Media Center: Optimum hardware and software setup

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cybasoul

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I have been in a process of having a central media center (MC) and/or media server (MS), and internet access point in my home.  In the past two months I have been trying out different stuff to achieve this. So it got me wondering what other people's setups are and if there is a flawless MC/MS setup in terms of hardware, software, and file formats compatibility with MS clients.

So I thought of stating a topic where we can post our setups regarding MC, network connections, and MS clients. Including their shortcomings.

My current setup, and slowly upgrading:
- 3Ghz LGA CPU, 1024G ram (soon to upgrade), Windows XP, DL-Link 1Gbps network card, Intellinet 1Gbps switch, Billion 100Mbps router, CAT5e
- 500GB HDD for moves, 160 HDD for music
- PS3 MS for movies, Windows Media Player (WMP) 11's MS for music
- Onkyo 807 streams music from WMP, PS3 streams movies from PS3 MS

The good:
Flawless streaming of music and compressed movies, haven't had any issues what so ever. Its as if the files are stored on the actual client.

The bad:
- Currently if I set video settings to max on the PS3 MS, ISO DVDs freeze for a few seconds about 10 seconds into the movie and then plays fine till the end. Annoying  :(
- Browsing through ISO DVD scenes with a PS3 is close to impossible, the CPU peaks to almost 100%, and sometimes crashes the PS3 MS. Very annoying  :mad:

It will be interesting to see what other setups are like and how they perform. There might be something I can learn and maybe adapt into mine.
 
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