSD which could max out the I/O)

Apple has supposedly already fixed that little oversight with the latest firmware update.

Quote

and 2) I read somewhere that the Apple 13" (and maybe 15" and/or 17") Macbook Pros which are marketed as being media centered do not display millions of colours!

You mean this: http://arstechnica.c...ro-displays.ars

FWIW, this likely is true of just about ALL laptop computers as noted at the end of the article.

[MicTig]

1) OK I hope that they have

2) That's icky. Even 17" laptops?

[smax013]

MicTig said:

1) OK I hope that they have

http://support.apple...wnloads/MacBookProEFIFirmwareUpdate17_

http://www.computerw...e/9134656/AppleissuesfixforMacBookProSATA_interface

Quote

2) That's icky. Even 17" laptops?

I would suspect so. I am not sure how many laptops really have more than 6 bit displays, whether they be Macs or otherwise.

[MicTig]

OK, thanks alot for your help.