Media server

CruisnGrrl

CruisnGrrl

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I see a bunch of media servers out there such as the western digital one, appletv, ASUs and lg have one too.

Mostly I rip my movies and upload them to my NAS (dlink-323) so I can watch them with out damaging disks

I have an iPhone and a Mac computer so an apple tv looks like it may sync well with my stuff

Suggestions? Limitations of the various units? The wd unit and apple tvare the same price, not a fan of lg because friends with various lg products complained of products dying 1 month past warranty

Dont want anything you have to hack to make work
 
I have the WD Live one ..

I d/l all sorts of movies to a hard drive, adn than plug it into the back of the WD live.

Works like a charm ..
 
I'm running XBMC on top of Linux on an older 3610 REVO. Plays hi-def content off the DNS-321 like a champ.l
screenshot002.jpg

Not my movie selection :D


I think Boxee also makes a media centre that can do Netflix on top of everything.
 
I would stay away from Apple TV. My old roommate was an Apple fanatic and went through 3 replacement units in one semester. He says that friends have had similar issues.

I use my laptop (M18x) pretty much as a mobile server. Maybe look into WiHD (SiBEAM I think) for in the house? You could stream to pretty much anything including your TV. Can't speak to compatibility with a Mac unfortunately...

With that said, if you don't mind possibly having hardware issues and enjoy trips to the Apple store, Apple TV would be easiest compatibility wise.
 
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I've had a first and second generation apple tv. The hardware has been fine. It's used mostly for renting iTunes content and Netflix - we love it.

If you rip your own movies you'll need to have a Mac/PC running iTunes connected to it on your home network.

It can't talk to a NAS directly.

Hope this helps.
 
We have an apple tv. I jail broke it to get XBMC, but now most shows I DL are in mp4 format, so they go right into iTunes. I tried the WDTV thing, but for the life of me I could not get it to stream properly.
 
FiReSTaRT said:
I'm running XBMC on top of Linux on an older 3610 REVO. Plays hi-def content off the DNS-321 like a champ.l
screenshot002.jpg

Not my movie selection :D


I think Boxee also makes a media centre that can do Netflix on top of everything.
Click to expand...

I was doing the same, but the POS ran too slow... that was probably a limitation of Winblows and not the hardware though.

I ditched it and relegated my old Macbook Pro to HTPC duty. Worked out much better, considering all my other stuff is Apple.


As far as the AppleTV goes, if you don't wanna "hack" it, it's probably not gonna cut it for you. Out of the box its limited by what it can play and how you can interface with it.
 
KISS (keep it simple)

anything that has network or even wifi (but wifi sucks) is best.

I have had the asus for 5 years and it has yet to give me an error in play.

great menu interface, same with the WD boxes.

Ideally you want it wired to your network, then it streams 1080p without a hicup.

asus or WD are your best option.

btw these arent servers, they are bridges/media players.

you want a PC doing your hosting of the files and these boxes connect elsewhere in your house to play the files from your pc to this tv.

even the older asus aopen v1 can be had for like 40$ and it ****ing rocks. eats every type of file i throw at it.

of course now a days people want netflix, so all the newer boxes support that.
 
imnothng said:
We have an apple tv. I jail broke it to get XBMC, but now most shows I DL are in mp4 format, so they go right into iTunes. I tried the WDTV thing, but for the life of me I could not get it to stream properly.
Click to expand...

I am running 2nd gen AppleTV (ATV) jailbroken running XBMC. It works great. I can read any external drive (NAS) plus it reads natively from my iTunes.
I had one of the original WD media boxes. The interface was horrible. It was like using a computer from the 80s.

Jailbreaking ATV2 isn't too hard. Once it has been opened up, life gets a lot better.
If you can't be bothered, like the above poster, ensure you download MP4s and iTunes will happily take them in.
 
I Jailbroke my Apple TV2 when I bought it last year and was no better than OK when paired with my Windows computer. With my iMac though, the unit really shines. As an FYI, you no longer need to jailbreak the ATV as you can simply use a converter app to convert all movie formats into MP4. The free app I have even loads it into the iTunes library for you.
 
CruisnGrrl said:
I see a bunch of media servers out there such as the western digital one, appletv, ASUs and lg have one too.

Mostly I rip my movies and upload them to my NAS (dlink-323) so I can watch them with out damaging disks

I have an iPhone and a Mac computer so an apple tv looks like it may sync well with my stuff

Suggestions? Limitations of the various units? The wd unit and apple tvare the same price, not a fan of lg because friends with various lg products complained of products dying 1 month past warranty

Dont want anything you have to hack to make work
Click to expand...


What you are looking for is a Media PLAYER... not server. The AppleTV and the WDTVlive are not severs. The Dlink-323 IS a media server.


Here's an extensive list of most of the media players out there and their limitations

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...authkey=CMWSqM8P&hl=en&authkey=CMWSqM8P#gid=0

Click the tabs at the bottom for more options

I have a Patriot BoxOffice and a Popcorn Hour and I'm very happy with both.
 
If your using iTunes to manage all your media, the Apple TV makes the most sense. I use it and love it. Airplay is a fantastic feature that I use all the time, either for music or movies on my iPad, streams flawlessly even HD from an iPhone or iPad. If you need other formats and not using iTunes, well AppleTV will be pretty much useless unless you jailbreak it. The Apple TV has been flawless and stable, and I think that the majority of users would say the same, otherwise there would be a bit more press about what a crap device it is.
 
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whatever you do, for the love of god, stay away from Samsung media player capable devices if you're going to stream or wifi to it.

I have a samsung blu-ray player with wifi and it blows....it constantly and consistently drops the connection to my media player. Some days it just plain refuses to find it. Even hard wiring it to my router does the exact same thing. Apparantly the Samsung software is to be blamed.
 
Simple. Hook a PC up to the TV. Get a Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse. Enjoy having a massive monitor. Sorted.
 
Macs said:
I would stay away from Apple TV. My old roommate was an Apple fanatic and went through 3 replacement units in one semester. He says that friends have had similar issues.

I use my laptop (M18x) pretty much as a mobile server. Maybe look into WiHD (SiBEAM I think) for in the house? You could stream to pretty much anything including your TV. Can't speak to compatibility with a Mac unfortunately...

With that said, if you don't mind possibly having hardware issues and enjoy trips to the Apple store, Apple TV would be easiest compatibility wise.
Click to expand...

hardware wise i find them no better or worse then anyone else for reliability. they all come out of the same factories in china, i expect at this price point quality is the same

RHolliday said:
I've had a first and second generation apple tv. The hardware has been fine. It's used mostly for renting iTunes content and Netflix - we love it.

If you rip your own movies you'll need to have a Mac/PC running iTunes connected to it on your home network.

It can't talk to a NAS directly.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

having a computer running sounds like a pain, i do have an old G4 tower i could probably use if i have to.

imnothng said:
We have an apple tv. I jail broke it to get XBMC, but now most shows I DL are in mp4 format, so they go right into iTunes. I tried the WDTV thing, but for the life of me I could not get it to stream properly.
Click to expand...

not sure if the new ones can be jail broke yet.

mmmnaked said:
I was doing the same, but the POS ran too slow... that was probably a limitation of Winblows and not the hardware though.

I ditched it and relegated my old Macbook Pro to HTPC duty. Worked out much better, considering all my other stuff is Apple.


As far as the AppleTV goes, if you don't wanna "hack" it, it's probably not gonna cut it for you. Out of the box its limited by what it can play and how you can interface with it.
Click to expand...


not sure if the current ones's being sold are hackable yet, basically i want to plug it in and have it work the way i want, which is what apple is famous for.

djbordie said:
KISS (keep it simple)

anything that has network or even wifi (but wifi sucks) is best.

I have had the asus for 5 years and it has yet to give me an error in play.

great menu interface, same with the WD boxes.

Ideally you want it wired to your network, then it streams 1080p without a hicup.

asus or WD are your best option.

btw these arent servers, they are bridges/media players.

you want a PC doing your hosting of the files and these boxes connect elsewhere in your house to play the files from your pc to this tv.

even the older asus aopen v1 can be had for like 40$ and it ****ing rocks. eats every type of file i throw at it.

of course now a days people want netflix, so all the newer boxes support that.
Click to expand...

yeah, should have put player not server in the title.

Splash said:
What you are looking for is a Media PLAYER... not server. The AppleTV and the WDTVlive are not severs. The Dlink-323 IS a media server.


Here's an extensive list of most of the media players out there and their limitations

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...authkey=CMWSqM8P&hl=en&authkey=CMWSqM8P#gid=0

Click the tabs at the bottom for more options

I have a Patriot BoxOffice and a Popcorn Hour and I'm very happy with both.
Click to expand...

will have to look at that when i can get to a computer that isn't locked down (google docs is blocked from work)

wonderings said:
If your using iTunes to manage all your media, the Apple TV makes the most sense. I use it and love it. Airplay is a fantastic feature that I use all the time, either for music or movies on my iPad, streams flawlessly even HD from an iPhone or iPad. If you need other formats and not using iTunes, well AppleTV will be pretty much useless unless you jailbreak it. The Apple TV has been flawless and stable, and I think that the majority of users would say the same, otherwise there would be a bit more press about what a crap device it is.
Click to expand...

rawr said:
Simple. Hook a PC up to the TV. Get a Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse. Enjoy having a massive monitor. Sorted.
Click to expand...

a PC is far more expensive (and noisy) than a media player. it's also overkill.

what i want is something that will connect to my network (wired prefered but wireless will do) and stream files from my NAS and play back via HDMI (video) and optical (audio) output. I have an airport extreme base station (so have gigabit ethernet plus wireless G and N protocals). Airplay from my iPhone would be a nice feature but it's by no way a deal breaker. I do like XBMC but it sounds like it's no longer available for the apple tv in it's latest generation.
 
XBMC can run on other platforms such as GNU/Linux and Windows. A nettop computer is popular for that as they're quiet and require very little electricity. That's what I have set up now. Check CanadaComputers and NCIX, I think the nettops they are selling are Zotac or something like that. Running the NVidia ION chipset, very good for hi-def playback. The other option, as I mentioned, Boxee box. $200ish from Tigerdirect last time I checked.
 
A simple PC that's a few years old and in mirco form factor yo.

Heck, you can probably even get a tiny apple one if you go to university electronics store this time of year.
 
The Apple TV 3 is not jailbreakable yet.

It's always possible to AirPlay with an app like AirVideo or XBMC. It will play whatever is on your computer right to the AppleTV.
 
Got the new Apple TV, a xbox360, and a new WDTVLive Hub (with 1Tb hdd inside)
Of the 3 the WD gets the most use. The apple TV is sort of useless now except for the airplay feature of which I stream from ipad.
New WDTVLive Hub is sweeet. Finally a good interface. Plays off the internal drive or USB or network (TVersity etc). Supports DLNA as well.
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