Help to best solution for home media for student

[iBookfan]

Hi folks

I'm a student so being used to a low budget made me look into the best (and cheapest) solution for a home media..

Right now, I have a PC (I know..) connected to my flatscreen and playing all my movies and shows on it through a external harddrive... The PC though, is a pain and slowly with bad audio..

I also have a PS3 but it lacks in playing formats, and it feels to "heavy" and slow to use just for browsing movies (even through wireless).

My question is: Would I be able to plug in a external harddrive in the AppleTV2 (using hacks and what not)?
Or is i limited to NAS?

I don't have cable-tv, so I'll be using the solution for primary viewing TV.. My thoughts have gone towards a Mac Mini (maybe refurbished) as well..

 

[kiranmk2]

What format are your films in? If they're in all sorts of formats (avi, mkv etc) then and ATV2 can be jailbroken to install XBMC which will take care of all the formats (and lack of tagging). You will need your PC on with the ext hard drive plugged in to serve out the films.

If all your films are in mp4 format, an ATV2 can stream them all straight from iTunes (again, your PC needs to be on with the ext hard drive attached).

If you don't care about the interface and don't want to rely on more than your hard drive and the streamer, the Western Digital WDTV products are pretty cheap and decent (although lacking in terms of UI).

 

[Paulywauly]

i recommend the WDTV, your right the UI isn't perfect, but its flexible and not badly priced.

 

[iBookfan]

What format are your films in? If they're in all sorts of formats (avi, mkv etc) then and ATV2 can be jailbroken to install XBMC which will take care of all the formats (and lack of tagging). You will need your PC on with the ext hard drive plugged in to serve out the films.

If all your films are in mp4 format, an ATV2 can stream them all straight from iTunes (again, your PC needs to be on with the ext hard drive attached).

If you don't care about the interface and don't want to rely on more than your hard drive and the streamer, the Western Digital WDTV products are pretty cheap and decent (although lacking in terms of UI).

Most of my movies are in a lot of different formats so I'll have to jailbreak it, but I don't like having a computer open just for streaming, since it don't support hdd.. Maybe a NAS and AppleTV2 would be the best solution?

I kinda like the WD-Live, cause it can read files directly from hdd, but is it worth using? Ain't it a pain browsing around with?.. The AppleTV has a great UI!..