what route should i go? media player

kaptainmarc · 2 Jul 2014 at 08:36

I'm struggling to pick what route too take not knowing all the options out there.

I Have a lot of movies/tv shows on my pc that I want to watch on my TV, I currently watch them by putting on usb stick and plugging into the PS3 but I would like to have everything all in one library.

I have tried using the PS3/PC as a media network but it lags and doesn't play properly

so what options do I have? I like the look of an XMBC set up but what's the cheapest way of doing this?

sorry if this has been covered I couldn't find it, and Google results are just confusing me

so help a newbie to media centres get up and running

Metallifux · 2 Jul 2014 at 09:35

If you want xbmc then look at an acer revo or an intel nuc. This is the most elegant solution but can also throw up the most problems as with any free software people get issues. For simplicity probably a WDTV.

HumanShield · 2 Jul 2014 at 09:39

kaptainmarc said:
what's the cheapest way of doing this?

Surely the cheapest way (but not the best) would be one of the NowTV boxes, with Plex.

It is limited to 720p though (if that is an issue) and is wireless only. I've been using one for a while now and had no problems with it at all.

I think you can still get them for £10, and Plex is free (?)

ubern00b · 2 Jul 2014 at 10:43

Maybe not the cheapest but certainly been the most pain free experience for myself. I bought an Intel Nuc (DN2820FYKH), stuck in 2GB ram and a USB stick and run OpenELEC and it's brilliant.

Total cost was £125 so sure, there are cheaper out there but it plays everything I throw at it without skipping a beat and I really won't use anything other than XBMC these days.

lucid · 2 Jul 2014 at 14:15

I have clients with a range of streamers: Apple TV, WDTV, Sony SNP100/200. All have pro's and cons. Out of those three WDTV is the most usable, but it still relies on text lists which reflect the file names. This can be a bit cryptic.

Plex as the server app gets mentioned a lot. It's a nice front end, and there's cross-platform player apps so if you must stream to a phone or tablet then it's probably the one to consider. The hardware requirements are a bit more demanding. I suppose it depends whether you plan to run a PC as a server 24/7 or if your existing NAS is compatible with the server app for its on-the-fly file conversion. Clever program though.

Personally I use an Android TV box (£50) which runs th same range of apps as any half decent Android device. It also runs XBMC (pre-loaded or as a user add-on) and connects wired or wireless to my network.

I stream from a basic Buffalo NAS as the main media library and drag content from a networked laptop too. There's also 3 or 4 USB ports. I use one for content from a local 1TB drive and another for a wireless keyboard when web surfing. Other than that all basic operations are done with the the supplied IR remote. As a family we mostly play films, TV shows and use the Smart features for iPlayer/Youtube etc. Output to the TV is @ 1080p so all content is internally scaled by the box itself. HD audio is bitstreamed and decoded by my AV Receiver. You can have it run PCM audio if just playing back via a TV only.

kaptainmarc · 2 Jul 2014 at 14:57

So you use the boxes and then have external hard drives with all the films etc on?
I'm happy to spend 150-200 pound to get me set up.

I just want a stand alone item that doesn't rely on my other pc and plays 1080p

FerretBoy · 2 Jul 2014 at 15:44

Cheapest XBMC is probably raspberry pi + powered USB hard drive. But only allows for basic skin and slowish menu transitions. It will play almost all 1080p files. I have one, but in the end I upgraded to a nuc.

StevieP · 2 Jul 2014 at 16:35

Intel NUC for me running OpenElec - can't think of a single thing I'd change about it if I could!

Pricey though! (so maybe that!

)

kaptainmarc · 3 Jul 2014 at 08:25

looking at prices of the NUC would it not be easier to build a mini pc?

I have room for a mini case to fit quite nicely under my tv.

I'm guessing I wouldn't need a very powerful machine to do what I want?

Woden · 3 Jul 2014 at 08:28

Get a raspberry pi with one of the xbmc distributions. The menus aren't perfectly responsive but workable. Also the xbmc remote app on your phone can select what to play without using the menu on the TV.

kaptainmarc · 3 Jul 2014 at 08:37

Woden said:
Get a raspberry pi with one of the xbmc distributions. The menus aren't perfectly responsive but workable. Also the xbmc remote app on your phone can select what to play without using the menu on the TV.

do you plug in an external HD to these raspberry Pi's?
I'm starting to confuse myself with them

ubern00b · 3 Jul 2014 at 09:11

kaptainmarc said:
looking at prices of the NUC would it not be easier to build a mini pc?

I have room for a mini case to fit quite nicely under my tv.

I'm guessing I wouldn't need a very powerful machine to do what I want?

Which NUC are you looking at? The celeron 4th Gen is under £100 and all you need to add is a usb stick and some memory. You are using it as a streamer and 2GB works perfectly fine, plays anything you can throw at it.

For an all in one unit that has everything you need including built in IR receiver you would be hard pressed to find something better for the money. You really don't need an i3 or i5 NUC for this kind of workload.

kaptainmarc said:
do you plug in an external HD to these raspberry Pi's?
I'm starting to confuse myself with them

You would access your media over the network from a NAS or similar. I think you CAN plug a hard drive in if you want but most people would access a NAS via NFS or similar.

Deep · 3 Jul 2014 at 09:18

I wouldn't get a Raspberry Pi if you have full blu ray rips.
All my blu rays are ripped and not compressed, this leads to large 20-30gb file sizes, the RPi cannot play these at all

spluff · 3 Jul 2014 at 11:52

is there any media players which can handle wireless/wired - but buffers the content locally if there is any network issues - I currently use the acryan but with the homeplugs it sometimes stutters which is annoying

kaptainmarc · 3 Jul 2014 at 11:59

ubern00b said:
You would access your media over the network from a NAS or similar. I think you CAN plug a hard drive in if you want but most people would access a NAS via NFS or similar.

I can access all my files through my PS3 but I think my network lets it down, using a crappy Talk Talk router which I'm guessing is my problem?

I would much prefer something that doesn't rely on my computer so the other half can watch things on it whilst I am playing PC games.

Deep said:
I wouldn't get a Raspberry Pi if you have full blu ray rips.
All my blu rays are ripped and not compressed, this leads to large 20-30gb file sizes, the RPi cannot play these at all

Most of mine are around 3-4gb

Thanks for all the advice so far, really want to get something set up, just want to make sure its the right thing

kidloco · 3 Jul 2014 at 12:15

Another vote for the Nuc running OPENELEC.

Ive tried pretty much every media player out there and Openelec is by far the nicest to look at, plays everything I throw at it and it even auto updates itself when needed.

jay20aiii · 3 Jul 2014 at 12:19

I use the WDTV Live. It is an amazing device, but it does require some painful trial and error to get it working on a network share in a lot of cases.

You can use it with an external H/D or USB1/2 stick though which is much easier and takes away the tedium (as well as the need for an always on PC).

TJM · 3 Jul 2014 at 12:46

kaptainmarc said:
I would much prefer something that doesn't rely on my computer so the other half can watch things on it whilst I am playing PC games.

Using an Nuc to access files on the PC wouldn't interfere with gaming (or anything else), but if you want to completely separate the PC from the media player then either Network Attached Storage (working with an Nuc or WDTV) or a self-contained Home Theatre PC is required.

The advantages of NAS are that it can be accessed at any time by any device in your house and you can hide it out of the way, but you have to mess about with network sharing, synchronising the media library, etc, for other devices to work with it.

I opted for a HTPC with internal storage because we only watch videos on the TV and it's a seamless solution with OpenElec installed - there is no faffing about with network shares or latency and it always works. The only downside to a HTPC is the case will be much larger than an Nuc to accommodate the hard drives.

If you want to go down the HTPC route, the Node 605 is about as good as the cases get - there's room for four hard drives and it can take ATX boards so you can very easily turn an older PC into a HTPC or buy cheap parts online. Any Core 2 Duo and a graphics card like the GT610 will do, with a quiet PSU such as the BeQuiet 430W. If you already have the hard drives, you should be able to keep your costs under £200.

cokecan · 3 Jul 2014 at 13:42

Deep said:
I wouldn't get a Raspberry Pi if you have full blu ray rips.
All my blu rays are ripped and not compressed, this leads to large 20-30gb file sizes, the RPi cannot play these at all

Mine play fine. You just got to get the setup right

MakeMKV to rip at 20-30GB mark uncompressed, Pi running Raspbmc with the 'super' overclock profile (heatsink's on a couple of the chips of the Pi to keep it cool) on a USB3.0 memory stick (this will max out the speed of USB2.0), all my media is stored on an NFS network share (NFS reduces the overhead required when compared to SMB shares). All of this is done with a wired network.

This combination works fine for ALL my bluray rips. The only thing that irks me is no HD audio passthrough

I think I'll be going for the Intel NUC eventually

kaptainmarc · 3 Jul 2014 at 13:42

TJM said:
snip.

Ah I thought it would slow me down or something, I have no idea how it would work. I really don't get networks that much!

so is a NAS basically a computer that just holds aload of files etc and you just access them as if its a big fancy USB pen drive? (sorry for the lack of technical know how)

I'm going to be upgrading my pc in august, so will have an i5 with mobo GTX 460 spare 4gig of ram, so HTPC is making more sense to me now.

I live in a flat so only have 1 TV don't watch films/shows on anything else so being able to access it on multiple devices isn't needed