A Device to play movies on TV

[Banzai_Joe]

Do you have a network at home banjo?
WDTV Live hub would get my vote. I have the Live (non hub) and its really good.
Another alternative would be a DLNA device like BD player (LG BX50) which will play files over your network, but then the WDTV will do that.
You seem to be hung up on the usb2 transfers. You laptop must be pretty cruddy if you think that will be your slowdown. I transfer data across my usb external and pc at approx. 30MBps.

 

[shadow_boxer]

Do you have a network at home banjo?
WDTV Live hub would get my vote. I have the Live (non hub) and its really good.
Another alternative would be a DLNA device like BD player (LG BX50) which will play files over your network, but then the WDTV will do that.
You seem to be hung up on the usb2 transfers. You laptop must be pretty cruddy if you think that will be your slowdown. I transfer data across my usb external and pc at approx. 30MBps.

Good suggestions if you're not wanting a htpc.

 

[Banjo Sandwich]

So yeah - that is it. Amazing box of tricks. Personally planning to use VLC but it is basically just a PC so can use whatever!

Just noticed it can use xbmc!!!

When are these available or do you think i should what for model B?

 

[Banjo Sandwich]

Do you have a network at home banjo?
WDTV Live hub would get my vote. I have the Live (non hub) and its really good.
Another alternative would be a DLNA device like BD player (LG BX50) which will play files over your network, but then the WDTV will do that.
You seem to be hung up on the usb2 transfers. You laptop must be pretty cruddy if you think that will be your slowdown. I transfer data across my usb external and pc at approx. 30MBps.

Not staying at home at the moment, i do have 10-18mb/s broadband but i don't want to rely on this...

If i was to use the network would it have an impact others connected to the internet?

WDTV Live... would this just access the videos from my laptop then play them on the tv via ethernet or wireless...

 

[frank_grimes]

Just noticed it can use xbmc!!!

When are these available or do you think i should what for model B?

Model B deffo - Should be available soon. Register 'interest' on RS's website

 

[jpod]

Designer habitat nano 3.0 looks really cool

 

[darael]

Sumvision Cyclone Micro 2+ MKV Player gets my vote.

 

[topdog@OC]

I wouldn't worry about the hard disk speeds, even a slow hard disk is faster than a fast blu ray needs to serve for streaming (movies only need to shunt about 4MB/s max).

 

[craarc]

order a raspberry pi and make an alloy box / container / case or what ever for it but PS3 is the best all round for attaching a hard drive a pc a usb wifi streaming awesome bluray player and u have all the other advantages u can use linux on it swap out the hard drives do what ever u want to a ps3 tbh

 

[themul]

Not staying at home at the moment, i do have 10-18mb/s broadband but i don't want to rely on this...

If i was to use the network would it have an impact others connected to the internet?

WDTV Live... would this just access the videos from my laptop then play them on the tv via ethernet or wireless...

Hi,

WDTV Live would access all your files via wireless or Ethernet and I have no issues with it having an impact on my broadband connection.

My son uses Xbox live while I am paying blue ray movies on the WDTV and also my daughter is on her laptop and my wife is on her iPhone and I am also downloading movies all the same time.

I have my WDTV live box connected to my router via Ethernet downstairs and my PC upstairs in connected to my router via TP-Link 200Mbps Mini Powerline Ethernet Adapters, so this gives me one solid connection from my system upstairs to my WDTV live box downstairs.

I have a 1TB hard drive already connected to my system upstairs with all my movies on it, so I don't see the point in connecting the hard drive to the WDTV box, when I can just stream it straight from my PC to the WDTV box.

 

[Banzai_Joe]

Hi,

WDTV Live would access all your files via wireless or Ethernet and I have no issues with it having an impact on my broadband connection.

My son uses Xbox live while I am paying blue ray movies on the WDTV and also my daughter is on her laptop and my wife is on her iPhone and I am also downloading movies all the same time.

I have my WDTV live box connected to my router via Ethernet downstairs and my PC upstairs in connected to my router via TP-Link 200Mbps Mini Powerline Ethernet Adapters, so this gives me one solid connection from my system upstairs to my WDTV live box downstairs.

I have a 1TB hard drive already connected to my system upstairs with all my movies on it, so I don't see the point in connecting the hard drive to the WDTV box, when I can just stream it straight from my PC to the WDTV box.

Yep, this is more or less the same setup i had, it simply works.

 

[Banjo Sandwich]

Hi,

WDTV Live would access all your files via wireless or Ethernet and I have no issues with it having an impact on my broadband connection.

My son uses Xbox live while I am paying blue ray movies on the WDTV and also my daughter is on her laptop and my wife is on her iPhone and I am also downloading movies all the same time.

I have my WDTV live box connected to my router via Ethernet downstairs and my PC upstairs in connected to my router via TP-Link 200Mbps Mini Powerline Ethernet Adapters, so this gives me one solid connection from my system upstairs to my WDTV live box downstairs.

I have a 1TB hard drive already connected to my system upstairs with all my movies on it, so I don't see the point in connecting the hard drive to the WDTV box, when I can just stream it straight from my PC to the WDTV box.

So I would be swapping the "upstairs pc" for my laptop?

So Laptop>>>wireless connection via router>>> WD LIVE>>> TV

Plus it has a remote control, and iplayer, etc....

My final question would be can the WD Live access some football streams similar to sopcast?

 

[themul]

So I would be swapping the "upstairs pc" for my laptop?

So Laptop>>>wireless connection via router>>> WD LIVE>>> TV

Plus it has a remote control, and iplayer, etc....

My final question would be can the WD Live access some football streams similar to sopcast?

Hi,

Here is a list of the services offered by the WD LIVE TV box.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/imag...ontent/westerndigital/WDTVLive_ServicesEU.jpg

Some people on the WD forums have been asking for sopcast to be added to the list of services, so we will just have to wait and see.

I would store all your movies on an external hard drive attached to your PC system upstairs and stream them from there downstairs to your WD LIVE box.

 

[Torquar]

Silly question...

But lets say i persue this cheaper Nano 3.0 or equivalent option...

Can i obtain an external HDD with usb 3.0 capabilities then utilise the fast transfers for trasnfering from laptop to HDD. Then connect the HDD to the nano 3.0 and not lose any video quality?

Yes, you could do that.

It doesn't do all the tricks that the WDTV does, it pretty much just plays files. It doesnt have any network connections, just a USB port and an SD card slot.

 

[RevBillyG]

ac ryan playon hd2 1tb anyone got opinions on these?

WD offers the iplayer capbility but the AC Ryan has usb 3.0?


http://*****.net/ce/reviews/audio-visual/29134-ac-ryan-playonhd2/

I have the PlayonHD. It's a fantastic bit of kit. Plays everything you can throw at it.
We got the non-HD version originally as it's quite capable of streaming 720p across WLAN. Means we can move it from room-to-room in the house and not worry about cabling and don't have to bother with copying a film across to an internal HDD
Later, I popped a small rapter drive in it for 1080p movies when we went away for the week on holiday and took it with us.

 

[Banjo Sandwich]

perhaps i have been a bit naive about the local streaming, can you definitely confirm it won't have an impact on other internet connection for others in the house?

i.e. say my laptop is up stairs that stores the movies on its HDD and i have the WD live connected downstairs and it streaming via the router, would it take some of the bandwidth for other in the house using the internet?

If someone could explain the above it would be appreciated

Now i am thinking i would like to obtain a device that allows me to stream movies from my laptop but also has the capability of having an external HD connected to play movies, for example if i was to visit friends or family etc...

 

[Banjo Sandwich]

Hi,

Here is a list of the services offered by the WD LIVE TV box.

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/imag...ontent/westerndigital/WDTVLive_ServicesEU.jpg

Some people on the WD forums have been asking for sopcast to be added to the list of services, so we will just have to wait and see.

I would store all your movies on an external hard drive attached to your PC system upstairs and stream them from there downstairs to your WD LIVE box.

Is there anything from WD about the sopcast functionality?

This would be a major bonus and would cement my choice!

 

[COYS]

I have a Dune HD Smart D1 and it handles everything I have, including blu-ray .ISO and folders with full menu support and TrueHD/DTS-HDMA. I'd have this over any of the streamers any day.

The D1 can be used over the network and/or via an installed HD and has USB slave to connect to a PC to transfer files. I run it off my NAS and also have a 2TB drive in it (I had no other use for the HD). Plus you can use programs such as Yadis and Zapitti to create video walls.

The only downside is it isn't gigabit so transfers of a 40GB blu-ray can be a bit slow over the network.

 

[Banjo Sandwich]

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/video-streamers/best-media-streamers-49299176/

This review site appears to have most of the previous suggestions...

I presume all of them can have an external HD connected to it for local storage playback.

So the real clinchers is a mixture of additional content:-

- Iplayer and other online player playbacks
- Extra inputs i.e. SD card, etc
- GUI (big importance in my opinion)
- Remote controlled
- Cost

Anyone offer any further insight

The reason i keep returning to WD Live is the bbc iplayer and the previously mentioned sopcast introduction

decisions decisions, anyone else like myself and hate spending money on something when you think there might of been a better option...

One other thing, i take the WD Live can connect via wireless to my router to allow streaming or do i have the have the LAN ethernet connection?

Cheers gents!!!

 

[Ethermaster]

I quite like my Cyclone Micro 2+ (which can be found online for around the £30 mark) plugged into an external HDD and just use handbrake and make MKV to copy my blueray to it then watch back on the Cyclone Micro 2+ not a problem I know there are some legal issues with it tho which is why I don't do it with copyrighted content.