What do I purchase to have to ultimate media server setup

First I would like to apologize if this question was asked a hundred times. I spend a few weeks trying to get the correct answer. I even call tech support and was told it can’t be done. Here goes…

This is what I want to do. I would like to have all my TV’s, Laptop, Tablets(android),  & projector at home to be able to access all my contents on a external Hard drive. None of my TV’s are internet ready(dlna).
I read in one thread that I would have to use  ES File Explorer on the android tablets. I also read on another thread of having multiple WD TV live streaming for each TV. Then I also read that I would only be able to watch one movie at a time.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I want to set it up this weekend. 
Thank you.

What a question – like as if there was an “easy” answer out there.  I’m sure there are whole books written on this topic, and I’m not going to write one here, but I will make some comments.

There is no “silver bullet” to accomplish all of what you want to do – especially by this weekend!  But, over time, you could get pretty close to what you want to accomplish.

First, it helps to have a top notch router to run the whole show, as well as wired (not all wireless) connections throughout the house, and all running at gigabit speed.  And, if any of your media will be from internet sources, you also need to have high bandwidth from your internet provider (30mbps at least) to match what the home network can dish out and handle coming in from outside.  High quality internet requires a high quality DOCSIS 3 modem.  Basically, it’s a horsepower kind of thing throughout the entire home network.

You could have a WDTV for each TV, and yes, you can run more than one movie at a time (to different devices, e.g… TVs, computers, mobile devices  etc)   if you have the above requirements or close to them. 

My network includes the above requirements, and for a “stress test” I have had about five streams, e.g.music, movies from drives, movies from Netflix, etc, going through the router at once, and most of it from one WDTV, playing on the TV with WD attached to it, and going to another TV with a WD attached to it, a couple of computers, an iPad, etc. .

And, it all works, although most people don’t use their system like this; they play something here and/or there, but not everywhere at once.

As for playing on mobile devices, that’s a whole 'nother discussion, but suffice to say that by using certain iPad apps, I can stream music, mp4 files and even 1080p movie files to my iPad.  Some 1080p files stream this way, but not all of them.  I likely need a more robust computer. (next purchase!)

Do you get the feeling I am talking money, money, and more money.  I am, and to spend it all at once is a lot of it for most people.  So, like most people’s, my system has taken a few years of purchasing things every so often to get to the point where it can today, do the sorts of things you’ve mentioned.

It also takes getting educated about all this stuff, and then making informed decisions of what to buy.  So, use patience to get things learned and done (and not by this weekend!)

One last comment about this one of yours:   “None of my TV’s are internet ready(dlna).”

It appears to me you are equating “internet ready” and “DLNA” as being the same or closely related, and they are not.  Neither of my TVs are the newer “Smart TVs” that are DLNA-enabled, although one is “internet ready” in that it can snag streaming content to play and get firmware downloads.

My suggestion to you is take things a little slower, get ONE upgrade done before you tackle the next, and do it all in a logical order.  Most of all, have fun doing it.

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I really appreciate your quick response. I woke up this morning to a email telling me that I got a response to the thread. I was completely not expecting this much info. Thank you. Setting all this in the weekend is far fetch, I know. Many have mention that a Wd Tv Hub should be on tbe main screen and Wd tv streaming on all other tv. I called tech support an advised them of this an I was told to only use one. That running multiple WD tv is not possible because they wont be able to see each other or be able to acess the files connected the main WD. I was also told that if I get a WD hub an connect a external harddrive. will only be able to access the internlal via network. Not the external. Im so confused.

animecg,

  its alot easier to accomplish what you want than you think.Mike is right start with a decent router.As far as streaming to all your TV’s weather they are "internet ready "or not is simply  a matter of connecting a WD Live SMP to each TV.

If you want a HUB on on one of those TV’s, fine ,that will give you a TB to work with…you can connect your External to any one of your SMP’s or HUB to view the content from any of the TV’s or smartphone or Tab.

I use the Skifta app for Andriod OS to stream from WD products to Andriod OS …very easy.

WD also has a small amount of apps to stream to AD OS via hub.

Want you want to do in your home is fairly simple. Even adding a NAS into the mix to stream to all your SMP’s or HUB helps to keep all your files in one place…

My setup does what you need …

WDLive Duo 6TB + WDLive HUB + WDLive SMP + Andriod Tablet + Andriod Phone + IBM Thinkpad + Iomega HDD…

… all these devices can stream to each other via home network or via internet if im on the go…i think this is what you are trying to accomplish…pretty easy to do…all the helpful ppl on this community can guide to what you are trying to do.

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Man… You guys are freakin awesome. This is exact what I need. Is it really necessary to get the hub or would a WD Tv smp in each room be ok. Trying to save an extra 100.00. I dont see the benefit of the hub besides the extra 1tb and dlna support. i might be wrong.

Well hub isn’t exactly nessesary… but for that $100 you are getting a TB of storage a full media streamer (Hub acts like a NAS even in standby mode)…and with the WD apps you can view content on HUB on WiFi or 3 or 4g.The SMP has no storage built-in…so is a little limited in appearance as well…but if all that’s not important than SMP will do the job…I’d suggest using the Hub as your main storage And streamer to your other devices…good luck

Thank you. I will be purchasing the hub then the smp later on. Little by little.

Since I have two Live Plus units, and neither the Hub, or SMP, I might not be the final word here, but in my opinion I would get the SMP, and save a little if you have a spare HD hanging around you could hook to the SMP now.  You can always get a different/larger HD later on if you fill a smaller one.  The HD in the Hub is the lowest speed 2.5 inch HD that WD makes (5200rpm), so it’s possible it could not handle multi-delivery of concurrent streams.  The two HDs connected to my WD are 2TB, 7200rpm models.