Streaming movies and music around the house, NAS?

[chris_p]

I'd like to leave my mac in the study, but I do want the movies and music in the lounge, what's the easiest way about going about that?

Im probably going to buy this receiver http://www.whathifi.com/review/sony-str-dn1040

Would I be best of going down the NAS drive route, or maybe an Apple TV would suit my needs?

Would be nice to access music off my mac, from my ipad, and play it though the av receiver!

Thanks for all help

 

[Jaff.]

I use raspberry pi's and a nas drive

 

[chris_p]

I've actually only just realised you can enable iTunes home share, so I've now got my entire libary on the ipad, nice! The receiver has airplay so that sorts that out nicely.

I just need to sort the movies out now..

 

[riz]

VLC stream works great from Mac to ipad

 

[AndrewF]

Nas + PS3 for me

You could go Rasberry PI, Apple TV 2 Jailbroken or even go as far as a Mac mini with wireless keyboard and mouse or something like a Intel NUC PC with VLC installed on it?

 

[Chrisgti6]

Plex and ATV3 for me.

 

[Ian_182]

This looks like it will be quite useful soon.

http://www.whathifi.com/news/apple-launches-ios-8-at-wwdc

 

[adamlstr]

I find Synology NAS boxes to be very good.

 

[Jack!]

I find Synology NAS boxes to be very good.

Love my DS213j.

 

[Jay_A]

I find Synology NAS boxes to be very good.

+1

I've got a DS211 which works fine.

 

[J203425]

I use raspberry pi's and a nas drive

This

Literally the only setup I've found that will reliably play high bit rate h264 mkv's with dts sound.

 

[JonnyK]

This

Literally the only setup I've found that will reliably play high bit rate h264 mkv's with dts sound.

a raspberry pi can only output stereo sound no?

 

[J203425]

a raspberry pi can only output stereo sound no?

It outputs 5.1 over hdmi. You're right in that it only outputs stereo over the analogue sound output.

Not an issue for me as I simply run it through the hdmi input on my receiver. Even if you're stuck with optical you can buy converters that strip the audio from the hdmi and convert it to optical.

 

[chris_p]

Cheers for the replys guys.

I've got a Mac mini that I use primarily for downloading things, and the occasional letter etc, I use my ipad for browsing and general internet useage so I may aswel plug in the Mac mini in the lounge, using it as a dedicated HTPC with my external hard drive, and in time update that to a NAS. Are they that easy to use?

 

[biojo]

NAS drives are fairly simple to set up, if you get a good make.

Some of the cheaper ones software wont be as good etc, ive a old netgear one not the fastest but can stream 3 HD files at a time no issue.

 

[sbridgey]

Plex + apple TV is what i use. Works very easily and very well.

 

[Dink]

i run plex on a hp microserver and play stuff through a wdtv play

the play is pretty good even comes with a couple of apps (iplayer,tunein radio etc.) and send stuff from a windows machine to it to play