Video Stream Hardware

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Hi all, my old network video player has died. I have been looking at an apple tv, and note ion techradar's review, they say the following:-

If you're simply looking for a way to stream media from your computer to your television then perhaps Apple TV shouldn't be your first choice.

That been said - what is recommended for simple streaming of media from computer to tv?
 
WD TV Live is probably your best bet.
 
I'm sort of in the same boat...I have media on my pc, on the tv and on an NMT. Easy for me but a pain in the backside for anyone else to use. I decided to try and put together an all-in-one pc that will do everything for me all in one box.

A bit of a problem as spare money at the moment isn't a luxury I have so had to source some pc bits, and opened a thread in the wanted section here asking if anyone had old pc bits and pieces that they no longer had use for. The generosity of some members here is staggering and ive sourced a gfx card, mobo and cpu, and memory for the grand total of £18. Now I just need to source a case, powersupply and tv card.

Software side, been looking at a few recently including MediaPortal, Plex, Boxee and Moovida but the one that ticks the most boxes is XBMC. Will end up with a machine that will play and record TV, stream movies, music and photos from a NAS drive, full intenet access plus addons like Hulu, Spotify, and other internet tv plugins.

Might be a bit more complicated than you want to go though :lol:

If you just want a straight plug and play box, the WD boxes are great, although there are loads of cheaper alternatives about too (sumvision cyclone, Roku etc)

hope this helps (sorry for going off at a mega tangent!!!)
 
We have 3 xbmc systems here (plus xbmc installs on the laptops). If all you want to do is play media and not tinker, something like the WD TV Live is the best option IMHO.
 
Going to take a look. What is its main advantage over apple tv?
 
Rapscallion said:
Going to take a look. What is its main advantage over apple tv?
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You don't need to have your media in iTunes (or an iTunes compatible format). There is a way of jailbreaking the AppleTV and running xbmc on it....
 
arad85 said:
You don't need to have your media in iTunes (or an iTunes compatible format). There is a way of jailbreaking the AppleTV and running xbmc on it....
Click to expand...

Have they jailbroken the AppleTV 3 yet?

Plus as standard the AppleTV will only play format supported by itunes, so no mkv's (not even sure if it supports divx/xvid), no usb inputs.
 
Is there an AppleTV3? I guess it was 6 months after ATV2 was released so it was time for Apple to revolutionise TV - again.

Apparently not jailbroken, so no xbmc. I sit corrected....
 
:lol: as you say, easy to lose track at the rate they churn new stuff out.

you can still buy the AppleTV2 on places like ebay (and there have been a few on here recently), but they go for a premium and it looks like people are trying to cash in before a jailbreak for the 3 is released.

I'd just go for the WD TV Live if I were you Phil
 
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One more question - i'm guessing the answer will be 'of course not, silly!' but i'll ask anyway.

I have my media files on a usb drive connected to an airport extreme - will this drive be visible to the wd tv, or will i have to attach directly?

ps antihero - was it one of these you had? Its one of those that have died..
 
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Rapscallion said:
One more question - i'm guessing the answer will be 'of course not, silly!' but i'll ask anyway.

I have my media files on a usb drive connected to an airport extreme - will this drive be visible to the wd tv, or will i have to attach directly?

ps antihero - was it one of these you had? Its one of those that have died..
Click to expand...

:lol: yes it is :lol: used to use YAMJ on it but found it too buggy, so just use the file view now although once my new build is finished it will just be used as a NAS drive.

can't comment on the airport extreme as i've never used one, but if it's plugged into the router and is accessible over the network I would have thought it would be fine as it is :shrug:
 
One more question - if i connect a USB hard drive to the WD TV, can i browse that hd over the network?
 
Hi Rob - thanks for the link, i ordered one from Amazon - just opened the box and downloading new firmware.

dam you o2 broadband for being so slow!
 
Well got the WD TV all set up. Really nice interface, especially coming from a HDX1000 from 4 years ago.

DOes anybody find it veryu slow transferring data to a drive attached to the WDTV?

I tried transferring a 500meg file, and it took almost 15 minutes?

Any tips / ideas?
 
Also when uploading a file to the drive attached, my internet connection is crippled - any workaround?
 
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Rapscallion said:
Also when uploading a file to the drive attached, my internet connection is crippled - any workaround?
Click to expand...

How have you got it setup? Is the wdtv connected to your router or pc?
 
All set up via wifi - unfortunately the wdtv is a long way from the router....

EDIT
all in the same room, so signal isn't a problem
 
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I understand physical connection will be better, but upload speed to wdtv drive is maxing out at at approx 4gig per hour....thats slower than my internet!
 
Rapscallion said:
I understand physical connection will be better, but upload speed to wdtv drive is maxing out at at approx 4gig per hour....thats slower than my internet!
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Yes. Depending on what you're connected at between the PC, router and WDTV, you will get significantly slower speeds if everything is connected via wireless. EVERYTHING will share the available bandwidth. To copy a block of data, you will need to go wireless to the ruter, wireless from the router to the WDTV, wireless acknowledge from the WDTV to the router and then back to the PC. Each/any of these packets could collide with any other and cause speed issues.
 
Better get myself an ethernet cable then..

Cheers
 
More than one... you should hard wire (at least) the PC and WDTV to the router if at all possible.
 
Really like having spotify and iplayer without using a pc. Just have to connect the box to my hifi.
 
arad85 said:
You really should connect via gigabit cable & switch.
Click to expand...

Realise this is probably a stupid question, but what is the point of a gigabit switch if the wdtv only has a 100MB connection...?

Asking as am thinking of getting one of these to replace an xbox classic running xbmc.
 
Jez2011 said:
Realise this is probably a stupid question, but what is the point of a gigabit switch if the wdtv only has a 100MB connection...?

Asking as am thinking of getting one of these to replace an xbox classic running xbmc.
Click to expand...
None. But then if you want to plug something into it that IS gigabit, you're limited by the router which is stupid for the cost of gigabit routers....

I haven't bought anything 100Mbit for about 8 years (given by ISPs yes, but not paid money for).
 
arad85 said:
None. But then if you want to plug something into it that IS gigabit, you're limited by the router which is stupid for the cost of gigabit routers....

I haven't bought anything 100Mbit for about 8 years (given by ISPs yes, but not paid money for).
Click to expand...

Ah right, cheers for the info.

neil_g said:
theres some debate over what speed the wdtv is, they used to state gigabit
Click to expand...

According to the wdtv forums seems to be that the chipset supports it but the firmware doesn't
 
The data you're streaming won't be very high bandwidth. Most CE manufacturers fit fast Ethernet (100Mbit). I'm working with a couple of companies at the moment who are building an all-singing-and-dancing Android based STB. It'll be capable of streaming multiple HD streams, transcoding for iPad etc... Both boxes have 100Mbit network interfaces (even though the main chip is Gbit capable) :shrug:
 
arad85 said:
I'm working with a couple of companies at the moment who are building an all-singing-and-dancing Android based STB. It'll be capable of streaming multiple HD streams, transcoding for iPad etc...
Click to expand...

Interesting - I am guessing this won't be in production any time soon, so it's not worth holding off buying the wdtv and waiting for this to come out instead...?
 
Jez2011 said:
Interesting - I am guessing this won't be in production any time soon, so it's not worth holding off buying the wdtv and waiting for this to come out instead...?
Click to expand...
No. It's for a telecoms operator on the other side of the world, so not available here....
 
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