Economically, there's nothing better than to have one computer holding all your media while all your other devices stream it directly over your network. Unfortunately, like many things, it's almost always much easier said than done. To make things easier, we've collected a list of all the media servers that we've given a try up until now (with personal takes for each one)...
Roundup: Media Servers
PlayOn: If you have a PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, or HP MediaSmart TV, PlayOn lets you watch Netflix, Hulu, CBS, YouTube, CNN, ESPN and more on your TV. Comes with a 14 day trial.
Tversity: You've probably seen our PS3 streaming guide at one time or another, so you know it does work. We just wish our readers didn't have to go to so much trouble just to get streaming up and running. Still, you can't argue with free.
PS3 Media Server: A newcomer in the pack, but it also touts the highest ambitions. Using nothing but Java, PMS looks to avoid all the troubles of codec installation with a simple install-and-go package. If only it wasn't so buggy, we'd give this one a thumbs up for sure.
Windows Media Player 11: Some of you may not know this, but WMP11 has a built-in media server already installed. You just need to activate through your Tools > Options > Library > Sharing > Configure Sharing > and click "Share my Media." Of course, this means you can only stream stuff your external device supports, but it's probably the most reliable piece of software out there right now since you're not tweaking a million things on your computer.
Nero MediaHome: Pretty much the same idea as Tversity, but leaves you a few dollars less.
Twonky: Again, same thing as Tversity, except it'll run you about $40.
Are we missing any? Let us know in the comments what works for you!
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Yes, you are missing the most elegant of all: an Apple TV streaming from a Mac on the network.
view Rick Roberts's profile
i wish there was a clean way to do this. i've tried a couple of these and several others to no avail. it is my current belief that the only true solution involves $$$$$$$$
view beesknees's profile
Unfortunately for Mac users; the most promising one (playon) has no Apple support. That wasn't mentioned in the article.
Even Apple calls the AppleTV a hobby; and more recently admitted that it has "lots of barriers to work through".
It's missing core features out of the box (thus a big hacking community) so you have to do special things to get Hulu and it will never stream Netflix in its current hardware configuration, nor can you stream from any source other than iTunes. Finally, the fact that everything has to stream through a computer, even if you have your content elsewhere (a time capsule for example) is a pain.
That said, all of these are PC resident solutions. Your computer has to be on in order to stream content to other devices connected to the TV. If you don't mind that, and you have a PC, PlayOn is rapidly becoming an enthusiast favorite.
If you go the route of attaching an external hard drive with networking support (an ethernet disk or a network attached storage device you can at least turn your computer off when you aren't using it. TwonkyMedia comes on most linux based NAS devices and seems to have a lot of fans.
view RJHD3's profile