September 6, 201213 yr Hi, Just putting the finishing touches (with the help of many here!) on my unRAID server. Will begin loading it soon. Now comes the task of using the content. I see from another thread that many are using an HTPC for playback. I'm not really in the mood to build another pc at this point (or can you by an HTPC cheaply?), so can you guys chime in on the best (and by best I guess I mean best "value", not necessarily the most expensive) streaming box to buy to hook up to my TV to play the movies from my server? As always...many thanks for your input! Andy
September 6, 201213 yr I put xbmc/openelec on a Acer Revo/Ion and have never looked back. Need to find another unit to replace the Boxee in the living room.... Myk
September 6, 201213 yr Author MyKroFt, (A sherlock reference???) The Acer is a bit pricey for me. But you have a Boxee as well...like it? I was also curious...I have a Sony DVD player that is on my network? Would that play from the unRAID server by chance? Andy
September 6, 201213 yr Several different applications: HTPC ION - xbmc HTPC i3-530 - Windows 7 MediaCenter with Shark Codecs and Media Browser XB360 - Media Center Extender through Media Browser
September 7, 201213 yr i use a Lenovo ThinkCentre M series with an ATI 5450 low profile fanless card for decoding 1080p, never any issues and reliable i also have a popcorn hour a-110. right now, if I was in the market a pivos would be on my short list.
September 7, 201213 yr Do you have a PC lying around that was made in the last 4 or 5 years? If so you can just pick up something like a Radeon 6450 for under $40 bucks and put it in the PC. The video card does all the decoding of the video so the PC doesn't need much processing power. My first HTPC was a 4 year old PC from work that was going to get thrown out because it was "too old" but it was perfect for HTPC use and only cost me the price of the video card. Then just throw XBMC on there, which is free, and hook it up to your TV and you're golden.
September 7, 201213 yr Somewhat complex with my server setup, but I have Plex Media Server serving up my media from unRAID to a Mac mini and an ATV2 running Plex Media Center. Also can access my media and watch statuses on my laptop, iPad, etc. Love how it's all connected, even when away from my home network.
September 7, 201213 yr I'm using a WD TV Streaming Media Player and it works great for only $90. The interface is decent and wireless keyboard support for searching your library works great.
September 7, 201213 yr Just use a Dune Base 3.0 for the last 3 years. Plays everything I throw at it. Had a Boxee for 2 weeks but returned it.
September 7, 201213 yr I Have a PopcornHour A-110 and C-200 players running YAMJ. HTML jukebox (AEON skin) for the A-110. Eversion FLASH juekbox (evZAP skin) for the C-200.
September 7, 201213 yr Currently using 2 atv2's and an original xbox for the kids (SD only) with xbmc loaded on all, if I were going to get another I would buy one of the new Android based devices and load xbmc on that as well, @100usd and will play everything I have thrown at them, I don't see the point in htpc anymore myself unless you are going super high end, I use my 2 year old htpc as a spare PC in the guest room these days,, also the ATV/Android boxes are super low power under 10 Watts I believe and SILENT, which is key in my mind,, and xbmc has a boatload of skins to choose from depending on your tastes,I use quartz which if very wife and kid friendly but still all the necessary info, covers and fanart
September 8, 201213 yr Author Interesting all... I went with a Roku box. Now I have no idea how to connect it up to my unRAID server...sigh.... Andy
September 8, 201213 yr Interesting all... I went with a Roku box. Now I have no idea how to connect it up to my unRAID server...sigh.... Andy I responded to your other post as well. You need to get Plex Media Server installed on your Unraid box ( I would recommend this) or a secondary Mac/PC. Once it is set up you just add the appropriate shares that hold your movies and you are set. I have Plex set up on my Unraid box and I run 3 plex clients locally and have 3 relatives that can do remote streaming. My server is not anything crazy and I can get 3 streams running concurrent. Full 1080p. I have done 1 local and 2 remote with no problems.
September 8, 201213 yr Plex media server installed in my unraid and streaming to Plex application installed in my Samsung Smart TVs.
September 9, 201213 yr Author Thanks all. I ended up with a Roku box and am working with Plex. Although I can't seem to make that final step to get Plex to see my Share! Andy
September 10, 201213 yr How well does the PI do? will all the library updating wont it kill the SD card soon? Myk Raspberry Pi with openelec XBMC (work great!) X86 Atom ION with XBMC PS3
September 10, 201213 yr twonky server running on unraid, serving native media formats to my Oppo BDP-93.
September 11, 201213 yr I use XBMC (xbian) on my Raspberry Pi. Works awesome! Handles almost all 1080p content fine. Haven't tried any full 30GB+ rips, but the 10GB stuff works awesome with perfect quality. My only complaint is that it doesn't have optical audio for my old receiver, but I'm probably in the minority there. If you have a newer receiver with HDMI then you are good to go. You really can't beat this for $35! Be sure to get a Class 10 SD card as that speed makes a big difference and they are cheap on Amazon. I think I got a 16GB for $10. I used to use PS3 with Universal Media Server (formerly PS3 Media Server). That works pretty well for 720p but doesn't decode faster enough through the network for 1080p stuff....at least for me. Maybe I need HDD with faster read speeds.
September 11, 201213 yr Does the Rasberry Pi do hardware decoding or is that done on the server? I'm not an expert, but I believe the decoding is done on the Pi. It just reads the file from the NAS or server network location.
September 11, 201213 yr How well does the PI do? will all the library updating wont it kill the SD card soon? Myk Raspberry Pi with openelec XBMC (work great!) X86 Atom ION with XBMC PS3 Library is on unraid server via MySQL. Works perfect fluid. Artwork is on the class 10 SD and scrolling is smooth. Rpi does all hardware video decoding via GPU. No problem with 720, 1080p mkv or fullbluray rips (+20 gigs h264). Perfect doing 24, 25 or 30 hz. Audio pass through via hdmi to my Samsung Tv (dd, dts, dtshd..) decoding works as good as my ion box. In menu almost the same but 100% enjoyable. As you see my so-quick-done 0 $ case (hidden inside wardrobe)
September 11, 201213 yr How well does the PI do? will all the library updating wont it kill the SD card soon? Myk Raspberry Pi with openelec XBMC (work great!) X86 Atom ION with XBMC PS3 Library is on unraid server via MySQL. Works perfect fluid. Artwork is on the class 10 SD and scrolling is smooth. Tell me more. I'm just browsing to my library using SMB.
September 11, 201213 yr How well does the PI do? will all the library updating wont it kill the SD card soon? Myk Raspberry Pi with openelec XBMC (work great!) X86 Atom ION with XBMC PS3 Library is on unraid server via MySQL. Works perfect fluid. Artwork is on the class 10 SD and scrolling is smooth. Tell me more. I'm just browsing to my library using SMB. Very very bad idea using samba with Rpi. NFS sure. About MySQL it's easy Unraid MySQL plugin and our excellent forum (XBMC wiki too) http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=11473.msg170004#msg170004 And this http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=18417.msg173456#msg173456 I don't recommend move thumbs and artwork to server.... Not in Eden XBMC. Only move library. Also latest openelec builds improve a lot SD speed. I can get 21 MB in hdparm. Have you tweak your config.txt in Rpi sd? Overclock improve a lot and without risks if not overvolt. Picture see small heatsinks I put on Rpi.
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