Your source for everything home theater & HTPC related
Well, I finally have a 7.1 sound setup ordered to install upstairs in my 2nd family room. Downstairs I have my HTPC and an adequate 5.1 setup, 50" plasma (had to go with a small satellite setup to keep the WAF high vs big boy speakers) where we consume most of our video content.
Upstairs is a nice room setup, prewired for surround sound, I have a 42" plasma mounted with built-in shelving I recently installed (eventually want to get a bigger TV). Anyways, this is currently where the xboxing wiing kinecting, etc all goes down. But now with a nice sound system going in up there, it will be a great spot to watch movies. We use the xbox as an extender, but I was wondering what to do regarding BR content. I see my options as:
1) Standalone BR player upstairs (any recommendations on stand-alone players (never purchased one before)
2) Create BR isos, give them some room on the NAS and get something like Popcorn hour, western digital tv, boxee box, etc, that could handle ISO formats and get all the HD audio goodness (recommendations here would be great too)
Am I missing another option? I know my options through 7MC are limited.
Now I have a machine gun too, ho ho ho, Merry Xmas!
NitDawg
Probably the easiest and least hassle option is to get a nice standalone BD player for upstairs. Panasonic players are rock-solid, I've used multiple generations of them, and Panasonic continues to support their players for firmware fixes long after they've been replaced with newer models. Their 2011 models have all streaming features you could want (Hulu Plus, Netflix, Pandora, Amazon Instant, etc.) they also support basic DLNA features if you end up wanting to go the NAS route at some point. Go with the DMP-BDT110 if you have Ethernet wired upstairs, if not the DMP-BDT210 is the step up with Wi-Fi built in. Both go on sale pretty frequently at Fry's (if you have one nearby) and on Amazon.