Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
I don't even understand why this is needed.
Media Player Appliances
- Thread starter ddrueding
- Start date
I don't even understand why this is needed.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Plex allows for sharing server access to anyone you've invited. That means that you can make your Plex server available on someone else's xbmc setup, assuming you have the bandwidth to support their requests.
As far as the appliances themselves, I don't know that things have changed enough. The Boxee Box is no longer being made. It still does everything but DLNA and is still my second choice for an appliance. The little $40 dual core ARM HDMI sticks might be nice since they'll certainly do Plex and XBMC, but I don't want anything that doesn't support ethernet. My first choice for an Appliance is the LG Smart TV Upgrader, which does absolutely everything I want, but has a dogshit user interface. I've tried the most updated Boxee thing, the Sony Smart TV product and the current Apple TV and I haven't been impressed with any of them.
The checklist of media device functionality for me is finding devices that will natively connect to Windows or NFS file shares and will play back .flac, mkv and .iso files without complaint, with major points given for a quality Youtube experience and for Netflix/Hulu/Amazon support. I don't think DLNA is that important from a personal standpoint but I know some people can't handle anything else. Whatever. Plex runs on damned near everything.
I did just set up an XBMC for a guy who seriously wants it for a better porn streaming experience. I'd never even thought about it, but sure enough, there's an add-on repository that provides search and streaming options for about 40 adult "Tube" sites.
As far as the appliances themselves, I don't know that things have changed enough. The Boxee Box is no longer being made. It still does everything but DLNA and is still my second choice for an appliance. The little $40 dual core ARM HDMI sticks might be nice since they'll certainly do Plex and XBMC, but I don't want anything that doesn't support ethernet. My first choice for an Appliance is the LG Smart TV Upgrader, which does absolutely everything I want, but has a dogshit user interface. I've tried the most updated Boxee thing, the Sony Smart TV product and the current Apple TV and I haven't been impressed with any of them.
The checklist of media device functionality for me is finding devices that will natively connect to Windows or NFS file shares and will play back .flac, mkv and .iso files without complaint, with major points given for a quality Youtube experience and for Netflix/Hulu/Amazon support. I don't think DLNA is that important from a personal standpoint but I know some people can't handle anything else. Whatever. Plex runs on damned near everything.
I did just set up an XBMC for a guy who seriously wants it for a better porn streaming experience. I'd never even thought about it, but sure enough, there's an add-on repository that provides search and streaming options for about 40 adult "Tube" sites.
I've been wanting a basic media appliance for my living room for a while and I wanted something basic that supported the three main things I use which are Netflix, Amazon prime, and Pandora. I typically used my xbox but now I'm sick of it because I rarely play games with other people so paying for xbox live isn't really interesting to me any more so I canceled it. Now that I've done that I can no longer stream my normal selection of apps.
Two days ago Roku released their 3rd version of their media appliance. Besides being a slight physical style change it also has a faster processor (they claim 5x) and their new UI tweaks along with dual-band wifi and a LAN connection (LAN connection was important to me). The pricing is at the top of their typical tiering but it's nice that the price did not go past their previous top of the line unit. I ordered one this afternoon and it should be here some time tomorrow. On paper the Roku 3 does everything I need and has a few additional streaming options that I may try out to expand my typical habits. The addition of supporting games is nice but nothing something I really needed. The reviews suggested the hardware upgrade now makes the UI smooth and responsive compared to the previous version of the Roku device. The video demos also support their claims as it looks to be very responsive which is an important aspect of these devices that I value. I've seen/used enough set-top Bluray players with annoyingly slow "app" sections where it is painful to select things. Because of the slow UIs, I've avoided going down that path of finding a new bluray player that also supports apps. I decided to go the Roku route for simplicity as I didn't want to deal with the oddities of XBMC with respect to Netflix.
I'm going to give the new Roku 3 a chance. If it's no good I'll return it back to Amazon and search for a new device. Hopefully it works as good as the reviews suggest. It may not offer all the intricate features that you need but it certainly fills my needs.
Two days ago Roku released their 3rd version of their media appliance. Besides being a slight physical style change it also has a faster processor (they claim 5x) and their new UI tweaks along with dual-band wifi and a LAN connection (LAN connection was important to me). The pricing is at the top of their typical tiering but it's nice that the price did not go past their previous top of the line unit. I ordered one this afternoon and it should be here some time tomorrow. On paper the Roku 3 does everything I need and has a few additional streaming options that I may try out to expand my typical habits. The addition of supporting games is nice but nothing something I really needed. The reviews suggested the hardware upgrade now makes the UI smooth and responsive compared to the previous version of the Roku device. The video demos also support their claims as it looks to be very responsive which is an important aspect of these devices that I value. I've seen/used enough set-top Bluray players with annoyingly slow "app" sections where it is painful to select things. Because of the slow UIs, I've avoided going down that path of finding a new bluray player that also supports apps. I decided to go the Roku route for simplicity as I didn't want to deal with the oddities of XBMC with respect to Netflix.
I'm going to give the new Roku 3 a chance. If it's no good I'll return it back to Amazon and search for a new device. Hopefully it works as good as the reviews suggest. It may not offer all the intricate features that you need but it certainly fills my needs.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Roku supports Plex, but apparently not all that well. All the solutions I found for making Roku devices play local content were hacks that relied on private channels; "Put it on a thumb drive if you really want to play it on your Roku" is a really common thing to read when researching what they can and can't do. I need to bust mine out and try it again. If you're cord-cutting and trying the online-only thing, and if you're a sports nut, the Roku is a clear, huge winner.
Plex isn't QUITE a must have, but folks it is REALLY, REALLY close now. I can sign in to its web site and see terabytes of shared content that I can stream through a browser, through a desktop app or a mobile client. It detects and tunes for mobile devices and slow connections. I sat in McDonald's earlier today and streamed cartoons simultaneously on my phone over 3G and on a tablet on local 802.11 AND listened to some music via Plex on a Nook and all experiences were really very good. The Android and iOS apps (I actually used my ipad for something) both have a high degree of polish, and the integration with XBMC can be awesome if you're already using it.
My lady friend has both an Xbox 360 and a PS3. We determined that neither of them allow for video streaming unless the content is local and effectively being shared over DLNA in the first place, but that the Google TV (She has a Sony TV) experience is identical to what I'd see on my tablet. I thought I'd be able to test XBMC on modern consoles, and load Plex that way, but it turns out that XBMC does not run on current console hardware.
The other thing I was really hoping to find was Plex's channel support finally giving XBMC a decent interface for Netflix. Nope. Turns out that's something that doesn't get exposed, though I CAN watch Netflix through Plex on my mobile devices.
So anyway, if you've ever thought that the idea of having a personal cloud media server backed by unlimited data storage, pretty much zero headache network config and painless metadata management would appeal to you, that's what Plex does.
Plex isn't QUITE a must have, but folks it is REALLY, REALLY close now. I can sign in to its web site and see terabytes of shared content that I can stream through a browser, through a desktop app or a mobile client. It detects and tunes for mobile devices and slow connections. I sat in McDonald's earlier today and streamed cartoons simultaneously on my phone over 3G and on a tablet on local 802.11 AND listened to some music via Plex on a Nook and all experiences were really very good. The Android and iOS apps (I actually used my ipad for something) both have a high degree of polish, and the integration with XBMC can be awesome if you're already using it.
My lady friend has both an Xbox 360 and a PS3. We determined that neither of them allow for video streaming unless the content is local and effectively being shared over DLNA in the first place, but that the Google TV (She has a Sony TV) experience is identical to what I'd see on my tablet. I thought I'd be able to test XBMC on modern consoles, and load Plex that way, but it turns out that XBMC does not run on current console hardware.
The other thing I was really hoping to find was Plex's channel support finally giving XBMC a decent interface for Netflix. Nope. Turns out that's something that doesn't get exposed, though I CAN watch Netflix through Plex on my mobile devices.
So anyway, if you've ever thought that the idea of having a personal cloud media server backed by unlimited data storage, pretty much zero headache network config and painless metadata management would appeal to you, that's what Plex does.
ddrueding
Fixture
You now have my interest
I'll be looking at it the next time I'm not at the end of a 20 hour workday. G'night, all.So far I'm enjoying the Roku. I installed the Plex channel and I'd be interested to check to see if the version I have is still lacking in the features you found were missing. Can you give me a specific example to try? I have no prior experience with it which is why I ask. When I first opened the channel it was looking for a Plex media server. Since I don't have one setup yet I'm assuming once I do, it'll find it automatically and I should be a me to stream content locally.
I also did not get the impression that this Roku was meant for sport fans. I'm sure it may offer plenty of sports content but it wasn't a focus. I'm not at all a sports fan and so far I've found a couple dozen geek/tech related channels with content that I'm finding interesting. I may have also killed a couple hours taking turns playing angry birds space as we tried getting 3 stars on each level. It's the most I've ever played the game and it was entertaining.
The integration with Roku and my mobile phone app is really well done. I can stream music and pictures from my phone to my TV extremely easily. I can also add channels and manage the device while its being used for something else.
It's also very fast to respond in the UI so I have no complaints there. Searching for content across channels is very easy and welcomed. I have minimal exposure to the old interface so I can't really compare but I like the current layout.
Ill play around with Plex some more tomorrow and see how well it works. Maybe they fixed some of the issues you found in yours?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The biggest pain on the Roku is lack of support for local content. People have established various hacks to kinda-sorta enable some access, but there's nothing remotely standards-conforming like DLNA or simple remote filesystem (SMB/NFS/AFS) access. They're wonderful if all your content is available for streaming, particularly for the speed and polish of the interface.
Roku does have agreements for certain types of streaming online sports content. I don't know all the details but for example I know there's a back door that allows at least some NFL games to be streamed. Everything does baseball and hockey, but getting any kind of (American) football is a big deal.
I just ordered a $60 Android HDMI Stick. I know it will run XBMC, but I don't know if it'll have the horsepower to play back arbitrary content. I'm also looking forward to the possibilities of an Ouya as a media access device. I don't think the Ouya is THAT different from my stick, but it will come with a bluetooth controller and probably a few more expansion options. Ouya is supposed to be a gaming machine, but I'm not sure I care about that part so much getting a tiny and extremely flexible media device.
Roku does have agreements for certain types of streaming online sports content. I don't know all the details but for example I know there's a back door that allows at least some NFL games to be streamed. Everything does baseball and hockey, but getting any kind of (American) football is a big deal.
I just ordered a $60 Android HDMI Stick. I know it will run XBMC, but I don't know if it'll have the horsepower to play back arbitrary content. I'm also looking forward to the possibilities of an Ouya as a media access device. I don't think the Ouya is THAT different from my stick, but it will come with a bluetooth controller and probably a few more expansion options. Ouya is supposed to be a gaming machine, but I'm not sure I care about that part so much getting a tiny and extremely flexible media device.
ddrueding
Fixture
I just ordered another Boxee. The local media support is awesome.
That's the part I'm still not clear on. Without hacks, I simply installed the Plex media server on my desktop machine. I did the basic setup and added my media into its library. It then spend some time indexing or whatever it was doing with my media. I also connected to the Plex online account and created my own login. Next, I turned on the Roku and loaded the Plex channel. I signed in and it then displayed my library. I was able to stream content from my desktop to my Roku no hacks added. I did not even publish the library as a share for public consumption.
I feel like I'm missing something in your complaint with Roku and Plex which is what I'm trying to clarify and understand if in fact something is a hack with Roku and Plex. So far it just seemed to work perfectly fine. Granted I haven't tried every type of media which may be where you're finding issues? It may be that Roku 3 has a newer channel version or has been revised in some way to function better, but I don't know unless I find a way to reproduce the difficulties you've found with it. My point of this is either to confirm there is still and issue or prove that in Roku 3 that Plex is now a viable option. Either way is fine, I just want to understand the limitations.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I'm not complaining about Plex on Roku. I'm complaining because the Roku has no native support for viewing content that's shared on a local file server without an intermediary like Plex.
OK, now I understand, thanks. I didn't think of Plex as a hack but I agree it would be nice to have a native way to support this.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
Can plex handle tuning and recording digital OTA?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Not that I know of.
Plex DOES have a plug-in architecture, but tuning and DVR functions are more in line with the stuff that Windows Media Center, MythTV and BeyondTV do. The nifty thing about Plex is that it will scan the folders that it's aware of several times an hour looking for updated and new files. So if something else is recording content, it will pop up in Plex shortly thereafter. I've observed that it is fast enough to show files available before they finish downloading. There's no reason why you couldn't have MythTV doing its DVR thing and have Plex scan the same directory structure to find files as MythTV adds them.
As far as live TUNING, I'm not aware of anything. I have played with a few Plex and XBMC addons that purportedly allow live TV viewing, but they come and go too often for that to be called reliable.
Plex DOES have a plug-in architecture, but tuning and DVR functions are more in line with the stuff that Windows Media Center, MythTV and BeyondTV do. The nifty thing about Plex is that it will scan the folders that it's aware of several times an hour looking for updated and new files. So if something else is recording content, it will pop up in Plex shortly thereafter. I've observed that it is fast enough to show files available before they finish downloading. There's no reason why you couldn't have MythTV doing its DVR thing and have Plex scan the same directory structure to find files as MythTV adds them.
As far as live TUNING, I'm not aware of anything. I have played with a few Plex and XBMC addons that purportedly allow live TV viewing, but they come and go too often for that to be called reliable.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
This $85 Jynxbox is an Android appliance with XBMC, Play Store support, built-in Ethernet and 802.11 and support for USB ATSC tuners. It reportedly works with optional XBMC components like the Fusion repository and comes with an air mouse for remote control.
That's probably pretty close to an all-around media center feature set.
That's probably pretty close to an all-around media center feature set.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
Pretty slick. I'm fine tuning my OTA antenna placement now I have it running over the same cable as my MOCA. I'll be glad to be finally done with this project.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Amazon had the HiSense Pulse Google TV box on sale earlier in the week. I pulled it out and set it up and... Yup, it's a Google TV box. The experience is definitely improved from the Logitech Revue and the included remote is super slick, with full QWERTY, a touchpad, standard universal remote stuff and IR control, all on a typical remote-size device, but it's still Google TV, meaning that it's cut-down from a full Android experience because of device compatibility bullshit. I had hopes that there would be more improvement in the Google TV product, but my Revue apparently missed some kind of update window and can no longer talk to to the Google App store or get updates from Logitech I didn't really know until I got this box running.
I'm probably going to send it back and get a Matricom G box MX2 instead.
I'm probably going to send it back and get a Matricom G box MX2 instead.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Pivos Xios DS
Initial impression: It's a little clunky. The included remote is particularly awful. As far as I can tell it is a remote that is designed to do absolutely nothing. On the other hand, my little Rii worked the very instant I plugged it in. In a couple "You've GOT to be kidding me" moments, the Xios also didn't immediately configure itself for ethernet, set time appropriately or autodetect my screen's display. None of that was a big deal - I halfway suspect that if I had configured 802.11 before plugging in Ethernet, the system would've done that part right and it's trivial to change the other settings, but of course I don't know why I had to do it in the first place.
But it's the full version of Android 4.1, which means it runs absolutely everything in the Play Store. It's also made specifically to run XBMC - Pivos is essentially the driving force behind getting an Android version of XBMC. XBMC runs and is basically fine. Not terribly different from the desktop version in fact. Plex for Android is less night - it insists on calling my device a mobile client and won't deliver high-quality streams. I haven't figured out how to fix that yet.
There's also a bit of a problem in that my standard Rii keyboard really doesn't have all the proper inputs that Android wants. Dedicated back, home and menu keys would be tremendously helpful.
I see a lot of potential in this device, so I'm reserving judgment. For now I'm just going to say that this little box is finicky. More thoughts later.
Initial impression: It's a little clunky. The included remote is particularly awful. As far as I can tell it is a remote that is designed to do absolutely nothing. On the other hand, my little Rii worked the very instant I plugged it in. In a couple "You've GOT to be kidding me" moments, the Xios also didn't immediately configure itself for ethernet, set time appropriately or autodetect my screen's display. None of that was a big deal - I halfway suspect that if I had configured 802.11 before plugging in Ethernet, the system would've done that part right and it's trivial to change the other settings, but of course I don't know why I had to do it in the first place.
But it's the full version of Android 4.1, which means it runs absolutely everything in the Play Store. It's also made specifically to run XBMC - Pivos is essentially the driving force behind getting an Android version of XBMC. XBMC runs and is basically fine. Not terribly different from the desktop version in fact. Plex for Android is less night - it insists on calling my device a mobile client and won't deliver high-quality streams. I haven't figured out how to fix that yet.
There's also a bit of a problem in that my standard Rii keyboard really doesn't have all the proper inputs that Android wants. Dedicated back, home and menu keys would be tremendously helpful.
I see a lot of potential in this device, so I'm reserving judgment. For now I'm just going to say that this little box is finicky. More thoughts later.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Well, judgment made. Pivos failed. And I mean that literally. It powers on but not longer displays video.
I was able to use Android XBMC briefly and I have to say their build is fantastic in terms of support for data formats and delivery. Their XBMC client only has limited support for NFS and SMB shares - you pretty much have to turn off any security you have for whatever you want it to access, but it's able to play back 20Mbit video streams without issue. It apparently downmixed all audio to stereo-only even while the OS was set to use "Raw" audio support.
After about an hour of messing with XBMC, my TV started to flicker, going back and forth between a moderately corrupted display and my receiver's logo. I rebooted, cleared data and reset the unit but the issue did not resolve itself. After 20 minutes of messing with it, it just stopped all video output. A factory reset did not resolve the matter, so I assume I just got a dud unit.
That aside, the Android update process is not ready for prime time, the included input device needs to be re-thought and the box needs somewhat better hardware specs. A dual core 1GHz CPU and 512MB RAM is roughly in line with a three year old device at this point. I saw an awful lot of "This App is Not Responding" errors while I had nothing but Firefox or the Gallery running.
I'm disappointed. I really had high hopes for this machine.
I was able to use Android XBMC briefly and I have to say their build is fantastic in terms of support for data formats and delivery. Their XBMC client only has limited support for NFS and SMB shares - you pretty much have to turn off any security you have for whatever you want it to access, but it's able to play back 20Mbit video streams without issue. It apparently downmixed all audio to stereo-only even while the OS was set to use "Raw" audio support.
After about an hour of messing with XBMC, my TV started to flicker, going back and forth between a moderately corrupted display and my receiver's logo. I rebooted, cleared data and reset the unit but the issue did not resolve itself. After 20 minutes of messing with it, it just stopped all video output. A factory reset did not resolve the matter, so I assume I just got a dud unit.
That aside, the Android update process is not ready for prime time, the included input device needs to be re-thought and the box needs somewhat better hardware specs. A dual core 1GHz CPU and 512MB RAM is roughly in line with a three year old device at this point. I saw an awful lot of "This App is Not Responding" errors while I had nothing but Firefox or the Gallery running.
I'm disappointed. I really had high hopes for this machine.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
Do you think it overheated?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I don't think it did. It was slightly warm to the touch, not really hot. I had it resting on my leg while I was messing with it and I think it was probably warmer while I was running Chrome than anything else I did with it.
It may be that this is just a marginal unit that made it out of QC, but out of all the STBs I've messed with, this is by far the most out-and-out awful experience I've had even before it decided to crap out.
It may be that this is just a marginal unit that made it out of QC, but out of all the STBs I've messed with, this is by far the most out-and-out awful experience I've had even before it decided to crap out.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I've been investigating my remaining Android media player options and I have to say the choices are all fairly unappealing. It's possible to get dual core 1 - 1.2GHz ARM systems with 1GB RAM. They're all over the place. Many of them are in "stick" form factors though, which means that they don't have integrated ethernet and will turn in to Lovecraftian cabling horrors once all the stuff they need to work is plugged in to the USB hub that they will also ultimately need.
What I'd like do see is a small box with, say, four USB ports, ethernet, a card reader, a decent quad core CPU, 2GB RAM and perhaps 8 - 16GB internal storage. I think it would be useful for it to support booting either Android or Linux. This guy is kinda-sorta close to that, but not close enough. And it has to be overclocked to manage 720p playback on XBMC.
This seems like such a slam dunk of a product to me. I just don't see why these things don't exist, especially given how quickly everything changes in the world of phone handsets.
What I'd like do see is a small box with, say, four USB ports, ethernet, a card reader, a decent quad core CPU, 2GB RAM and perhaps 8 - 16GB internal storage. I think it would be useful for it to support booting either Android or Linux. This guy is kinda-sorta close to that, but not close enough. And it has to be overclocked to manage 720p playback on XBMC.
This seems like such a slam dunk of a product to me. I just don't see why these things don't exist, especially given how quickly everything changes in the world of phone handsets.
ddrueding
Fixture
I'm still recommending cheap laptops with HDMI out rather than deal with this unresolved mess.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
I've just started trying to get Plex working again. I would think there would be a process to do all the heavy lifting on the server side so the client can be light. And be able to schedule your server side processing such that you don't need it done "right now" and don't need as big a processor.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
I forget, what's the drawback to RasPi or Roku?
Native local content support. Plex helps to fill that gap. I've also had success using twonky to beam content from my mobile phone to my Roku without issue.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Of course, I'm looking for a zero-administration, commodity-parts, no-noise client to go with Plex Servers I'm putting together. A laptop with either Windows or Linux on it explicitly not those things.
Howell: In torture testing, I've managed to get eight simultaneous 2 - 3Mbit streams to play back over my Plex Server, but that's using a ridiculous collection of hardware. Testing with something more modest (I used a Drobo B800i which has a native Plex Media Server module), I found that real-time transcoding is completely off the table, which effectively eliminates any ability to support mobile or reduced-capability clients. For a homebuilt system I think something like a retired i7-860 would be awesome, but even a Sandy Bridge Pentium is probably good enough for most purposes.
The other option is to use a tool like FormatFactory or Handbrake to re-encode all your local content in to stream-friendly h.264/AAC at some fixed bit-rate so that the slower server (Core2 Duo or ARM or whatever) can serve without transcoding anything. Of course, that requires a great deal of extra work and storage space.
The setup I really prefer if possible is to use XBMC for local content and Plex for streaming, with PlexBMC available for folks who want the intermediate option to look at someone else's stuff.
Also, I tried to add my adult content to a Plex Library not long ago. It stopped being able to add files to the index at 16384 video files, which looks suspiciously like some kind of hard-coded limit to me.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I just found this thingie on Ebay, but given my recent experience with Android STBs I think I'm going to wait until I can find one from a reputable reseller.
ddrueding
Fixture
No comments on the Google Chromecast yet?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
It's too functionally limited to be of interest in my opinion. It does Netflix and Youtube. So does every other piece of electronics with enough brains to run an IP stack and a video output.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
One word review of Chromecast:
Meh.
Meh.
Stereodude
Not really a
My buddy complains about his WD media player gizmo thingy. He says it's slow and apparently it wants to re-index his USB connected music every time he turns it on. Any suggestions for something that works well with USB attached media?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
All of the local content type players I have used are either discontinued or have their own drawbacks. The Boxee Box was a local content champion and has a blazing fast UI, but it falls down for network-shared content and limited support for many kinds of online services. The Popcorn Hour C200 could play everything I ever threw at it, but using its UI was like just not responsive, even for internal content running from a flash drive AND it doesn't do much of anything with online content. The WD player will talk to a DLNA server so you could try putting the content on Mezzmo or Twonky and serving it to the machine that way, but DLNA's presentation and navigation is a device-by-device crapshoot.
... which is why I'm so big on finding things that support some form or other of Plex client.
I've tried a few Android generic Android boxes, but anything running stock Android 4.x is not well suited to control with a remote and I haven't really found a good 10' launcher interface either, though Android XBMC (when it runs, it's picky) and Plex tend to be just fine for their intended purposes.
I can't even really say that there's a best of breed STB. It really depends on what compromises you're willing to make to get which functionality.
... which is why I'm so big on finding things that support some form or other of Plex client.
I've tried a few Android generic Android boxes, but anything running stock Android 4.x is not well suited to control with a remote and I haven't really found a good 10' launcher interface either, though Android XBMC (when it runs, it's picky) and Plex tend to be just fine for their intended purposes.
I can't even really say that there's a best of breed STB. It really depends on what compromises you're willing to make to get which functionality.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Somebody took the time to build a catalog of Chromecast-capable apps since Chromecast support isn't a searchable criteria on the Play Store at the moment. Which is useful if you have a Chromecast.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I thought I'd be done in this thread for at least a month or so but here's some speculation on Amazon's new HDMI/USB Stick-thing. Apparently it's going to do gaming now, which would be interesting from the standpoint of differentiating it from Chromecast, the Roku stick or the random Android versions.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
FireTV. $100. Tentatively I'll say that it looks really interesting. It has the fully checklist of streaming services support. Plex is a launch partner. It DOES have a full Youtube client (this is an issue on Fire tablets and Microsoft devices). Amazon says it's going to add screen mirroring (miracast?) for tablet devices and the hardware specs are several steps ahead of Roku and AppleTV. It also does voice search and supposedly has fairly credible gaming support.
It's entirely missing support for DTS (or at least I can't see it listed on a specs sheet anyplace) and I don't see anything about HBO Go or Spotify.
I'll probably order one tomorrow.
It's entirely missing support for DTS (or at least I can't see it listed on a specs sheet anyplace) and I don't see anything about HBO Go or Spotify.
I'll probably order one tomorrow.
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ddrueding
Fixture
Mine should arrive Friday. If it does full screen mirroring from my Galaxy 10.1, I won't need a PC connected to the bedroom projector anymore. Which would be awesome.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
The bedroom projector, ah! You say that like it's a common appliance every Jack has. You really no longer know where to put your money.
Now I'm just waiting for the moment you write about the one you'll place in the babies' room...with voice recognition control!
Now I'm just waiting for the moment you write about the one you'll place in the babies' room...with voice recognition control!
ddrueding
Fixture
It is a cheapo LED unit. The problem is that the layout of the room doesn't leave any walls to mount a TV. The resolution is that the projector is mounted to the foot of the bed pointed vertically, creating a ~50" image on the ceiling at just about the right angle if your head is on the pillow.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
I had the same problem with the bathroom projector. No suitable screen wall.