digital movies to TV from Hdd? Any Ideas?

Hii,

I have bunch of full seasons of different shows on my external, and i would like to view them on TV using menus on TV screen to navigate and browse through the files. Do you have any ideas how do i do this?

I was thinking about Digital Entertainer HD (EVA8000) or LINKSYS DMA2200.

Will either one of these work? Any idea which one is better?

I want to have like my own on-demand kind of thing.

Will one of these work? Any better ideas or option? I have all the stuff saved on Network Access Storage.

Thanks,
UP

 

build your very own Media PC! I did, and although it too some time to get it working intially, it's well worth it. You could base on system on MCE2005 roll-up v2 (which is xp and uses less resources) or Vista HP (pretty and some improvements, but resource intensive).

 

That was one of the options, but I don't have that kind of resources to build one. At the most, I can afford to spend $400. And I already have everything stored on HDD with USB. So I am looking for something i can connect the usb hdd too, and stream it to TV, and browse using the remote of that "something".

 

Well, $400 is the perfect price to get either an Xbox360 or PS3. Both of the consoles just received updates to divx/xvid playback (guessing most of your files will be in these formats), and they can be easily connected to HDTV either component or HDMI connections.

I have an Xbox360 and it will accept an USB external drive (FAT32 only though, bummer) and most of the mpeg4 files in the avi container (of course wmv files as well). However, you can also stream media files from WMP11 library sharing to the Xbox360, but that would require it to be connected to your home network.

Plus you can either buy the official IR remote controller, or just use the wireless pad for navigation. The upscaling to 720p is quite nice on the Xbox360 (heard it is also quite good on the PS3).

And maybe get into console gaming?

 

Yeah! I was thinking about 360! Will it be able to handle the files I download? Like avi format? and mp4? sorry I am a complete noob when it comes to digital entertainment. What the limitations of FAT32? I have everything on external hdd which is 500gb. And with 360, will the quality be pretty good? 360 or ps3 wll function same as EVA8000 or LINKSYS DMA2200? The thing about last two is thta i am not sure if it will handle all the formats. I also have some .vob files.

Thanks

 

http://blogs.msdn.com/xboxteam/archive/2007/11/30/december-2007-video-playback-faq.aspx

The link tells you all the stuff that Xbox360 can playback, divx/xvid/mpeg4 in the avi/divx/mp4/mov container is a go, and so is h.264 in the mp4/mov container. I don't think the vob container is supported, though it will playback a DVD disk from the drive just fine.

Anyways, from my experience I've only run into a few avi files that even though is supported but will not playback (either skipping or will not start), but those are few and far in between. All WMV files should work fine, but don't suppose you have a lot of them. Subtitles, unless hard coded into the video, is not supported; no mkv either.

You can't get file sizes more than 4GB on FAT32, and I think the Xbox360 will only look at the first FAT32 partition but I'm not sure. The picture quality is awesome upscaled to 720p, or if you have native 720p/1080p video files which should be supported.

It will not beat the features of a media center PC, nor the codec support, but the consoles will definitely be more useful than the two devices you listed. Sadly, the Xbox360 does not have a web browser (the PS3 does, but I don't have one) or else it would be an even more capable living room device. And then there's the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray debate, but that's another can of worms.

Hope this helps in your decision.

Edit: Well, upon further reading, it seems like the Netgear and Linksys are two different devices. Linksys is a Media Center Extender and will require a server PC with Media Center setup, while the Netgear streams files directly from a NAS device or PC hard drive (seems to be more to your needs).

 

Wow!! THANKS!! That's all the info I needed!! I think I am going to go for 360! +1 rep!

 

Great! Let us know how it goes.

 

if your tv has a vga input or dvi just hook up your comp and use it as your monitor when you want to watch them