Home Network Reconfig
We have had an interesting Christmas season at the Hagan household. A refrigerator died just before Thanksgiving, then our old 36″ CRT TV died two weeks later. So our Christmas presents were replacement appliances.
We set out to get a 52″ Samsung LCD TV, but our local Fry’s Electronics had a great sale on their new 55″ “LED” model, the Samsung UN55B7000 (it actually is a LCD model with LED a backlight). What a great set, but it wouldn’t fit in the entertainment niche with the shelves I had constructed. So out they came, and new woodwork is being put in place.
From the department of “One Thing Leads to Another”, the TV has “connectivity”, so we are hoping to get the grandkid’s pictures and home videos streaming to the family room rather than crowding everyone into the office upstairs. So I ran Cat5e ethernet, coax and telephone lines down to the entertainment niche by dropping from the attic, under the bedroom floor, then down to the first floor family room. Quite a process, but the connection is now much faster than with wireless.
I found a factory recertified HP MediaSmart EX485 Windows Home Server for $329 (now it looks like it is $349). I had been looking at the Acer easyStore model, but it is rarely under $400 now. HP has done a great job with this machine; it is backing up our various computers, running as a print server (an undocumented feature), and is able to stream media to the Samsung TV. But the included utilities on the TV are not very robust. For instance, I’m not able to pause, rewind or fast forward on my copies of digital movies now stored on the server. While they stream beautifully, once you start its all or nothing!
Because of that I’m going to add a Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player
It has been fun getting techy again, but “real life” will be back soon enough.
