Goal: Have all my video files on one computer (avi, mkv, wmv, and mp4), browse and play them all on many client devices connected to my LAN.

I searched and searched, but I'm completely overwhelmed with options. Any recommendations?

I don't want to stream to the internet, just my LAN.

Options I'm considering:

• Windows 7: Supposedly has streaming support built in, with WMP as the client. I can't, for the life of me get this to work :(. Everything's set up, but the library just doesn't appear on client PCs.

• Mediaportal

• Plex

• XMBC (I thought this was just a frontend, but apparently it can be a streaming server, too?)

• Darwin Streaming Server

• VLC (though it appears you have to stream each file individually)

• MythTV (but I'm a noob and don't want to bother with build scripts)

(For anyone finding this post via search, here's some lists I used as guides:)

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_server#HTPC_packages_with_server_capabilities

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_streaming_media_systems#Servers