Requesting help with streaming HTPC content to multiple PCs

[ubrgeek]

A few years ago my wife got me an E-Geoforce 8800gt for my birthday. I never put it to use and I keep hearing about it (those of you married understand ). We're having kids and decided we want to be able to rip all of our DVDs to hard drives so we can shove them to different devices when we're in the car and move them around to the different TVs without having to carry the discs everywhere (so we can have a "Kids Playlist" for kids movies, "Action" for ... while, you get it.). I think I've got some good components picked out based on the suggestions of a friend (but please let me know if I'm off base or nuts):

* Either the ASUS P7H55-M PRO or ASUS M4A88T-M (I want to be able to take care of optical audio out without needing a separate audio card)

* Antec Sonata Elite Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower (Based on reviews. Seems pricey but good for keeping things quietly cooled)

* OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ500MXSP 500W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply compatible with core i7 (no idea where to abbreviate the name or I'd have pasted less text )

* AMD Athlon II X2 245 Regor 2.9GHz Socket AM3 65W Dual-Core

* G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL

* 2 SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5 (Although I saw in another posting someone said WD Greens were a good choice)

* LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Disc Reader SATA Model iHOS104-08

* ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm Ceramic CPU Cooler

* The aforementioned E-Geoforce 8800gt

I'm going to connect the thing to an 802.11n router (haven't decided which) so that I can stream all of the media I store on it to the TVs, laptops, etc. Here's the meat of my question: The wife has already said a PS3 or XBox ain't in the future so what should I actually connect to the TVs to receive the stream (and obviously be able to control the playback of the video/audio - pause/play/fwd)? The TV's don't have USB ports, so it would need to be something that can handle an HDMI-connection to the TV (we don't have external sound systems connected to the TVs so an HDMI connection will take care of all of that I believe). I'm hoping going with 802.11n will make it possible to stream HD (BluRay?) to the various TVs. I've looked at things like the Roku but they don't seem to be what I'm looking for. Could anyone please point me in the right direction? Does the ever going-out-of-business-so-act-now-to-get-the-best-deals X10.com offer something inexpensive but that would work? Any help would be really, really appreciated.

[Spools]

I think you might want to spend some time looking into Slingbox. You might still need a NAS/HTPC to store all your media but I think a Slingbox system better addresses your "whole house" scenario.

[ubrgeek]

Thanks Spools - I took your advice and looked at the Slingbox. From what I can figure out, seems like it's really designed for sending video to a PC-type device instead of a TV. Or am I not understanding the description?

[Spools]

Looking back through, I think you're right. However, I think this portable HDD media player might do the trick.

[ubrgeek]

Spools - This look like exactly what I'm looking for! Sounds like there's some oddities with its network connectivity but stuff that's firmware fixable if the company releases updates (and it sounds like they do). I'll attach the thing to a NAS and be good-to-go. Thanks for the great suggestion!

[Spools]

Hope it works out for you. If you do end up using one of these, it would be great if you could post some feedback on your results. HTPCs aren't overly common yet and I haven't seen much discussion about these media devices.

[ubrgeek]

Will do. Comparing three different options.

[ubrgeek]

I ended up picking up the Argosi HV335T (the T includes the wireless dongle.) It's perfect for what we've needed. We're ripping all of our DVDs (*ugh* long process) and iTunes music to an external drive and so far all looks good. It handles all kinds of video formats (and mp3, which all I've bothered to try for music files) and the video looks great (I'm doing straight rips via RipIt). I haven't tried the wireless functionality (I have it hooked up directly to the router) the dongle does work as a standard 802.11n dongle that I connected to a separate computer.

Anyway, wanted to post the update. Thanks for all of the help