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I am wondering what is a good media player to use with mezzmo. I want a player that mezzmo doesnt have to transcode the stream all the time so the player must play all kinds of formats. I was using a WD TV LIve but that has gone to hell on me and I was going to buy another one cause I actually like it. but I thought I would check to see if others on the forum like anything better than the WD TV
Thanks in Advance.
Those are good, especially for file support without transcoding. My problem was the lack of support for any metadata outside of Cover Art and Title and as my library grew, the WDTV seemed to get slower and more sluggish. Eventually it became annoying enough that I started looking for alternatives.Quote:
Originally Posted by pgator17
XBMC looked interesting so I ended up picking up a $35 RaspPi, $22 FLIRC (remote control receiver) and paid for the VC-1 and MPEG-2 license for an add'l ~$4.
I installed OpenELEC (www.openelec.tv) to it and almost immediately knew XBMC was the route for me. Once I overclocked the RaspPi to 800MHz, it was at least as fast as the WDTV Live when browsing the library. Plus, it supports much more metadata than the WDTV Live, like Duration and Plot so you're not stuck with all of the fields being "N/A". Makes browsing an overall better experience.
Once I was satisfied that XBMC via OpenELEC was my answer I picked up an Asus Chromebox+FLIRC for my living room (about $170). It's a dual-core Celeron based CPU (x86) so it has a ton more Horespower than any standard media player or Android box out there. Everything is silky smooth and I don't regret the extra cash outlay at all. Everything is hardware decoded but if something had issues, you can turn off hardware decoding and let the CPU handle it.
Incidentally, I like the Pi enough that I tinkered/modded it a bit. I added a cheap $7 case from Amazon and some $5 heat sinks. Then I stole a 40mm case fan from an old external HDD enclosure and then just screwed it into the case after cutting a 40mm hole with a hole saw. The fan just plugged right into the top two GPIO pins on the RaspPi. I've been able to overclock to 1100MHz but I don't see any real improvement for HTPC use after 950MHz so that's where I run it. I keep it as the bedroom HTPC and if I needed another location I would absolutely spring for the Pi over the WDTV live, again.
Basically, if you want something out of the box, a WDTV Live will be the most cost effective. Popcorn Hour has/had some nice boxes, too, but cost and availability can be issues there. If you're not afraid to tinker and customize a bit then XBMC/OpenELEC is clearly superior in every way. As an alternative, you could even pick up an Amazon FireTV for less than $100 and install XBMC there. The Quad Core ARM CPU is pretty good for a small box and everything runs really well from there.
Thanks for the input. I think I will have to stuck with the WD box. I have the whole family trained on how to use them and we have dropped out cable now for almost a year and no one is missing anything. In fact I think we now watch more and better content. So I dont mind tinkering but I dont want to disrupt what I have going with the rest of the fam. Thanks for input.
Quote:
Originally Posted by smitbret
When you say the WD TV box has gone to hell on you , what does that mean?
I ask because the latest firmware update has caused problems for many users of them - including my son & I. The solution for many is to downgrade to the previous firmware , which is very easy. If that's your problem then look here http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Liv...ng_discussions
I totally get that. For an out of the box experience that plays everything, they really are the only reasonably priced option out there. Just make sure you don't get the WDTV Live Play if you are playing back DVD rips. They left the MPEG-2 support off of that one.Quote:
Originally Posted by pgator17
Over the past six months I have replaced four WD Live TV Plus and one WD Live TV with XBMC.
I started with an old Dell 755SFF Core 2 and added a new 5450 video card with HDMI for $30 and the default Win 7... worked like a charm
Added three Intel DN2820 NUCs for (~$200 each as I had the Win license and old 60 GB 2.5" sata drives) first was a PITA, but once I figured out how to get the OS installed they are great
Added an even older Dell with the obligatory new 5450 card with the default Win 7 and it is also superb
The learning curve on XBMC is steep, but fast.
I sold all my WD boxes for $50 each and that reduced mu new purchases to ~$410
Advantage?
The XBMC boxes work 100% on everything I have thrown at them AND I have five new PCs on my home network. I can browse on the Internet, use Word, Excel etc on every system! I had two three pack Win 7 upgrade licenses kicking around so no cost. I had the two old Dells unplugged doing nothing so only $60 for two 5450 cards.
I had five 2.5" 60 GB sata drives from old laptops, so again zero cost.
I am extremely happy that my wife no longer has the unsupported format issue common with the WDs. They were good in their time, but lack of ongoing support sucks.
I am also playing with Ubuntu on an old Pentium box and it actually works running XBMC!!!
What formats were giving you unsupported issues? Other than .flv, I don't think I ever ran into a common format they wouldn't play.Quote:
Originally Posted by visiter555
The KDLINKS HD720 has [natively] played every file I've tried; Mezzmo just passes the file directly to it.
I also installed a 4TB drive into it and have ripped many Blu-rays (as MKV files) onto it. I have Mezzmo set to use that as a media source as well, though most files require a bit of transcoding time before they can be played on my Sony Blu-ray players.