Ideas for a multiple user media server 

In most house holds there are more then one computer. Granted it can be a mac or PC platform or even a multi platform.

Not to mention everyone has some kind of a MP3 player. Chances are you have more then one copy of the same song in your iPod and the family MacPro.

There are so many ways to share music and videos locally. If the house hold has multiple computers chances are there is a small home network involved.

I'm going to talk about some ideas on how a household can share music and movies and be able to enjoy all of it.

Server

You want to use the fastest desktop in the house. Doubt your son or even daughter will let you use their gaming PC but you can use the next fastest. You want a system that is at lest 2GHz, 2GB of RAM and a wired 10/100 ethernet connection. You can even build a cheap MPC for the living room for a project like this but you would want to use a lightweight Linux instead of Windows. If you're just wanting a music jukebox you can use a classic B&W or sawtooth mac and use Panther or Tiger.

Music Sharing

This is a very simple way to share music via networking. It's a matter of a simple task of mapping the drive. This way multi-platform systems can easily share. All what the user has to do is point their music software to the shared drive or directory.

 Video Sharing

You can map the drive for video but depending on how big the video file is and multiple sharing can cause major lag. Last thing you want to hear is the kids complaining about a slow internet connection because all of the network traffic. You can use a Flash based system by converting the video to a lower grade for instant streaming. There is a slew of programs out there for the PC, the only two for OS X I know of is QuickTime Streaming Server and Darwin Streaming Server.

Elite User Setup

This setup can run a hefty price but in the end it's worth it. Build a high end PC, toss on Linux and have a multi-seat user setup. Say you have a two bedroom house. A TV in each bedroom and a TV in the living-room.  Have the super media computer in the living-room connected to your prized HD TV. Run video and USB to each bedroom. You can use coax to make things cheaper but you should use at lest S-Video or even replace the TVs with computer monitors. Each room will have a USB hub, air mouse, USB sound card and maybe a wireless keyboard. If setup correctly everyone can share a media server for movies, music and even internet. It would be kinda like a private On-Demand system. Some people have even gone extreme lengths with the satellite over air route and have put satellite in multiple rooms.

There are several ways for a family to share media with out having countless copies of the same song or video on each system. 

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