Being a multi-computer household, we have chosen one computer to be the dedicated multi-media computer. This is where we store all our music, videos, images etc. On occasion you want to access some of this media, sitting at another computer. If you are at home, using Homegroup in Windows 7 is the ultimate solution (see this article by Rich).
But, What if, you are not at home?
The good news is that you can stream the music and videos from your home computer to your laptop over the Internet.