Please help someone with no idea - NAS type media adaptor thingies

dmpoole said:
How do you get on the net with it?
Do you have to type in with the remote?
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It does have a web browser, but I haven't tried it in any depth as I have no interest in that side of things.

BBC iPlayer, Live365, YouTube, SHOUTcast and Flickr show up as immediate favourites on the Home screen once you install the latest firmware, but all I've tried so far was iPlayer. The web interface doesn't seem the fastest at loading, and I had to navigate using the remote's arrows, but as far as I'm aware it also supports wireless keyboard and mouse input using a dongle. Haven't really looked into that, though, as it's not something I'll be too bothered with.

Just tried YouTube, and you search by using the number keys like a mobile phone to enter letters. Streaming just fine. :)
 
dmpoole said:
Pestilence -

If somebody said they would swap this http://www.xtreamer.net/prodigy/ for your Viewsonic would you and why?
I'm just trying to get at the right answers so I buy the right device.

For the last x years I've been using an original XBOX for all my streaming needs.
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That Xtreamer does look bloody awesome, but I reckon it'll cost a fair bit more than the Viewsonic cost me. If someone offered a swap, I'd probably take it even though it seems to do a hell of a lot more than I need it to!

Spent all of last night streaming 720p .mkvs through the Viewsonic and didn't have a single problem. SRT and SUB subtitles work flawlessly, and I'll be testing the surround sound output tonight.

Are there any particular files you'd like me to test?
 
Pestilence said:
That Xtreamer does look bloody awesome, but I reckon it'll cost a fair bit more than the Viewsonic cost me. If someone offered a swap, I'd probably take it even though it seems to do a hell of a lot more than I need it to!

Spent all of last night streaming 720p .mkvs through the Viewsonic and didn't have a single problem. SRT and SUB subtitles work flawlessly, and I'll be testing the surround sound output tonight.

Are there any particular files you'd like me to test?
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What is the 'hell of a lot more' you speak of?
I'm just trying to get a feel of what might be missing on the Viewsonic even though I might not need it either.

720p mkvs are probably the best the quality I'll be streaming.

Have you tried streaming over wireless yet?
I've just had 50 meg installed so that shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks
 
dmpoole said:
What is the 'hell of a lot more' you speak of?
I'm just trying to get a feel of what might be missing on the Viewsonic even though I might not need it either.

720p mkvs are probably the best the quality I'll be streaming.

Have you tried streaming over wireless yet?
I've just had 50 meg installed so that shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks
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Hey,

In comparison, the Xtreamer doesn't actually seem to do THAT much more than the Viewsonic in terms of video/audio decoding -- I thought the Viewsonic didn't do DTS-HD MA, but it appears it does.

The Xtreamer does have added analogue HD video/audio outputs on the rear, but if you only need HDMI then that's not much of a bonus.

From the looks of it, the Xtreamer appears to have a much better and more fully-functioned web browser. I also believe that Xtreamer firmware/interfaces are open source (much like XBMC, which we all know rules), so there's the possibilities for the future there.

I haven't tried streaming entirely over wireless yet as I don't have a compatible dongle for the Viewsonic (it only works with certain Realtek chipset dongles), but I believe you can get one that's perfect for it from Play for £10.

Currently, I have the PC connected to the network via a wireless N adapter, and the Viewsonic connected with 200Mbps Homeplugs. No major problems except for scenes involving tons of minute activity, such as the forest scene I mentioned before, or "white noise" effects. These all play PERFECTLY over USB though, so it's definitely just my network in that case. Anything that gives a little grief can just be copied over the network to the attached USB storage and played directly. :)

Oh, and I forgot to mention that the box is fanless, so it's entirely silent in operation and despite a good 4 or 5 hours of activity through it last night, I had no issues with heat at all.
 
dmpoole said:
FAO Pestilence -

Can I add an external drive to it and all my other devices around the house will be able to access from that?
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Yep, any external storage that you attach will show up as a share on your home network. To access it, you just use the default username/password (admin/admin), and then you can copy files to and from the attached drive.

This obviously assumes that by "other devices", you mean PCs. :)
 
That's it then, I will be ordering today.

Thanks Pestilence.

Update -
Ordered:
Viewsonic VMP74 Digital Media Streamer, HDMI, 1080P, Plays MKV,AVI, MOV, MP3, FLAC and more.
Dynamode WL-700N-MRT 11n-150Mbps USB Wireless Adapter

Total £66.98 inc P&P

Just noticed it also does MTS files which are off my Sony Camcorder
 
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dmpoole said:
What is the 'hell of a lot more' you speak of?
I'm just trying to get a feel of what might be missing on the Viewsonic even though I might not need it either.

720p mkvs are probably the best the quality I'll be streaming.

Have you tried streaming over wireless yet?
I've just had 50 meg installed so that shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks
Click to expand...

50meg has no bearing on being able to stream wirelessly though, that's taken into consideration from your router onwards. Even if you are talking about iplayer, if you had a wireless network and the distance between receiver and router was great or signal poor, 50mb broadband is not going to help.

Which leads me to a question, are any of these boxes N draft wireless?
 
dmpoole said:
That's it then, I will be ordering today.

Thanks Pestilence.

Update -
Ordered:
Viewsonic VMP74 Digital Media Streamer, HDMI, 1080P, Plays MKV,AVI, MOV, MP3, FLAC and more.
Dynamode WL-700N-MRT 11n-150Mbps USB Wireless Adapter

Total £66.98 inc P&P

Just noticed it also does MTS files which are off my Sony Camcorder
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There may be issues with that wifi dongle, as apparently the advertised chipset isn't actually the one it uses. Came across this:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/streamers-network-media-players/1410181-viewsonic-vmp74-wireless-usb-dongle.html

Let me know how it goes, though.
 
Pestilence said:
Cool; apparently if it's supported the menu should automatically bring up a Wireless section when the dongle's connected.
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Bad news + good news.
The transaction didn't go through because I put a wrong security code in :rolleyes: so I'm ringing up tomorrow to re-order and replace to the AVForum suggested WiFi dongle.
I was having tomorrow off to set it all up :(
 
dmpoole said:
Bad news + good news.
The transaction didn't go through because I put a wrong security code in :rolleyes: so I'm ringing up tomorrow to re-order and replace to the AVForum suggested WiFi dongle.
I was having tomorrow off to set it all up :(
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Aw man, that sucks. Well, at least you can be sure the dongle works! Maybe if you sort it out early enough today you can get it next day delivery. :)
 
Not using a hard drive at the moment, just a 16GB memory stick. I tend to stream most things over the network.

I'm sure I'll eventually end up hooking a 1TB drive to it, though.
 
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