Media streamers

[ghostman]

I'd be interested to hear what others are using for playback these days - I realise the market is saturated with small Android powered dongles and other devices, as well as the more hardcore stuff like homebuilt media centre PC's.

The backbone of my setup is a Synology NAS with 1TB of RAIDed storage. Synology is a good choice in that you can install packages on it such as SABNZBD and let it take control of downloads for you - it even emails you when it's done. It's a better choice IMHO than leaving a PC on all the time as it's a) already always on as it provides NAS capabilities to your home network and b) uses less power than most desktops.

For me, I have previously used a Popcorn Hour to stream media from the Synology to my TV across my wired network. Nowadays I am using a combination of a Boxee Box (when I want to use my projector) and a Raspberry Pi (when I just want to watch something on TV).

I think it works pretty well, but would be interested to hear what others are doing, especially those of you who have gone down the totally silent route for a media streamer (whatever it may be).

[miltonh]

I still use my old Netgear NTV550, it palys my blurays and almost everything else (except flv). I hear newer media streamers are restricted in some way for blu ray iso's.

[wgrt]

I just use twonky free + my TV through cat5, luckily it came with a decent amount of support for different filetype and will play subs if i use mkv files with no spaces in them

[Sirry]

I use a WD Live. Works pretty well with all media formats and streams both wirelessly & over ethernet.

[arkoos]

i use the WD live plus, which is wifi enables, it a great little device, plus almost all formats, hdmi, supposes hd sound

[chuckychucks]

Apple TV 2 Jailbroken with XBMC for me :-)

[pythoncancer]

PlayStation and Patriot

[Beck38]

As you pointed out, there are so many small (down to the size of a usb dongle) and miniature (maybe the size of a couple VHS tapes or so, barely big enough to have a HDMI port and an on/off switch if you're lucky), but limiting yourself to network streaming only isn't, IMHO, not looking at the 'big picture' so to speak.

So, exactly how many movies are you planning on having in your collection, eh? Rule of thumb: 1 movie = approx 25GB (crunched or non-crunched), so that means for a 1TB drive, 40 movies. If you collect tv shows, figure that a 30min is 1/4 the size of a 2hour film, again figure out the available storage use. Other things (sport, science shows , you name it) all takes x space you can easily figure out.

Bottom line, is no matter HOW much on-line storage you have (and I currently have over 100TB to give it some perspective) it is, essentially, limited. I just got through doing a 28TB upgrade, with new 4TB discs, and I'm kinda hoping that will be my last for a long long time. Total space added = 1100 or so movies.

Decide beforehand what you're willing to 'invest' in your system for how much you want to have 'in hand', and go from there. Really, as I've told folks time and again, the cheapest (with prices falling) and most expandable (basically until you're forced out of the house) are burnable BD25 discs.

Burners are very cheap now (well under $100), blank discs themselves (inkjset printable or not) fell past $1/ea about a year and a half ago, and are now around 75cents in packs of 50.

Playback devices you may already have, if your bluray player does the usual MKV/m2ts/mp4 and such, and your already set up on that. You may be able to also (if you bought okay) either a player or a streaming box with disc capability.

Which is what I did several years ago, PCH C200 at around $100 each. One may find a 'name brand' bluray player with the same kind of features today, just that there wasn't back 4 years ago or so.

So there it is, a system costing less than $1 per movie to store, maybe a fraction of that depending on what bitrate/size you can tolerate, and how many movies/tv programs you can put on a disc. I went 'high end' (my NAS cost about the same as a small Subaru) but I have everything also backed up on BR Disc as well.

[dragus]

WD Live

[Beck38]

WD Live

Tons of firmware probs. Go on the review sites.

[jessd4life]

I have tried many and my personal favorite is xbmc on the pc, but for set top for the price I have to go with WD Live Plus, it can play almost all the formats even ISO, handles full 1080p wirelessly ( w/ good connection ).

[vn11]

use serviio with xmbc for local and subsonic for remote streaming - can't fault either at the moment!

[bikertyke]

WD Live for me too. Streams really well, no lags.

[yeseye]

i use a mede8ter 600x3d plays anything i throw at it. very good player.

[techertainment]

Plex Server running on a custom server. Accessible from anywhere.

[orokach]

I just bought a samsung smart TV.
works like charm
support all kind of different codecs.

[vermin91]

raspberrypi with xbian, works well most of the time, it quite stable now, but hopefully should improve now broadcom has released source code for the graphics chip.

[donutfunky]

Raspberry Pi with OpenElec/XBMC streaming over Ethernet this side. Added an IR controller so I can use my old Logitech Harmony and it works a treat

[macroni]

I use an Apple TV :)

[JP-NZB]

i use a mede8ter 600x3d plays anything i throw at it. very good player.

I Have a mede8er 800x3d it runs the same firmware as the 600. A very nice player and even plays MVC 3D ripped with make MKV.

Anything with a Realtek 1186 Chip will play almost anything except full BR Menus. It will play 3D BR ISO but without the menu. Some older players support full menu but they dont have full 3D, most of these will be based on the Sigma chip range.

The main chips used and their functionality can be found here:

http://www.iboum.com/artkill/chipsets.php

Scrool down to Specialist Media Chipset History

[hermanmoura]

I use my old Xtreamer Ultra. It's a excellent media streamer, but crashes many times.

[Leviathan40]

Apple tv2 for me as well , jailbroken with XBMC

[Artemis]

I use my old Xtreamer Ultra. It's a excellent media streamer, but crashes many times.

It's not really 'excellent' then is it..... ? :blink:

[megabyteme]

I use my old Xtreamer Ultra. It's a excellent media streamer, but crashes many times.

It's not really 'excellent' then is it..... ? :blink:

Nor "Xtreamer", nor "Ultra". Sounds kinda shit, really. :idunno:

[ripclaw]

Media Center

[Artemis]

Media Center

Window licker.

[Gribley]

How can you go wrong with a Pi2/Pi3 for £26 'ish (cpc or element4). Put on openelec for free and you have an fantastic media server that is updated often with KODI updates

I still have an old xtreamer MK1, that was £130 I think at the time and sucks in comparison :)

Have to say does depend how well your TV does CEC, you can drive via Android/Iphone but is a pain