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Thread: Media Players

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    Default Media Players

    Hi all,

    I want to install a Media Player box on my TV to watch mainly movies streamed from my library, can anyone recommend a media player unit?

    Thanks

    Phoenix



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    Member baseel's Avatar
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    hi phoenix

    search fro brands like Noontec, western digital media player, asus media player, etc..

    personally, I found the Samsung BD C-5500, or Samsung BD-5900, are very good, you get 3D blue-ray player, plus it can play most of the media and audio formats from any USB device, an RJ-45 port for Ethernet cable, and if you want to add in the samsung USB wireless adapter(sold separately), then all you shared folders on your network are available on the player.

    cheers
    "People who love sausage and people who believe in justice should never watch either of them being made" Otto Bismark

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    Senior Member johnwinger's Avatar
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    WD live is the easiest unit to use and setup, I use one of these in my bedroom. Connects up to my NAS share with issues. $130ish

    I also have XBMC running on a media centre PC, it has a couple of advantages but for the average user not really needed. $400ish

    The Apple TV is overated if you plan on installing XBMC on it after you jailbreak it.

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    i only use \ buy astone after trying all the rest
    you can get external drive only or h\drive with lan jobs for not much more
    i use a network \ lan one with a 500gb drive in it, usb also
    umart has them
    https://www.facebook.com/philquad68

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    Wd live actually on special atm at JB HIFI $98

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    Thanks guys, gives me somewhere to start....

    Phoenix

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    Quote Originally Posted by johnwinger View Post
    WD live is the easiest unit to use and setup, I use one of these in my bedroom. Connects up to my NAS share with issues. $130ish

    I also have XBMC running on a media centre PC, it has a couple of advantages but for the average user not really needed. $400ish

    The Apple TV is overated if you plan on installing XBMC on it after you jailbreak it.

    What you mean overated?
    I love it, especially with IceFilms, now they are using different servers.

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    Here's another one to have a look at phoenix which I use it's called the Prodigy..
    And here is the Aus dealer.. and some other xtreamers.
    Last edited by Nacriuos; 07-05-12 at 04:46 AM.

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    HP microserver + $38.00 Gigabyte GT 520 half height video card (hdmi video and audio out) + xbmc makes a great HTPC. Nice compact boxes with plenty of room to add extra storage.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Greg View Post
    HP microserver + $38.00 Gigabyte GT 520 half height video card (hdmi video and audio out) + xbmc makes a great HTPC. Nice compact boxes with plenty of room to add extra storage.
    looking at doing the same, are you running one of these now?

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    Quote Originally Posted by hughdman View Post
    What you mean overated?
    I love it, especially with IceFilms, now they are using different servers.
    I was given an Apple TV and only wanted to run XBMC on it and not use any of the Apple side. I did allot of reading into jailbreaking and installing XBMC and everyone said it was the best thing on the forums. It struggled to play large MKV files and the audio would often be out of synch on any HD content. I did more research into this and found that the hardware struggled to handle the HD. The Apple TV does everything it was designed to do, don't get me wrong it's a sweet unit but once you install XBMC you will have issues playing certain files.

    I have XBMC running on a Zbox (small media centre PC) boots up in 12 seconds with a SSD and cost me just under $400. If you want to use XBMC install it on a PC rather than the ATV2.

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    Quote Originally Posted by johnwinger View Post

    I have XBMC running on a Zbox (small media centre PC) boots up in 12 seconds with a SSD and cost me just under $400. If you want to use XBMC install it on a PC rather than the ATV2.
    XBMC needs an OS to run on is that correct, if so which OS are you running? Any recommendations?

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    Quote Originally Posted by jok11n View Post
    XBMC needs an OS to run on is that correct, if so which OS are you running? Any recommendations?
    I tried it on ubuntu headless but had issues with my ATI drivers and couldn't get the remote to work correctly, it would just flick around and I had to guess when to press the button.

    Mate of mine had the same problem with ATI, both of us have onboard graphics as the PC's.

    I have had XBMC running on Windows 7 (yes I know) for over 2 months with only one small issue. XBMC is set to load everytime Windows boots but sometimes the hidden task bar makes not the 'on top' program and the remote doesn't work. This issue happens one in thirty times, I'm sure there is a tweak for it and it is Windows causing the issue.

    There is a Windows version of XBMC that is a straight forward instal.

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    Thanks for that, I'm leaning towards Win7 for ease of setup and was interested in what others are running and any recommendations

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    The Boxee Box is worth having a look at. Appliance based on XBMC. Also, any Western Digital HDTV that will run wdlxtv (not the later ones unfortunately). There is a nice plugin for this which will stream from a Dreambox.

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    This might give you some more information.

    XBMC installtion onto Ubuntu, but you might have video card drivers if using Nvidia or ATI (ATI has more issues). Intel drivers are used by default, I'm pretty sure with XBMC



    I should of mentioned before that you can run XBMC from a removable device that does not affect your actual HDD. Technically you do not need a seperate OS to run XBMC as this uses an embedded OS with XBMC.


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    Quote Originally Posted by DB44 View Post
    The Boxee Box is worth having a look at. Appliance based on XBMC. Also, any Western Digital HDTV that will run wdlxtv (not the later ones unfortunately). There is a nice plugin for this which will stream from a Dreambox.
    The WD TV (the older one) not the Live version will stream from my Vu Duo, plays stored files aswell as recorded programs. Very handy if someone is watching something on the Vu Duo and someone else wants to watch a recorded program in another room. There is no extra plugins or modifications in order to do this, will do straight out of the box. I do not really like the new interface on the Live version.

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