[Techtalk] Media Server

[kp]

Hi,
  Let me give you a brief description of my problem. I have 2 desktops and
 one laptop. And I have 300GB hard drive in one of my desktops, basically
it is an IBM netfinity server. Generally I use it for storing multimedia
content like audio and video files other than my personal data. The server
 is in other room. Most of the time I use laptop. Whenever I want to listen
 video or audio content, I have to download them on to my laptop to watch
it. I thought if I install any media server I can stream the data 
instead of downloading to my laptop.

  Could anyone suggest any good media server for Linux. I have some wmv,
rm, avi video file formats and  mp3, wav, rm audio file formats. I am
trying to install helix server. One of my friend suggested me Slim-server.
Only problem is it works for audio only.(I might be wrong)
These are the other media servers that I found.
gmediaserver
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6720
http://mpeg4ip.sourceforge.net/

  One more thing. I am going to use it in my house only. I have a
10/100MBPS router and as hardly one or  two people use it at any given time,
anything small that serves the purpose is also useful.

  I have one more question. Can any media server stream all the other media
content? Is there any media server that can send all the wmv, real and wav
 content? My point is if I have one media server which streams all the
media content, I can use different players to listen, instead of installing
 different media servers for different content.

Looks like I end up in writing a story. Any suggestions would be would be
welcome. Please let me know if u need any more info.

Thanks in advance

kp