Thread: how to stream to multiple rooms?

I just bought a new place and watch all my TV from downloads which I stream via my xbox. I would like to stream to a couple rooms now rather than just one.

What is the best way to do this?

Can I split the xbox stream, get some other technology to stream, other?

There are numerous ways to do this:

- Build an HTPC
- Through your gaming consoles (xbox, ps3)
- With a media player (Asus O!Play, WDTV, Samsung FreeAgent, Popcorn Hour, etc.)
- Your TV (some TVs allows you to stream files from your PC)
- HDMI extenders

The cheapest route would be to buy a media player. I've personally tested out O!Play and WDTV. Both seems to have issues with wmv files, but plays all mkv and avi files I've thrown at it. My home network is all wire-runs but streaming avi and some 720p files wirelessly is fine. I've had many issues streaming 1080p wirelessly.

I have a ps3 and an xbox360, but real-time transcoding is a burden on my PC so that's why I went the media player route.

I highly recommend the HD Players. I have an EGreat M-34a which has a ton of features. I also set up a Asus O!Play for someone and liked it better for the price. The menus were faster and it also plays everything. One advantage of the EGreat is you can use YAMJ which makes the movie interface pretty. Both can be networked to see Windows shares and SMB. I recommend hard wiring ethernet if you are playing hi-def movies.

The problem with this is you would need a player in each room at $80 a pop. Alternatively you could somehow run HDMI from a single unit but I think it would end up being just as expensive. It would also be a pain cause you would have no control since the unit is in another room.

Don't know what are the options with the Xbox, but the best way to stream in diferent rooms is to have a media center(your laptop), installed in the main web Modem and that laptp will be you stream server.

You can access it via wireless with an access point with no problem (if the rooms are far awaya from each other). You can get AP for 10/15$

Put all your stuff in a samba share (SMB). That is to say, get everything onto a separate disk (or partition), and share it (right click the disk on Windows Explorer / Properties / Sharing). Now go to your XBMC on xbox or to whatever media player you want to use that has a connection to the internet, and access your home network. poke around, if it's got a connection, it'll find your SMB share.
If you think this is too complicated for your, call someone. It's still the cheapest way (0$). My Plasma TV can access and read my files on that share. My Wii can also do that. And both my computers. And my old Xbox (which is currently down).
Good luck.