Media streaming solution

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

[TW]Fox

Man of Honour
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
160,221
Hi all,

I'd like to be able to watch my media collection on the TV easily and with a nice interface. It would be an additional bonus if I could watch it on multiple TV's.

Whats the best way to go about this? The main TV is a DLNA equipped Sony KDL-W5500 which has streaming functionality built in but sadly doesn't recognise MKV files so is therefore largely useless.

Perhaps there is some sort of device I can fill with HDD's that then streams?
 
Get a NAS for your media and a few western digital lives (or equivalent) for the tvs.

Not sure if they will cope well with 1080p over wifi though, never tried. I have my entire house wired with Cat 6 :o
 
As mentioned get all your media on a nice nas box, or even just a external caddy with room for a few drives.

For the playback. If your ok tech wise, get something that will run xbmc if you want the slickest looking interface. A Celron NUC is more then up to the task.

If you want an even simpler solution. Just grab something like the Mede8er MED600X3D which will play anything you throw at it and has quite a nice interface it's not as slick as xbmc but still very usable.
 
Something more beefy than a nas for your home server, with plenty of hard drives, ubuntu and plex. That should be able to stream to anything including mobile devices.
 
To be honest the one I am most happy with now is ATV3 and my HP Microserver pulling from my NAS. With Plex on the ATV it works superbly.
 
I've never had much luck getting DLNA equipped TVs to play a broad enough selection of different video containers or codecs.

We currently have two WDTV units, one in the living room and one in the bedroom, and they have no issues playing anything which is stored on our NAS. They have built in WiFi, although the one in the living room is connected via ethernet as we occasionally get stuttering/brief moments of go slow over wireless.

http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

If you don't have a NAS or a computer always on to share files, you can plug in a HDD or memory stick into it's USB port.
 
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Zappiti is one of the nicest looking interfaces I've seen but you would require one for each room. There is a Zappiti player and mini which support most file formats and ISO's including 3D. Or the Dune players. They can stream from a server, NAS, USB, hard drive or any computer on the network
 
Youstolemyname said:
Get a NAS for your media and a few western digital lives (or equivalent) for the tvs.

Not sure if they will cope well with 1080p over wifi though, never tried. I have my entire house wired with Cat 6 :o
Click to expand...

This is the setup I'm using. I find it to be reliable, and the user interface is much simpler than an XBMC setup I used previously. The WDTV box has no moving parts so runs silently, always nice not to have a whirring fan in the background. My pet annoyance with WDTV is that there's no "go forwards 10 minutes" button, so you need to use fast-forward if you don't want to watch something from the start.
 
I have raspberry pi's connected to 3 TV's running XBMC, They stream from the server in the cinema room

The server is just a PC running WHS V1 its on 24/7

People are suggesting a Nas but you still need to be able to stream the media if your TV does not support MKV

Raspbmc is now very mature and its easy to setup on the PI
 
Have a look at Synology if your budget allows for it, I picked up a 2 bay 213j for about £160. It might be overkill but is great for streaming while I'm out and about to iOS and Android, i.e. when I'm in a hotel away for work. Great features and can have Plex on it without any fuss.
 
Kappa said:
Have a look at Synology if your budget allows for it, I picked up a 2 bay 213j for about £160. It might be overkill but is great for streaming while I'm out and about to iOS and Android, i.e. when I'm in a hotel away for work. Great features and can have Plex on it without any fuss.
Click to expand...

How does that help him streaming MKV to his TV?

It is a rhetorical question btw
 
Youstolemyname said:
Get a NAS for your media and a few western digital lives (or equivalent) for the tvs.

Not sure if they will cope well with 1080p over wifi though, never tried. I have my entire house wired with Cat 6 :o
Click to expand...

This. I've tried various set-ups and this is the only one I've managed to get to work reliably, or without lots of faffing around.

The WD Live UI is a little clunky, but it usable. It supports any file format, very small, silent and streams flawlessly.

1080p works perfectly well for me across wifi.
 
Might be overkill for what you need but I've got an Intel NUC i3 running openElec XBMC streaming from my Synology NAS and I love the interface!

I've tried various other options with there always being a niggle or two and this set up is the first that I've been completely happy with!

I realise this doesn't fulfil your desire to have it on multiple TV's but as a cinema experience it's fantastic on you main TV!
 
XBMC is the way forward for the gui IMO

heres mine in one room in the house.

DSC00795.JPG


DSC00793.JPG
 
When running XMBC (on RaspPI, or whatever) - what do you use as a controller? Surely needs some sort of custom remote control and sensor to be set up?

This has always been one of the main reasons I've opted for the simplicity of something like a WDTV Live.
 
easyrider, which varient do you use? are you running from Sdcard or USB?

I tested on all 3 XBMC derivatives and found the menu's to be painfully slow. (using the card that came with it)
 
div0 said:
When running XMBC (on RaspPI, or whatever) - what do you use as a controller? Surely needs some sort of custom remote control and sensor to be set up?

This has always been one of the main reasons I've opted for the simplicity of something like a WDTV Live.
Click to expand...

You can use your iphone or adroid phone or I use a harmony one...My dad uses a 9.99 windows MCE remote with usb infrared receiver.
 
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