I'm considering getting my dad a wireless music player for christmas, so he can listen to the music on his PC in the lounge, but I have a few questions, which I cannot find the answers to anywhere. Any help would be very useful:

1- Does Windows Media Player have to be loaded on the PC streaming the music?

2- Does anything happen on the PC when the music is streamed other than the hard disk going? ie does the music being streamed to the wireless music player also come out of the PC speakers, or is it all done 'behind the scenes'.

Sorry if these are stupid questions.

I use a Philips Streamium, It came with it's own software which is a bit like windows media player but more basic and I found the program kept closing for no apparent reason so have now enabled sharing within Windows Media Player and it seems to work fine with the Streamium. Windows Media Player dosen't need to be open for the Streamium to access the files and no sound comes out of the PC all control of tracks playlist etc can be done via the remote on the Streamium.
Hope this helps.

Where is the music stored?

On another PC elsewhere?

I store all my music on an external HD in a spare bedroom and that hard drive is set up as shared. The laptop in the living room is connected to it wirelessly and I use MediaMonkey as a jukebox on the laptop. Laptop is connected to TV and amp for largescreen jukebox with sound through the amp. Works a treat!

The music can be stored on any PC on the wireless network, you can access it direct from the Streamium onboard display and remote. Obviously the PC with the music on has to be powered up but no programs need to be running on it. I think Phillips do a Streamium that can handle music and video as well. It just saves having wires trailing all over the place.