Streaming over a network, what format?

[ripit]

Once again I am trying to rip all my movies to hard drive and then convert to a smaller format (if I don't finish, at least I'll get a little farther again). In theory, I would like to get most of my content on the htpc in the entertainment center in the living room as it has the most storage (about 1.4 TB). In the past I have used nero digital (so far as I can tell it is just mp4 as it even plays on cheap standalone multiformat players). I have since started using nero digital avc (which so far as I know is just standard h.264). Fyi this is all standard def.

So with most of my stuff on the front computer, I stream video to the bedroom over my wireless network (wireless g and I just use basic file sharing to allow it). So far it works fine, but would there be a better format? I kind of assumed that h.264 was a good high compression format that would be good for both smaller files, as well as less data to be streamed. What got me thinking about it though even though its working, is that I now have a network shared usb hub, that will work with external hard drives, and I could add another TB to the front (actually this would be directly accessible by either computer). The problem is, it can only do about 1MBps (not Mbps). Is that enough for standard def video streaming, and would there be a better format then h.264 to use?

Fyi my htpc cannot fit anymore drives, and there would be problems changing any of the other drives. The htpc has 120GB drive for the boot drive, a 2 drive and a 3 drive raid 0 using 160GB drives, and a 500 GB drive. Using existing drives, I could clone the 120GB drive onto a 300 gig, but that leaves 160GB or smaller drives left (that I could add), with what I already have. I know I could get another 500GB drive cheap enough, but I'm broke (wifes out of work) and I already have about 2.7TB worth of drives to work with (mostly 160GB drives).

Does anyone have any advice on a better format to use or comments on if h.264 (with SD) is good for my purposes? Part of why I like it is I can easilly convert it with nero (I'm using 1GB as a target size for most movies).

[JohnnyMalaria]

At 1MBps available, WMV format would work. I'm not sure that you really need to stream it, though. Can't you just play the files from a network drive rather than streaming. i.e., use your player software on your bedroom PC to play files stored on the other one.

[ripit]

I'm sorry but I might have misstated myself. All I am doing is accessing files over the network, and that works fine. I just look at files on the other computer and play them. Where the 1MBps comes into play is with this device.
http://www.belkin.com/networkusbhub/
It would allow me additional storage (I already own it as well as several hard drives and usb enclosures). I have benchmarked it (the network usb hub) and the best I can expect is !GBps.....

[JohnnyMalaria]

Oh, I see. So, you are considering using the hub to connect to additional USB hard drives? If so, you would get better performance using a traditional USB hub on your front computer and add the additional drives that way. You will get the full access speed of the drives and your bottleneck will be the wireless g network instead of the Belkin device.

[ripit]

Oh, I see. So, you are considering using the hub to connect to additional USB hard drives? If so, you would get better performance using a traditional USB hub on your front computer and add the additional drives that way. You will get the full access speed of the drives and your bottleneck will be the wireless g network instead of the Belkin device.

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you. That would be one of those homer simpson, DOH! moments. Why didn't I think of that. That would make more sense. I'm getting 3-4MBps over the network (with internal drives) which isn't exactly blazing speed but its better than 1MBps. I also already have 4 usb external enclosures.