Newbie needs Network / media centre solution!

[Stefan Gavin <stefangavin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Guys, I=92m after some advice if possible, I am not that technical so
ba=
re with me=85
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Current Home Audio & PC set-up (Recently sold all my THX 7.1 system)
=20

Desktop Machine (High Spec CAD & Graphics machine)
2 X laptop=92s / Notebooks
Recently completed media Centre PC Blu-Ray etc
Roksan Kandy L3 amplifier
Spendor S6 floorstanding speakers
Panasonic Viera 42=94 1080P
Samsung 32=94 1080P (Bedroom)
Plus more
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Media Centre is in living room connected to 42=94 1080P set via HDMI and
se=
ems to be running ok minus about 100 niggling problems. I have a separate
m=
edia drive in here which contains a back-up of all my music, videos and
pic=
s from my desktop machine. (Not Ideal) I like the files stored locally
here=
so they can be accessed quickly, and so my movies run smoothly etc.
=20
Desktop machine in the study also with separate 1TB dive contains all my
me=
dia, this drive is where I edit my MP3 tags etc and download my movies etc
=
to. I then back it up over a standard wireless network to my media centre.
=
I=92m getting around 2-4MB/s which again is not ideal.
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I recently sent back a Synology DS108J which also was only giving me
around=
4-5MB/s transfer speed for backing up my files, which was not acceptable. =
I later find out this is common! I was expecting 40MB/s plus.=20
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Ideally what I would like is for everything I own digitally stored on a
lar=
ge NAS =96 high speed Gigabit or whatever and accessible from any machine
a=
t high speeds, this can be done wired through Gigabit I believe but not
wir=
elessly. I need it to do it wirelessly because my media centre is
downstair=
s. I already have a wireless N card in my media centre and have been
lookin=
g at wireless N routers with full gigabit connectivity, I am not 100% sure
=
though that this will work as I need it to.
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However to play my HD rips or MKV files smoothly I figure I need a
constant=
data transfer speed of 20 MB/s which would also make the network more usab=
le for transferring files. This would enable me to store everything on a
la=
rge NAS with RAID or mirroring technology for back up =96 this would then
b=
e accessible by any machine meaning I could play HD content on any TV in
ho=
use, but most importantly on my Viera through my media centre.=20
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I am probably completely going wrong here so please anybody put me right,
b=
ut my understanding is that Blu-Ray has a maximum bitrate of 48 Mbps for
bo=
th video and audio =96 so if my network could run faster than this then I
c=
ould essentially play Blu-Ray discs over the network (Not that I want to)
M=
KV files bitrate is up to around 10Mbps so providing I can get a faster
spe=
ed than this I could play most of my HD compressed films? This is my logic
=
anyway=85
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I initially looked into home plug or Ethernet over powerline systems,
which=
sounded great at first 200 MB/s =96 perfect I though for playing HD which =
it says on the tin, only to later find out that the connection on the home
=
plug is standard 10/100 cat5 which made me sceptical, and quite rightly so
=
as I now believe I would be lucky to get anymore than 6MB/s over this type
=
of system.
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So back to Wireless N and gigabit systems possibly.
=20
Any help here would be very much appreciated????
=20
Sorry for the length of my message=85.

Stefan Gavin
=20
(M)   07737 753645
(E)     stefangavin@xxxxxxx


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