Building a media center, Part 4

There’s finally light at the end of the tunnel on our quest to build our own media center (without purchasing a Media Center PC). We solved the slow network connection problem by using only wired Ethernet and 802.11g to link the “server” PC to the router and to our network-attached storage device. With our content safely on the NAS box, we were ready to bring our TV into the equation.

Enter the ADS Tech Media-Link , a $200 networked media player that acts as a network bridge between the PC and TV. While this media player doesn’t let you hook up to a stereo like some others, it does play music through the TV, as well as show your videos and photos. It also allows some rudimentary Web surfing.

We installed the Media-Link software on our "server," the PC currently holding the TV tuner and where we store a majority of our music files. We then connected the Media-Link player to our router via the included Ethernet cable and to our TV through RCA (composite) cables. The system also can connect via component cables, as well as S-Video, S/P DIF and optical audio for TVs that accept those ports. The box can also connect to your wireless router via 802.11g. But since the device only supports 64- or 128-bit WEP encryption, and our wireless network uses the stronger WPA , we stuck with Ethernet. 

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There’s finally light at the end of the tunnel on our quest to build our own media center (without purchasing a Media Center PC). We solved the slow network connection problem by using only wired Ethernet and 802.11g to link the “server” PC to the router and to our network-attached storage device. With our content safely on the NAS box, we were ready to bring our TV into the equation.

Enter the ADS Tech Media-Link , a $200 networked media player that acts as a network bridge between the PC and TV. While this media player doesn’t let you hook up to a stereo like some others, it does play music through the TV, as well as show your videos and photos. It also allows some rudimentary Web surfing.

We installed the Media-Link software on our "server," the PC currently holding the TV tuner and where we store a majority of our music files. We then connected the Media-Link player to our router via the included Ethernet cable and to our TV through RCA (composite) cables. The system also can connect via component cables, as well as S-Video, S/P DIF and optical audio for TVs that accept those ports. The box can also connect to your wireless router via 802.11g. But since the device only supports 64- or 128-bit WEP encryption, and our wireless network uses the stronger WPA , we stuck with Ethernet. 

After the software and hardware installation, we suffered our first glitch. (What, you’re surprised?) When trying to configure the Media-Link software on the PC, we got an error trying to load the program. But this time, the ADS Tech Web site FAQ identified the problem as a Java mismatch error. As instructed, we uninstalled the Java Runtime application, then re-installed the Media-Link software, which put a compatible Java Runtime environment on the PC, and that fixed the problem. 

After that, things went smoothly. We could change Windows XP’s default directories (My Pictures, My Videos, My Music) to where the Media-Link box would go looking for photos, videos and our music on the “server.” Even better, we could point the application to grab content from our NAS box, which meant we could play all videos stored there. We would have liked to point to multiple directories for each content type, but we were thrilled nonetheless with the ability to point to the NAS. 

For music, we could link the Media-Link software to our iTunes application, which pulled in all of our iTunes playlists. It couldn't play the encrypted iTunes purchased songs, but played all the playlists of songs we had ripped to MP3 format. This was an unexpected bonus that made us very happy.

Back to the TV. We could now watch videos, play music and view photos. Video quality was excellent. We streamed video over Ethernet with no jitter, and music over 802.11g without any blips at all.

For now, our media center setup is complete - we can record TV shows to the computer, transfer them to the NAS box, and then play the videos and music on our TV. We plan on trying another software PVR application, but will probably write about that for the Network Life Web site.  We've got bigger plans for our network that we want to tackle…

Read more about home networks in Network World's Home Networks section.