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    Quality of stream from Western Digital/Iomega network drives

    Discussion in 'Networking and Wireless' started by vaio_boi, Apr 19, 2009.

  1. vaio_boi

    vaio_boi Notebook Evangelist

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    I am looking for a new way to enjoy my media on my Sony Bravia XBR 42. Currently, I only watch content from my cable subscription. These days, most of our family viewing is content from downloaded shows and programs from the computer. Leaving the 1080P HD TV right in front of us, we watch the content on our 14-15 inch laptops.

    Therefore, I was thinking of getting either a Western Digital Mybook worldedition or Iomega home network drive and connect it to my router. Then, getting a Playstation 3 and connect it to my Sony Bravia and stream the content through that drive.

    How will the quality of video be by doing this? Is it worth 600-700$ I am going to shell out? Should I just manually connect it through vga and take it out when not watching? (Laptop-TV directly).
     
    vaio_boi, Apr 19, 2009
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  2. jackluo923

    jackluo923 Notebook Virtuoso

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    Why don't you hook your laptop tohe TV? Streaming and playing through the PS3 will get you the same quality as playing through a computer (assuming your comptuer is able to play the content in the first place).
     
    jackluo923, Apr 19, 2009
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  3. vaio_boi

    vaio_boi Notebook Evangelist

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    It's mostly the inconvenience of having to bring my laptop downstairs, hook it up to the TV and place it beside it, and having to go up to the TV to control my content. Also, it's only a VGA connection where as the PS3 will have a HDMI source. Will that make a difference?
     
    vaio_boi, Apr 19, 2009
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  4. jackluo923

    jackluo923 Notebook Virtuoso

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    For a normal person, they can't tell the difference between hdmi/dvi signal vs a vga signal unless they're using very very substandard cables.

    If you don't want to bring your laptop to the TV i think you can put your media on a flashdrive or something and connect it to the PS3 and watch your TV shows that way.
     
    jackluo923, Apr 19, 2009
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  5. aidil

    aidil Notebook Evangelist

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    If you want to get the World Edition, make sure you get the latest version (white light). I have the old one: WD My Book World Edition II 1TB (blue rings). It's a slow network drive although using gigabit switch. Still it is usable for video streaming on my laptops over wireless N, even for HD1080 content. But using it for more than 2 streaming would result hiccups.

    WD promises improvement in the new version, so make sure you get this one.
     
    aidil, Apr 20, 2009
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