A Full Story
STREAMING ENTERTAINMENT
This is about Media Streaming and the Hardware, Software and Solutions that make it possible.
OTA
We grew up with Free TV coming over the air (OTA). With an antenna on your rooftop, you could pull in channels from miles away. You can still do this and since 2009, it has been digital! Now you can receive, record and playback Free TV
NAS
Local Network Streaming. We no longer have one TV screen in the house but now watch TV and movies, on PCs, Tablets and Phones. By putting your Movies, TV, Pictures and Music on a central network attached storage device (NAS), you can watch from any screen inside or outside your home.
KODI
KODI is a very popular media center application that runs on a variety of devices (phones, Tablets, PCs and smart TV screens) You can use KODI to stream content from your own storage device or from external sources from around the world.
Local Network Streaming
OTA TelevisionMany of us grew up with OTA (over the air) television. OTA is a great source of Free and Local programming, if you live in a place where you can get it. We have looked at a number of different TV Tuners that allow you to get TV andput it on your network to record and share TV with TVs, Tablets, Phones and TVs around your home and beyond.Some TV boxes have begun offering additional F.A.S.T. (free ad supported TV) channels that you can also record and share.The times, they are a-changing.
New OTA Standard ATSC 3.0
To complicate the decision process OTA TV has just started rolling out the long awaited next generation OTA standard, ATSC 3.0 (a.k.a. NextGenTV) .
ATSC 3.0 promises a better, higher resolution picture with a stronger signal that will serve a larger area. At least that was what consumers were hoping for. What broadcasters wanted to do is put DRM (digital rights management) on the shows content. DRM is about as useful as it sounds and will limit your ability to record and playback content independent of the box used to record it. The whole thing is currently stalled with consumers yelling fowl! These are our Public Airwaves and don't you forget it.
Now in 2025, who knows what will happen.
Creating Content
How do you get TV and Movie content? How do your display it for yourself, friends and family. Here are two pieces of software and the hardware I use to play it all back.
Audials is the program for recording.
PLEX is what I use to serve and playback video.
Synology NAS is what I use to serve it all without a PC.
Creating Content
How do you get TV and Movie content? How do your display it for yourself, friends and family. Here are two pieces of software and the hardware I use to play it all back.
Audials is the program for recording.
PLEX is what I use to serve and playback video.
Synology NAS is what I use to serve it all without a PC.
Creating Content
How do you get TV and Movie content? How do your display it for yourself, friends and family. Here are two pieces of software and the hardware I use to play it all back.
Audials is the program for recording.
PLEX is what I use to serve and playback video.
Synology NAS is what I use to serve it all without a PC.
Local Network Streaming
Did you know you can create a digital library of Movies and TV Shows that you can both server around your home and beyond.
There are several software and hardware solution that enable you to do this. Here we take a look at the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!
Another Way to Serve
NAS drives like the ones above are great because they act like a small server, on 24/7. You could of course, run PLEX (server) from a PC but here is another way. You can store your media on a NAS drive and access it from your network and populate programs like PLEX (client) or KODI from any screen in your home.