Stream it or Keep it. How to make a Media Sharing Network at home.

Families nowadays don't all sit in the same room to watch T.V. With laptops, smart phones and tablets that have built in WiFi who needs a flat-screen in every room? You can do it any way you want. Here's a little to get you started on having a wireless media friendly residence.

What you will need:
An internet connection from an internet provider.

• You usually pay in download speed "tiers". Faster is better and will support more than a few family members  streaming to their devices.

A modem with a WiFi and router built in.

•      It would be nice if it has a USB port to attach and network an external hard drive. Once you get into keeping programs on a hard drive you will need a larger network and more external hard drives. Best of 2015

A computer to use for larger networking jobs.

• Lots of memory, a big internal hard drive, lots of USB 3.0 outputs and as much processor power as you can afford.
  

 USB powered portable external hard drive.

• I have been doing this for a decade, I have five. The smallest one is 1TB. I have one for old TV shows no longer aired. One for current shows I watch. One for movies. One for my favorite music collection, and one for operating systems I collect, along with programs, photos, etc. Amazon Search
• if you end up with more than one hard drive, stack them with something like this. Trays
• if you only use one hard drive connect it to the wireless router to share it on the network. Otherwise, connect them all to your main computer and share them on the network. Name each one according to what you have saved on it, or at least put similar media in named folders on the hard drive. Here's a screen shot of what mine looks like.Down the left are the hard drives - named, and a partial list of what's on the TV Shows drive.
  
  
  
   

Cat 5 cable to hard wire your main computer to the router. I use a gigabit speed LAN output on my computer hooked to a gigabit speed router/Docis 3.o mode that has four LAN ports. It gives highest transfer speeds to the router in order to provide the WiFi with smooth video sharing to wireless devices.

Flat Screen TV.

• 1080P is good enough for most humans. However if  you can afford the new Ultra HD units go for it. You will want one with multiple inputs. A few HDMI and at least one RCA type for video/audio input  for those old WII units that don't have HDMI out.

• A SMART TV includes a lot of streaming apps such as Netflix, HULU and many of the mainline Broadcast stations now have streaming apps and services to offer. You could actually do without a digital cable tv package and that additional cost. Shop around.. I recently scored a 40 inch TCL Roku TV for $299. Google Search

Media Players.
I have a review here on my favorite media player by Western Digital. But depending on whether or not you are planning on downloading and streaming your own saved media, or just want to stream from a provider like Netflix, or Amazon you have quite a selection. I have my main computer connected via cat5 cable to the internet router, and my WD TV Live also wired directly to the router. The media player is connected to a Vizio 32" 1080P smart tv in my bedroom. The house has a TCL 40" smart tv with a WD tv live, a WII and the cable box all hooked in. Media Players


Stream it.

• Once you choose your version of streaming, you can pick where you want to spend your money. Streaming services come in lots of flavors, so see what each offers in the line of programming and join. Even the mainstream broadcasters are getting into pay for service streaming. Choices choices...  

Save it.

• If you decide to download your viewing pleasure p2p is the way to go. Don't download pirated movies or content, your ISP tracks you and you can get anything from a nasty letter to a court injunction for pirating.  However, even in the digital age, taping broadcast or free tv and sending the tape to your cousin to watch, basically is still legal. You can use a program called uTorrent  to download media files to save to your hard drive and watch at your leisure. There are many torrent search engines out there to find the content you want. EZTV has a nicely organized system to search as does a few others. Google torrent search engine. Pick your favorite, then when you find what you want get it and then organize it like I showed you. If you don't know how to make folders and move files around then you need to study up and practice. A really good program for moving files (sadly Microsoft's move and copy stinks) I use TeraCopy It actually replaces Windoze move and copy program.
• If this becomes your passion READ. Each program has FAQ pages or user forums with tips and directions how to do it faster and better. 

Have fun and happy sharing. Networking your hard drives, printers and such should be easy. Tell Microsoft that when you try it in Windoze 10.

Buh Bye

Rear View Mirror

The saying goes, “Hindsight is always twenty-twenty.” - Billy Wilder.

That's always easy to understand, once you have a history in your life. A past to gaze back into. The young live like there is no rearview mirror in their vehicle. You get a job, get up every day and go to work until there is no job. Only then do the majority think of what's next. I have found that the same goes for pretty much everything in a person's life. Not only work, but kids, marriage, lifestyle and planning for your retirement, or if you should get sick. It's all usually in the rearview before you realize that you have run over that "speed bump" in your life.

 Family

So as fate and lawyers have decreed, Marriage and kids are a package bump in the highway of life. When you mess up your relationship with a spouse and lose that battle, the kids go along for the ride. I have three of these photos in my rearview mirror file. Each one represents an entire life, lifestyle, job and each one carries it's own loss, or gain in my lifestyle.

It's all good. It was best for both of you. The kids will be better off. You can be happier, now. I was bored. We weren't getting along. I lost interest. She changed. He changed.... blah blah blah

It's all B.S. The truth is, there are still people my age, YOUR age that has been married to the same person for years, decades, their entire life. It is a lie, believing you can't get through whatever it is you think is ending your marriage. I have been told, I have forgiven you, but I cannot forget. You will never share my bed with me ever again. Men and women who cheat on their spouse purely have no will to be satisfied. My second wife did everything in her power and imagination to keep me in our marriage. For a brief moment, I tried turning around from my path to disaster, then folded and ran. I chose not to listen to my heart, my better judgment, my Little Jesus inside my head. I blew it.

Don't look at me, I don't have the answer to fixing your marriage if I did I wouldn't have three ex-wives and one mistress who tried to kill me. Ruined relationships led me to joblessness, poor health, homelessness, and seven years of my life wandering around the world just finding the person who I really should be. You really cannot fix "stupid" My advice: LOVE your spouse like they were the only person in the world. If you want to play, do it within your budget, and make it an inanimate object. And love your spouse MORE than your toy, job or co-worker. Keep it in your pants.

Vehicles

Some people are in a position where they can easily choose to collect any vehicle they like. Nice, for them. Most of us, however, look back and think; If I could have kept... SO.
Think about it. In MY rearview, there are numerous vehicles I should never have let go. Not for any reason, aside from only looking at what was immediately in front of me. Not what was ahead, but what was current. Again, you cannot fix stupid. Realistically, how much money have you thrown at a beater you could "afford" only to have gone and purchased another merely due to the fact that you are finally tired of fixing the old one? One after the other, money burned with nothing gained. Drive your future. Buy what lights fire to your soul. Don't let go of it, honestly, there is someplace you can store a prize that no longer suits your transportation needs. Or your interest moves on to something else. Pack the old one away for later. Tarp it and hide it somewhere dark. Buying a car is an investment. It should be one you won't throw away forever lost. It doesn't take that much room, nor too much effort to plan for when you don't work anymore and would love to still have something to get into and drive that lights your fire. For God's sake, man, look in that junk drawer - it's full of stuff you can't throw away. Why is your garage empty??
In my mirror...

What I drive NOW!

No I did not hit the lotto. No I don't make a ton of money. I do not have my own home, or apartment. I am homeless. I am handicapped. I get along day to day in severe pain and with disabilities that control my lifestyle. I don't like it, but it is not fixable. I still have to work to live, so I do it in spite of the pain.
I live in other people's homes and take care of them in return for a little income and a room to sleep in. I can't afford the affordable care act health insurance, so I don't get medical care. I don't use credit cards and save what money I earn. It allows me to finally be able to spend money on my kids, and to drive around what I like. Everything I own will fit into my bug, or the trailer it tows. My older children live close, so I get to spend time with them. My youngest daughter, I walked away from her and her mom, I have not seen since 2008. I miss her every day of my life. I just bought her birthday gifts for the first time since 2008. I think she liked them. We tweet and I watch her social feeds to keep up.

Don't end up looking at YOUR life in the Rear View.....

Home Entertainment - Media Players

So I like tech stuff. Move me in someplace, I upgrade your household entertainment.. I can't help it. I enjoy watching what I like to watch. Commercials, not so much. Sports, meh..

I have owned several brands of Media/Streaming boxes. The one I found to do everything I want is the Western Digital TV Live Plus. It plays most all the media formats I download and store on my networked external hard drives. It also does HULU, Netflix and so on... and it does it in 1080P.

It can be hard wired to your network, or use the built in N WiFi connection. Output included HDMI and other video audio with an adapter that is included... Nice user interface and it will "find" any external hard drive connected to your network.

Once sweet package. I own and use three, at the moment.

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