Upgrading Home Media System

[edd1234]

At the moment we have a WD Live 1TB Network Drive, which streams uPnP to our network-ed Panasonic PVRs.
Neither's great - the WD's slow and the Panasonics crash occasionally and only seem to support MP4 and don't seem to support multiple audio tracks or subtitles.

What I'm thinking is getting a HP Microserver (the one that keeps getting £100 cashback deals), and installing FreeNAS on that (possibly with PS3 Media Server plugin for Transcoding, should it be needed). Then getting a WD TV Live to play it all back (or a Roku 3).

Does it sound like I'm heading in the right-direction?

Other questions:
-We're also going to be upgrading our AVR soon, to get DTS Master-HD support. Is it likely that any new AVRs will start supporting local video playback across the network? Means we could skip out the WD TV Live and have it all in one box.

-How should I go about metadata? At the moment our movie library is a bit crap - it's just a load of MP4s or MKVs which I've made using Handbrake from DVD or Blu-Ray, with no artwork or metadata. I downloaded "Media Center Master" and was really impressed by the fact that it could do it all for me, by looking up the movies in online databases. But then I discovered that it doesn't actually build it into the MP4 files, but rather makes a new folder with all the artwork and metadata in external .xml and .jpg files. Would this still work with the WD TV Live?

-Related to the above question, I'm looking to have all the movies arranged in a display something like the "album artwork" display in iTunes. Can the WD TV Live do this? I think the Roku 3 can, but it doesn't support as many file formats.

-What's Plex? Do I need it? It looks like loads of separate parts of DLNA - a server/transcoder, a playback app, a remote etc. - all offered under one brand name. Is that it?

Many thanks if you're able to answer some or all the questions

[smargh]

My mother gave up on her WD TV Live, streaming from a Microserver with Mezzmo doing the DLNA. The WDTVL was just too unreliable. I did try getting SMB working on the WDTVL and never managed to get it to work, so perhaps I should have persevered with that, but I still think it wouldn't have performed consistently.

They just use a regular [big] PC now, with VLC, hooked up to their TV & select files from regular SMB folders, so no metadata etc. It has been flawless.

I suggest an Intel NUC box with SSD + whichever NAS or local storage solution is best for you.

Regarding your other queries, I don't know much about the other options, sorry.

[b0redom]

I use a micro server running freenas on the backend, and a nuc running plex on the front end. Works great. I'm not sure a n54l has the processing power to transcode on the fly. My NUC can handle local feedback, and plex transcoding to 2 rocku xs boxes at the same time.

[Smudger]

MP3Tag works pretty well for getting album art etc into each song with MP3s, not sure if it works with movies though.

As for AV Amps with DLNA, a lot of them seem to have it now. It depends on your budget.

This seems OK: http://www.richersounds.com/product/...ama-rxv775-blk
It's last year's model, but £349's not a bad price...

or this one is £199:

http://www.richersounds.com/product/...ama-rxv475-blk