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NorN
Ok. Heres my issue. I have alot of downloaded movies on a external hard drive. Currently I download movies on my computer, transfer them to my hard drive, then plug the hard drive into my wd tv media player and watch it on my tv. Im about to upgrade my tvs to ones with apps/wifi and buy the new WD Tv live player. Im looking for a easier way to stream movies to multiple tvs in the house. So here are my ideas(please give me any info on how to stream videos without lag):
1. Use my computer to share videos to my new wd tv live player. However I need an external hard drive in order to get the amount of storage i need for my movie collection. (about 1tb and growing) Will adding the external hard drive to my computers shared network slow down the streaming from the computer?
2. Use a hub like the Pogoplug Series 4 or the Akitio MyCloud Mini. I heard streaming videos from these two cloud services isnt lag or jitter free when watching on tvs though.
3. Buy a media player and external hard drive for each tv and watch like that. Honestly I hate this option because I know there has to be an easier way.
4. Buy a cloud service from Google or Microsoft and stream videos from there. (heard there is lag)
Please help. I just want to stream my large movie/tv collection in the easiest way to multiple tvs.
PS I found the Buffalo Technology LinkStation Pro Duo and alot of reviews say the streaming is very nice.
Answer
1.) No, this will not slow down the streaming.
Imagine that at DVD or even Blu-Ray quality you're streaming 1800kbits to 1.2Mbits to each device. Even if there were 10 devices running 10 different Blu-Ray movies at once, you'd only be up to 12Mbits. Even old network equipment (like a 100Mbit hub... not even a switching hub) should be able to handle this amount of throughput. Your problem would end up being hard drive latency as you're asking the drive to read from so many sources at once. But a 1TB drive with a 12ms seek time and a decent 16MB of hard cache would handle this fine.
2.) I know nothing about these and as a super-nerd... if I haven't heard of them I automatically assume they aren't worth using but here I go on a search. Ok I looked. No, if you're going to use a service such as this you'll have to upload each file to the cloud first. That should be fun... you get a 4.8GB movie from giganews, download it to your computer (an hour or less depending on your ISP) then you go to watch it and - no. you now have to upload it first to the cloud (a few hours more) before you can watch it and hope there isn't lag with these services. Better to keep everything local.
3.) You're right. There are better ways. If you were going to do this, you might as well spend half as much and install a nice, dedicated Windows Media Center or XBMC computer in your closet, wire it to each TV and use RF remotes throughout the house to control the streaming for each device.
4.) Same as number 2. These might be better, faster connections (MS uses connexion.net which is ridiculously fast) but they are nowhere near as fast as your local connection and you'll have to upload the videos first. When Google Fiber finally hits all our markets and we have Gigabit upload this will be the preferred solution but it's looking like we are about 5 years away from that scenario.
I think the best methods are:
A.) add a network attached storage drive and then stream from it using an inexpensive set-top for each TV such as a roku player or WD Live, etc. Some Blu-Ray players and game consoles have software for this option so you may not need that many.
B.) Engineer a whole house solution based around a Windows Media center computer or XBMC computer.
If you watch a lot of Anime or foreign films with subtitles you will need to pay special attention to the streaming requirements of these videos and their file format packaging (10bit MKV's don't play on most players and often embedded subs files are ignored.)
When this happens, the videos require initial conversion before you're able to stream them and that's almost as frustrating as having to upload files first.
1.) No, this will not slow down the streaming.
Imagine that at DVD or even Blu-Ray quality you're streaming 1800kbits to 1.2Mbits to each device. Even if there were 10 devices running 10 different Blu-Ray movies at once, you'd only be up to 12Mbits. Even old network equipment (like a 100Mbit hub... not even a switching hub) should be able to handle this amount of throughput. Your problem would end up being hard drive latency as you're asking the drive to read from so many sources at once. But a 1TB drive with a 12ms seek time and a decent 16MB of hard cache would handle this fine.
2.) I know nothing about these and as a super-nerd... if I haven't heard of them I automatically assume they aren't worth using but here I go on a search. Ok I looked. No, if you're going to use a service such as this you'll have to upload each file to the cloud first. That should be fun... you get a 4.8GB movie from giganews, download it to your computer (an hour or less depending on your ISP) then you go to watch it and - no. you now have to upload it first to the cloud (a few hours more) before you can watch it and hope there isn't lag with these services. Better to keep everything local.
3.) You're right. There are better ways. If you were going to do this, you might as well spend half as much and install a nice, dedicated Windows Media Center or XBMC computer in your closet, wire it to each TV and use RF remotes throughout the house to control the streaming for each device.
4.) Same as number 2. These might be better, faster connections (MS uses connexion.net which is ridiculously fast) but they are nowhere near as fast as your local connection and you'll have to upload the videos first. When Google Fiber finally hits all our markets and we have Gigabit upload this will be the preferred solution but it's looking like we are about 5 years away from that scenario.
I think the best methods are:
A.) add a network attached storage drive and then stream from it using an inexpensive set-top for each TV such as a roku player or WD Live, etc. Some Blu-Ray players and game consoles have software for this option so you may not need that many.
B.) Engineer a whole house solution based around a Windows Media center computer or XBMC computer.
If you watch a lot of Anime or foreign films with subtitles you will need to pay special attention to the streaming requirements of these videos and their file format packaging (10bit MKV's don't play on most players and often embedded subs files are ignored.)
When this happens, the videos require initial conversion before you're able to stream them and that's almost as frustrating as having to upload files first.
Can someone recommend a set-top-box that's better than using an xbox 360?
David
I currently have a Asus Eee nettop (mini desktop) that I'd plan to use boxee or XBMC on. My problems are that even though it has good hardware I can't play HD content smoothly. It also has very poor wireless even though I have a high speed connection. Other problems include having to use a mouse and keyboard and a limited PC remote.
So, thus far I haven't seen anything that can beat an Xbox 360 as far as performance and streaming (physical size and sound aside) for around $150.
I'm looking for a device that basically has great netflix support, great HD streaming, perhaps a limited web browser, and good PC network streaming. I will be using this device in my basement three floors away from my router so I'm not sure if it would be better to use Ethernet or wireless. I was looking at Apple TV but I think that is geared towards getting people to buy and rent content.
Any personal recommendations would be helpful
Answer
the first thing I would do is secure the means to get internet to your device, go powernet or powerline adapters. they use your home electrical system to send internet signal - it's way faster than wifi and you don't have to run wires.
secondly, with the whole internet browser, I'd look at google TV options, either the sony google blu ray player OR the Logitech Revue, this one has the same google software (all android based apps) and the revue has a small keyboard. the browser is good - then the limits will be with your internet speed.
good luck
the first thing I would do is secure the means to get internet to your device, go powernet or powerline adapters. they use your home electrical system to send internet signal - it's way faster than wifi and you don't have to run wires.
secondly, with the whole internet browser, I'd look at google TV options, either the sony google blu ray player OR the Logitech Revue, this one has the same google software (all android based apps) and the revue has a small keyboard. the browser is good - then the limits will be with your internet speed.
good luck
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