How to Choose a Media Player/Streamer. There is a growing number of media players, media streamers, and other devices that can access Netflix, Hulu, and your own saved media to watch on your TV. The first step in deciding which one to buy is to know why you want it. Do you only want to stream video and music from the Internet? Do you want to watch Netflix or Hulu, or do you like to find unique videos and video podcasts? Have you saved music, photos, and/or videos on your computer that you want to stream to your TV?
Media players are often called media streamers, but I make a distinction between the two. A media streamer connects to online services and may or may not play your saved media files. You can quote me on this distinction, but there is little agreement or consistency in whether a device is called a media player or a media streamer. So what's the best way to watch movies and TV shows, listen to music, or play slideshows from online sources or your own stored media files on your home-theater system? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. How to Stream Media Over Your Home Network. Streaming media from online sources provides a huge variety of movies, TV shows, and music that can be rented or watched for free.
Still, you may have downloaded movies and music and stored them on your computer as well. Your media libraries may be filled with movies, TV shows, music that you ripped from CDs, and/or digital photos you've taken yourself. Some users advocate saving your own copy of a movie or music file because an online service could potentially fold. That is, if you buy movies from a service that stores the movies in your online account ("in the cloud"), and the service shuts down, you would lose the movies you purchased. If the movies are saved to your computer, you will always have access to them. Another argument in favor of saving your media files locally is that they are not subject to the vagaries of Internet streaming. 1. 2. Windows 7 and Windows Media Center are DLNA and UPnP certified. 3. 4. 5.
TVersity - Home. Technical Information and System Requirements for CUDA and OpenCL | MAGIX Support. System Requirements a) For the "CUDA" option you require: a nVidia Graphics card with CUDA Support This includes any chipset from the Geforce 8, 9, 100, 200, 300, 400 and 500 series with at least 256MB on-board RAM. it functions on all cards with CUDA 1.1 This does not include the 8600 GS, 8800 GTS, 8800 Ultra and some Tesla professional cards, such as the Quadro. cards with CUDA 1.0 should also function, however, there are some known issues.
Tip: If you want to check if your card supports CUDA, then you can use diagnostics software like GPU-Z. Geforce Driver Tests: The following nVidia driver versions were tested successfully 260.xx, 260.99, 280.26. Version 275.33 displayed many encoding failures and is not recommended. 280.26 ran stabily with the GT 240, GTS 250, GTS 450, GTX 260 and GTX 460 b) For the "OpenCL" option you require: an ATI or AMD Graphics card AMD Radeon 6900 Series (6970, 6950)*; 6800 Series (6870, 6850) Those cards with a * symbol were successfully tested.
Examples. How to Ditch Slow Wireless Speeds and Go Completely Wired in Your Home (and Why You Should) I love Linus, dude is great. The house I'm in right now was built four or so years ago, so it's wired for ethernet. The one that's being built now is going to be wired as well. It's nice being able to set up your router and then just hook up a bunch of switches and then all the ports are live, even if you don't use them. Why is it that Americans say rout-er while everyone else tends to say route-r? Ah, you are so lucky. And yeah, Linus is the man. @Whitson Gordon: I guess it's an American thing. All semi new housing here in Canada is wired for ethernet with a dozen or so ports (or more if you pay for it). Must be Ah, that's cool. Houses built after around 1998 usually have some Cat5 in them, even if it's only for the phone line. OF COURSE, this varies by region, by state, by city.
Interesting, I didn't know. Everything the brits say differently than us Americans is wrong. @amlamarra: Erm what? Ridiculous! Whitson, I intended my comment to be informative, not critical. Know Your Network: The Complete Guide. Home Networks Monthly Newsletter - Hui Pan, Editor. How to Build a Linux Media Server - A step by step guide. How To Create Your Own Home Media Server? | The Cosmosphere.
Having your own media server is one of the dream for every person who likes to watch movies or listen to the music. Wouldn’t it be better if we could put together all our media at one place and sit back on couch to surf/view on your TV? Now days we have more choices of hardware for creating media server with less investment. Let see what kind of gadgets are available for building your own media server. 1) Buying a ready to use, feature packed media server. One of the popular affordable media server is by Western Digital, the mini server comes with built in Wifi, remote control, HDMI output, Netflix, Spotify, Youtube, Facebook, Hulu etc This one is kdLinks HD700 which has additional features like 3D capabilities, 4 extra USB ports, more video format support. 2) Using NAS servers with multiple USB ports where you can hook up your external USB hard drive or USB drive. Some of the well known NAS servers are: Few other similar options are: NETGEAR WNCE2001 Universal WiFi Internet Adapter.
4 Things That Might Be Slowing Down Your Home Network. Your Wi-Fi is slowing down, but why? With so many wireless devices in our homes now, even little flaws can take a toll on performance. In this guide, we'll take a look at common issues, why your Wi-Fi might be slow, and how to solve them. 1. Too Many Devices (Internet of Things) IP cameras, smart voice assistants, remote control lightbulbs, smart plugs, even your robot vacuum cleaner — our homes are increasingly filled with Internet of Things devices, each of which sits on the Wi-Fi network with its own IP address.
While your average lightbulb isn't going to send or receive a large amount of data, most home routers simply weren't designed to handle so many registered Wi-Fi devices at once. Past a certain point—usually about 30—you'll start experiencing dropouts. Solution: Consider how old your router is and if you can afford to, upgrade to a newer model. If you're planning on blanketing your home with smart sensors, use Z-Wave where possible. Related: Wi-Fi vs. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Share Digital Media With Other Computers on a Home Network with Windows 7. Windows Media Player 12 which is included with Windows 7 allows you to easily turn your machine into a media server to stream music, movies, and pictures to other computers and devices on your home network. Today we will show you how to set up streaming and how to use it. Enable Streaming To start streaming media from your Windows 7 machine you’ll need to turn it on by opening Media Player and under the Library section click on Stream then click Turn on media streaming.
Now just click the button to turn on media streaming. Alternately you can bypass WMP and open Control Panel \ All Control Panel Items \ Network and Sharing Center \ Media streaming options then click on the button to turn on media streaming and press OK. Now you’ll see what devices are connected to the network and can select which computer or media device have access to the media. You can also customize the streaming settings by selecting what will be shared and also notice the parental ratings control. Audiophile Media Servers, 24-96 Audio files, Apple Music Servers, HTPCs, Distributed Music Systems, MP Players, Streaming Audio, Applications. Control4 Wireless Music Bridge Reviewed By Adrienne Maxwell As part of my recent review of the Control4 HC-250 control system, the company sent me the Wireless Music Bridge (C4-WMB-B), which allows you to integrate your smartphone, tablet, or computer into the Control4 ecosystem as an audio source.
Thanks... Read More Home Theater Review's Best of 2013 Awards By HomeTheaterReview.com It's that time of year again. Seagate Central NAS and Media Server Reviewed Seagate jumps into the media server or NAS drive fray along with players such as Apple, Roku, Google and so many more. Google Chromecast Wireless Media Bridge The Google Chromecast's goal is simple. Kaleidescape Cinema One Media Server The Kaleidescape experience has been something consumers have paid a heavy premium for in the past.
Colorfly C4 Portable Music Player Reviewed By Steven Stone The Colorfly C4 is another entry in the growing category of high resolution music portable players. Roku 3 Streaming Media Player By Andrew Robinson. The best network devices to stream media around the house. It's taken for granted that if you want to watch the World Cup in style you'll need a big telly or, even, projector and screen. You'll need at least a 5.1 surround sound system, including speakers and some form of amplification. And, you'll need one or more video sources sat underneath or nearby.
Basically, you need a home cinema setup. But, if you're going to go to all of that expense, you're going to want to do more with your system than just watch footy, so it's wise to add gizmos and gadgets that you know you'll make use of beyond South Africa 2010. One modern, yet vital, aspect of home cinema that is often overlooked is media streaming; the concept of storing video, music and pictures remotely, and accessing them through a home network to play in the living room.
NAS (Network Assisted Storage) boxes and media players are becoming more user-friendly and getting cheaper all the time. Western Digital WDTV Live HD (£110) The WDTV Live HD is the true geek's choice for media streaming. 3 simple steps to create a home media server. Streaming video and audio from the Web is now commonplace. Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, Spotify and other services make it simple to watch or listen to what you want when you want. You don't even need a computer. Most services have apps for smartphones and tablets.
Many newer TVs are Internet enabled, so they can stream online video and audio with no extra gear. For non-Internet TVs, you can grab an Apple TV or Roku box for $100 or less and plug it in. Google's new $35 Chromecast takes a different approach. That's all fine for bringing in outside media, but what about media already in your home? How do you bring these to your TV? Of course, that doesn't help you stream to mobile gadgets. There's another solution: Set up a home media server. Don't let the name intimidate you; it's actually not that hard once you know how. There are three things you need for this to work. 1. 2. 3. Let's start with the server. If you're just serving photos or audio, you don't need a high-end system. Build a foolproof home-media network—without any wires. A pair of rabbit ears on top of your television, and a turntable and stereo receiver in the corner of the living room used to be prerequisites for home entertainment.
But today it's all about digital media and bandwidth. If you want to run Apple TV in your living room, keep a connected Blue-ray player in the bedroom, and have a Logitech Squeezebox music system piping music throughout your home, you need reliable and plentiful bandwidth. But here's the problem: Your computer is in the den and your broadband router is stuffed in a closet. You have TVs in the living room, kitchen, and master bedroomplus a laptop that migrates all over the house and into the yard, too. Until recently, nothing short of ethernet wires had the bandwidth necessary to pipe media from one room to another. And unless you were a networking geek, youd have had to spend thousands of dollars getting a knowledgeable professional to punch holes in your walls to wire your house with ethernet jacks. That time has passed. Quick guide: creating a home entertainment network.
HowTo: Setup a Wireless Home Media Network. Upgrade Your Home Network This Weekend. What You Need to Know About Media Servers. In the world of digital media, there’s no doubt that you have downloaded movies and/or music, and saved digital photos to your computer. Now you want to watch them on your TV and home theater. Before you can stream the movies, music or photos from your computer, networked external hard drive, or network attached storage (NAS) drive, the media player must first find the sources—“see” the device where you have saved your media files.
The computer or device where your files are saved is called a “media server.” DLNA and UPnP In order for the media player to find a Media Server on a home network, the two must “speak the same language” (protocol). Setting up a Media Server It is important to understand that a computer or other device must be set up to act as a media server. To set up a NAS drive or a USB external hard drive connected to your home network router, you need only turn on the media server setting in the device’s dashboard. Media Server Software for PCs. Build a foolproof home-media network—without any wires. A pair of rabbit ears on top of your television, and a turntable and stereo receiver in the corner of the living room used to be prerequisites for home entertainment. But today it's all about digital media and bandwidth. If you want to run Apple TV in your living room, keep a connected Blue-ray player in the bedroom, and have a Logitech Squeezebox music system piping music throughout your home, you need reliable and plentiful bandwidth.
But here's the problem: Your computer is in the den and your broadband router is stuffed in a closet. You have TVs in the living room, kitchen, and master bedroom—plus a laptop that migrates all over the house and into the yard, too. Until recently, nothing short of ethernet wires had the bandwidth necessary to pipe media from one room to another. That time has passed. Just one caveat before we go on. Upgrade your wireless router Cost: Between $100 and $200. Why do I recommend dual-band routers? Invest in a future Wi-Fi standard Cost: $200 and up. How to build the ultimate home media network. Discs are so yesterday.
They get damaged, they get lost, they won't work with all your equipment and they need a player in every room. For a long time, moving a whole media collection onto a central server has been the dream of many. But potential problems, including the inevitable mess of cables, complex switch configuration and living with a noisy PC next to the telly, have put some people off. Forget all that negativity. It's now possible to build a discreet, powerful system that will neither cost the Earth, nor need your family's approval for cable tethering. Best of all, you won't need to make compromises for quality. Networks and hardware are now easily capable of streaming high-definition 1080p content. If you're after the perfect living room experience, you can now buy devices that will grab data from numerous sources and push it through an HDMI cable straight to your television. We're going to move from room to room, building the perfect solution for your home.
The study Software. Home networking.