Setting up a network
Recently I discovered that I can stream media (.MPG, .MP3) from my Win 7 Pro machine to my Blu-Ray player (Panasonic DMP-BDT 500). Then I thought about setting up a dedicated media server. Possibly running XBMC/Kodi. AFAIK, this media server would appear as another drive letter to Windows, and another DLNA server to the Panny. Windows Media Player would probably add directory locations to the "libraries" that WMP sets up.
Could this media server be headless most of the time? Where can I find resources on remote management that won't be too confusing? Trust me, it's easier to "overload my brain" than you might think.
I remember the paper manuals I had for Borland Pascal for MS-DOS. They were trying to introduce many concepts in only a few pages, and I didn't have an overview of Pascal yet. So I didn't know that I didn't need advanced features for the simple program I wanted to write.
Basically, any computer (and the Panny) should be able to view any shared directory, and play the media. Files can be deleted only on the local machine, unless remote access is set up. I'm using a mixture of wired and wireless computers, with a 4-port name-brand router.
Would Ubuntu be a good choice here? I've played around with setting up a file server with Ubuntu a few years ago. Perhaps if the media server is mostly headless, it doesn't need a fancy GUI.
I hate to admit my ignorance, and I don't want to get flamed. I'm smart, but easily overloaded. Any help would be greatly appreciated, flames would not.
(Hopefully soon I will have more test-bed PCs coming online. Finding the time to play around with them will be hard though.)
Thanks!
Could this media server be headless most of the time? Where can I find resources on remote management that won't be too confusing? Trust me, it's easier to "overload my brain" than you might think.
I remember the paper manuals I had for Borland Pascal for MS-DOS. They were trying to introduce many concepts in only a few pages, and I didn't have an overview of Pascal yet. So I didn't know that I didn't need advanced features for the simple program I wanted to write.
Basically, any computer (and the Panny) should be able to view any shared directory, and play the media. Files can be deleted only on the local machine, unless remote access is set up. I'm using a mixture of wired and wireless computers, with a 4-port name-brand router.
Would Ubuntu be a good choice here? I've played around with setting up a file server with Ubuntu a few years ago. Perhaps if the media server is mostly headless, it doesn't need a fancy GUI.
I hate to admit my ignorance, and I don't want to get flamed. I'm smart, but easily overloaded. Any help would be greatly appreciated, flames would not.
(Hopefully soon I will have more test-bed PCs coming online. Finding the time to play around with them will be hard though.)
Thanks!
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