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I want to set up my PC as a TV and DVR, what's the best way to do this? I have a cable outlet right beside the PC, I know I could get a TV Tuner card but I know nothing about them at all and there are so many it's confusing. Hauppage(sp?) seems to be the most popular but are they any good? Are there any questions I should be asking myself before I chose? Any help would be much appreciated. Is there a better option altogether? I've searched the internet but it's basically an information overload, no good guides can be found for all the 5 year old junk
tuner you get depends on what software (dvr software) you want to run, what you want to do, and how fast your computer is.
things to know:
some with one tuner and some with 2
some with only OTA and some with QAM (unencrypted cable), some do both
hauppauge has pci/pci-e cards as well as usb
HDhomerun has several models, 2 tuner OTA/QAM, 4* tuner cable card, etc
Ceton has a 4, and a 6?, tuner card
some of these have hardware encoders, some dont (slower computers will need encoding otherwise it will be choppy, audio dropouts)
You should first figure out exactly what type of signal is coming in on that cable. Does your area still have analog cable service (my area does, but I think that's getting more scarce), or is it digital only? Are there any clear-QAM channels (which are usually just the local networks) or is it all encrypted? If it's only digital and encrypted channels that you're interested in, then you need something that can take a CableCARD.
After that, it's all about what software you want to run and how many tuners you require.
You may be better off just using a combo of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Instant Video and Bittorrent.
Otherwise you haven't given us any of your specs to be able you help you out. What type of PC do you have? Windows/Linux/Mac... Processor/RAM/HD, also like others have noted are you going for Over the Air signal, analog or Digital Cable, standard def or HD. Are you going to be using a set top box or going for a cable card(very expensive option). Give us as much detail as possible if you want competent answers.
As for using your PC as a TV and PVR, I'd recommend using XBMC to turn it into a Home Theater PC (HTPC). The site, LifeHacker, does an XBMC/HTPC guide every few months. You would still need to buy hardware like a TV tuner but XBMC does a lot on the software end.
Also, if you use XBMC, you can use your Nook Color (assuming you at least have rooted it and have access to the Andoid Market) to control the XBMC software via the XBMC remote app.
Here is a guide that lifehacker did. It's a little old but the basics are still relevant and correct. http*://lifehacker.*com/5536963/the-ultimate-start-to-finish-guide-to-your-xbmc-media-center (remove the asterisks)
What everyone else has said -- need more info on what you have, also what budget, and what cable setup.
I have an HTPC set up but it's for media streaming, not dvr recording.
One forum I found very helpful is the AVS forum (search in google), they have a sub-forum dedicated entirely to HTPCs.
Sorry for the lack on info didn't know that my PC specs mattered all that much. I am running:
Vista Home Premium, 64bit
Intel Core2 Quad CPU (Q9300 @2.5ghz)
4GB RAM
Nvidia GeForce GT240
Appx. 600gb ofhard-drive space plus a 500gb permanent external USB. I can add more HD space if it becomes a problem.
Not sure if there is any other system info you guys need.
As for my cable I dunno for sure what signal I have, I have COMCAST if that helps anyone. Mainly I want this for recording sports. I can't always watch them live and it'd be nice to DVR them for later. I'd also use it for shows, but those I can always watch online later. Can't really watch sports later though. And I'd also like to be able to just normally watch TV on my computer. I'd like to be able to do something on monitor one while the other plays live TV. Sports or whatever.
Also, to this:
Are you going to be using a set top box or going for a cable card(very expensive option).
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I am not sure what you mean. I was thinking you get the TV Tuner, install it in your PCIE slot, and watch TV on the PC. Do you need another device?
Landara said:
I am not sure what you mean. I was thinking you get the TV Tuner, install it in your PCIE slot, and watch TV on the PC. Do you need another device?
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Click to collapse
A basic TV tuner will only be able to pick up Over The Air signals and basic cable(very limited channel selection). If you want to be able to watch digital cable you'll need either a set top box or a cable card and cable card reader(like this one).
some nice basic tv tuners
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116028
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815100049
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815116015
I believe you have Windows Media Center included with your Windows version, it's probably going to be your best option for software.
Nexus 7 with portable DVD r/w NAS as wireless entertainment system for car or travel and can be used a wireless access point if you plug into your hotel or home ethernet port. I use a car inverter plug to power the samsung optical smart hub. I can read. write or stream files from cd or dvd or flash storage or hard drive attached to the hub. Can be accessed simultaeneously by 4 people. Two people can watch same dvd at different stages in the movie or 4 people can watch stream files off usb memory. UYou do not need root for doing this. It works out of the box. see my youtube video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dKvwom5K8s
also see my other nexus 7 videos on my link in my tagline below. see my various nexus 7 and android play lists as well, which might be useful for some people. subscribe to my youtube channel if you like my videos as i will be uploading few more nexus related videos as i have shot some more but havent uploaded them yet and will do so soon.
my nexus 7 is in car entertainment system and is portable as not built into dash and can take with me while travelling. My wife and child watch live TV and tv catch up and surf the net or do skype video chats for free (excluding the cost of my unlimited data plan) by tethering it to my samsung galaxy note by wifi hotspot.
my total cost was 189.99£ for 16gb nexus 7 + about 70£ for samsung optical smarthub from amazon + 15£ for car inverter = cheap as chips in car entertainment system / NAS that can be shared by 4 people wirelesly and can play dvds, read / write / copy / stream to dvd / cd / flash drive / hard drive and do device back ups or watch internet tv and radio and skype video chats. Has got ethernet port to connect to hotel ethernet port to use a wifi access point when travelling. Can connect to laptop to act as internal drive via usb or as dvd player for TVs although i havent tried those features.
so I had obvious questions, like software, wifi setup, etc, but I guess this "smarthub" device has much of that built-in. how is it over bumps? lose data connection any? can this work with any video/media file type or does it have to be DVD movies only?
640k said:
so I had obvious questions, like software, wifi setup, etc, but I guess this "smarthub" device has much of that built-in. how is it over bumps? lose data connection any? can this work with any video/media file type or does it have to be DVD movies only?
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Click to collapse
i cant answer all the questions today but might be able to either tomorrow or over the next few days. I am on holiday for the last week and will be for about a week more. So busy travelling or making travel plans most of the time as am going on short breaks on a daily basis or recovering in between.
They sent me one with a EU plug and the fit into the inverter is a bit loose. Although i get a contact i dont like it being loose so just use an existing EU to UK plug adapter from tesco (think might have been £1 or so) to plug into my car inverter. The nexus 7 has no probs catching the signal or playing dvds or cds. I tried accessing documents and they work fine as do avi videos from what i remember but i emtied that flash drive for other stuff so cant check the formats now.
I didnt get to use the hub much as my 3y child was more interested with playing on the nexus 7 or watching cartoons on the internet television or my wife was watching television on it so i couldnt check it out as i was driving most of the time. Will try to check it out tomorrow or over the next few days.
The techradardeals website seems to have goofed up and i got an email saying my two 64gb flash drives usb 3.0 are not being delivered, so i am busy making other arrangements for my data for the trip. I had deleted some of my movies from my sd cards in anticipation of getting the drives but now have to copy them to alternate flash drives IF i can find some spares tonight as most of my existing ones are filled with other documents. But will definitely try some dvds tomorrow if my child allows it as she will be using the nexus 7 while i am driving! Today and the last few days she was busy playing on the nexus 7 in the back seat or watching internet TV or skype video chatting or my wife was surfing or watching internet TV, so i didnt get much of a chance using the device myself! Am wondering whether to get another nexus 7 now for only myself. This one was my childs present!!! which i thought i could use but my child has other ideas!!! so my PLAN to get a gadget for myself didnt work out!! I still use the tablet when at home or at night though. But my child uses the tablet the entire journey if she is not sleeping, by playing games or watching TV or listening to songs as she now wants to hear it on the tablet rather than the car stereo and she is only three soon to be four years old.
Anyway enough of me digressing from your queries.
You can see more videos and tutorials and FAQs for the device here http://samsung-odd.com/eng/
the user manual here http://www.samsungodd.com/WebManual/SmartHub/SE-208BW/en/index.html
specifications here http://www.samsungodd.com/WebManual/SmartHub/SE-208BW/en/Specifications_Product.html
you can directly connect this to compatible TVs or photo frames with usb slot function http://www.samsungodd.com/WebManual/SmartHub/SE-208BW/en/Using_AV_Function.html
I am not sure what codecs etc are supported. File sizes cant be more than 4gb. There are a couple more videos on this device on my "android accessories playlist" as far as i remember. see the one by mavericchoi if i remember the name right.
got a few dvds to test tomorrow and some videos (m4v, avi) copying to my flash drive now. will check it tomorrow or over the next 3 days and get back here. they work fine in the stationary car, so i dont see why they wouldnt work while moving unless the electrical connection gets loose. wifi signal strength is great.
640k said:
so I had obvious questions, like software, wifi setup, etc, but I guess this "smarthub" device has much of that built-in. how is it over bumps? lose data connection any? can this work with any video/media file type or does it have to be DVD movies only?
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Click to collapse
Dvd works fine in my car and handles the bumps fine. Did not loose connection at any point. Flash drive seems corrupted, as my movies are not working working. But previous hard drive movies played fine.
I bought one of these as well, and it works great with the Nexus 7. I haven't put it in the car yet, as I'm still doing my testing, but here are the things I've noticed so far.
1. My MP4 files aren't playing when using the Samsung Smart Hub app. It always says unsupported media type. I used handbrake and the ATV2 setting, which works for every other third party player I've tried (BSPlayer, ES File Manager player), but the Samsung video player chokes on them. However, if I use the same ATV2 setting, but choose MKV, they play. Definitely an issue with the Samsung player.
2. The Samsung video player cannot handle any HD content without stuttering. That's pretty much a kiss of death for me, because I'm not ripping the DVDs that come with my BDs just to have them for travelling. So, instead I use ES File Manager - the navigation is very easy and the player works great for all of my HD content.
3. If you want to play DVDs using the streaming app, then the Samsung video player definitely works and does the job perfectly. The only issue I had was getting a message about setting the correct region. All of my mobile devices can play DVDs that way (HTC One X, Nexus 7, iPod touch, and iPhone 4s).
4. MP3s play great using the Samsung video player.
Those are really the only things I've noticed so far. I don't have any other media types to try, because I only use MP4 and MP3, but for me this device will do exactly what I want - have a mobile media hub during our long trips, that all of my mobile devices can use.
If you visit the Samsung ODD support website and read the manual, and watch the videos, setup is a breeze. First thing - make sure you already have a USB drive/stick/etc with some movies or songs on it, because the SmartHub will choke when you try to navigate around in the app. I have a 32GB SD card (Amazon Basics - cheap but works great) and a SanDisk MicroMate SD reader plugged into the Hub, and it works great. External USB hard drives work, too - I've tried two different 2.5 SATA drives and both had no issues. After you set it up, plug the USB drive in before doing anything else. I didn't bother with the included setup CD - I just connected the SmartHub to my home network via ethernet cable, let it acquire an IP, then I used IE and browsed to http://smarthub. I could set everything up that way, including doing a firmware update. My device came with A00, and A03 was available, so I went ahead and did the firmware update. Once that was done, I changed the SSID and password (the default SSID and password is on a label on the bottom of the device), changed the SAMBA sharing password, then I disconnected it from my home network and rebooted the device.
Next, I changed my Nexus wireless network to the SmartHub's - that's very important, because you can't use it at all unless your mobile devices and the SmartHub are on the same subnet! I think that's the biggest issue with people having problems getting things to work. I started the Samsung Mobile Smart Hub (previously downloaded from Google Play), set my SAMBA password, and I was up and running.
I don't think I'd use this for my home network streaming/playback, because I already have things in place that take care of media, but I don't think there's a better media hub type device for travelling.
Thanks. OP! I just ordered one as they are on sale for $40 at Amazon (US):
http://amzn.com/B007JUFLS0
Not knocking the Samsung thing -- especially at only $40 -- but anyone considering it should at least look at the (much more expensive) Seagate Satellite. It is a battery-powered 500gb HDD with onboard WIFI and file server. I've installed hacked firmware and can stream four different movies to four different devices simultaneously without problems. Now three kids of differing ages and tastes can watch whatever they want to watch on a long car trip.
At $40, the Samsung thing is a steal -- almost an at-the-cash-register impulse buy. At $160, the Satellite is a good value, but not an impulse buy. But being able to store 500gb of movies... well worth the money IMHO.
SoonerLater said:
Not knocking the Samsung thing -- especially at only $40 -- but anyone considering it should at least look at the (much more expensive) Seagate Satellite. It is a battery-powered 500gb HDD with onboard WIFI and file server. I've installed hacked firmware and can stream four different movies to four different devices simultaneously without problems. Now three kids of differing ages and tastes can watch whatever they want to watch on a long car trip.
At $40, the Samsung thing is a steal -- almost an at-the-cash-register impulse buy. At $160, the Satellite is a good value, but not an impulse buy. But being able to store 500gb of movies... well worth the money IMHO.
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Click to collapse
But does the HDD come with an intuitive user I interface that kids can use and understand in order to select the movie they want to watch? That's the biggest draw with the Samsung solution, even if the interface is a little spartan in design.
SoonerLater said:
Not knocking the Samsung thing -- especially at only $40 -- but anyone considering it should at least look at the (much more expensive) Seagate Satellite. It is a battery-powered 500gb HDD with onboard WIFI and file server. I've installed hacked firmware and can stream four different movies to four different devices simultaneously without problems. Now three kids of differing ages and tastes can watch whatever they want to watch on a long car trip.
At $40, the Samsung thing is a steal -- almost an at-the-cash-register impulse buy. At $160, the Satellite is a good value, but not an impulse buy. But being able to store 500gb of movies... well worth the money IMHO.
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Click to collapse
Thank you for sharing this, any chance you could say where you got the firmware from? This could be pretty amazing with a head rest mount.
Hey guys, getting into getting a home media server setup and need help. Currently I want to keep this as cheep as possible. I want to take a 3TB external HDD found here, connect it to a raspberry pi with wifi found here, and use it to connect the HDD to the raspberry pi, and my ubuntu/windows laptop as a media center. I want to be able to use my HDD for anything and everything I want to do on my laptop, but also have a partition plugged into the raspberry pi, with all my movies and music on it to stream around my house. I want to be able to rip a DVD, or buy an MP4, copy it to that folder, turn off my computer, and still be able to use the raspberry pi as the media server. Then I want to be able to play everything on the raspberry pi on my PS3, Xbox 360, unlocked wii, rooted android tablets/phones, and other computer on my local internet connection. I know the raspberry pi supports a XBMC setup, and also linux. Is there a way to setup it up like that with XBMC, and connect to all my devices, or a better software approach? I chose the pi for its price, and its options to change software for many purposes, and extra accessories for the price. Currently I have 1 xbox 360 elite, PS3 250GB, a unlocked/hacked wii, and a stock wii (able to mod also) I want to stream to, and android devices would be a plus, especially if away from home. I get 25MB/s internet download speeds, but I have a 300MB/S dual band motorola surfboard router. Would it be possible to set this all up how I want? The consoles are already setup to all the TVs, and I have experience tinkering with software. I want to keep this under $100 if possible (HDD is already ordered), since I already have all the consoles and TVs.
This would be awesome.
I'm currently trying to do just this. I've not found much help online for this. Any luck so far?
Hey @ All
Simple Little Question.
Is it Possible to Connect the HTC ONE with the Playstation 3 for the Remote Play?!
I just want to get the Ps3 Screen on my ONE
Possible?!
There's no way... :/
Good idea though!
you need a video input card for your pc to view the ps3 screen on your pc... then use splashtop app to view your PC screen on your ONE
yeah this could be a joke sometime ago, but since splashtop uses your Lan to do the "mirroring" of you PC to you Android, if your pc can handle without problem the video input of ps3, and you have a VERY good router and conection, this joke is possible... the only and really problem are the controls, you can play in your house but only because the ps3 controller is wireless, and obviously not out of your house...
I have seen movies playing on my PC in my one, played zelda and borderlans 2 (installed on PC) on my ONE, Is not comfortable but possible, and if you manage low resolutions is a LOT more even possible XP
now imaginate someone make a virtual ps3 controller that could run from a PC, and using a bluetooth dongle can connect to the ps3 as a normal controller, then uses sixasis to asign common butons to the gamepad thru splashtop on the pc...then this joke could be even more possible... LOL i worked a lot today, I'm hella high xDDDD
SLver said:
you need a video input card for your pc to view the ps3 screen on your pc... then use splashtop app to view your PC screen on your ONE
yeah this could be a joke sometime ago, but since splashtop uses your Lan to do the "mirroring" of you PC to you Android, if your pc can handle without problem the video input of ps3, and you have a VERY good router and conection, this joke is possible... the only and really problem are the controls, you can play in your house but only because the ps3 controller is wireless, and obviously not out of your house...
I have seen movies playing on my PC in my one, played zelda and borderlans 2 (installed on PC) on my ONE, Is not comfortable but possible, and if you manage low resolutions is a LOT more even possible XP
now imaginate someone make a virtual ps3 controller that could run from a PC, and using a bluetooth dongle can connect to the ps3 as a normal controller, then uses sixasis to asign common butons to the gamepad thru splashtop on the pc...then this joke could be even more possible... LOL i worked a lot today, I'm hella high xDDDD
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Click to collapse
i was thinking of Taking a closer look at the method of data transmission both through Wireshark ect... and DPI's i got at access to at work, not sure how feasible this idea will be, to Hi-Jack the data trasmission at a lower layer level to the ONE...... not sure the resolution would adjust the the One's screen though.
Is there a way I can view my movies that are stored on my external hard drive through chromecast?
I travel extensively and I do not carry a laptop (if I did, yes simple hdmi into the tv) but I don't have that luxury. I have a tf300 and nex 7-2013 and rooted n2
Thanks
Sent from my SCH-I605 using Tapatalk
ganggreen777 said:
Is there a way I can view my movies that are stored on my external hard drive through chromecast?
I travel extensively and I do not carry a laptop (if I did, yes simple hdmi into the tv) but I don't have that luxury. I have a tf300 and nex 7-2013 and rooted n2
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Your TF300 doesn't have HDMI output? My wife's original Transformer has Mini-HDMI. Add cheap adapter or Mini-to-regular HDMI cable and it has HDMI to TV.
Do either of your devices support attached USB storage? If so, one of the apps that supports casting of device-local media would work - Avia, AllCast, RealPlayer Cloud...
You may not be able to cast all your media, especially if it's not in a Chromecast-compatible format, so if you have HDMI output, it's much less headache and more versatile (play way more formats with MX Player, etc), save for being wired.
Use a micro usb otg cable to mount as storage to your android phone, may require a special kernel, and Allcast/Chromecast combo to stream to the tv should do the trick. Course I haven't tried mounting a huge hard drive to my nexus. But a small 32gb flash stick works.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
bhiga said:
Your TF300 doesn't have HDMI output? My wife's original Transformer has Mini-HDMI. Add cheap adapter or Mini-to-regular HDMI cable and it has HDMI to TV.
Do either of your devices support attached USB storage? If so, one of the apps that supports casting of device-local media would work - Avia, AllCast, RealPlayer Cloud...
You may not be able to cast all your media, especially if it's not in a Chromecast-compatible format, so if you have HDMI output, it's much less headache and more versatile (play way more formats with MX Player, etc), save for being wired.
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O I definitely plugs my terabyte to the keyboard and plugs hdmi....it works flawlessly. Just trying to figure wirelessly
(I do use ravpower rp_wd01 and airstor .....and plug hdmi from tf300 into tv. Want to use cc while tapping into my terabyte
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
ganggreen777 said:
O I definitely plugs my terabyte to the keyboard and plugs hdmi....it works flawlessly. Just trying to figure wirelessly
(I do use ravpower rp_wd01 and airstor .....and plug hdmi from tf300 into tv. Want to use cc while tapping into my terabyte
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Click to collapse
AllCast, Avia or RealPlayer Cloud should work, but verify it can access your external storage before buying.
-= this post enhanced with bonus mobile typos =-
I love allcast .....all of these apps read what's in your phone...I'm trying to get my phone or tablets to read my external hd then cast to cc...that's pretty much the crux of what I'm looking to do
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
External storage is usually handled similar to SD card, as in it's mounted as a folder like /mnt/usb1 or / storage/usbdrive so it's whether the app scans that location. Actually, Avia and probably others let you share to our, so you could use a file manager to browse then share to the casting app.
-= this post enhanced with bonus mobile typos =-
ganggreen777 said:
O I definitely plugs my terabyte to the keyboard and plugs hdmi....it works flawlessly. Just trying to figure wirelessly
(I do use ravpower rp_wd01 and airstor .....and plug hdmi from tf300 into tv. Want to use cc while tapping into my terabyte
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Ravpower should be getting a firmware update in April (and there's a new version of the hardware coming too apparently) which will give it DLNA support as well as SMB. That may make things a little simpler for hooking things up.
I must admit I'm in a similar position - I too use a portable HD and a WD01 when travelling, although at the moment it's via my work laptop and Displayport-->HDMI adaptor and cable (I don't plug the HD directly into the laptop as the AV then insists on scanning it, not quick for a 2TB drive). But I'm hoping soon to be able to do something direct using an HDMI dongle of some flavour, DLNA on the WD01 and control via either my Nexus7 or my HTC8X. Other alternative is Avia or similar to read SMB from the WD01 to my Nexus 7 and then cast it out to a CC. But I presume that will tie-up the tablet from being usable for much else whilst doing so? And of course there doesn't seem to be anything for CC on WinPhone8 yet.
A question from my side to people who know (now that Google have released the CC in the UK) - is there any way to do DLNA display with one? I recall reading somewhere that the plex app might work for that, but I'm not sure. Currently in two minds whether to go with a CC or a Chinese DLNA dongle (an EZCast or similar). Most of the time it's used in hotels abroad, so would be for playing local stuff as IP address (and network speed) would stomp iPlayer et al. Any recommendations between the two options from people who have experience or have done similar would be gratefully received.
DarrenHill said:
The Ravpower should be getting a firmware update in April (and there's a new version of the hardware coming too apparently) which will give it DLNA support as well as SMB. That may make things a little simpler for hooking things up.
I must admit I'm in a similar position - I too use a portable HD and a WD01 when travelling, although at the moment it's via my work laptop and Displayport-->HDMI adaptor and cable (I don't plug the HD directly into the laptop as the AV then insists on scanning it, not quick for a 2TB drive). But I'm hoping soon to be able to do something direct using an HDMI dongle of some flavour, DLNA on the WD01 and control via either my Nexus7 or my HTC8X. Other alternative is Avia or similar to read SMB from the WD01 to my Nexus 7 and then cast it out to a CC. But I presume that will tie-up the tablet from being usable for much else whilst doing so? And of course there doesn't seem to be anything for CC on WinPhone8 yet.
A question from my side to people who know (now that Google have released the CC in the UK) - is there any way to do DLNA display with one? I recall reading somewhere that the plex app might work for that, but I'm not sure. Currently in two minds whether to go with a CC or a Chinese DLNA dongle (an EZCast or similar). Most of the time it's used in hotels abroad, so would be for playing local stuff as IP address (and network speed) would stomp iPlayer et al. Any recommendations between the two options from people who have experience or have done similar would be gratefully received.
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Click to collapse
Casting from another server using Avia will "tie up" the device and use 3X the media bandwidth on the network (NAS->Device + Device->AP + AP->Chromecast) if the source is NAS, 2X for local media on the device (Device->AP + AP->Chromecast).
To be honest, if you're a regular traveler that needs/wants to play media, a standalone media player like WDTV, Roku, Popcorn Hour,etc would be a better/more convenient solution.
Media Player - 2 or 3 pieces
Media Player
Storage device
Wireless bridge, dongle or router if necessary
Chromecast - 4 pieces
Chromecast
Storage device
Wireless router (using premise wireless usually will not work and even if it does bandwidth will be an issue)
Phone/Tablet/Laptop to "drive" Chromecast
True - I think I'm going to go the DLNA dongle route. Had a quick look at a Chromecast this lunchtime at PC World (and a chat with a Google demonstrator). Looks a nice bit of kit to turn a suitable dumb TV into a smart one, but not quite what I want in this case. The media is already on a portable HD, and the Ravpower WD-01 is a portable hotspot anyway, so basically between the two (which I carry anyway) it's a portable NAS (soon with DLNA hopefully).
So once that is in place, the dongle and WD-01 should then form a DLNA pair (as player/renderer and server respectively) with either my N7 or 8X as the controller.
The Chromecast does look nice though generally, albeit rather odd that it doesn't have DLNA/Airplay support generally (although I guess by adding the Plex app you could get something like that?). But I guess that's not quite what they had in mind for it.
DarrenHill said:
The Chromecast does look nice though generally, albeit rather odd that it doesn't have DLNA/Airplay support generally (although I guess by adding the Plex app you could get something like that?). But I guess that's not quite what they had in mind for it.
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Click to collapse
Yes, Chromecast is a bit different in its intent - it's more of a "media player extension" to your existing smart device.
Plex on Chromecast still requires Plex Media Server running on something. If PMS is running on the NAS device it doesn't add to the equipment count, but PMS on NAS can't always transcode, so that limits the benefit to a degree.
The only tricky part with DLNA is the variance in support between servers and clients. DLNA defines the protocols for exposing and transferring the media, but it's still up to the server what it wants to show, and the renderer wants to render.
External subtitles (separate files like .srt and .ssa) are especially tricky as not all servers will send the subtitle data along with the requested video.
And of course not all DLNA servers will transcode, so the format of your media still matters a lot.
bhiga said:
Yes, Chromecast is a bit different in its intent - it's more of a "media player extension" to your existing smart device.
Plex on Chromecast still requires Plex Media Server running on something. If PMS is running on the NAS device it doesn't add to the equipment count, but PMS on NAS can't always transcode, so that limits the benefit to a degree.
The only tricky part with DLNA is the variance in support between servers and clients. DLNA defines the protocols for exposing and transferring the media, but it's still up to the server what it wants to show, and the renderer wants to render.
External subtitles (separate files like .srt and .ssa) are especially tricky as not all servers will send the subtitle data along with the requested video.
And of course not all DLNA servers will transcode, so the format of your media still matters a lot.
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The video media is MP4 and the audio MP3 or M4A, so hopefully nothing there that's too weird or abstract. Hopefully no transcoding needed, just playback. Subtitles I can live without, but it's a valid point generally.
Plex server won't be an option on the WD-01 (without some serious hacking), so I'm more sure now that DLNA is the way to go. And if it doesn't work, it's only a £20 loss on the whole deal, which I can live with. Anyway the dongle is on order now, so we'll see in a week or two once it arrives and I get to play with it. Now also looking through the various apps for both devices to control it, but there's choices on both so all should be fine I hope.
DarrenHill said:
The video media is MP4 and the audio MP3 or M4A, so hopefully nothing there that's too weird or abstract. Hopefully no transcoding needed, just playback. Subtitles I can live without, but it's a valid point generally.
Plex server won't be an option on the WD-01 (without some serious hacking), so I'm more sure now that DLNA is the way to go. And if it doesn't work, it's only a £20 loss on the whole deal, which I can live with. Anyway the dongle is on order now, so we'll see in a week or two once it arrives and I get to play with it. Now also looking through the various apps for both devices to control it, but there's choices on both so all should be fine I hope.
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Your media should be compatible with all but the very old/klunky DLNA players, so sounds like a good choice for you!
bhiga said:
Your media should be compatible with all but the very old/klunky DLNA players, so sounds like a good choice for you!
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Happily I can report that it works well (got an iPush dongle in the end, for the DLNA renderer). That said the dongle does have rather a worrying security hole in it (its wifi hotspot password is generically fixed, not changable and publically available) which I'm now trying to persuade the maker to fix via new firmware.
All I need now is for a DLNA firmware update for my RavPower filehub (currently being produced, according to them, due in a few weeks time) and also maybe a DLNA-capable player for my HTC 8X (currently nothing suitable in the WP8 store, only apps that can act as renderers or controllers!). But even at the moment my Nexus 7 can happily read the filehub via SMB and DLNA-cast to the dongle