Right, I'm all plasma'd up with my recent purchase and am now looking complete my personal multimedia revolution. This is an expansion of my previous thread regarding digital audio receivers.

I want to be able to do the following:

1. Stream iTunes music (incl. protected aac) to the sound system in living room.


2. Watch DVDs in living room (either via streaming or with player - my last dvd player packed up).


3. Watch Xvid / Divx files in living room.

I'll be running a 802.11n wireless network which should handle video streaming.

Option 1:

Buy Apple TV and then find a friend who has a mac so I can install aTV Flash.

With the aTV Flash install, I'll be able to do everything, although I will have to copy whatever DVD I want to watch onto my pc hard drive (I don't think it'd stream from a DVD drive directly). Of course I could buy a DVD player to get around that problem.

Option 2:

Buy PS3. With it I'll be able to do everything except stream protected aac (which sucks) so I'll have to convert the music I've bought through iTunes. But I'll gain a gaming console - even though I'm a pc game fanboy.

Option 3:

Buy Xbox. While I'd prefer the Xbox over the PS3 for games, it is too loud for DVD watching (based on what I've read and a few vids on youtube) - confirm / deny? And as with the PS3 option, I'll have to convert my protected aac music.


I'm leaning towards the Apple TV solution because it will be small and cheaper than the other options while providing a nice eye candy UI and allowing me to benefit directly from my iTunes playlists. I buy more songs than DVDs, so the hassle of ripping DVDs is less than converting iTunes songs. It will suck though when friend pop round with a DVD: hang on, let me quickly rip this for an hour (or however long it takes). A $100 DVD player would solve that problem however.

So, are there any other solutions I should consider?

These things sound interesting: http://www.popcornhour.com The A-110. I haven't used one, but am interested. You can get them here for ~400 bucks. If it does everything you're after, there's a thread on them at whirlpool: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1096199


Or building your own HTPC, which is an other option.

Video formats supported

* H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps, Progressive Main Profile (CAVLC) with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
* iTunes Store purchased video: 320 by 240 pixels, 640 by 480 pixels, 720 by 480 pixels (anamorphic), or high-definition 720p
* MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps (maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps) in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats

ie. suckage

*edit. anythiung other then option one (including popcorn hours etc) mean re-encoding your files. gg apple

last edited by Obes at 09:12:08 28/Dec/08

I'd go the apple tv option with the ATV stuff installed, that will do everything you want, except being able to physically put a dvd in and just play it, but with the price of hard drives these days, you can just rip the raw dvd files onto a hard drive and play straight off it.

If you want to play dvd's directly then just buy a physical DVD player, they cost nothing these days.

I have a mate that does high end home theatre installs and he installs apple tv's all the time because they just work. Also because rich people dont care about finding a good divx of a tv show or movie, they just buy it on Itunes.

i would have just gone an lcd and a media centre/laptop

I'm running a HTPC streaming video off a ns4300 nas with music stored locally

http://www.beyonwiz.com/

I have the DP-P1 myself and have been quite happy with it, it's handled any format I've thrown at it so far.

You could get an Xbox1, mod it and install XBMC. Alternatively there's a home build HTPC which you could do for ~$500 running Linux, XBMC & MythTV.

Hey whats the go with streaming to a 360? Does any1 have any links that would teach me all about it?

i just finished setting up my shiny new 1080p Samsung 47" LCD and it kicks dick :D I was gonna build a media centre but no real point if i can stream to my xbox

check out a program called tversity doob, it's all you need to stream

except obviously a 360 and a network cable :P

curse my poor memory, thanks wet!

wet - where did you buy that from?

As someone who has a PS3 and a 360 setup for streaming, I would say definitely go the Apple TV with aTV. Biggest killer I think it Boxee now on aTV, you'll probably need a US VPN client installed somewhere, but once you have that, US TV shows streaming whenever you like legally :). The 360 and PS3 are alright for media extenders, but the interfaces are fairly clunky, they are slow, and they are a pain to deal with in general. Alternatively if you want more flexibility, get a Mac Mini and set it up with XBMC (XBMC available for OS-X now).

Apple TV > XBMC > PS3/360

i'm in a similar situation now. missus has agreed to convert a room to a games room for me!! woo hoo!!
i currently have all my set up in main lounge, 360, Pioneer Home Theatre, 40" plasma. so i'm going to leave all except the 360 and take this and get some new stuff, TV & sound system, for the games room. gotta support the economy and all :0
your questions first then i have two -> i use xbox 360 for audio streaming and watching DVD. with enough SS and my sub booming the ambient sound from the drive is negligible.
music - i have all our music in Itunes and stream it effortlessly via the 360. the simple solution is to move your Itunes folder into My Music and point the xbox via WMP to this folder via media sharing. this then has your music in WMP for the xbox to read.
Video - don't stream enough to advise here although i do often record shows on my PC TV card and stream them with no probs. all the above is wireless with a Belkin router.
hope all this helps!

My Problems? - 1. well with the new room i won't have the 360 connected to my Pioneer which has outside speakers connected. we often create play lists for BBQ's or when in the pool and with the relocation i wont be able to do this. so whats the cheapest option to allow me to stream (wireless) my music collection so i can continue to listen outside?
2. gaming on an LCD? currently use a plasma. new room will be a bit lighter although i do have the option of complete darkness with heavy blinds. i have read all the gazillion LCD V Plasma wars and bide my often put opinion to go and look and decide but would appreciate more opinions to help me decide. wall mount pref.

thx

You could get an Xbox1, mod it and install XBMC. Alternatively there's a home build HTPC which you could do for ~$500 running Linux, XBMC & MythTV.

I didn't think original xbox's handled HD content all that well?

my mate streams over wireless just fine,

harvey norman seemed to be the only place that I could find the beyonwiz, as much as I hate buying from them

I didn't think original xbox's handled HD content all that well?

They don't handle it at all. They aren't powerful enough to even do 720p.
I found mine just freezed after a second maybe if I was lucky 4 or 5 seconds.

All the other ideas are great but the number 1 "want" listed was

Stream iTunes music (incl. protected aac) to the sound system in living room.

I thought nothing plays them except itunes and apple tv (since about itunes v6 ) ?

Bought apple tv this afternoon. Will fire it up tomorrow to see if it lives up to all its promises.

awesome, I've got an apple tv but always thought it lacked some basic s*** (such as the features xbmc offers).

Good to see they've made xbmc work on it, will be installing shortly. (its still a shame it wont do 1080p)

I didn't think original xbox's handled HD content all that well?

It doesn't, they're totally balls at it
It stutters and skips at anything above 420p, 720 & 1080 have 0 chance


I've got a ps3, xbox1, xbox360, wii, apple tv and so far none of them are *perfect* for what I want
previously the xbox1 was the s***, in the years before 720p & 1080p were "must have" - it did everything I ever wanted it to do with a great interface to boot

edit: i should ad, I use tversity but its still not perfect
it occasionally throws a hissy fit and won't play specific codecs

it also s***s me that it has to transcode everything from a pc that obviously needs to be left on while you want to watch the media

last edited by tequila at 22:56:38 28/Dec/08

There's a few Asus boxes I want to try out for running *nix+xbmc, the EEE Box, and the new Asus Nova thingy. Both have small quiet footprints. The eeebox struggles at high bitrate 720p H264 and above, the Nova has slightly better CPU etc so might be able to manage some 1080p. The Nova also has a TV Dock which does HD Tuner, extra inputs, Esata and other goodies.

Build a PC out of one of those HTPC cases & shove it under the TV or next to it or something & use that to watch movies/record TV shows & house your music collection then just get one of those el cheapo A/V wireless transmitters & hook that up to your stereo if it's nowhere near your TV. If it's close enough just run the audio cables or SPDIF or something over to the stereo.

Problem sovered.

Option 3:

Buy Xbox. While I'd prefer the Xbox over the PS3 for games, it is too loud for DVD watching (based on what I've read and a few vids on youtube) - confirm / deny? And as with the PS3 option, I'll have to convert my protected aac music.

I don't know about modded xbox360's because mine's still stock but my modded xbox1 (lolbrick) is quiet as a mouse and you can even turn off the front LED while you're watching movies, soon as the movie stops the light comes back on again. You can also control the fan speed either manually or set it to a temperature and it'll automatically turn the fan on & off to keep the box at that temp. I assume if you've got a modded 360 running XBMC it would do the same.

As for whether or not it's loud, I can't hear my 360 over the sound of the movie so if you can hear it either move it elsewhere or get better speakers & turn them up louder.

i bought a wdtv. not bad for $200

Bought apple tv this afternoon. Will fire it up tomorrow to see if it lives up to all its promises.

Make sure you install the atv firmware, its the same level as leetness as modding an original xbox. Also if you can get boxee working properly prepare for awesomeness, full access to Hulu straight from your living room.

I need a mac to install ATV Flash, so it'll be a while before I find someone to hook me up with one. Or I'll buy the cheapest one I can find on ebay.

anytime you have to convert something to watch it on your tv, is automatic fail

I'm playing with one of those Asus Nova things at the moment, excellent little unit. Comes with Vista and a bunch of bloat which makes it a bit chunky on 720p x264, but with the XBMC liveCD I've been playing 720p x264 seemlessly, and a fair bit of 1080p as well, higher bitrate gets chunky, but 4 or 5 random samples for recent movies on 1080p all look fine.

If you downgraded it to XP, or upgraded to Windows 7 ( not that it's released yet ) I reckon you'd get good windows playback quality too.

Or get a series 8 Samsung that does it for you :D

series 8 samsung will play 1080p x264 videos off a SMB share ?