Media Player for living room. Advice needed.

Droolinggimp · 16 Nov 2011 at 09:58

Hi all. I am looking to get a Media Player of some sort during the next few months so I can play my Music and Video files on my TV and Projector.

Currently I am plugging in my girlfriends Laptop to my Denon 7.1 HD amp via HDMI and the AMP to the TV or PJ as you do. Now, the Laptop is struggling to play certain HD movies/clips but my PC plays them with ease (the PC is a lot newer) but I am not moving my PC downstairs hence the need for a Media Player.

I will be looking to rip my BluRays and DVDs to my PC and/or some external Hard Drives. I also currently have a WD 1TB MyBook netwrok drive that the Laptop and PC have permanent access too. I have lots of movies and TV shows stored on this and can easily stream to the Laptop to view on the TV. If I do get a Media Player will that allow me to stream movies from my WD Network drive aswell as my PC hard drives?

Wireless or wired? Will I need to upgrade any thing on my PC or Router? My spec is at the bottom of the post.

I have done a little research into all this but still none the wiser to be honest. I am wanting to keep this to a minimal budget.

So if someone can simply tell me what I need and how it all connects I will be most grateful. Big ask I know

It has got to be something my missus can use in my absence.

I am guessing it goes something like this;

PC with massive storage>Router>MediaPlayer>AMP>TV/PJ

Spec:
AMD Athlon II X2 250 @ 3.00 GHz
4.00 GB Ram
W7 64 bit
NVIDIA GeForce GT 440
Linksys WRT54GS router

sHo0sH · 16 Nov 2011 at 10:04

Wired definitely, I have wireless n and even that struggles to stream a bd rip.

Boxee box is the best, simplest media player that plays all codecs and is constantly updated, you can also stream all of the uk catchup channels with it.

They can be had for £150 now and are worth the premium over lesser players like the wdtv live and ac ryan.

Droolinggimp · 16 Nov 2011 at 10:15

I was guessing Wired to be honest. I know how wireless plays up sometimes. I shall have a look at this Boxee Box thing. Is it easy to install and would it pick up all storage devices like tm Network drive plus the drives in my PC?

stoke1863 · 16 Nov 2011 at 10:18

i reccomend XBMC, If you have all your files in the correct name it will pick up all the pictures and info

Here is my video of my setup

Droolinggimp · 16 Nov 2011 at 10:28

That looks pretty good. Only downside is I would have to build a HTPC wont I?

sypher365 · 16 Nov 2011 at 10:46

Take a look at the Western Digital TV Live Air Streaming Media Player not a bad bit of kit for £79.99 picked one up for the bedroom running wirelessly seems to run everything I've throw at it so far some 4gb MKV's, some 2-3gb 720p AVI's and have run without a fault for me.

All my media is sitting on a NAS and has been seen without any problem apart from the xml movie sheets but believe this is a know issue they are working on. On AV Forums it looks like they just dont show over a NAS but if the files are local on a usb drive they work but that will probably be fixed at some point and is a minor issue for me.

For the cost I'm very impressed so far and would recommend if you dont want to build a full htpc.

Droolinggimp · 16 Nov 2011 at 12:30

Does that support DTS master audio 7.1? There's no mention of audio on the OcUK webpage.

sHo0sH · 16 Nov 2011 at 12:46

Droolinggimp said:
I was guessing Wired to be honest. I know how wireless plays up sometimes. I shall have a look at this Boxee Box thing. Is it easy to install and would it pick up all storage devices like tm Network drive plus the drives in my PC?

I have one and it picks up my network drives no problem, I have it fed from a Netgear Readynas Duo at the moment. The reason I recommend this particular streamer is because it supports all audio and video formats (yes DTS -MA and Dolby HD) and it has an awesome UI. It is also very small and fits easily into any setup.

Smit · 16 Nov 2011 at 13:59

Droolinggimp said:
That looks pretty good. Only downside is I would have to build a HTPC wont I?

Yes you would need to build a HTPC

The Boxee Box is just a fork of XBMC (or at least it started off that way). The HTPC would have course be upgradable too

sypher365 · 16 Nov 2011 at 14:34

Droolinggimp said:
Does that support DTS master audio 7.1? There's no mention of audio on the OcUK webpage.

Not 100% sure have a look here for the full product spec sheets on the WD site http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

Boxee does look good but the cheapest I've seen one when looking was about £160 which is why I went pure htpc (Llano build) for the living room as it wasn't much more, alternativly you could pick up a Revo and put Linux xmbc build on it from what I've read it's supposed to be decent little machine or look the new AMD E450 and build one around that.

There are so many options about its quite a minefield now which is good and bad

Jay794 · 16 Nov 2011 at 14:37

I don't understand the point of a media streamer thing,

Wouldn't a small form factor or Nettop do the same thing (and more?)

tigerstyle · 16 Nov 2011 at 15:41

Jay794 said:
I don't understand the point of a media streamer thing,

Wouldn't a small form factor or Nettop do the same thing (and more?)

Yes but an amount of faff+noise+ keyboard/mouse needed, doesn't work out of the box, needs some knowhow etc etc.

Smit · 16 Nov 2011 at 17:00

tigerstyle said:
Yes but an amount of faff+noise+ keyboard/mouse needed, doesn't work out of the box, needs some knowhow etc etc.

Not strictly true.. Something running say XBMC Live will run with a remote.

Initial setup of course would require a mouse/keyboard but after that it shouldn't. Even for Windows Media Center you get remotes for so no need to use keyboard unless you wish to do something other than watch things (so added functionality)

Jay794 · 16 Nov 2011 at 17:19

SANDSTROM SKBAIO11 Wireless Keyboard with Trackpad ***, I just bought one and it's awesome! makes it so much easier to used my PC without getting up (I know lazy) but when you want to watch a lot of different stuff and check email, it's worth it

orby · 16 Nov 2011 at 19:51

there a little bit higher in the price range but i can't fault the popcorn hour a-200 (now replaced with the a-300) for pure playback of movies and hd audio, have never tried it as a music player i have a sonos for that, has full blu-ray support including full menu's from rips

mine is connected to my media server running windows server 2008 R2 and i use YAMJ for the movie wall with a skin updated by sabishgt all connected with a wierd network

tigerstyle · 17 Nov 2011 at 00:53

Smit said:
Not strictly true.. Something running say XBMC Live will run with a remote.

Meant to add the caveat of exceptions to every rule! But you have to go out and buy it+set it up. No great hardship for some, but effort required there.

I'm not against any solution, just throwing some anwsers out there

Personally I'd rather a PC based solution. But am intrigued by these WD players.

Droolinggimp · 17 Nov 2011 at 07:50

The WD player thing looks and sounds good. According to the spec it does support Surround sound but when connected to a receiver but it doesn't say what formats. Anyone got one to find out for me.?

pellet · 17 Nov 2011 at 09:09

I use a jailbroken apple tv2 running xbmc. Benefits are it's silent, ridiculously small, and has a great remote control. Only downside is it will only stream up to 720p currently, this isn't really a significant issue for me however.

londonbairn · 17 Nov 2011 at 13:02

Another vote for Boxee Box, it's great, it plays anything. Would recommend you get one as well...

Smit · 17 Nov 2011 at 13:22

Droolinggimp said:
The WD player thing looks and sounds good. According to the spec it does support Surround sound but when connected to a receiver but it doesn't say what formats. Anyone got one to find out for me.?

Probably best to ask here:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18326445&page=4