Cross connections
Once you’ve decided on a place to store
your stuff, you need to make sure you can pipe it around your home to where you
want it. By far the most convenient method is a good wireless-N router. Most
recent phones and tablets support the 802.11n standard, and even older laptops
will have full support.
Positioning of the router is key to an
uninterrupted streaming experience, as once you've started you don't want to
break off mid-stream. If you can't use the router in the same room, try the
room above or below - floorboards hardly block the signal, while bricks do.
Remember the positions of doors, as they enable signals to pass through easily
as well. It's also usually best to connect the media server via an Ethernet
cable, as it removes one potential area of signal interruption, and Ethernet
cables can be up to 100m in length.
If you've got signal issues and don't want
cables trailing around your home, there are always powerline network adaptors.
They're not cheap if you need more than a pair, but they can send a network
signal through your power sockets, reducing the amount of cabling to just that
between the socket and the device.
Powerline networking is an excellent
way to wire up your home
Everything's connected
With the infrastructure now in place, let's
give you a connected television. Unless you're lucky enough to own a smart TV
with internet capabilities built in, in which case it'll be easy to hook it up
to either to your wireless or wired network, getting internet services and
streaming media to your TV is now no more complicated than adding the right
box.
The most obvious answer is to drop in a
laptop or home theatre PC, with an HDMI connection to take care of the video
and audio for you. While a Media Center remote provides almost all the control
you need and costs about $24, you may want to also consider a Bluetooth or
wireless keyboard for another $24. iPhone and Android-based remote apps like
Unified Remote (www.unifiedremote. com) also provide a keyboard/trackpad
solution, with the added advantage you can show off and feel like you're living
in the future.
We love the laptop option because it gives
us a full Windows solution, but another fine option is the smart set-top box.
These come in many guises. One idea is to buy an internet-ready Blu-ray player
like the Samsung BD-D5300 for around $160. Its Smart Hub system offers an
icon-based web browsing interface, while it provides Blu-ray and DVD playback,
plus simplified AllShare DLNA/UPnP media streaming. Alternatively, you can
choose from a huge range of media streamers. The cheap models won’t offer
networking connectivity, but wireless and wired networking become available at
around £100. Models like the AC Ryan PlayOn!HD include a local hard drive for
storage and offer a convenient connection solution with flexible video and
audio output, plus local USB, memory card and network ports. See the box above
for details of how to connect your portable Android and iOS devices but,
generally if you want to stream it, there's a smart box or an app that offers
the features you need.
Pick the right network infrastructure
for a smooth experience
Streaming services
Get your media anywhere you go
We're told that all the coolest kids have
iPhones, so we guess our Nokia 3210 isn't hip anymore - dang. For all iOS
devices and Android-based tablets and phones, there are a host of free and
paid-for streaming app solutions. If you have money to spend we'd strongly
recommend InMethod Air Video on iOS or Plex for Android and iOS. If free
sounds more like your thing, try VLC Streamer on iOS and VLC Direct on
Android. It requires far more manual labour to set up, but works well enough
once up and running.
We shouldn't overlook paid-for streaming
and rental services. Long-standing postal and high-street companies like
LoveFilm and BlockBuster are now offering download and streaming rentals,
with LoveFilm also providing iPad support. Amazon and YouTube have moved into
film rental too and support any device that can play YouTube, which includes
Android devices, the iPad and iPhone.
Of course this also encompasses the
Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PS3, both as devices that can extend your network
reach to a HDTV, but also as streaming destinations. Microsoft Xbox Live
provides film rentals and Sony has its PlayStation Store Video Store (so good
they named it twice). If you own either already, try exploring one of the
DLNA or UPnP servers like XBMC.org, Serviio.org or Tversity.com to run on
your server or main PC system. As streaming devices, the Xbox 360 at $272
isn't much more tempting than the $304 PS3, which at least comes with a
Blu-ray player.
