Make home network for home theatre

Ashish6464

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Is it possible to make a home network using wifi routers, so that i can access my Music, movies, pictures etc stored on home PC on my home theatre, TV, mobile or any other device? If yes how to do it in cost effective way?
 
I personally use Plex media server, Installed in my windows 8 laptop. I can stream all music, movies, pics in my network stored in my laptop.

--
RK
 
Right click drive and/or folder > Properties > Sharing > Everyone.

Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center > Change Advanced Sharing Settings > Turn Off Password Protected Sharing.

This will let any device on your WiFi to connect and watch/stream all shared content. You can password protect but not really needed if its home network that is password protected.

You can also install a media server s/w with additional bells and whistles (Plex, PS3 Media Server I've used and Subsonic, Serviio I've not used) but its not recommended for the most part or if you are sharing content on a system that you are working on/using daily. Media server makes more sense for a standalone PC with media for sharing... but modern routers come with that functionality that lets you plugin an external HDD with same/better results and the new external HDDs come with media server s/w too.
 
Is it possible to make a home network using wifi routers, so that i can access my Music, movies, pictures etc stored on home PC on my home theatre, TV, mobile or any other device? If yes how to do it in cost effective way?

Yes that can be done quite easily. Your PC should have a UPNP / DLNA server software like Plex or Serviio sharing your media either locally saved on the pc or on a usb connected drive to a pc. Some routers with usb and in built upnp server also allows you to do basic media sharing without a pc. On your mobile or other target devices you should have a upnp player to play media shared from these servers.

Can you please let me know the below
1. What router you have
2. How big is the house and what are the relative placements of router, pc
3. How big movie files you have in your collection

Alternatively if you do normal folder sharing like musicbee suggested that can also be an option but for watching media on mobile devices or dlna enabled tv / bdp, upnp server is the way to go.
 
Last edited:
Hi,
I have attached a schematic layout of my house and the placements of the devices.
So this is what i require

1) I should be able to watch/listen (movies, pictures, music etc ) saved on my home PC (windows 7) in my Home Theatre (Denon AVR X1000, Panasonic AR100 projector, Paradigm cinema 100 CT, samsung bluray player BD E5500) , and samsung smart LED TV and sony W650 LED.

2) I have TP-LINK TD-W8151N 150Mbps Wireless N ADSL2+ Modem Router.

3) I have movies from about 1 gb to 14gb in file size, although most of them will be within 3GB range.

After doing some research on net i found out this guys video pretty helpful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nTgQQbF9zo

Another major problem which i am facing is I cannot play movies from pendrive or HDD when connected to my blueray player through USB port do anyone know what might be the problem?
 

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I cannot pull a LAN cable from router to AVR as all wiring is concealed that's highliged in green in the picture.
So going wireless is only an option.
 
From the diagram I do not think streaming to HT will be a problem over wifi for upto 4GB files, please try out once by installing a media streamer like Plex or Serviio on your PC.

In your plan I see 4 TVs, 2 on each floor apart from the HT. Do you have streaming requirements to all of them? Also is it possible to run a LAN cable from first floor router to ground floor for setting up a wired bridge or a 2nd Access Point for ground floor?
 
I think the most stable and reliable solution to your scenario is to use a powerline extender, unless you can pull lan cable. Fully Wifi solution is likely to be unreliable over two floors.
 
I think the most stable and reliable solution to your scenario is to use a powerline extender, unless you can pull lan cable. Fully Wifi solution is likely to be unreliable over two floors.

I agree, that is why I suggested a semi wifi plus semi wired solution to connect two floors.
 
i currently have a TP-Link TD-W8951ND 150 Mbps Wireless N ADSL2+ Modem Router
and i am thinking to buy a Tp-Link Tl-Wa701Nd 150Mbps Wireless Lite N Access Point
so that i can connect my Denon AVR X1000 to internet via access point. Will this help?

also if i buy TP-LINK TL-WA901ND 300Mbps Wireless N Access Point knowing that my old router is 150 mbps will it have any added advantage as it has 300 mbps capacity?
 
Is the Denon AVR in the same room as your first floor Home Theater?

All the hardwares you mentioned have 100 mbps Ethernet ports and not Gigabit which I would recommend to be a must at least while connecting you media player and PC (having the media) over wires especially if you want 3D or 4K future compatibility for the respective bandwidth requirement.

Also I see that you have posted a wifi Access point, can you tell me where exactly you intend to place it? I think in your case you would be better off with a wifi bridge which you can place in HT room (and can connect wirelessly to your ADSL router for internet and also the associated PC for media sharing) and will be able to provide wired connection to Denon AVR and similar other devices in your HT Room.
 
Hi haisaikat,
Yes the denon avr x1000 is in the first floor in home theatre room.
I am confused between a access point router and wifi extender bridge.
can you tell what suits best for my situation?
Also there is very little range on ground floor as the router is on first floor, so should i buy 2 wifi extenders one for HT room and other for ground floor?
 
Hi haisaikat,
Yes the denon avr x1000 is in the first floor in home theatre room.
I am confused between a access point router and wifi extender bridge.
can you tell what suits best for my situation?
Also there is very little range on ground floor as the router is on first floor, so should i buy 2 wifi extenders one for HT room and other for ground floor?

You should have a wifi bridge in your HT room to wirelessly connect to your main router if there is absolutely no way to connect them via wires. You can go wireless here since the distance is small with only 1 wall in line of sight between the wifi router and bridge. But how big movie files you have in your collection?

For your ground floor I would suggest a wired connection from 1st floor adsl router to ground floor access point which will only broadcast the internet over wifi on ground floor.

Regarding differences between access point and bridge, read here
Access Point vs. Wireless Bridge | Network Equipment
The Difference Between Bridges and Access Points | D-Link Resource Center
 
Hi,
I have few movies upto 16Gb but mostly i will be watching 1-3 gb movie prints.
Thanks for the suggestion and article will go through them.
Also I am confused between a bluray player and a HD media player... i think i should start a new thread for this.
 
Hi,
If you are looking a full wireless solution; you can buy 2 Wireless Access Points (WAP)/Repeaters and put one on each floor. If going with new ones; buy 300n supported wireless devices which will give you better throughput than 150n ADSL router which you already have. If possible move the existing ADSL router (along with ADSL line) to ground floor and put newly bought WAP (in Repeater mode) for Home PC and the other one (in Bridge mode) for AVR.

I suppose your 150n device will give you real time transfer speeds of 5.2-5.6 MB/sec (effective 54mbps) when data copied from a wireless device to wired device (Not between two wireless devices).

You can buy this TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N Access Point TL-WA801ND which will give you 10-11MB/s (ie 100mbps) transfer speeds when copied between a wired to wireless device.

Also as suggested by other member, you can buy access points which have Gigabit Ethernet ports. But there may not be much improvement in transfer speeds (2.4Ghz network - depending on the model/make of WAP). I think a 10MB/sec link will be enough for streaming the files you have. So, buying two numbers of the above mentioned WAP from TP-Link will do the job for you.

Regards,
Ausy.

Reference:
Wireless Repeater/Bridge settings: Link
 
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