Munchie
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Registered: 17th Jul 01
Location: I swap goats for mobile phones
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Yo dudes I would like the following to connect to my TV....
4Tb nas
Xmbc PC thingie
Home plug
I would like to connect my TV to WiFi and Stream everything I have saved over The years. I have a nexus 7, Samsung smart TV and Samsung s3.
Would like at least 3-4tb.
Any advice would be excellent
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gooner_47
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Registered: 20th Jul 04
Location: Bexhill/Croydon
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If all you need to do is stream media to your TV (and you know Linux, or at least don't mind playing around with it for the first time), you might consider a Raspberry Pi.
I assume there's no RJ45 port near your TV, hence the need for the home plug? So you'd have CAT6 from the home plug to the pi, then HDMI from the pi to the TV. I would personally go for a wired setup rather than wi-fi to guarantee reliability when streaming your content.
The pi has two USB ports, one of which you can plug your 4TB HDD into for your NAS:
http://www.howtogeek.com/139433/how-to-turn-a-raspberry-pi-into-a-low-power-network-storage-device/
It'll need to be an externally powered one (i.e. have it's own plug) for a drive that big.
The pi will be running xbmc and can comfortably stream 1080p movies.
Your Samsung TV will almost certainly have Anynet+ (their own word for HDMI-CEC), which will allow you to communicate with the pi and navigate through the xbmc menus using your existing TV remote.
The pi is completely silent as it's passively cooled, and can be left on 24-7 and still cost under a tenner per year due to the ridiculously low power consumption:.
Oh... did I mention it only costs £23? OK... more like £40 once you buy a power supply, case, SD card for it, but still....
Downsides with it: you won't have the nice, pretty GUI that you would get with a "proper" NAS. Fancier skins in xbmc may struggle due to the limited power of the computer, but basic ones (google confluence to see how it looks and if you like it) will be fine, you do need to be willing to play around with Linux to get it up and running and maintain it.
My parents have bought a new bungalow and I'm in charge of tech! This exact setup will be going in for all their multimedia needs! Just with another drive attached for a backup solution.
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Tom J
Organiser: South Wales
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Registered: 8th Sep 03
Location: Bridgend
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I want to do something similar to Munchie but also with the ability to use and control IP cameras, would that setup work for that gooner? Was considering the synology NAS but the licences for each cam are stupid money
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Munchie
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Registered: 17th Jul 01
Location: I swap goats for mobile phones
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Just ordered homelink http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-Link-PA411KIT-AV500-Powerline-Adapter/dp/B0084Y9N3O/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1369384707&sr=8-2&keywords=home+plug
And my mate is selling me his Pi version 2 for £40 with memory card and case
Next thing is the hard drives!
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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As a media streamer the RPi is fine but it's *technically not really up for the role as a NAS and hanging a load of USB drives is a messy solution.
You'd be better off purchasing a decent NAS box (QNap or Synology) and then either seeing what your Samsung TV is like regarding streaming media and then purchase a streamer/use a RPi with a versions XBMC (OpenELEC / Raspbmc etc) if need be.
*USB and Ethernet share the same controller, so performance will never be all that due to bandwidth limitations. Plus if you plan to stream to a number of devices at any one time then a 100Mb link will be relatively easy to saturate.
[Edited on 24-05-2013 by Dom]
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noshua
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Registered: 19th Nov 08
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Microserver + Rpi to stream, if you can't get it to stream without stuttering then you're doing something wrong
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Rob_Quads
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Registered: 29th Mar 01
Location: southampton
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quote:
Originally posted by noshua
Microserver + Rpi to stream, if you can't get it to stream without stuttering then you're doing something wrong
I wouldn't quite go that far. it depends what format all your videos are in. The RPi is not good for all of them. I have some that just fail when played through an RPi because the onboard acceleration does not support the codec so its down to the CPU which does not have a hope in hell due to its lack of power. - far from doing anything wrong just not compatible. Yes you could recode all your videos etc
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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I've not had much success with my collection and my Rpi. I've tried lots of stuff and don't think I'm doing it wrong.
I won't be recoding everything.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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Most of my collection is a mixture of MPEG2, *264 and XVID/DIVX and can't say i've had any issues, even with 20GB rips. Use to get a few stutters when playing high bitrate material but overclocking the RPi seemed to sort that.
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noshua
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Registered: 19th Nov 08
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I download scene rips, i.e. 1080/720p MKV's and the usual XviD AVI's, they all played fine.
If you're downloading or ripping the full m2ts rips, you've clearly got plenty of disk space (and cash), chances are you're using something more powerful already anyway
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Tiesto
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Registered: 6th Jun 02
Location: Hinckley, Leicestershire
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I recently set up mine with a Zyxel NAS, then got a Intel NUC (Celeron version) which I use to read from the NAS and output to the TV. Works are treat and no issues. Running XBMC on Openelec, with Aeon Nox skin.
Abit expensive, but wanted something small and near silent which the NUC is basically, be able to run full rips and stream everything around the house (the NAS has an itunes server built-in which is quite handy)
[Edited on 29-05-2013 by Tiesto]
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Bart
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Registered: 19th Aug 02
Location: Midsomer Norton, Bristol Avon
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I'd Echo what Dom has said.
My own experience with Powerlines is that they're ok for small avi rips, but anything of any size will stutter.
Also, will the other powerline device be connected on the same power ring? If not, that'll loose you some connectivity speed as well.
The same really applies to the Rasberry Pi, I don't own one by my friend does and has made the same comment above, it seems fairly restricted in terms of what files it'll play without stuttering.
Popcorn Hour (now called Cloud Media) offer a Popbox for $99 which is essentially they're great media player with a few menu features stripped out. That should play everything you can throw at it.
It might be a pain, but if you can run a Cat5e cable outside the house and back in again, i'd say that's your best option.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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Yeah, £300 on a XBMC streamer is a bit OTT  Better bet would have been a Dune or something a lot cheaper like a WDTV - each to their own i guess
noshua - Can't say i've tried m2ts rips on my RPi although i imagine you'd be better off remuxing a m2ts rip to a mkv container considering the overheads with m2ts.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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I bought one of the mpeg2 licences for my rpi when I had my dodgy sky box but never got around to using it. Should in theory decode that flawlessly.
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noshua
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Registered: 19th Nov 08
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Might be able to pick up an Intel Atom based unit, like the Acer Revo, pretty cheap these days. That's what I stream all mine through
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Cavey
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Registered: 11th Nov 02
Location: Derby
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I still use PC and ps3 through home lines. Works fine 
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Just getting a TV with it built in is easiest.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by John
I bought one of the mpeg2 licences for my rpi when I had my dodgy sky box but never got around to using it. Should in theory decode that flawlessly.
I've read a few forum posts of people running Dreambox's or GigaBlue's and using a RPi as a remote and it seems to work well for SD material (HD material seems to be a bit more hit or miss depending on the sat box you're using).
quote:
Originally posted by John
Just getting a TV with it built in is easiest.
Depends massively on the TV; if you have one with great media support and decent UI then great, otherwise it can be a massive ballache especially if you have to start transcoding everything.
I've got an LG and a Toshiba and both are utter shit in terms of playing media, hence why i use a RPi.
[Edited on 29-05-2013 by Dom]
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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I didn't have much luck the times I did play with it.
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gazza808
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Registered: 30th Jun 08
Location: Peterborough
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I use a RPi with xbmc,
Never had hassle playing any films,
Probably watch one most nights,
Dead links are the only hassle I get,
Control it with either my tv remote or phone,
Lucky my router is behind the tv so it's hard wired to my fibre too.
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John
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Registered: 30th Jun 03
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Dead links, does that mean you have some plugin for a streaming site? That won't be of any decent quality so you won't see the problem.
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by John
Dead links, does that mean you have some plugin for a streaming site? That won't be of any decent quality so you won't see the problem.
Icefilms plugin probably.
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gazza808
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Registered: 30th Jun 08
Location: Peterborough
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I'll check what plug in it is, it's all through xbmc, have a plug in for bbc etc channels for when I'm working abroad as well,
Why won't they be decent quality? All the films I watch are 1080p...
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Dom
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Registered: 13th Sep 03
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quote:
Originally posted by gazza808
All the films I watch are 1080p...
That's just the resolution, quality depends on compression and what you're watching will be heavily compressed compared to a Blu-ray or higher bitrate material.
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gazza808
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Registered: 30th Jun 08
Location: Peterborough
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quote:
Originally posted by Dom
quote:
Originally posted by gazza808
All the films I watch are 1080p...
That's just the resolution, quality depends on compression and what you're watching will be heavily compressed compared to a Blu-ray or higher bitrate material.
Ah I get you now,
I'm not really techno minded in this sort of stuff lol!!
But tbh the quality is more than watchable, better than normal DVDs but not totally hd.
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