Whole Home Streaming on the (semi) Cheap

[heyitsheather]

Hi All, I've started on a project to try and bring streaming to most TV's in my home. At the moment I have a Win 7 HTPC in my family room which is used in that location for local video, DVD and Netflix watching along with streaming to the one XB360 in the house acting as an extender in one of my kids' bedrooms.

I have 2 bedrooms without DirecTV boxes that I would like to stream content to for my younger kids along with the ability to do so to another TV room. It doesn't have to be a Media Center Extender, just needs the ability to stream media over the network.

I have a Wii in one room and have messed around with both PlayOn and Orb to stream via the Wii browser but wasn't impressed with the video quality. Of the 3 TV's I'm looking to stream to, 2 are 720p and the other is SD so I'd like the ability to stream 720p quality.

I've looked at the Roku devices in the past but have heard that the latest round of Roku2 boxes have pretty much eliminated the ability for custom streaming channels. There is of course Apple TV but if I don't have to run iTunes, I'd rather not.

Streaming btw would have to be via 802.11n.

[Jonny Wright]

I'm in the process of building a device for streaming from my Microserver to my living room TV and thought my solution may be of interest. It is a cheap option and should be a quick and easy setup (Can't guarantee this though as I haven't done mine yet). The only other issue is the wait time on the hardware.

I have just ordered a Raspberry Pi, its an ARM based tiny PC (credit card sized). It has composite video and HDMI out so be aware your TV will need one of these inputs. I intend to install XBMC on it. If you look on the Raspberry Pi site at the Wiki or Google "XBMC on Raspberry Pi" you should find plenty of information about getting XBMC onto it.

All the info on the R-Pi is on their site but IMO its an ideal solution. Youtube videos show it running 1080p very well, its powered by USB and has an ethernet connection or 2 x USB ports for a WiFi dongle.

I appreciate its a bit of a gamble and may not be ideal for you but at ?30~ shipped, I think its worth the risk. Just depends if you can wait for it to be delivered (I was told 8 weeks for delivery due to high demand).

[threetonesun]

WD TV streams media just fine. I've had only a few issues getting it going, but that's mostly because I have a server that's Mac, and they're not great a UPnP.