Convert Laptop to media stramer

[Larkspeed]

Sorry typo in title

I have a laptop that is excess to requirements:

Acer Aspire 6935g
Windows 7 Pro 64bit
Intel core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 GHz
Geforce 9600m Graphics
4GB DDR3
320GB HDD
Blu-Ray player
Gigabit LAN
150N Wifi

This laptop has an infrared remote sensor and work with the xbox media remote or the standard microsoft MCPC remote.

It also has full 1080P HD output through HDMI

What would be the best way to go about converting this to a media streamer/NAS that will play media files both from it's own hard drive and from the hard drives of the other machines on the network.

I don't mind putting a different OS on as long as everything is supported by it and it has be be read and writable by the other machines on the network which all run windows 7.

Ideas?

I did try XBMC but it is unstable as hell and crashes all the time.

[BerZerk]

My Ubuntu XBMC stay rock solid? Even the live version of the XBMC. Not too sure what you done wrong?!

Try OpenElec instead?!

[mikerr]

Could just run windows media center, it's already on there.

[Larkspeed]

@BerZerk it could very well just be the windows version of XBMC that's unstable

@mikerr yes it is but it's also extremely limited in functionality. Ideally there will be no mouse or keyboard accessible and everything will be done purely with the remote.

I liked the functionality of XBMC plus there are some really handy plugins for it.

I'll have a look at some compatibility charts and see if the hardware in this laptop is compatible with Ubuntu and try that.

[BerZerk]

Ubuntu will run on most low spec machines, your laptop is well suited. Get a copy of UbuntuXBMC.

[mikerr]

@mikerr yes it is but it's also extremely limited in functionality. Ideally there will be no mouse or keyboard accessible and everything will be done purely with the remote.

I run WMC on a box under the TV with the microsoft remote - there's no keyboard or mouse, and I've never needed one.
It plays/streams all my media which is stored on a WHS box in the loft, and it also records TV.

What functionaility is it missing for you ?

[Larkspeed]

It will not parse say seasons of TV shows and retrieve the cover art and descriptions and such.

I have never been able to figure out how to get it to watch folders across a network and automatically add and Parse any new files to it's library. if this is even possible with it.

I can't put in plugins for live TV from other countries

Netflix is not integrated into it

The list goes on