With ManRoom 2.0 almost complete, I’m looking for some suggestions on a media setup.
We don’t have a cable television signal coming into our house. We have FIOS internet but no TV. So it’s either Over-the-Air or Over-the-Net for us. Over the air is craptastic in our area. We spend a lot of time watching DVDs from Netflix.
But we also spend a lot of time with one of our laptops plugged into the TV watching Hulu or NetFlix’s Watch Instantly stuff. We don’t tend to bit torrent a whole lot of shows.
It would be nice to be able to access my photos and music through this media setup over our wireless network.
Thus far I’ve considered:
- AppleTv. This doesn’t look like it does NetFlix’s Watch Instantly or Hulu with any real ease, so it’s not going to work. Though I really like the HD options since we have nice HD TV but watch a lot of Lo-Fi streams off of Hulu. Not that we mind, but HD would be nice.
- Just getting another laptop or Mac Mini and using Boxee. Boxee is sweet since it provides a great interface for a lot of stream sources as well as NetFlix’s Watch Instantly. Unfortunately, with no Hulu on Boxee we’d have a bit of hard time watching Damages.
I think our requirements are:
- Ease of Use/No Freeze Ups. I love Boxee but it is flakey as all get-out at times.
- Remote Controllability. The Apple remote is nice to use with Boxee, when it works.
- Being able to browse iTunes Library, Hulu, Boxee and Netflix Watch Instantly
Nice to haves include:
- HD streams
- Surround Sound
- quiet/small/dependable
So there you have it. Would love to hear your suggestions! Thanks.
Jim, you should stop by the house some time. Here’s the basics of the set up I have been using.
quick thoughts on things I don’t like about the set up. 1. The mini does not have enough video capabilities. It chokes on real high def videos. 2. boxee is still frustrating. when it fails/hangs I end up picking up the keyboard. Once I’ve picked up the keyboard I tend to directly to hulu or a network’s page for streaming video.
i’ve got a pretty low tech setup using my MacBook with miniDVI to HDMI into my TV
you can get ROMOTE app for iphone that allows you to control Front Row app (browse photos, etc.), and you can also get VLC remote that works over wireless. so far, so good. i’m getting movies from BTs and they look great
not great for the uninitiated though. i don’t really see Kel firing up an iphone remote app and figuring out which players do what.
just thought i’d share my cheap solution which is working for me for now. i don’t do a lot of hulu, i have comcast. like most folks, my TV gets TV ;)
My buddy Trevor is writing up his home theater experience with a mac-mini based set-up. I was just prodding him yesterday to update. I think it will be worth checking in on.