Help with creating a media setup???

[nikos07]

Hi i am new to the forum

We want to be able to stream video, pictures and music to our 46"full hd ready sharp aqous. which currently has a sky hd box, ps3 60gb version, and a nintendo wii all hooked upto it.

I am looking at upgrading the PS3 harddrive to a much bigger one.

We have 3 desktop computers and 4 laptops. One desktop is mine, one is my brothers not so important as he just plays games on it, and the other is a general use pc for the home email account and has the printers on it.

I have thought of turning the study computer into a back server type thing with 2x1terrabyte drives one of the mirroring the other. then having a third one to dump media onto to then stream to the PS3.

I have also become much more of a mac user as my laptop is a new macbook pro so I have considered getting Apple TV for this setup due to the iTunes film rental service and so on. Alot of our music is also in the protected AAC format of the fairplay drm from iTunes.

Any suggestions on what I should do? :S

[Polaris573]

What are the specifications of the computer you want to turn into a server? Also, I don't know what type of shape your home network is in, but if it's just wireless and you want to transfer large files you might want to invest in running some cable for better transfer speeds. Long cable runs aren't that expensive if you do it yourself.

[nikos07]

it is a C2D 2.0ghz e1280 i think, 1gb ddr2, gigabyte s series g33m, 1x80gb sataII hdd, and 1xdvdrw sata II

the 3 desktop computers are wired to a switch upstairs which is then connected to the belkin n series (the one with the interactive display) which is downstairs and has 3 spare ports on it which can be used to run network cables to the PS3 if need be.