what route should i go? media player

kaptainmarc said:
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
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A NAS is a purpose built PC that usually runs a specialised OS that is purely there for the storage and sharing of files. It really is nothing more fancy than a PC storing and sharing files across a network.

If you only access media from one TV and are trying to save on cost then upgrading your PC with some more hard disk space and storing your media on that and sharing it out to whatever media device you decide to buy, is one route.

If you wanted to keep it all separate you could go and buy a xTB USB drive, an Intel NUC running OpenELEC and plug the USB drive into that and it would detect and play quite happily. I am sure other devices would be exactly the same but I have no experience of them so can only tell you what the NUC can do.

You have a lot of choices and everyone would do it differently, depends on what works best for you. Good luck!
 
kaptainmarc said:
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?
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Yup. Whether you want two devices (NAS + small box, like the Nuc) or one (a HTPC with the drives inside it) really comes down to personal taste. I wanted the neatest solution possible, so I went for a HTPC, but some people would hate to have a large box sitting under their TV.

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.
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You'll want to swap out the 460 - it will be too loud and it's overkill for a HTPC. A passively cooled GT 620 or something is the only way to go.
 
FerretBoy said:
Originally I had a HP microserver (when you could get £100 cashback) as my HTPC. But as it's not silent it became a very fast 5 Bay NAS box.
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I have an N54L serving as my current HTPC with another serving as a 5 bay NAS right next to it and both are under my telly. I don't find them loud, they aren't silent sure but when I am watching a film, even the ambient noise of a soundtrack more than drowns them out.
 
cokecan said:
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
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Things might have changed now, I had the first RPi and it couldn't play any of them :(
 
Try installing Plex on your PC first before spending a penny on anything.

Plex can provide a DNLA stream that your PS3 can pick up and play from. The built in transcoding and ability for the PS3 to slightly buffer the stream will allow you to check your network can support any kind of sensible streaming solution from a server or NAS.

So, get on your PC, download Plex Server and add one or two test files to its library. I think DNLA might be disabled by default so turn it on in the settings somewhere. Your PS3 will list it under the video menu where you likely see some other random things like Windows Media Streamer or something like that.
 
RoyMi6 said:
Try installing Plex on your PC first before spending a penny on anything.

Plex can provide a DNLA stream that your PS3 can pick up and play from. The built in transcoding and ability for the PS3 to slightly buffer the stream will allow you to check your network can support any kind of sensible streaming solution from a server or NAS.

So, get on your PC, download Plex Server and add one or two test files to its library. I think DNLA might be disabled by default so turn it on in the settings somewhere. Your PS3 will list it under the video menu where you likely see some other random things like Windows Media Streamer or something like that.
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that's for the tip, I shall give it a try this evening.

I have a strong suspicion that my router is letting it down, as my network consists of: router pc and ps3.

which is why I'm leaning towards a stand alone media pc with all content stored on that and connected to the TV
 
kaptainmarc said:
that's for the tip, I shall give it a try this evening.

I have a strong suspicion that my router is letting it down, as my network consists of: router pc and ps3.

which is why I'm leaning towards a stand alone media pc with all content stored on that and connected to the TV
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I think you'll be surprised :) your network doesn't need to be blisteringly fast with Plex, especially if you're content isn't full uncompressed bluray rips
 
I have a mixture of everything mentioned (well almost except the Pi).

My home server is a microserver with 13 HDDs (using esata 5 bay enclosures) which houses all my files, then in the main room is an Antec Media Case with just an SSD in it, an Imon infra red unit (for Harmony control) and Windows 7 with plex addin installed.

I then stream all files from the microserver to my HTPC via a gigabit switch rather than my router (which is just 10/100) for maximum throughput and never had any issues playing anything back.

In the bedroom I have a Samsung TV (bottom of the range wifi one) with Plex installed and this plays back 90% of files (for some reason it just refuses to even attempt to load the files stored in one folder that play fine elsewhere) including 1080p mkv.

Finally in the other bedroom we have a little NowTV box also with Plex installed that has yet to not play any file back (even though yes it is only 720p, but you could get a Roku instead for about £40 that does 1080p if you wanted).

Also because I use plex it means I can stream to my iPad or my laptop with ease even when not at home - as an example I was in a hotel in Romania (who have great internet connectivity) a couple of weeks ago and I was streaming SD content via the internet to my laptop in my room there with no buffering.
 
I went the plex route also. got a haswell duel core and 4 gig of ram. streaming to my ipad and a now tv box.

the now tv box was the whole reason for going plex. it was the only solution that gave me an option of a remote control.
 
opstrat said:
I went the plex route also. got a haswell duel core and 4 gig of ram. streaming to my ipad and a now tv box.

the now tv box was the whole reason for going plex. it was the only solution that gave me an option of a remote control.
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An unjailbroken Apple TV3 can be used for Plex if combined with "Plex Connect" which is installed on the same server as your Plex Server. It intercepts network traffic from your ATV3 and replaces one of the apps (like iMovie) with a Plex interface.

Has worked flawlessly for me for the last year with 3 X ATV3s that I have in my house. It's super handy if you're invested in the apple infrastructure and don't feel a Roku/NowTV would add much to your video watching selections.
 
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