PS3 Media Servers

I came across PlayOn when I was looking for more ways to stream media to my PS3. Mainly I wanted a way to watch my Amazon Video On Demand (VOD) media on my PS3. PlayOn is a software program that runs on your Windows PC, giving you access to a wide range of Internet content on your TV — Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, Amazon VOD, and many others.
PlayOn also enables you to stream your personal videos, photos and music from your PC to your home entertainment center. It takes less than 3 minutes to set up. Here is a list of the minimum Requirements:

• Microsoft Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or later), Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2003/Windows Home Server (Service Pack 1 or later). 64-bit versions of Windows are also supported.
• Windows Internet Explorer 7 or later
• Windows Media Player 9 or later
• Pentium 4 3.2+ GHz, Pentium M 2.0+ GHz, or any multi-core x86 processor
• 512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended but I had much better performance with 2GB)
• 100 MB of available disk space for installation, plus recommended 4-5 GB extra space on the same drive where Windows is installed
• Internet broadband connection of at least 1.5 Mbps, and home network with wired, powerline, or 802.11n connections (I would recommend that you have the server on a hard wire. A gigabit network really helps)

I had the system set up in Virtual Box running windows XP pro. PlayOn Ran pretty choppy until I moved the ram up to 2GB and gave it 2 of the processors. I found the system to really be hard on the processors. One processor was almost always pinned. I would consider running this on your I7 media server, that should give you all the horsepower you need.

There is a huge amount of media that you can get though PlayOn server. The PlayOn Premium is Free to try for 14 days then you can pay a one time fee of $79.99 for life or $39.99 for the first year and $19.99 a year after the first one. It is really cheap when you consider the content you get.

Now you just sign up for Amazon VOD and you can watch movies you own or rent from Amazon VOD.

Take a look at the promotional Video.

There are also lots of 3rd party add ons that give you even more content. This could be a cheap replacement for Cable TV or your Dish.

Enjoy,