At the moment I've been putting movies on my usb stick and plugging them into the usb port on the HD box connected to the TV. The problem I have with this is sometimes it wont read the file or it wont play audio. Sometimes it plays fine but the audio is way out of sync. I'm looking at grabbing one of these hoping it will fix all of my problems.

The question I have is has anyone got one of these and do they work well? Does it steam well over the WiFi without lagging on the screen. I'm worried that a new codec might come out and this wont work with the new stuff. ???? Any advice would be great !!!!

id personally go the wd tv myself if i was looking for a cheap solution;

wifi will depend on the signal from your router

Western Digital WDTV LIVE STREAMING MEDIA FULL HD HDMI USB2.0 WI-FI
Internet Price: $139.00
Retail Price: $149.00
Stock level: <5 (in Stock)
Model #: WDBGXT0000NBK-AESN

Cheers Spook... Just read through the reviews on the LG and it had a few bad cons to go with it.

I am selling a media PC if you want one. $100. PM me if you are interested.

PLUG : http://www.ausgamers.com/forums/forsale/thread.php/3208608

I'm kind of after a small box to sit next to the TV rather than an entire PC Tiny.

I highly recommend the WD TV box with Tversity as media server... I have one working with a usb wifi stick but they now have it built in. It seems to struggle every now and then with high def stuff but I'm not sure if that's the fault of the WD or tversity or the usb wifi or what.

I've got a WDTV Live hooked up to a wireless router bridge (wayy cheaper then getting the xbox360 wireless at the time). I also have a HD plugged into it because I found my wireless signal would randomly drop down in speed to the point where I can't stream and it drove me nuts. With the HDD plugged directly into the WDTV Live I just copy everything to it and watch it from there.

It plays everything I've thrown at it without a problem, hooray. There is custom firmware for it too if you are that way inclined, I've found no need for it though.

It plays everything I've thrown at it without a problem, hooray. There is custom firmware for it too if you are that way inclined, I've found no need for it though.

Yeh thats what I wanted. Just in case it can't play something and it needs updating. From what I've been reading in the reviews this is the way to go !!!

I bought a samsung media player and it integrates back nicely with my samsung tv remote.

i just made HTPC about 3 years ago so its alot cheaper to make now as it cost me $189 for blu ray drive back then. Its Mini-ITX motherboard and case with Atom Dual processor runs windows 7 and xbmc and plays every movie fine.

Why not just get an xbox360, you can get a 4Gb slim for like $230 these days, then you get a media player and an Xbox in one package!

Why not just get an xbox360

Not being able to fast forward mkv files is the only thing that sucks about this:(

I bought a AC Ryan Veolo, and while it's a pretty nifty bit of gear, i wouldn't recommend it.

What i do recommend tho, is the Tversity streaming setup as mentioned earlier. Thats all i do now, stream it up. Even HD rips work awesome. The veolo does this well, but for value for money the WD gear is best.

There is also the Raspberry Pi...

I got one of those AC Ryan Playon boxes and chucked a terrabyte hard drive in it. I got sick of streaming everything over the network, much prefer a little box under the tv that I can just copy everything onto and watch at my leisure, without having to have my PC on and streaming setup. I also found streaming HD content to be a bit hit-or-miss.

oddly enough the old media center pc died the other day...

Western Digital WDTV LIVE STREAMING MEDIA FULL HD HDMI USB2.0 WI-FI

did they fix the issues with .mp4 h264 files or do you still have to re-encode them?

http://www.apple.com/au/macmini

COTD is trying to do an AppleTV for $39 next Tuesday.

i like my samsung tv that just plays whatever medias i want and doesnt need a third party device.

http://www.apple.com/au/macmini/

haha, thats hi-larious

I spent a fair bit of time looking at media software like PSMedia Server and Tversity, and found Mezzmo to be the best.

What I like about it is I just drag stuff to the dump folder and i can play them on my TV immediately. I don't need to schedule or manually refresh Mezzmo (we actually do it by double click in utorrent, right click a file -> unrar, downarrow->enter), not sure if mezzmo can play rars, otherwise i'd just point it at my download folder.

It can play HD content on 2 TVs in my home without issue (kids upstiars, me downstairs).

My structure on my server is several drives with the same [letter]:\media\movies [letter]:\media\TV, structure. By using their 'active play lists' these seem like one folder. So I add D:\Media\Movies and E:\Media\Movies to my play list, and when browsing from my TV I just see one folder "Movies" with everything in it.

In addition, any movies i add to 'Kids' appears in their play list that looks like a folder.

Much better than fluffing around with mountpoints/junctions like I was trying to do.

did they fix the issues with .mp4 h264 files or do you still have to re-encode them?

From what people are saying in reviews they can be buggy until you use the firmware to upgrade it. Maybe this will fix that issue ?

COTD is trying to do an AppleTV for $39 next Tuesday.

This.

Also just read this at CA Clicky

f*** that looks sweet for something marked down that much !!!

I spent a fair bit of time looking at media software like PSMedia Server and Tversity, and found Mezzmo to be the best.

I like Tversity because i can use it to stream to my iphone and the mrs ipad. My setup lets me stream hd movies to a laptop, ipad and a media player all at the same time without issues. I like that it has a web interface as well which makes it easier for anyone to connect to it, even my next door neighbour will agree with that...

Macmini server running boxee, sabnzdb, sickbeard, couchpotato, headphones ftw.

heres a tip for young players, if you have to do any sort of conversion of your medias to watch them, you've failed horribly.

im not even sure copying medias to usb sticks or portable harddrives is acceptable, unless its done seemlessly and you dont have to do anything.

Yeah I stream thru the Xbox 360, was sick of the drop outs so I got a cable and wired it up. Only problem I have now is some TV shows seem laggy and skittish, I'm thinking codec problem cause only on random eps and if you cancel out and continue later still happens. Any way of upgrading the codecs on a 360?

You guys really do over complicate the entire process.

1) download

2) Open file and watch.

I don't even use media software, it slows you down looking for what you want to watch. Windows 7 search function is faster...

most new TV's do this now, and not many people seem to know this simple easy way, does your tv have a USB slot,

(i say this because the folks use their hd box, despite their TV having a HD tuner anyway)

What is this transcoding or re-encoding are some of you people talking about?! All I do is:

1) Download
2) Open the said file with my WD-TV Live via WiFi-N via my shared folder on my NAS File Server upstairs in my study.
3) Enjoy the show.

I could watch 720p file no problems over WiFi N. All this for $99 bucks >6 months ago. I haven't come across a media file that I couldn't watch. And if I ever do, it's probably not worth watching anyway.

Macmini server running boxee, sabnzdb, sickbeard, couchpotato, headphones ftw.

at least someone in here is doing it right

http://www.ausgamers.com/res/static/images/icons/icon14.gif

Macmini server running boxee, sabnzdb, sickbeard, couchpotato, headphones ftw.

sounds like a solution for people who like throwing their money away

Mac mini would be good if they had XBMC. Boxee is s*** (as is Plex).

I have an old pc with a gt430 with xbmcbuntu and sab/sickbeard/couchpotato/headphones but i need a bit more grunt.

I'm thinking about a miniITX sandy bridge build or something and putting an SSD in.

oh the samsung cannot play mkv and it gives me the s***s but you can usually find another encode somewhere (except for the borgias fml)

Start TV
Start Popcorn Hour or Rip off (such as a HDX1000)
Click "TV Shows" share on computer/nas
Select Show of ANY format


What the f*** is with all the talk of a 'media server' or s*** like that? Why would you transcode your perfectly encode 720/1080 .mkv files into a inferior format for streaming to a device, so it can decode it?

Let your device read the raw .avi .mkv or whatever file off a share. This also makes rewind and fast forward real time instead of jump and crap like every single media server / transcoding ive ever seen.

Why not just get an xbox360, you can get a 4Gb slim for like $230 these days, then you get a media player and an Xbox in one package!

I've got an xbox 360 and there's a very good reason I never use it as a media player. because it sucks

If it were me I'd find myself a low profile desktop case (the ones that look like a dvd player or a/v receiver) and build a proper media PC. I've tried to use my 360 but having to encode s*** specifically for it is a pain in the ass and if I have to run a 2nd box somewhere to transcode to it, I might as well just hook that box straight up to the TV (which I did). Now though, I just watch them straight from the TV because it can play them straight from a network share or usb hard drive.

Mac mini would be good if they had XBMC. Boxee is s*** (as is Plex).

We've been over this! XBMC will always be a step behind Plex. I remember doing a date scrape for a mate with quite a big library, that's an experience I never want to have to go through again with XBMC. :D

My Samsung series 6 50" plays mkv fine from USB

I don't use mezzmo to transcode since my tv plays all my files natively, it's just a way to serve them up, since the current sammygo hacks to make NFS shares viewable directly from the tv over my network are a bit too involved for my liking

I just don't want to have to explain to my wife that I bricked the tv!!

What the f*** is with all the talk of a 'media server' or s*** like that? Why would you transcode your perfectly encode 720/1080 .mkv files into a inferior format for streaming to a device, so it can decode it?

Let your device read the raw .avi .mkv or whatever file off a share. This also makes rewind and fast forward real time instead of jump and crap like every single media server / transcoding ive ever seen.

Gamer, I think we just agreed on something, i nearly fell of my chair.

You don't look like a cool tech hipster when you just play a file from a folder. Way to mainstream.

Start TV Start Popcorn Hour or Rip off (such as a HDX1000) Click "TV Shows" share on computer/nas Select Show of ANY format What the f*** is with all the talk of a 'media server' or s*** like that? Why would you transcode your perfectly encode 720/1080 .mkv files into a inferior format for streaming to a device, so it can decode it? Let your device read the raw .avi .mkv or whatever file off a share. This also makes rewind and fast forward real time instead of jump and crap like every single media server / transcoding ive ever seen.

not doubting the Popper dude - just wondering if the cheapies have caught up to it or whether I need to build another cheapie Win Media Center box.

(( nothing wrong with the *nix varients - I just don't have the time atm ))

heres a tip for young players, if you have to do any sort of conversion of your medias to watch them, you've failed horribly.

oh Dave - when will you learn...



last edited by koopz at 19:05:38 18/May/12

My Samsung series 6 50" plays mkv fine from USB

I don't use mezzmo to transcode since my tv plays all my files natively, it's just a way to serve them up, since the current sammygo hacks to make NFS shares viewable directly from the tv over my network are a bit too involved for my liking

I just don't want to have to explain to my wife that I bricked the tv!!

haha yeah I thought I'd bricked ours the other day, turned out it was just hung on trying to do something, rebooted and it told me it was updating. Dirty thing. Funny when you have to reboot your TV, lol.