OT: suggestions for TV media player ?

[Lobster]

I'm looking for a suitable method for playing electronic media files on our telly/home cinema setup. Definitely video files (avi, mpg etc) and as a nice to have, photos and music too.

I bought a D-link DSM330 Media Streamer from Morgan recently:

principle it was fantastic, but had two issues; firstly, it runs on DivX software which is no longer supported (which would explain why Morgan are carrying it); however the main problem was that the server "DivX Connected" software which it needed to run on the computer had some bug which caused it to hog 99% of system resources all the time - was never able to resolve it so have sent it back.

Having now realised how great this is in principle, I'd like to get something which does the same job properly. Any suggestions?

We have an ethernet connection right by the TV so no need for a wireless solution. If there's a way of doing it with a standlone hard disk unit connected to the home cinema set up, ie not having to store the files on my PC, that would also be interesting.

Thanks for any advice David

[Dave]

I confess that I know nothing about media streaming and don't need to know as I'll never use it, however, a mate of mine got this recently and is absolutely over the moon with it - reckons it's the best thing since sliced bread :o)

[Gripper]

"Lobster" wrote

Hi- If you're wanting to stream HD material, I'd recommend the Western Digital WDTV LIVE. It does not need any software running on a PC. It will discover network shares for video, photos, music. It works, in my case, with a 2TB NAS, so needs no PC to be on to use it. It streams HD material and outputs in 1080p over HDMI, and plays pretty much every video file format known to man, including .mkv, in excellent quality. It also is fan-less, so is completely silent, a great advantage over other media streamers. hth Neil

[Ron Lowe]

The Popcorn Hour is an option.

I'm holding off untill they get the firmware a little more sorted on the C200. They will play from internal disk, external USB disk, or from the network. The key feature most people want working properly is the ability to play Blu-Ray ISOs which are stored on a network server.

Following the forum, it looks like the last release was a step in the right direction.

The older A series models are well regarded, but I don't think they support Blu-Ray.

[Roderick Stewart]

Just build a PC, put it with the hi-fi and video stuff and call it a media centre. Then you can play anything on it. You can experiment with additional cards, disk drives, alternative operating systems etc, just the same as with any other PC.

There are a few details you might want to consider, but essentially it's just another PC, viz-

Choose a horizontal box that will look good with the hi-fi stuff, ideally a sturdy one that will keep the noise down. Antec make some nice ones with bungee mountings for the disk drives, so you won't even hear them rattling.

Choose a motherboard with HDMI output. (It'll have standard 15 pin VGA as well, so you can use either or both).

Choose 4 pin speed controlled fans, so they're not running full blast all the time. Most recent motherboards have the outputs for these.

Don't bother looking for a 10 metre HDMI cable in PC World.

Rod.

[Lee]

My PS3 does all this quite nicely* ;) So would an Xbox of course, though the obvious answer is build or buy an HTPC - anything else is a compromise ;)

Lee

*A small number of files may need transcoding, but IME it's usually just the ones in the wrong wrappers - if they are encoded properly in the first place the PS3 can play most of them.

[Steve Walker]

We use the first generation xboxes, upgraded with xbmc dashboard. Have 4 of them around the house, all networked and pulling files from a shared folder on the xp pro server.

The xbox hardware is perhaps a little underpowered for very hi def media, but it was designed to quickly fling bits on screen and it still does it very well with DVD-level avi's etc. Plays absolutely any media type and can be endlesssly customised and updated through a large user community, has clever plug-ins for news and weather, works perfectly with the MS remote, and only costs about £20 each.

If you want more power, it's been ported to a range of platforms now and is very stable -

[Ivan]

Interesting stuff Rod, as I was also thinking of using a standalone W7 Media Center PC for my lounge, however the biggest drawbacks from my point of view are the sheer physical size, and ugliness of the PC + fan/HDD noise and power consumption. I checked out the Antec site and found a tidy looking ITX case (ISK 310-150) which would fit fairly neatly underneath the TV . However all of the HDMI capable ITX motherboards I could find only appear to have room for a single PCI Express card, which is a bit of a bummer as I was hoping to install both a DVB-T and DVB-S/2 card, similar to the setup I now have on my main PC, also the range of accompanying processors didn't look too inspiring (my existing is a P4 3.2 GHz) have you (or anyone else) any recommendations, or pointers in the general direction of the kind of kit that I 'should' be looking for to make up a compact W7MC PC?. TIA

[Noggin]

Ihad (still have, actually) a Freecom box which worked well for me. I wanted HD so now I have a PlayonHD works does everything except make the tea it seems, including the option of the YAMJ gizmo. Look here for details:

[Camdor]

I have 3 "old" Xbox's running XBMC. One is even running via HD via componant, although it does struggle with HD Video, it gives a clearer screen layout

[stuart noble]

A mate of mine who's well into all that stuff is of the same opinion, and, if I know him, he's researched it to death. I'm happy with just a usb slot on the dvd player.

[Lobster]

Thanks for some really useful replies (please keep 'em coming!), all of which I'm looking into separately - but the above really intrigues me as (a) I'd never heard of XBMC and (b) we happen to have an old original xbox sitting around unused. We bought it for the kids from a friend second-hand a few years ago but it never really sparked their interest and has sat around ever since. I know nothing about using xboxes, but I know this one was chipped.

However, I spent the whole of Saturday evening trying to get this working on ours, a tall order from from a standing start. *Eventually* managed to get the bloody thing networked OK, but it kept failing during ftp'ing of all the necessary source files for XBMC; got errors half-way through about not being able to create directory names or something (but with no indication as to which folders were causing the problem. I sense that even if I get that solved I'm still going to be at the very bottom of the learning curve, and that an alternative, out-of-the box solution is going to be my best bet!

David

[Roderick Stewart]

The one I'm using is a Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H. The built in HDMI output drives a

46" flat screen at 1920x1080 very nicely without the need for a graphics card. Blu-Ray disks look wonderful. The processor is a 2.6GHz Core Duo and it has 2GB RAM. I think you'd describe this setup as good but not extravagant. So far I'm using one of the two PCI slots for a wireless card, but I could change that for a USB dongle if I need to.

Rod.

[Jules Richardson]

My plan was to do that sometime and stick it in the basement (right below where the TV is to keep video cabling short) - then it can be as noisy and ugly as it wants. All I need 'up top' would be something to receive signals from a remote and translate them to actions on whatever UI the PC is running.

The thing holding it back is really just finding a remote - I'm not sure how easy it is to get a generic programmable remote (and one that looks nice), and having one custom-built would obviously be a little expensive! :-)

cheers

Jules

[dennis]

Will a radio frequency remote do?

[T i m]

Thanks to you I've bought an Xbox 360 off our daughters ex (nice lad, we all still chat), not realising the subtly of the 'first generation' Xboxes bit in your post. [1] ;-(

However, I think the 360 has it's own media player bit so maybe why I don't think there is an XBMC for it?

I didn't have a console later than the old PS1 so it's not a problem in any case. ;-)

I've ordered a remote off eBay and might get round to playing with it when I put the WHS in it's proper position (currently just in the lounge under test).

For those interested in such things. My WHS is virtually silent and draws 39W (and using basic / cheap components). I noticed the Xbox PSU is rated 175W!

Cheers, T i m

[1] I started asking him if he had an old Xbox, then he mentioned he'd sell me his 360 'cheap' so you know how these things can go ...

[Roderick Stewart]

Cyberlink Blu-Ray and DVD player very nicely, but doesn't have any simple way of just moving the mouse pointer, so mostly I just use a mouse.

Rod.

[geoff]

I have a "Bach" PC case which comes with a remote and software

designed for such an application

[Lobster]

Thanks very much for all the suggestions. Having sadly given up on XBMC (which was evidently too much for my brain to handle) it ended up being a toss-up between Xtreamer and WDTV Live, both of which look excellent and I'm sure either would fit the bill.

Spent ages reading comparisons and crits on the net and still couldn't decide, so in the end I went with the brand name and have just placed an order for the WDTV

Thanks David

[stuart noble]

IME (albeit limited) it's all to do with the interface. How quickly can you scroll through 100 film titles? etc etc