This includes “ home theatre PCs” that people typically plug directly into their main TV set, and use to stream media to other devices. Because you don’t, it’s worth considering a PC instead of a NAS. If you already had a PC running (say) Ubuntu or Microsoft Windows 7, you could use that as your media server. NAS boxes often have slower ARM processors and either two or four empty drive bays, but they often come with media server software, because streaming is a common requirement. Intel-based PCs are usually more powerful and more versatile, and include graphics cards and HDMI ports, but they may be bigger, noisier and more expensive. Your server could be a PC or a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, and will be on all the time. Still, if you want a non-proprietary solution, almost everyone except Apple supports DLNA. The standards should mean that all the bits work together correctly, but they don’t always. (There are non-Apple devices that support Airplay but they are licensed by Apple.) Alternatively, all the components could work to common standards, usually UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) and DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance). Finally, each of your devices – the clients in your client/server system – runs a separate program to display whatever the server sends its way.Īll the components could be developed by a single company, which is basically what Apple did with Airplay. The server runs whichever media streaming software you choose. You start with a server, which will have a processor, memory, operating system, and one or more large hard drives to store all your media files. Look at some of the free programs and pick whichever you think will best meet your needs.

There are a lot of different combinations of hardware and software that will do what you want. I’m somewhat computer literate, but by no means an expert, and the husband and others who will also use this are less so.

If there is a good solution that doesn’t support the Ubuntu laptop, I could live with that, as it’s my oldest PC. This may change as, for example, I might replace one of the MacBooks with a Windows 7 or Windows 8 laptop, so I want a non-proprietary set up that won’t force me into buying one OS or hardware for years to come.

We have two MacBooks and a Ubuntu laptop, two Android phones, two Android tablets and an iPad. I would also like the central hard drive to receive downloads and back up to another hard drive on a nightly schedule without me needing to do anything. I would like to have all my music, video and pictures on one large, central hard drive, and then wirelessly access/play back this media from a variety of devices.

Universal media server setup