Media library

[marcoa]

Hi,

I want to create a media library in a room of a non-profit association with all the materials audio, video, text, pictures,... from past events.

I need to have three or four PCs where to search for content and display and one server with all the content (DVD/mpeg4/other format? videos, with/without subtitles, picture slideshows, audio with/without transcript)

I would like it to be easy-to-use for the user, with an eye on accessibility, and cheap!

Do you suggest media center PCs (which SW would be the best?) or a (web)server based configuration with embedded players in client browsers? What would be the best option for content encoding? Has anybody done something similar?

Thanks
Marco

[redwudz]

I just tossed all my videos onto a video server PC. It's just a bunch of hard drives and a big power supply. There's about 2TB of storage at present. I can play any of them from my laptop or from the HTPC through a Gigabit LAN hookup. I use VLC and Zoom player on the PCs for viewing or ported out from the HTPC to the video projector via component video.

For regular DVDs, I have a couple of 400 disc DVD changers.

I haven't really gotten around to indexing them all. I just arranged them by folders for each genre. They are mixed content, from DVD rips, Xvid, Divx, a few RM and WMV and even a Indeo video or two. More trouble than it's worth for me to standardize and convert them all to a common format. VLC plays most all of them, even WMV. The RMs I have mostly converted to Xvid.

If you are thinking of a standard format, look into hardware encoding or a Divx DVR. It would take me a really long time to convert them via software.

[SingSing]

From microsoft web site, you can't really throw anything at Media center, only movie, pictures, and programs designed for it.

You better off, setup web pages with content server.

[Faustus]

for storage I'd look into a NAS unit.

[marcoa]

What if two users want to access the same content from the server? Will it work with a NAS or file server infrastructure? Or will I need a streaming server instead?