Hi All,

I'm not sure if such a thing exists, but what I want is a hard disk media player which I can plug into my TV/Surround system, but I want to be able to dump media onto it via my wireless network.

All the boxes I look at seem to be set up to stream the media from my PC. What I want is not to have to have the PC on so I'd like to be able to store the media on the hard disk but not have to run a wire to it. (its two floors away)

there seemed to be a product on amazon's website but it was listed as unavailable.

(btw, SCART and standard def is fine - mostly for music)

any suggestions welcomed!

Hi Seanski44,

Just an option, I have been a big fan of Archos products and have had a few. I should point out that I don`t have great knowledge of the market as I have always stuck with a company who has not let me down and I have been pleased with the product.

I have not moved to their wi-fi products but I know they have them. www.archos.com. I have just had a quick look at the website and there is a 705 wifi model that can be 80 or 160 GB.

Obviously there will be many options, depending on your needs and budget but have a look.

Rgds.

A laptop is the most flexible solution.

I stream stuff to mine wirelessly and have it hooked up to the TV and amp in the living room.

I've also just set up my old Xbox to run XBMC, at 720p resolution and connected via a wireless acess point to my main PC. The wireless pert was a bit of a headache to set up (more due to my router and wireless AP I suspect) but now thats it's working it's actually a really neat solution. No use for HD stuff, fine for everything else.

Tvix systems are very nice, support HD content, and are apparently quite easy to add wirless functionality:

http://www.dpanda.com.au/p/444966/Dv...4130-PVR-.html

Not cheap though.

Have a look on AVForums as well, plenty chat about such devices/setups on there.

OK cheers chaps, I'll check out the archos site, and as for the laptop, I already have one, but it gets used all over the shop - the idea is to have something more permanent and double as storage for the media, thus freeing up HD space on my desktop but allowing me to access it through the router from both the desktop and laptop.

- off to the archos site!

EDIT: - Archos TV+ looks like the sort of thing I want, but as it'll record from a TV source too might be a sledgehammer to crack a nut (I already have a PVR for that) good start though, and starting at about £140 for an 80GB version its not stupid money.

Any other suggestions?!

Hi, I checked out the link - bit rich for my blood!

I could work with the xbox idea - what's the script with storage on them, do they all have hard drives or only the 360? - Excuse me being ignorant of them.

The old original Xbox only has a tiddly little HD in it.

Once I'd completed modding mine (all soft mods) I was left with a shade under 5gb of storage. You can upgrade them I believe, but it's not something I've done myself. Might do at some point though, I have a couple of old PC's lying doing nothing (as the Xbox was until recently) with about 4 HD's in there between them!

I have an Archos 704 wifi. With the docking station its a great bit of kit.

You can set it up wirelessly to stream media direct from a pc or laptop anywhere on your home network plus you can record direct from tv/dvd etc. The pc/lappy needs to be on however.

1 downside is that Archos "lock" the ability to play VOB files ripped direct from dvd so you have to convert to avi. Its a bit of a pain but to be honest there little change in quality but on the 40GB I have you can store over 40 dvd's on the HD. You can buy a Cinema package from archos to play all file types but its £20 and i prefer to go the freeby converter route.

I've now switched to converting and storing them on the pc then playing back wirelessly through the Archos onto the tv.

The docking station has ooodles of connections for sound/video in/out so connections to tv/sourround sound are easy.

Overall, it has photo, video, music and internet, touch screen and isnt too big to carry around like a laptop. Best xmas prezzy my missus has got me, so far!

The Archos idea sounds good, but my main reason for this is I'd like to transfer my itunes library (all MP3, not AAC) - which is my entire CD collection ripped at 320Kbps and is over 60GB - onto an external drive that I can continue to add to both with music and video. I may also consider adding my photo collection (also 10s of GB) to allow viewing on the TV. I already have the PVR so don't really need to be able to record onto this device, but it does need a sizeable hard drive, so it looks like the Xbox idea is out.

Hmmm. so the archos with docking station is a portable bit of kit is it?

I have all my music, all my photos, and a sizeable amount of video files, all stored on a 250gb external drive ...... much the same as the setup you're contemplating.

This HD is connected to my main desktop PC and shared over my network.

I can access it wirelessly from both my laptop and now my modded Xbox.

The only drawback with my setup is that the PC needs to be on for the HD to be visible. Not an issue for me as that PC is on pretty much 24/7 anyway.

You could get round that by using a network drive setup that didn't require the PC to be on.

the Archos players are nice pieces of kit though. For a 30gb 605wifi + docking station, you're looking at around £220. (£160-£170 for the player and £50 for the docking station)

It would suffer the same limitations as the Xbox though in that the HD attached to your PC would need the PC to be on in order to be visible ..... unless you go down the network drive setup.

Unless ....

Archos players can act as a USB host? I'd expect they could. In which case, you should be able to connect an external HD directly to it and run stuff from that. Not sure on NTFS/FAT32 format limitations but you could find that out easily enough.

yeah, I think, particularly with the amount of storage I'm after, that I need an external HD.

I could possibly live without the wireless, its just that my PC lives two floors away from the TV, hence not leaving it on all the time and wanting to be wireless.

An alternative would be to buy another hard drive for the PC and then something like an M-Player media lounge or other bit of streaming kit, but I'd rather not have to climb all the way up to the PC to turn it on each time I want to check out my pics or music or whatever and I don't want to leave it on all the time (if nothing else the fans are audible in the bedroom below and annoying!)

so, hmm. Possibly one of the wired external HD, but not sure I can use the USB2 option as it means moving the whole lot upstairs everytime I want to add media to it, or sending it through the network onto the laptop and then via USB from the laptop - just a little bit convoluted.

Well, if you go for a NAS drive, attach that to the router, then you only need the router on and your wireless devices should still be able to access the drive.

If my main PC wasn't on 24/7, thats the route I would have gone down.

My thinking is kind of the same as yours in that I want the storage attached to my main PC and I don't want to be lugging kit about the house so that other devices can access it. Most of the stuff I use regularly is on the extrnal HDD so everything can get at it but I do use a smaller, USB powered HD for Hi-Def files as they don't stream consistently (wireless G .... I could upgrade to N but thats too much hassle at the moment) and it's the most portable of the other storage options available.

the archos 705 wifi has a 160gb drive and that sounds adequate for what you need. The docking station needs to stay connected to the tv as the video sender/reciever from what ever devices are hard wired to it. I have my sky HD connected to the dock then component cables to the tv. I can upload recordings or live tv to the archos from my sky or playback photos/music/video straight through the tv and home cinema.

This is what I have

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t...8_03280001.jpg

It has a tv timer function so I set it to record Match of the Day @ 7.30am on Sunday morning, then took it with me and watched it in the bath later, excellent!

But the 705 wifi has the 160gb instead of the 80 I have. I never get close to using capacity of the drive because I stream so much direct from my pc. I have 100gb of video and music on the pc and it all appears on the archos no problem.

Its one of those things that until you've used one or seen it working, its hard to show the benefits or justify it.

How about a PlayStation 3

can do all you mention plus games and Blu-Ray

i copy content from my PC to my PS3 wirelessly all the time.

thats another option, you can use a bit of software called Media Server with the PS3 so it can stream/copy direct off the pc without wires. Shop around for a 60GB version tho as they are no longer available and retailers only have the 40gb which might not be enough for you.

Definately worth considering!

If the PS3 is more than you had in mind then you could consider using a wired solution and then using homeplug adaptors to link the player to your PC - you can get HD-rated ones these days that provide over 200Mbps connection, or you might even make do with the 85Mbps models.

If you aren't familiar with homeplug, it is a technology that uses your mains electric wiring to provide an ethernet network connection - you simply plug special adaptors into normal wall sockets and they each have an ethernet port for you to connect your equipment to. You would simply plug one in by your media player and the other by your PC and it would be as though they were connected with a long ethernet cable.

The only concern is whether the various floors on your house are on the same mains circuit or not, as this is where homeplug can run into potential problems - I'm not sure what shop policies are on being able to return adaptors if you find they won't establish a connection due to different mains circuits - though if you could borrow some then you could test it first.

what you need is a NAS external hard drive

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=484572

I use a freecom NAS drive to store all my music. I can access this drive from any PC on the network, although it needs some client access software, so only PC clients work. My PS3, PSPs etc can't see the drive.

The way I get round this, for music not video, is to run a PC as an iTunes server. This server feeds multiple Airport Expresses connected to amps and speakers in 3 rooms.

The only missing bit is the remote control, which is needed as the iTunes server is in our "office". For that I use PlayerPal and any device with a wi-fi capable browser (eg a PSP, iPAQ, or the PS3.

....now all I need is something to do the same with video.....

XBMC will work wirelessly with a NAS drive linked to a router according to this thread here:

http://xboxmediacenter.com/forum/sho...?t=3119&page=7

Not all setups, but fine as long as you use the right hardware and set it up properly.

You can upgrade the HD (without invallidating the warranty ) A 120G disk currently costs about £ 40.00. My guess is that a 60G PS3 would cost more than buying and then upgrading a 40G PS3.

Have at look at some of these.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/search.aspx?...enu=y&doy=17m4

) Can thr MR1 stream video direct from a NAS ? (ie. without a PC on the network) ? - Charlie B
A) no t as far as we are aware i am afraid


it needs to support NAS so computer doesnt have to be on