Best way?

Scotteh

Scotteh

Scotteh

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Right well I have a HP ProLiant N54L running Windows Server 2012.

This contains various movies, music, etc.

I have a WD TV Live Player and an Apple TV 3.

At the moment, if I wish to watch a movie with subtitles I need to use the Apple TV, if I want to watch netflix or a movie without subtitles, or music etc then I use the WD TV player.

Is there a better way to go about this?

Does the likes of Plex run on top of say WS2012 for the Media Server or does it need to be the OS?

Never looked much into this, but presumably for Plex then the WDTV/AppleTV would be required to have a Plex media player?

Thanks in advance.
 
Have a look at the MX Android TV boxes. They run an Android App version of XBMC with the confluence skin. This will play movies (with or without subtitles) and has a music player feature too.

Netflix is a standard preloaded app on the desktop.

720p/1080p DD DTS Dolby True HD, DTS-MA, AAC

MX TV boxes are avaialble for around £55
 
lucid said:
Have a look at the MX Android TV boxes. They run an Android App version of XBMC with the confluence skin. This will play movies (with or without subtitles) and has a music player feature too.

Netflix is a standard preloaded app on the desktop.

720p/1080p DD DTS Dolby True HD, DTS-MA, AAC

MX TV boxes are avaialble for around £55
Click to expand...

But how easy is it to set up?

i.e. is XBMC pre-installed and first thing that comes on when you turn it on?

Can you change the skin and customise it?

How snappy is the menu, any lag?
 
This is not a tweakers paradise product. If that's what you want then go spend more and either go the whole hog with a HTPC or try a Raspberry Pi. This is designed as a plug 'n play box for all those people who are either fed up of constantly frigging with a HTPC, or just can't be bothered with all that hassle.

XBMC is preloaded. If it isn't (or you delete it) then there is a 58mb download from the XBMC site ...for FREE. Stick it on a memory stick and load it on the box. Come to that, stick it on your Android phone too!

XBMC isn't the first thing that comes on when the machine powers up. But the App is loadable with two key presses from the home screen.

If you want to spend time fiddling with skins and stuff then this isn't the product for you. This is closer to a Blu-ray player with SmartTV features but it is much nicer to use and a bit more flexible too.

The menus and thumbnail loading is faster than the Raspberry Pi. I added the MX to a system that originally had an iDyl media PC installed a little over 5 years ago. That was on an Athlon 64 X2 4600 running XP with 2 gig of dual channel ram. The iDyl software had died. I replaced it with XMBC Frodo 12.1 on a fresh XP install. The Android version is Frodo 12.2

The Athlon system is running files from its own hard drive. It also acts as a shared file server for the Android box. The connection between the two is via Gigabit LAN. The speed of navigation, the time to call up a film, the responsiveness of the menus was pretty much identical between the two systems. Play, pause, skip, stop etc work as quick as they do from a stand-alone DVD player. What more can I say....It just works.
 
So would XMBC be recommended? or Plex? or what?

I have a few Rapsberry Pi's (preferably not use them for viewing TV though), rather stick to WDTV or Apple TV, do either of them offer a media player for Plex/XMBC etc?

Does Plex/XMBC etc run over the current OS (Windows Server 2012) or would it replace the server?

Don't particularly want to buy another box when I already have the WD TV and Apple TV, just wish to make it a slight bit easier for streaming over network, as using the built in WD TV isn't the greatest and Apple doesn't offer it unless it's an iTunes purchase iirc.
 
Plex is just an application, you run a plex server and then plex clients. The microserver can run plex server, but it doesnt have the grunt to transcode movies. So as long as the client can play them in their current state then its all good. XBMC is media application, it has the richest interface (when skinned) and thus people really love it.

If I was you I would consider jailbraking the apple tv and putting XBMC on it. You would have to check the netflix addon will work on the apply tv too. Note I am unsure exactly whats possible with the apple tv 3.
 
ATV3 can't be jail broken. So running XBMC on ATV3 is not an option.

ATV2 can be jail broken, and units that are set up in this way currently fetch mad money on Ebay. The caveat though are resolution (720p max). But I suspect that bubble will burst very quickly once word starts to spread about the MX Android boxes.
 
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