Xbox One as single media solution?

GSXRMovistar

GSXRMovistar

GSXRMovistar

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Anyone here use their xbox one as single box media solution? More specifically do you run your live TV from it, If so any pro/cons?

I currently have the following setup
  • TV - Used as a screen only
  • PC running WMC for LiveTV and Emby client for all other media
  • Separate server hosting Emby Server and all media
  • xBox for gaming
  • All audio on pass through to amp for processing
The PC is pretty old and I’m wanting to move away from WMC, I’ve also been playing with a HDHomeRun network TV device with Emby and whilst it works at times I don’t think its quite ready to to become the main source of LiveTV. Also can’t use the TVs inbuilt tuner as that doesn’t provide any facility to pause live TV (a must).

So looking for options and ideally being able to reduce the need for a dedicated PC.
 
I currently use my X1 with the Plex app and a Sky HD box via HDMI, feeding into a Yamaha V1067 that is in turn connected to a TV and Projector.

The X1 (with Kinect) controls all functionality of the TV / Amp, with everything turning off and on automatically, volume, channel selection etc via Kinect.

Live TV / Movies (via Plex) / digital xbox games all integrated nicely.

The only downsides currently are:

1) To use the projector I have to manually switch off the TV and turn on the projector (as the Kinect only turns on / off the TV).

2) The X1 does not support HD sound, so you miss out on DTS HD / True HD.

To get around point 2, i'm currently testing out a Nvidia Shield, that can do 7.1 DTS HD MA / True HD through Plex / Kodi. However I prefer the integration with xbox and cannot really discern the diffence between Dolby 640kbps and DTS HD (this is using Kef R speakers), so not sure if the Shield will stay.
 
Okay that sounds promising, I'm not interested in the Kinect and I have a Harmony Ultimate for all control requirements.

As for the HD sound I'm not too sure how much of my media has that, will have to check.
 
Well looks like not an issue for me anyway as my amp is a Sony DA1200es which doesn't support the HD audio formats. So for now this looks like it could be a cheap interim solution until I get a chance to replace everything.
 
I used to have it as a single solution. I say Xbox On and both my TV and Xbox powers on, defaulting to the Sky box input. When I got my sound bar though I had to turn that on separately so I just got my Xbox to turn on by itself and turn on the sound and tv using 1 remote. It works well, pretty good solution. I found I couldnt game stream while anyone watches tv though which is the point of game streaming so I've split it up again.
 
GSXRMovistar said:
Well looks like not an issue for me anyway as my amp is a Sony DA1200es which doesn't support the HD audio formats. So for now this looks like it could be a cheap interim solution until I get a chance to replace everything.
Click to expand...

It doesn't support Atmos or DTS:X, but it does support the following:

Dolby Digital +
Dolby TrueHD
DTS HD/DTS High Resolution Audio

If you want atmos or DTS:X then you can buy a cheap receiver like the Denon x2200w for 300 quid.

You'll be fine.
 
Im getting the xbox one slim when released, and hope to use it as my media hub. Im hoping it will be just as quite as the current xbox one.

Will do away with my sony bd player and maybe my amazon fire tv if the xbox one can get most of the apps I use on it like netflix and Amazon prime.

Does anyone know if it can bitstream the DTS HD/Dolby audio?
 
beachBOYken said:
Im getting the xbox one slim when released, and hope to use it as my media hub. Im hoping it will be just as quite as the current xbox one.

Will do away with my sony bd player and maybe my amazon fire tv if the xbox one can get most of the apps I use on it like netflix and Amazon prime.

Does anyone know if it can bitstream the DTS HD/Dolby audio?
Click to expand...

Does the new one have HDMI pass through like the current one?
 
pioneer2000 said:
I currently use my X1 with the Plex app and a Sky HD box via HDMI, feeding into a Yamaha V1067 that is in turn connected to a TV and Projector.

The X1 (with Kinect) controls all functionality of the TV / Amp, with everything turning off and on automatically, volume, channel selection etc via Kinect.

Live TV / Movies (via Plex) / digital xbox games all integrated nicely.

The only downsides currently are:

1) To use the projector I have to manually switch off the TV and turn on the projector (as the Kinect only turns on / off the TV).

2) The X1 does not support HD sound, so you miss out on DTS HD / True HD.

To get around point 2, i'm currently testing out a Nvidia Shield, that can do 7.1 DTS HD MA / True HD through Plex / Kodi. However I prefer the integration with xbox and cannot really discern the diffence between Dolby 640kbps and DTS HD (this is using Kef R speakers), so not sure if the Shield will stay.
Click to expand...

This sounds a lot like the sort of thing I want to do (barring the projector which I'm not planning on getting any time soon). It's really helpful to hear this stuff.

Couple of questions because I've never owned an Xbox - are there programs for it that would let me stream Netflix via it, ditto for Amazon video, and lastly what about Amazon Prime music to use it as my music player downstairs? Don't know if you use all those services, but I figured you might know. Or somebody here would! :)
 
h4rm0ny said:
This sounds a lot like the sort of thing I want to do (barring the projector which I'm not planning on getting any time soon). It's really helpful to hear this stuff.

Couple of questions because I've never owned an Xbox - are there programs for it that would let me stream Netflix via it, ditto for Amazon video, and lastly what about Amazon Prime music to use it as my music player downstairs? Don't know if you use all those services, but I figured you might know. Or somebody here would! :)
Click to expand...

Yes there's both a Netflix and Amazon Video app for X1. Don't know about Amazon music...
 
pioneer2000 said:
Yes there's both a Netflix and Amazon Video app for X1. Don't know about Amazon music...
Click to expand...

Thanks. Well two out of three are good enough. Looks like I might be getting an Xbox. The last thing I'll want to look into is how good upscaling is with it. UHD is fine I'm sure, but I do watch older movies - some even in SD. I'll want to see if they are still okay to watch at 4K with it.
 
GSXRMovistar said:
FYI, picked up the TV tuner on Wednesday and have since been running everything off the xbox, all seems to work rather well.
Click to expand...

Didn't read sooner, but yes I do the same and xbox turns on my TV /soundbar (and audio controls etc).

Only shame is it won't record TV,but not a big issue these days with on demand programmes
 
I was about to ask if there was a dual tuner option, but I suppoose that is academic if you cannot record, a shame, as you say. (With on-demand cannot easily skip the add)

Can X1 play an arbitrary internet radio stream by specifying the URL (like vlc) - since there are a lot of good quality 320Kbs&aac stations often unavailable in tunein etc.
 
Apologies for reviving an older thread but does anyone know of an alternative remote that will work with the TV tuner? Not having numbers on the thing is a royal pain in the anus (or thumb, more specifically) as it means loads of scrolling.

Also, I just spent 20 minutes re-tuning the damn thing and trying all sorts to make it show me a program guide. The eventual problem? The XB was offline for no particular reason. It did not tell me this at any point in time. Not once. Why can my 10 year old TV grab the guide from the ariel and this can't?

/rant
 
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