Which media streamer? Boxee TV, jailbroken Apple TV or something else?

[bigboss]

I've recently invested in a Synology NAS. I now want to stream movies from it. I've got a PS3 upstairs as well as downstairs, but it plays only a few movies & does not recognise the rest. The jailbroken Apple TV2 upstairs can stream all the movies.

I now need a similar solution for the lounge (my home cinema). My options are:

1) Another jailbroken Apple TV. ATV3 cannot be jailbroken yet, & ATV2 isn't 1080p.

2) Boxee TV. It's also AirPlay compatible but won't play DRM movies (I have a few digital copies, but I can always rip the DVD to a format Boxee can recognise).

3) WD TV live. But it's not AirPlay compatible.

4) Any other suggestions?

What do you think? I want something that can play any format you can throw at it.

 

[BenLaw]

I don't know the answer, but will be interested to read the responses.

Is playing ripped blu rays a requirement?

 

[AnotherJoe]

What is the exact model of Synology NAS?

Depending on the model the solution may be very simple.

 

[bigboss]

Is playing ripped blu rays a requirement?

Not really, but will be nice to have this feature.

 

[bigboss]

What model of Synology NAS exactly?

Synology DS212J. How will the model number affect the decision? I thought all Synology products run the same software (DRM 4.0) :?

 

[AnotherJoe]

If you had one of the more powerful ones (eg DS412+) you could just install a transcoding media server on the NAS itself and then any dlna client could play anything.

Unfortunately the ds212j isnt powerful enough, so your best best is a mediaplayer supporting Samba/NFS. If you dont need netflix, lovefilm etc, and just want to stream off your NAS then the playon!hd mini2 (£75) is a good bet, and will play virtually any format.

*wont play drm stuff from itunes.

 

[bigboss]

Thanks. I'm a bit wary of products having more 1-star reviews than 5-star ones. Which extra format does this support which WD TV or Boxee don't? Also, it looks like wireless is an optional extra, requiring a USB adapter.

 

[bigboss]

According to Firecore, jailbreak for ATV3 is in the works. Should I just buy the ATV3 then? My brother-in-law is coming next weekend from the US. I can get it for £59 from there.

 

[bigboss]

Apparently, jailbreaking Apple TV3 is very difficult. I don't think I'm bothered about the digital copies of films on iTunes. I have my blu ray player, can always watch the film on blu ray!

I've ordered a Boxee Box. Seems to tick all boxes for me. :cheers:

 

[Chewy]

My vote would be for the Netgear NeoTV 550, it works great for me and the interface is the best I have used, with the minimum of fuss.

If I was to ditch the Neo, I would be looking at the Dune players - they should certainly be on your short list.

EDIT - our posts crossed, you've already made your decision, sorry.

 

[bigboss]

Thanks for your input! Actually, I did consider the Netgear NeoTV 550, but it doesn't have built-in wifi. I seriously considered Dune as well, but didn't find enough reviews, & struggled to find decent English videos to check its interface.

 

[cwalduck]

I curently messing around with a Raspberry PI running XBMC, dosn't do ISO, or mpeg 2 and stutters with 96khz 24bit flac but everything else is just fine.

Watched a 1080P movie with DTS 5.1 over my home plugs without a stutter, play FLAC music 44.1khz 16bit no problem, use iplayer, ITVplayer, demand5 and 4od all over HDMI.

Use iPhone and iPod touch as remote.

Incredable for something the size of a credit card and only £28, had to supply my own lego enclosure though (the kids had enough knocking around).

But not for the faint hearted.

 

[AnotherJoe]

While ATV3 supports 1080p30 - it only supports a bitrate of 5Mb/s with CABAC and 4 reference frames, giving an effective bit rate still of only 10Mb/s.

So watching blu-ray quality rips with a jailbroken ATV3 is out of the question.

Whatever streamer you get I'd forget about wifi to stream HD - use homeplugs, and even then make sure they are the new av500 standard.

The playon is my main streamer I use, (I also have a WD and 2 HDX) It plays anything without fuss, and has had major firmware updates since the review.

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/reviews/1118/pg1/ac-ryan-playonhd-mini-2-media-player-acr-pv73800-review-introduction.html

 

[bigboss]

Whatever streamer you get I'd forget about wifi to stream HD - use homeplugs, and even then make sure they are the new av500 standard.

Well, there's no space in my AV cabinet (& no spare plugs) for a homeplug.

 

[Amadeus1756]

BB,

I'm running XBMC on a Mac Mini (and apple remote) and it's a beautiful thing. I've not found anything that it won't play.

I have ISO images, various image formats.

You could get yourself a small windows box if a Mac Mini isn't in the budget right now - could probably do it for a few hundred quid.

I'd really very much recommend it. If you're in berkshire, you'd be more than welcome to pop over and see it in action.

I'm actually looking to buy a NAS but as yet haven't made up my mind as to which to get. I'm looking for it to host VMs, SVN, media for XBMC and music for my Sonos. Will be interesting to see how you get on with Synology.

Rgds

 

[bigboss]

Thanks, but all I need is the ability to play a few videos off my NAS. I won't be using all the extra features a Windows box or Mac Mini will offer. I see no reason to spend more than a media streamer.

 

[Anonymous]

Out of all the devices I have tried (includind a WDTV, ATV) I'd say the Boxee Box is by far my favorite device for playback from a NAS, especially if you want something you can just plug in and use.

I'm currently running the Boxee with a Synology NAS

Very pleased with it, well designed interface, automatically pulls down info and covers from IMDB, plays pretty much every formats I have ever thrown at it and handles BluRay rips, albeit currently without menus. It also feels like a professionally built/designed product with pretty regular firmware updates.

Had no issues handling Airplay Video and Audio.

Some of the additional features on it like the web browser and apps feel a bit weak, and I expect harm it in comparative reviews, but to be honest I rarely use them, for it's key purpose of playback of local (or NAS located) content it's great.

It does use a RF based remote (looks like an Apple TV remote with a small keyboard on the back) which means if you want to use a Harmony remote with it you'll need to purchase a USB IrDA dongle (although that works fine for me and an IrDA dongle can be picked up cheaply).

You'll probably also want to have it hard wired to your router over ethernet if you plan to stream 1080p or BluRay rips, as it only has a 802.11g wifi card, although to be honest if your streaming hi bitrate 1080p or blue ray rips, even 802.11n will probably result in annoying dropouts.

 

[bigboss]

It does use a RF based remote (looks like an Apple TV remote with a small keyboard on the back) which means if you want to use a Harmony remote with it you'll need to purchase a USB IrDA dongle (although that does work fine for me and be picked up cheaply).

Thanks for the info.

You'll probably also need to have it hard wired to your ethernet if you want to stream 1080p or BluRay rips, as it only has a 802.11g wifi card, although to be honest if your streaming hi bitrate 1080p or blue ray rips, even 802.11n will probably resulting annoying dropouts.

At the moment, it is not possible for me to connect a homeplug there, unless I connect it to the extension. I don't have any blu ray rips or 1080p content on my NAS currently. 802.11ac standard is coming later this year for streaming HD content. Obviously that would mean new hardware then.

 

[Anonymous]

TBH even over 802.11g the playback is fine for most content, 720p has no issues and average bitrate 1080p does play, albeit with a slightly longer buffering before playback starts and the possiblity of a couple of moments of rebuffering every hour, but that's probably true of any device, the Boxee certianly isn't any worse than any other I have tried in this respect. IIRC (before hardwiring mine) AirPlay (audio or video) both tended to work fine over 802.11g. You could always pick up a 802.11ac bridge later on, in fact the Boxee has support for USB WiFi dongles, do check the driver support first, so it might just be as simple as plugging a nice and neat one-piece 802.11ac USB->antenna dongle in the back.

One other thing I forgot to mention is that is playback of music is your key goal, it doesn't AFAIK (I primarilly use mine for video) have support for playlist building on the client side, although you can use folders on the NAS to achive something similar if required (although support for symlinks/alias on the NAS doesn't work out of the box IIRC). For video you can create 'watch later' lists so you can queue up a number of films that are on your 'watch list' which is quite a simple but nice feature.

Slightly off topic, if you have a iPhone/iPad the SynoDS app (look on the iTunes store) works a treat with the Synology NAS

 

[bigboss]

I've got my Sonos for music.

SynoDS app looks very interesting! Thanks for pointing it out to me!

 

[AnotherJoe]

Just remember you cant play BD-ISO over wireless. If this is important to you (about 10% of my movies are BD-ISOs), then it will need to have wired or homeplug connection.

One advantage of a streamer over something like a macmini/aio pc is that streamers use less than 10W when playing.

 

[bigboss]

Thanks. I won't have BD-ISO files. I can always watch blu ray films on my Panasonic BD60. I agree regarding media streamers. That seems more suited to my requirements.

 

[bigboss]

After playing with my Boxee Box for a couple of weeks, I must say I'm very impressed so far.

It plays all the videos on my NAS wirelessly with beautiful metadata. It also pulls all my Facebook friends' videos on their walls in one place (didn't know this until yesterday!). Initially, it had trouble connecting to my BT Home Hub 3, but since I upgraded to AirPort Extreme, that seems to have sorted.

The app list is quite exhaustive including Spotify & iplayer. ITV player's missing.

I'm yet to test the AirPlay feature.

 

[bigboss]

You'll probably also want to have it hard wired to your router over ethernet if you plan to stream 1080p or BluRay rips, as it only has a 802.11g wifi card, although to be honest if your streaming hi bitrate 1080p or blue ray rips, even 802.11n will probably result in annoying dropouts.

I can confirm that Boxee Box is wifi b, g & n certified.

 

[bigboss]

AirPlay works brilliantly as well! :clap: