My Home Theater and Media Server

This is my Home Theater set up and my Media Server from which I serve my DVD collection.

The system consists of the following:
Bose 305 Front Speakers - $300 purchased in 2000
Audiosource 300W sub - $300 purchased in 2001
Pioneer VSX-815 - $350 purchased in 2006
Klipsch 5.1 surround speakers - $450 purchased in 2007
PS3 - $300 purchased in 2009
Wii - $200 purchased in 2009
Sharp Aquos 60 LCD HDTV - $1800 purchased in 2010
TV stand - $450 purchased in 2010

Computer case - $50 built in 2001
ATX powersupply - $35 purchased in 2001
P4 - $50 purchased in 2009
Motherboard - $60 purchased in 2009

Logitech Harmony 700 - $150 purchased in 2010
PS3 Harmony remote adapter - $50 purchased in 2010
Windows Media Center remote and IR receiver - $30 purchased in 2010

Gateway LT2024u Netbook Computer - $300 purchased in 2010

Grand total: $4875

As you can see this setup was built over the past 9 years or so with new components replacing old ones.

I use a home network with a server computer in the garage. I built this computer about 8 years ago and the case and power supply are about the only things left original. Since then it has had a new P4 and board installed, plus a 2TB hard drive for my DVD collection. I currently have about 170 movies on it, and I still have about .97TB left.

I plan to upgrade to 5 2TB drives in a RAID 5 configuration to add speed and redundency to the setup. The board is also capeable of accepting a dual core processessor which I will probably add when I upgrade the hard drives. The current 2TB drive will then be used as my music, movies, and operating system drive and whatever other random files I want to back up from my other computers.

Anywhoo, this is how I set up my media server and home theater. Bluray looks awesome on the 60" LCD, and having a universal remote to control everything is the best $150 I have ever spent.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Home
• theater
• media
• server
• universal
• remote
• logitech
• 700
• windows
• center
• sharp
• 60
• lcd
• aquos
• 1080p
• HD
• high
• definition

[awesomedandy]

The TV is a 60" Sharp Aquos, not sure the model number anymore. I got it at Sams Club for $1700 about 6 months ago. I had a RCA 52" rear projection 1080i and the picture on the Aquos is WAY better, even with a larger screen. Its brighter and has the 240hz refresh which makes Blu-ray through the PS3 AWESOME.

[TheGirlFromCRUSH]

haha two thumbs up. 1 for the video and 1 for the song.

[haplue96]

How can you connect to the media server? i dont find how to do it =(

[awesomedandy]

@lsvtec I use DVDFabHD to rip the DVDs to my server. Then I use MyMovies which is a free program and has a windows media plug in. I would look into those 2 softwares to get you started for free. The media server itself can be done many ways, the easiest would be to buy a server from Best Buy or Newegg and how ever many hard drives you want. You can get 2TB drives for $109 right now on newegg.

[lsvtec]

@Goreala909 yea i want to know also please teach me. lol

[MrByronwilson]

what is your tv model. How well does it perform

[Goreala909]

i'm interested in doing this with my dvds how'd you set it up