XSGamers

We are moving house at the end of September and I want to be able to stream more stuff to more places around the house without carrying speakers around with me so I have a few questions.

To start with our household computer will become my 8 yr old sons and will be in his bedroom, obviousely I don't want him to have the computer with it history/files still intact so I want to reinstall an OS onto this after removing/deleting everything. Would I be best reinstalling Windows as it's probably what they use in school or should I try and install a different OS and if so which one is best and also child friendly and protectable.

Also I want to have all my files removed and placed onto a large external storage device. Would I be best to just get a massive external drive or maybe spend a little more on a seperate server?

As for streaming I already have an XBox 360 which I use TVersity on and am currently happy with that for streaming videos but just want so more options for doing this kind of thing.

I have PS4, Xbox 360, Apple TV if this helps>

Cheers Neil

This might do the trick for streaming music.. my mom has one and she's really enjoying it.
Though I'm not sure about it's range in a larger house..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lPgeurULVY

PS4, damm can i have a borrow ! ... Think we spoke drunkenly one night about this before fella on my set up, First off.. for the boys PC, Just Wipe the drive when you have all your files off and put on Win 7, There isnt really any child Friendly OS's for you to put on, and more than likely at school they will be using Win 7 so probably best to have an OS on that hes already going to be using etc so he can find his way around.

As for keeping him safe on the net.. thats were you come in, there is certain software you can get and you can go in and start blacklisting certain URLs etc..

Sometimes Schools give out laptops to kids, i have fixed a few in my time and they really lock the bugger down which has its pros and cons but when you cant even get google up on some of them.. its probably better to just leave it all off and just monitor him your self. there is lots of tricks etc.

Monitoring his usage, checking the History, web searches etc and when he hits about 14 put a key logger on so you can trap him looking for porn lol.

But for now when hes playing moshi monsters and stuff sure he will be OK.

As for Streaming.. Dam.. there is so many options... Personally, this is what i use. HP Microsever with windows 8 on it, You can get them for about £200+ with £100 Cash back from HP all the time from Ebuyer etc just put on your own software i have doubled the ram on mine though and squeesed in a 30 quid Graphics card to play basic 3d Games, you can get COD MW3 Running on medium settings etc Lotro Runs OK etc.. Bang in a load of Drives for all your media. I also have a Windows Storage Spaces set up and i save a lot of HD Cam Movies and pictures etc of the family, holidays etc, this then Mirrors the data from one 2TB drive to another (like raid) so i have another back up etc..

Now the server sits in a cupboard in the computer room near the internet connection on 24/7 it draws very little power from the wall so you can leave it running all the time and its pretty quiet too.

My new house which were just about to move in to, i have wired ethernet boxes in to all the bedrooms and the living room, so you can just plug in your streaming device (PS3, Xbox) or one of the million over devices you can get, i am looking at a Rokku 3 for my bedroom as all my consoles are about to be moved downstairs for streaming etc as you can get netflix and stuff on it...

You can use Wifi if you dont want to run cables round your house and even the Home Plugs etc. which is how i used to have to do it in the old house but i prefer to be wired up as the homeplugs i had couldnt really stream HD to my 360 etc all that well..

So you have endless possibilities m8 going to depend on how much cash you have and how much DIY you want to do around the house or how your house likes Wifi Signals, If you have Virgin Media though they have a new Super Hub 2 out now.. which i can say gives off much better Wifi than the Super Dub 1 which was a pile of shite. !

If you have a bit of money spare take a look at a Synology NAS device, they are awesome bits of kit that come in different versions depending on the number of drives you want, and the best bit about them is the apps you can load onto the NAS to add in extra functionality like an itunes music server, uPnP media streaming and even stuff like web hosting and CCTV cameras are supported.

Once you have the storage and somewhere to stream from you want something you can plug into your TV to receive the streams, you can do this pretty cheaply by picking up something like a Raspberry Pi, an small SD card for the OS and then load on something like Open Elec which will give you XBMC which looks awesome and will play any file you throw at it from any source you have.

You can then either pick up a cheap IR remote and plug it into the Pi or edit a config file and connect up the XBMC remote control app and use your phones as remotes.

for a simple, cheap and silent device take a look at: http://www.pivos-europe.com/shop/xios-ds-mediaplay/

for ~120€ i'd say it's a bargain, once i upgrade my A/V receiver i'm probably gonna get one

the raspberry i tried a few weeks ago couldn't handle h264 with a very high bitrate very well and was stuttering


also for storage QNAP has some nice NAS devices....

Also for a standalone box I've had a great experience with an earlier version of one of these boxes:

http://www.mede8er.eu/en/index.php?d=800x3d

They are a bit more expensive than some but are built with hardware video decoders so will play any resolution/size file you like (I've thrown 25GB Blu ray rips at my older model before now and it plays it fine!).

I have the 600X3D

http://www.mede8er.eu/en/index.php?d=600x3d

Stream off my server like Scott via Cat 5e and works a treat.

Used to have a Netgear NAS but the HP server is more flexible for me and actually prefer it.

I want the Roku 3

http://www.roku.com/why-its-cool

Cheers guys a lot to take in but I think I will be going for the micro server option for now

Just get all that CAT 6 laid in to the all the rooms of the new house and bliss !! still waiting to put my PC and server in to the new house maybe take about another 2 weeks whilst we get other stuff sorted but having ethernet ports in all the bedrooms is already awesome for the Tivo / Consoles etc once i get my server back in i will be able to stream and access everything from nearly every room of the house good luck with the move my head is busting with ours at the moment