Home Theater & Streaming video over LAN to TV

[ohioDroid]

The title pretty much sums up this topic. I may be getting a new TV soon and I'm interested in setting things up to integrate all of my electronics together, including my computers, the TV, whatever else.

I was already thinking of getting a Blu-Ray player than can do Netflix and Youtube via a wireless network, but I'm also interested in the idea of playing my media library over the TV, although that could mostly be to use the speakers to play music.

One idea I had for this was to store everything on an internal or WiFi hard drive, and use my laptop which has HDMI out to connect to the TV. But even if it's as simple as plugging in the cable and such, I'd like a simple solution that's already set up, I just turn something on and it works.

I could build or buy a dedicated home theater PC for this. Or maybe have a WiFi hard drive and some special Blu-Ray player that can also read over a network. Or maybe there are devices out there that do this kind of thing that I'm not familiar with.

What do you do? How do you go about having an integrated media experience?

 

[Tepes]

Well, what you want to do is the same setup my wife and I have with a PS3 and it works great. You get the ability to stream from your computer to your tv, one of the best Blu-Ray players and a game system. done and done

 

[ohioDroid]

Well, what you want to do is the same setup my wife and I have with a PS3 and it works great. You get the ability to stream from your computer to your tv, one of the best Blu-Ray players and a game system. done and done

My initial reaction to that would be 'is there a cheaper solution?' But to build a computer is not a cheaper solution, and I see IT as a valid option.

I guess I'm super old school, in that I bought a Wii when they came out, and have been satisfied with it. Save for Little Big Planet, the games of the PS3 haven't attracted me, and that is arguably its biggest feature (it is a PLAYstation after all).

I guess what I'm saying is that a PS3 does do everything I just asked for, but when you buy it you also are going for another game console, which is its biggest feature, and for me would be the least used feature.

Are there other solutions available?