Shaun

Right.....

I have played with this and have not found a 100% solution for my needs.

I have 100's of DVD's that I want to bin and find an all-in solution that "just works", as regards to playing these ripped on to my TV. I want to keep Dolby Digital if it is present and want a fairly decent frontend to select the movie I want to play.

I don't give a stuff how I achieve this (money wise), but want something that can be switched on and used. The solution needs to recognise and play VIDEO_TS folders.

I have tried the PS3 Media Streamer with mixed results over wi-fi. I would rather have a solution that does not use wi-fi as I want it to be rock solid, but I will consider it if it works.

Proven solutions on a postcard please!

Things that have come in to the mix are:

1) Dedicated PC
2) PS3 with external HDD
3) PS3 streaming
4) 360 streaming
5) Popcorn Hour (would be interested in anyone that has one of these, as it sounds pretty ideal)

I also want a solution that is not limited to DVD rips, so playing HD content would be needed in the future.

ScoobyDoo555

A Mac has a nice front end for this type of thing...


I use it with a **** off big HD.....

Works for me anyway

DAn

JackClark

Just announced Syabas' Popbox: Get Ready for the New Media Streamer Champ - Syabas popbox - Gizmodo any good?

Hanley

Shaun

Have a read through this thread

https://www.scoobynet.com/computer-r...l-4tb-nas.html

Half way down I describe the set-up I currently use, 1 with Popcorn Hour (with jukebox installed for nice front end) and also an AppleTV

Markus

Hanley has a good point and because of his thread I'm looking at NAS now for my own solution.

My thoughts are to get some form of network based storage and then rip all my DVD's as ISO files. This should give a one-to-one copy of the media. Ok, we're probably talking about 8GB for a dual layer DVD, but disk space is fairly cheap at the moment.

To actually play the media, well, I've got a modchipped xbox which runs XBMC and an AppleTV that has been patchsticked to also run XBMC, which will deal with ISO's of films, along with VIDEO_TS folders, and more or less anything you can throw at it.

In regards to wifi, I watched a movie on the apple tv yesterday, the source was an ISO file sitting on my mac and XBMC was accessing it via SMB, all over wifi. There was a 15 second delay between hitting play and the file loading, but after that it was smooth sailing and I didn't see any slowdown, but then nothing else was using the network at that time.

Shaun

Hanley,
Will the Popcorn Hour C200 play anything I throw at it without any stuttering, skipping or pissing me off?!

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

The popcorn hour is a cracking device if the media is played directly from it. I have a popcorn hour and its perfect for a 1080dp tv. I have never used mine to stream as I would rather just connect a usb hard drive and play a movie directly from that, my pc has enough junk on without cluttering even more files on it. I have tried streaming films over the ps3 and its only small ripped files that play ok and don't look like your keep freeze framing every other second.

As for your video collection, I would think your best of just ripping the video_ts file from it and renaming it for the media player as that way you will keep the dolby digital also if yoyu scan the DVD cover and put it in a folder with the video_ts folder, it will show the cover of what you want to watch rather than a name. Avs4you can probably rip to another media form and keep the DD but I'm not sure (i'll try later and tell you) but personally I wouldn't bother as it will still be a large file so no real benefit.

Shaun

Think I am going to go the PC route (as I have a spare quad-core machine), as I have been playing with WMC.

Great customisation guide here -> Customise Windows 7 Media Center (Part 1) | Windows 7 Customization | Windows Tools, Help & Guides

At least I know the PC will play anything I throw at it now or in the future.

Will get this set-up over the next week and let you know how I get on.

DJ Dunk

iTrader: (5)

PS3 + PS3 Media Server works for me streaming direct from ISO's created from my DVD's over wires, you just need to ditch the wifi

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

The pc doesn't play MKV files anywhere near as good as the popcorn hour. Files the will stutter and go blocky on the pc work with no problems on the popcorn hour


djDunk, thats the way my mate does it and its a pretty good way, wifi is useless on anything past a dvd

Hanley

Shaun

I've not seen the Popcorn C200, I'm still using the A100 but it's played everything I've ever thrown at it.

I've never connected any media locally as I prefer my current set-up which is a spare desktop pc hidden away in the garage with 4TB of local storage, all my DVDs have been ripped to ISO, the ones I hardly ever watch have been shrank using DVD shrink to reduce file sizes slightly.

I've never used wireless networking with my Popcorn although I know people who have and haven't experienced any real problems.

I'm using 200mbps homelug networking and it streams all my files with no stuttering, although I did try to stream an uncompressed Blu-ray and it wasn't watchable, but at around 20-30GB who is realistically going to store masses of uncompressed Blu-ray movies?

Not sure if you've seen it already but take a look on Networked Media Tank forum, this has loads of info on the Popcorn and the many jukeboxes available.

http://www.networkedmediatank.com/

Shaun

Steve,
I can't believe that a decent PC can not play mkv's properly. You need to get yourself a proper PC set-up!

Just as a comparison.... re-encoding a DVD on a 2ghz Dual Core, XP 32bit took me 3hrs. On my 4gz, quad-core i7, WIN7 64bit took 15mins!

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

Its not a question of the pc its what are you going to use to play the files? VLC media player is one of the better ones and its like watching rainbows of blocks on a lot of films in MKV.
I don't need to renecode anything shaun as my media centre plays it without having to mess about

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

Thats what I usually get and have 6 terrabytes worth of stuff now.

Shaun

Spare PC all set-up via the HT amp for DD/DTS etc and then HDMI passed through to the 1080p screen. Looks great, sounds great and with the WMC remote I bought, works easily with a nice WMC interface. Well chuffed!

Just been watching a few films and it was a pleasure to sit on my **** on the sofa and scan for a film to watch.

Need to complete some further personalisation of WMC and then I will carry on with the ripping of my DVD collection.

Should keep me busy for a few weeks!

stevebt

iTrader: (8)

Thats a big **** collection

Hanley

Not as big as yours