Media Centres & Players

derrilex

Yours or mine ? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

ash

Unfortunately no wife for me to sit back and admire here - hence I'll continue my next project before starting to save for the inevitiable upgraditis! Back to topic, does anyone have any experience with other OS/alternatives to W7 media centre? I'm getting a larger enough SSD to dual boot with windows7 (The comfort blanket fall back while learning a new system) with the idea of partioning it to learn about other options. The only problem to me seems that the various *nix systems are overly geeky and not ready for the slightly geekier members of joe public????

Kelsey

Installing XBMC has been pretty easy for a while now. A couple of years ago there was a guy making a self-installer that made the steps stupidly easy, but unfortunately health issues caused him to drop the project. However in the meantime, more than a few options have sprung up to take its place. This one looks particularly good: http://openelec.tv/ They've even got a hardware compatibility checker. Next time I build a media centre, I'll likely use this version of XBMC.

ash

Thanks for that Kelsey - much appreciated. I'll give this one a try when I get around to building my system, hopefully over the next 7-8 weeks, pay permitting!

UNM

on 1332484230:

My apologies UNM, I thought the Pi was available, hence that price point. When it is tho: $54 for vB, delivered to Australia. $15 for a case, delivered to Australia. $5 for a cheap HDML cable A spare USB stick or SD card. Controlled by the XBMC app for iPhone or Android.

OK, so Raspberry pi not a goer right now, but in the mix for future use. Meantime: HDML? I assume HDMI was what you meant. Got a couple lying around. Spare USB - only got 2GB, so not much of a media centre, but enough for proof of concept. Spare laptop on the other hand - got a Satellite 2410 which MAY or MAY NOT be powerful enough to run XBMC. It does have an IR port and firewire (not sure if that will be useful or not, but at least one of our PVRs supports firewire. Was thinking of an XBMC live install, but as the laptop doesn't have USB boot, that wont work. Will try that openelec.tv link tomorrow when our internet connection goes back to full speed. Right now even browsing crema is painfully slow. Another alternative would be the Dell notebook with XBMC live as it does support USB boot. Trouble is prising it away from number 2 daughter.

Kelsey

Yep - HDMI, the perils of foruming on a mobile device! You can also get some pretty good prebuilt options these days - the Zotac range, for example. Most of these run to under a couple of hundred.

UNM

Tried openelec last night. Really easy and quick to install. Just as well because it doesn't work on my hardware (hp dc7100). The generic build hangs after a few secs idle time or when setting up some things like screen saver. The intel build allegedly for my integrated graphics crashes. Ho hum, off to find a full xbmc build.

Kelsey

That's a shame UNM, XMBC for Linux can be a little bit finicky about hardware requirements. At the time I just wound up buying hardware I knew to be compatible with LIVE and went with that.

UNM

So what do people think about this? http://www.estore.com.au/Android_TV_Box_RDM0044.aspx Looks interesting for the price.

Brett H

on 1337395110:

So what do people think about this? http://www.estore.com.au/Android_TV_Box_RDM0044.aspx Looks interesting for the price.

That's a serious amount of potential for the dollars!!  Nice find.  :thumb: P.s love ya footer!

Koffee_Kosmo

I was contemplating these offerings from Kogan - http://www.kogan.com/au/shop/televisions/smart-tv/ Purely for Internet TV and to play stored shows from a hard drive KK

UNM

I finally bought an android media player today. $80+gst ($88). as I am posting on mobile, will do several short posts to make up detailed review. First impressions - seriously good value for  money. Never had a media player before (except s/w on the multi purpose pc). In the box: Media player unit. hdmi cable Power adapter (2 amp 5v) Usb digital tv tuner dongle Antenna Qwerty 2.4 GHz.remote Batteries for remote Component video and audio cables Crap instruction manual Unit has sd card slot, 2 external usb Wired lan 10/100 (also has built in wifi b/g/n) Hdmi and component output Running gingerbread 2.3.4 (there is an ICS update available, but there are, still a few issues with it). Works with sd card and usb stick. Hard drive supported but not yet tested. 720p no problem. 1080p - choppy initially, then settled down. Possibly caching issues. Few Apps by default and crappy browser. Will load opera so I can use crema chat. Remote has an accelerometer built in, so mouse control is fairly good. Attached a couple photos, with something to show scale. Edit: mfg.website www.geniatech.com This is also sold as neoniq android smart tv and  several other brands

Brett H

How are they making them for this price???  Looks great!

UNM

The store I got it from (estore) has them listed a clearance stock. They seem to sell on ebay for more, so I could probably buy a bunch and sell them there.

RichardM

Kinda wanting to buy one, but I have a PC doing the job that this would do. Yes, it would take up less space, but I'm not really short on space under the desk. I'm torn

UNM

A brief update. I unveiled the droid media player to the family yesterday. Wife and younger daughter can't understand why I would waste money on such a thing, even on clearance. Older daughter can see potential (since upgrading data plan, she has downloaded a heap of stuff). The supplied geniatech movieplayer works fine with 1080p, stock android one suffers jitter due to lack of hardware acceleration. It works fine with a portable usb drive (takes power from the player port) and with a usb stick. Media management is not it's strong point you have to browse to the file you want and then select. Android does have a built in media scanner so hopefully I can just find a suitable application. Apparently it does support standard usb and  wireless keyboards and mice. I haven't tested it yet. next step is to test the pvr and tv tuner and streaming over the network Edit: forgot to mention, no fan so dead silent. Also itis installed in glass fronted cabinet and wireless remote works fine, unlike the IR remote for the stereo.

Kelsey

That's awesome value for the money... wonder if you could run OpenElecTV on it? It's a custom build of XBMC with a ridiculously easy self-installer and has a PVR-enabled variant. You mention the management as the weak point - that's certainly something the XBMC has in spades. I've just done a complete overhaul, couldn't believe how easy it was with this build. I'm really looking forward to the wider availability of the Rasberry PI series to give it a try with this setup.

RichardM

Streaming over network is what I'm waiting to hear about. Wife asked me to buy a remote control for Windows Media Centre in the back room. I haven't yet, but they are about $30 anyway. I could replace that whole PC with one of these.

Kelsey

Well XBMC does support diskless booting and network streaming. As of the new major version update, Eden, it also supports AirPlay (as a client). I have all my files on a RAID separate from the media centre itself. The plan is to eventually have it in an entirely separate room, along with a master XBMC server and just run a bunch of diskless clients in other rooms (when other rooms actually have TVs. At present they do not.). Streaming works just fine.

UNM

on 1337756794:

That's awesome value for the money... wonder if you could run OpenElecTV on it? It's a custom build of XBMC with a ridiculously easy self-installer and has a PVR-enabled variant. You mention the management as the weak point - that's certainly something the XBMC has in spades. I've just done a complete overhaul, couldn't believe how easy it was with this build. I'm really looking forward to the wider availability of the Rasberry PI series to give it a try with this setup.

OpenElec doesn't run on any of the hardware I have lying around, nor does XBMC as an installable image. I can sort of run xbmc under ubunto, but had issues and gave up. The XBMC interface is nice, but if it wont work on my hardware, best solution is to buy a solution that does work, or get back into coding. I bought a workable solution... If Raspberry Pi wasn't vaporware, I'd have it by now but I think Android will give it a run for its money (should be win/win as both development efforts will have something to benchmark against). So this morning I spent 5 mins setting up network sharing over wireless from my study pc (an old p4 3.0GHz on wired network)and tested Wouldn't open many of my media files (not that I have many) as video - had to use 'open as' and all was good. Strange as they are recognised as video if they are on a local USB device. Need to do a bit more digging, but initial results look perfectly acceptable (haven't tried 1080 yet, but OK with 720p

UNM

according to what I have read elsewhere, the RCA stereo audio out is always active, even when using hdmi. only digital audio signal is through hdmi port, although some of the other models in the range do have a black rca socket for digital spdif.

Lacehim

on 1337818933:

according to what I have read elsewhere, the RCA stereo audio out is always active, even when using hdmi. only digital audio signal is through hdmi port, although some of the other models in the range do have a black rca socket for digital spdif.

That's the sort of set up I use to my projector, the HDMI just does video, the AMP gets audio via spdif.  I could upgrade to a new amp, but really I doubt I'll hear the difference over the fans from the PS3 & Projector so if it ain't broke I ain't fixing it.  I'm also ignoring the warning my projector gives me to change the bulb, it's done 2500 hours, and it still working fine, when it blows it will probably be cheaper to buy a new projector!  :rofl: Still like my WDTV, it plays everything I use and just works!   I'm even considering selling my PS3, Sony are a PITA with locking things down, like regions for DVDs etc.  My 7 year old plays games on it more than I do!

UNM

Although the box I bought doesn't have digital audio out, there are plenty of others available on the bay. Such as these: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Google-Android-Internet-TV-Box-4-0-WIFI-1080P-Full-HD-HDTV-MKV-Media-Player-/270970672481?pt=AU_MultiFormatMediaPlayers&hash=item3f171c5561#ht_5285wt_1038 http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Full-HD-1080P-HDMI-Google-Android-2-3-WIFI-MKV-Media-Player-Internet-TV-Box-/270982478247?pt=AU_MultiFormatMediaPlayers&hash=item3f17d079a7#ht_4651wt_1038http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Android-2-3-CortexA8-1-2G-HDMI-1080P-Wifi-Internet-Set-Top-Box-HD-Media-Player-/300700951105?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item46032c6241#ht_5317wt_1114 Obviously things change regularly and it is important not to grab a 'bargain' from a manufacturer that is dumping product and exiting the market. Several of the SE asian manufacturers do seem to be actively developing media players for the Android OS and an XBMC port IS in the works. The one I got supports ICS android 4.0 (development is ongoing and the same  firmware runs on all products across their range). It has all the ports I need, but a slightly faster  CPU might be good for future proofing as later upgrades are likely to add bloat.

Hatchy

UNM - have a crack at running PLEX. It's available for android. You will need to install plex media server on the PC that you want to stream content from. Plenty of help on plex forums, and plenty of help online elsewhere, but it's fairly easy. It's a very slick variant of XBMC - and was a fork, but now is doing well on it's own.

UNM

Thanks for the tip Hatchy, looks interesting and may (unlike xbmc) support my hardware - the info on android market is clearly written and encouraging. Shame it requires a separate media centre PC (non android) as I would really like to run a NAS with the android media player as the main (only) server. Perhaps I am being unrealistic though. Bear in mind I have limited experience with modern media environments. My first media player only had one adjustment and that was a manual adjustment to the escapement to maintain 78 rpm as the main spring tension changed  ;D Moving to vinyl from shellac was straightforward enough, but I started to lose my way with beta/vhs/laserdisc wars and sort of gave up media players for a while. I'm no technophobe, but do have a bit of catch up to do. Oh yes - that first media player still works fine (my brother has it) and it is probably much more valuable than the current crop. ^-^

Hatchy

Well there is a PLEX media server port for a number of NAS systems - perhaps you might be in luck there.

Kelsey

Hey guys, just saw this on GumTree for anyone who wants a Rasberry PI B with 8gb SDCard and small form-factor case. http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/little-mountain/other-computers-software/raspberry-pi-model-b-256mb-board/1008738259

hiphipharar

I hope this isn't your ad Kelsey but "tell 'em they're dreaming". You can buy the new 512MB model for $38, the case is $9 or less and pick up an 8GB SD card for around $12 - 15.

Kelsey

Nope, not mine - just last time I checked it was significantly more than that to get a Pi into the country with the case. Be glad of a link to the new model available in AU if you've got it?

hiphipharar

Here you go Not available for a couple of weeks though. I don't have one but my colleague does - he showed it to me today when i asked him about media players.