12 days of tech tips: Your whole family will appreciate a home media server

Pleasing everyone in the household is hard when it comes to music to listen to or Tv set and movies to watch. Anybody will have their own favorites, and everyone will want control of the remote. If you're hosting family, there's no simple solution. Or is in that location?

Plex

A habitation media server is not only a keen mode to enjoy your media, but information technology's a great fashion to ensure everyone tin can savour their favorite media.

You can cutting the cable cord at the aforementioned time or but load upwardly your music and video library. And at that place'southward so much you tin do. All-time of all, it's fairly inexpensive and piece of cake to set up. And your family unit will dear you for it.

What are home media servers all about?

Family time around the Tv watching Dice Hard is great. But there will exist more times than you can count, holiday or otherwise, that your family will want to enjoy something else.

Past setting up a home media server, y'all designate a single source of storage for movies, TV shows, music, audiobooks and photos. Everyone in the household tin then use a diverseness of devices, including phones, tablets, PCs and games consoles, to access that media whenever they want.

Basically, information technology means the kids can go and watch Elf while y'all cosy up with Star Wars.

What you need

Alienware Aurora

Setting up a dwelling house media server requires 2 main components:

A figurer.
Some software.

The estimator is the easiest way to go up and running, since you'll need one to set everything up anyway and yous already have a difficult drive inside. If you're needing more storage you tin can easily add more than drives, internal or external.

If you're going for something a little more high-tech, you can easily implement Network Fastened Storage (NAS) into a home media server. A NAS drive will already be attainable from your dwelling house network, but a proper media center will brand information technology and so much more than pleasurable to use.

All-time NAS drives for the home

Best media eye software

Plex

At that place are many different ways of creating a great dwelling media center feel, but our recommendations boil down to 3: Plex, Emby, and Kodi.

The first two provide both server and client software, while Kodi is just a front-end that you plug your media and services into.

There are many similarities between Plex and Emby, and in their own correct both are powerful and easy to use. Which ane you go for will come up down to preference, so do a piddling research. Both tin be tried for free, and so you lose nothing past taking a look at both.

Plex and Emby likewise have their own big-screen-friendly apps available for Windows and Xbox. The regular apps are pretty expert, only who wants to sit around the burn down navigating a bunch of menus before flicking on a festive favorite?

The links below volition help yous become off the ground running.

Plex: What it is, why you lot demand information technology and how to use it
Emby: Everything you need to know

Kodi

Kodi is free, open up source and oh so powerful. You tin can simply plug in your storage drives and access media that way, just services like Plex and Emby do a great job of organising it. You tin can utilise both of them with Kodi, along with a host of web plugins for streaming services, cloud providers like OneDrive, and a whole lot more.

Kodi is designed to be used on the large screen. Navigation is simple; icons and text are large and clear, and in that location'due south a ton of ways to customize its look and experience with skins. Check out the link beneath to get started with Kodi.

Kodi: What information technology is and how you use it

Cord cutting

Kodi

Setting up a server for your own media is keen, but with the aforementioned software and some additional hardware you can go rid of your cable subscription for good.

"String cutting," as information technology'south usually known, is the procedure of getting rid of subscription TV services from cable companies and moving to a organisation where you control what yous spotter and what y'all pay. It's besides associated with moving solely to free-to-air Tv set channels.

With something like a HDHomeRun box yous tin turn that over-the-air (OTA) TV signal into something broadcasted across your dwelling house network. And so, using an app, such as the official HDHomeRun client or fifty-fifty Kodi you lot can picket Television on your phone, tablet, prepare-top box, Xbox One or a PC.

How to ready and utilize a HDHomeRun
How to watch live TV with Kodi

If yous're running Plex or Emby, it's besides really elementary to set up a DVR that can tape from those same Goggle box channels without the demand to watch them. It all works in the background and adds your recorded shows to your home media server. So anybody tin record their favorite shows and lookout man them at their leisure without fighting for Boob tube fourth dimension!

How to set Plex DVR
How to ready upwards Emby DVR

Xbox Ane

Xbox One S

Home media servers are great but you notwithstanding demand something to actually relish all that wonderful content on. Your telephone is skilful, so is your PC, but really your best shot is something that hooks up to the TV.

Things like an Amazon Fire TV Stick, Apple Telly or NVIDIA Shield Television receiver are all great shouts, and all run Plex or Emby (Apple isn't too not bad on Kodi.) Just, the almost perfect box is the Xbox Ane.

Not only does it requite y'all access to Plex, Emby, HDHomeRun and a whole bunch of other media apps, it has a 4K Blu-ray player built in. For the coin, you get one incredible dwelling amusement center.

Why the Xbox 1 S is (near) the perfect set top box

Go forth and binge!

Hopefully this little guide has given you lot a taste of the wonders of having your ain habitation media server, and that it's actually not expensive or difficult to get set up.

You'll love information technology, your family will love it, and holidays hosting the relatives will be that little bit easier!

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