MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I've just sorted out a squeezebox for audio streaming, but want a games console that will also allow me to view photos/camera vids/dvd rips on my TV. Out of the Wii/xbox360/PS3 what has the edge on media serving stuff?
Setup is currently being streamed from PC, but will soon be on a NAS (probably QNAP 119), so what media serving S\W should I be checking the NAS runs?
I know the Wii does, but do either of the xbox/ps3 have games for young kids?
Cheers!
I don't have any of them so you can take this with a pinch of salt, but I have 2 mates who have bought an Xbox360 just for its streaming capabilities - one of them hardly plays games at all.
I use TVersity with a 360 and it's great. Only downside is the console is quite noisy due to the cooling fan.
i couldn't get my PS3 to work with tversity at all.
i didn't want to use media player to share/ stream as it puts a fair bit of strain on the processor. TVersity runs happily in the background without impacting the speed of my PC
Original Xbox. You can pick them up for £15 at car boot sales and with the xbox media center software and a soft-chip they'll play back pretty much any format known to man.
Friend of mine has equipped his house with 4 of the things and is delighted with them.
What Flaperon said, I have a softchipped Xbox with XBMC, works a treat
Ah sounds good, that means I could get a Wii for games!
Are the original Xboxs only available in one version (ie standard spec), or were there as many derivatives as the 360?
Not sure if they are available in different versions, but are very cheap, mate who softchipped mine as 4, last one he bought was £11.50 off Ebay
XBMC (for the orginal Xbox) is very very good. Streams flawlessly, plays just about every format under the sun and is quite customisable. It's also dirt cheap to get running, easily do-able for under £40 all in.
Downsides are that you have to get an xbox chipped, or softmod it (fairly easy to do if you are remotely technically minded) in order to be able to install it properly.
It also don't think it does HD very well so if you have a big plasma or LCD with 720 or 1080 you would be wise to consider something else like the 360.
Mine is now retired and I have a 360 which is an adequate replacement for media. No complaints so far as it seems to be doing an ok job.