I haven’t bugged you guys for awhile, so it’s time I marshaled the combined brain power here and got some sagacious advice!

Here’s the setup:
-2nd floor office - I have a PC, iMac and printer on the connected to a wireless router.

-1st floor (great room, very open floor plan)- a Denon 1908, 2 bookshelf speakers/1 center, DVD, Satellite receiver and 42” plasma.

-Basement HT – Denon 3808, Sat DVR, DVD, 58” plasma, Wii, 5.1 speakers

Also:
- The Wii can “see” the wireless network.
- I bought a set of powerline Ethernet adapters (Linksys PLK200) to use that as a (more stable/efficient) hardwired network connection to the basement. I added a network switch to the basement adapter so I can plug in several things. (BTW – when I finished the basement, I knew I was going to do X-10 lighting, so I installed a phase coupler on the electric box to prevent any problems with reliability for the lights. This should also prevent the majority of the problems I have seen regarding the powerline adapters).

- The 3808 has a network connection, but it is hardwire capable, not wireless. Since I had to spend money to get a wireless access point to the basement for the 3808 and work it into the HT, it makes sense to do the powerline thing. I understand there is a conversation that could be had relative to wireless vs. hardwired network, but I have decided to take this approach.

Whew, with all of the above in mind, here is my dilemma. As time goes on, more stuff will be networkable and plug into a home theater. I want to future proof the system somewhat.

I want to store & play in the HT system my music collection, video from the HDD, my pictures, DVDs. Internet surfing on a 58” plasma would be nice as well. I am techno-challenged such that I don’t know all of the solutions. I do like simple and cost effective, but in the context that the solution delivers.
What I have considered and eliminated Sonos, Squeezebox and Slingbox as limited and/or expensive

I think I have boiled the solution down to either a HTPC or a PS3. The PS3 has the edge because 1) it does everything I want to do, 2) it is a killer BluRay player and 3) and I can use a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse to surf the net. (The HTPC would require that I buy a standalone BluRay player)

Some questions about the PS3:
1) Does it make more sense to plug in an external drive or replace the internal HDD?

2) If I do plug in an external drive, will the PS3 see both and let me use them? Where do I store my music, pics, video, DVDs?

3) I need to format any drive used with the PS3 in FAT 32 and there is something I have been seeing about a 4GB file size limit. What does that mean? Can I store/play a 4.7GB VDVD

I’d really appreciate answers to the questions and most certainly other thoughts based on what I am trying to accomplish.

Ray

Ray, I'm new to the PS3 thing and haven't really got into the nuts and bolts of it yet, but it appears to be able to do everything you want/need. It's turning out to be quite the nice little entertainment-in-a-box gadget. I think it was Craig (Spiffnme) who added a hard drive to his PS3, which would be a plus if you plan on storing music and movies.

I have yet to watch a Blu-ray movie on it yet. Can't seem to muster up the strength to watch Spiderman 3 again. Everyone says it's a great player though.

For starters the HTPC would not require a standalone BR player as you can get BR drives for PC's.

The 3808 has a built in media player which will play music and display pictures from any hard drive it can find on your network.

You could get a Network Attached Storage to store all of your files on and then it acts as a server for all your media needs on your network.

Ray! Good to see you!

You already have some pieces in place here.

Have you tried the Opera browser on the Wii? Unsatisfactory? Is the resolution the only reason to go to another browser, or is the UI a problem, too? My personal experience with big-screen browsing has been underwhelming. It could just be me. It seems like it should be fun, but I'm just not finding value there.

In addition to the 3808, either the DTV DVR or the Wii can be configured as a network media client. I think you're much more likely to have success with music and pictures than with video, however. I think TVersity is the dominant server-side piece there.

It shouldn't matter where the media files live on your network. I'm with Jason; having a centralized file server has made my life better and easier, even though I currently have very modest storage capabilities.

If it were me, I'd try really hard to make the 3808CI the music client, and I'm very interested in your experience.

I don't know enough about the PS3's ability to do network video streaming. Frankly, I think "video from the HDD" is your big application gap. Even though a PS3 might "do it", it might not do it in a way that you or Mrs. Ray find adequate or intuitive.

Please lead us into the convergent future, Obi-Ray!

To add to the great comments so far I would say that the ps3 can stream music and movies fine, as well as play them from its hard drive (or an external). The question is does it do it easily enough for anybody to use it? I don't think it does.

Playing stored music works fine, except that if you stream it it doesn't always respect the order of tracks in albums if the file name isn't matching the track title. There might be an issue as stated about storing files bigger than 4GB on the hard drives though, I haven't looked into it yet. I heard there's way to get around those limitations but is it worth the trouble?

I think the ps3 is great and does do a decent job as a media extender, but it's not the best and easiest by all means. I think an HTPC would allow better customization. The only problem I have with HTPCs is that they don't do a great job playing blurays yet since the software is crap right now.

Jakeman - good point on the 3808! I'll take a run at plugging in an external there first.

Really conflicted with some of this stuff.

Music would be the most important thing to do. If the USB HDD on the 3808 doesn't do it (and that only covers the HT, not the Great Room), a Squeezebox Duet and extra receiver gets me to both of my setups in the simplest way.

Pictures, video, DVDs - that can all be burned onto CD or DVD media and plopped into a player. Frankly, we don't watch alot of personal video/pics now. However, when the grandchildren start to come, that may change!

Internet - not reeally all that important. Can be done on a PC.

Other stuff in the equation. I am getting a laptop in a few months to use when we travel, but will it will also replace the iMac and we'll use it anywhere in the house.

I could plug the laptop into the HT setup in the basement and stream from there. OR I could refurbish the iMac (new/bigger HDD, more RAM, new burner/BluRay player, etc.) and stick it in the basement as a HTPC. I don't know if I am technical enough to pull that off.

Sigh!

The iMac won't have any software for playing Blu-Ray, so that's going to be right out.

Not yet, anyway. Now that there's a winner in the war, I'd expect Apple to jump on board with software support.

Weren't they aligned with Blu-ray before? I guess they just had no support for it yet?

They'll have to get the OS HDCP certified. That could be a challenge.