Networked xVid Media to Telly Players
Discussion
I have played about with a number of options to get my media (read: porn) streamed down to my telly without much success.
Does anyone have a good quality reliable network attached xVid streaming box that they can recommend? Something that you are using and has been tested would be a bonus cos I don’t trust online reviews at all.
Let me tell you of my previous experience:
Firstly I bought a Philips Streamium device for a not so cheap £220 based on raving online reviews. To be frank it was a massive bag of crap; it would not stream video of any real quality without terrible stuttering even over a wired LAN and was quickly sent back after I found this was an inherent processor problem in the entire Streamium range.
My second attempt was with a Media Centre 2005 PC with my XBox 360 as a media push client. After the simple setup and the initial glee that my eBay bought Media Centre remote controlled my Xbox, the tests failed horribly. Firstly Media Centre network media file allocation is a messy ballache if I ever did see one, but I can live with it. Media Centre seemed to duplicate the reporting of all the files. Again I can live with it. Then it would not show the full track listing of MP3s. Give a crap, don’t use my telly to listen to music on anyway. Then I find Media Centre will not support or play xVid or DivX videos without either conversions or odd streaming plugins. A huge annoyance as lip sync always
s up after conversions but not too much of an issue with the right tools and time.
But the killer problem, the whopper to flaw all the others, the biggest monster balls up of any media streaming device I have ever encountered was this: the media stream from the Media Centre PC to the Xbox 360 client does not support widescreen. EVERY FECKING TV SOLD IN THE PAST 7 YEARS IS BLOODY WIDESCREEN - Microsoft WHY? What were you thinking?
At the moment I am plugging my shitty £400 laptop into the Svideo port of my telly and using DivX 6 player on that. It is streaming the media wirelessly off my server and is working Jim Dandy, but it is not exactly pretty or user friendly (i.e. I want to surf my porn vids on my arse on my sofa with a dibber and not have to squat infront of the telly with a fecking trackpad).
So, in summery, I want something cheap, quiet, good quality and able to play fecking xVid movies (like porn) and TV shows (like Lost Season 2 and 24) in widescreen on my telly without any stuttering or loss of quality. SCART connections is a must HDMI would be nice. Does such a device exist? If so are you using said device and does it actually work?
By the way I am not a simple IT numpty starfish. I am a multi MCSA qualified IT consultant so a complex solution is not beyond me, it just pisses me off when companies like Philips and Microsoft release such half arsed crap attempts at products and expect me to have to go through all the above shit to find out that they don’t do what they say on the tin.
Help!
Does anyone have a good quality reliable network attached xVid streaming box that they can recommend? Something that you are using and has been tested would be a bonus cos I don’t trust online reviews at all.
Let me tell you of my previous experience:
Firstly I bought a Philips Streamium device for a not so cheap £220 based on raving online reviews. To be frank it was a massive bag of crap; it would not stream video of any real quality without terrible stuttering even over a wired LAN and was quickly sent back after I found this was an inherent processor problem in the entire Streamium range.
My second attempt was with a Media Centre 2005 PC with my XBox 360 as a media push client. After the simple setup and the initial glee that my eBay bought Media Centre remote controlled my Xbox, the tests failed horribly. Firstly Media Centre network media file allocation is a messy ballache if I ever did see one, but I can live with it. Media Centre seemed to duplicate the reporting of all the files. Again I can live with it. Then it would not show the full track listing of MP3s. Give a crap, don’t use my telly to listen to music on anyway. Then I find Media Centre will not support or play xVid or DivX videos without either conversions or odd streaming plugins. A huge annoyance as lip sync always
s up after conversions but not too much of an issue with the right tools and time. But the killer problem, the whopper to flaw all the others, the biggest monster balls up of any media streaming device I have ever encountered was this: the media stream from the Media Centre PC to the Xbox 360 client does not support widescreen. EVERY FECKING TV SOLD IN THE PAST 7 YEARS IS BLOODY WIDESCREEN - Microsoft WHY? What were you thinking?
At the moment I am plugging my shitty £400 laptop into the Svideo port of my telly and using DivX 6 player on that. It is streaming the media wirelessly off my server and is working Jim Dandy, but it is not exactly pretty or user friendly (i.e. I want to surf my porn vids on my arse on my sofa with a dibber and not have to squat infront of the telly with a fecking trackpad).
So, in summery, I want something cheap, quiet, good quality and able to play fecking xVid movies (like porn) and TV shows (like Lost Season 2 and 24) in widescreen on my telly without any stuttering or loss of quality. SCART connections is a must HDMI would be nice. Does such a device exist? If so are you using said device and does it actually work?
By the way I am not a simple IT numpty starfish. I am a multi MCSA qualified IT consultant so a complex solution is not beyond me, it just pisses me off when companies like Philips and Microsoft release such half arsed crap attempts at products and expect me to have to go through all the above shit to find out that they don’t do what they say on the tin.
Help!
Hi,
Not sure if it is what you are looking for but a XBOX running XBox Media Center will connect to any PC (mine is done wireless but cables is even better) and it will read almost any type of media known to man, including all forms of divx, xvid, realplayer, quicktime, music, etc, etc, etc, etc.......... It will just access any drive on the PC you let it open, by network, choose the file and open it. The big advantage is that the media player keeps being updated so any new codec is usually supported VERY quickly, plus its relatively cheap to buy a 2nd hand xbox... I do mean the old xbox, not the 360. I have this setup running and its very, very, very smooth with all I could find so far.
OTOH I dont' have a "huge" tv so no idea if the quality holds up very well on one. But it works flawlessly and without trouble / jerky picture / speed problems on my setup (which is wireless and at some distance, so not very fast connection) as it keeps reading a good cache in advance.
>> Edited by elwarzio on Tuesday 11th April 22:15
Not sure if it is what you are looking for but a XBOX running XBox Media Center will connect to any PC (mine is done wireless but cables is even better) and it will read almost any type of media known to man, including all forms of divx, xvid, realplayer, quicktime, music, etc, etc, etc, etc.......... It will just access any drive on the PC you let it open, by network, choose the file and open it. The big advantage is that the media player keeps being updated so any new codec is usually supported VERY quickly, plus its relatively cheap to buy a 2nd hand xbox... I do mean the old xbox, not the 360. I have this setup running and its very, very, very smooth with all I could find so far.
OTOH I dont' have a "huge" tv so no idea if the quality holds up very well on one. But it works flawlessly and without trouble / jerky picture / speed problems on my setup (which is wireless and at some distance, so not very fast connection) as it keeps reading a good cache in advance.
>> Edited by elwarzio on Tuesday 11th April 22:15
I'm another one running XBMC on a "classic" xbox. Recently reinstalled it all with the latest Auto-Installer CD to get the latest XBMC and the like and it just gets better and better. Plays everything I've thrown at it flawlessly, has lots of options for controlling fan speed and switching off the hard disk so when streaming over the network it's near silent. Can even turn off the distracting front LED when playing video now! Even has a set of scripts that allows you to browse and stream Quicktime movie trailers straight from the Apple site. It really makes all the other solutions look either very shonky or rather overpriced.
Wouldn't be without one, and a secondhand xbox can be had for £50-60 these days, often with the DVD remote thrown in. I'm planning to get another for the bedroom.
Wouldn't be without one, and a secondhand xbox can be had for £50-60 these days, often with the DVD remote thrown in. I'm planning to get another for the bedroom.
Sounds like a plan. Dedicated boxes are all great (if I could find one that works - ThatPhilBrettGuy I sat waiting for firmware for that Philips bag of crap but each release promised the world but only delivered a big pile of all – it is usually cheap hardware that is the issue, not the software.)
But if i can get something i can mess around with myself (such as the Xbox) then all the better.
Is this software a 3rd Party hack or is it Microsoft approved? If it is 3rd party where can I get it from?
If it is Microsoft approved why the feck is the 360 incarnation so pants; it just seems like lunacy that they cripple it to such an extent? It also seems ironic that I have to buy the old version to get the better streaming technology.
Very irritating.
all – it is usually cheap hardware that is the issue, not the software.) But if i can get something i can mess around with myself (such as the Xbox) then all the better.
Is this software a 3rd Party hack or is it Microsoft approved? If it is 3rd party where can I get it from?
If it is Microsoft approved why the feck is the 360 incarnation so pants; it just seems like lunacy that they cripple it to such an extent? It also seems ironic that I have to buy the old version to get the better streaming technology.
Very irritating.
I've read this with interest as I have been trying to find a way to play our music and lost season 2.
xboxes seem to be pretty cheap on ebay but do I need a modded one to run the xbmc software or does the previously mentioned all in in one cd just do everything?
If so is it easy?
Thanks for any help!
>> Edited by blanc on Wednesday 12th April 16:37
>> Edited by blanc on Wednesday 12th April 17:23
xboxes seem to be pretty cheap on ebay but do I need a modded one to run the xbmc software or does the previously mentioned all in in one cd just do everything?
If so is it easy?
Thanks for any help!
>> Edited by blanc on Wednesday 12th April 16:37
>> Edited by blanc on Wednesday 12th April 17:23
It does need to be modded (soft- or hard-modded is your choice). There is also some additional stuff u can put on it, including a very complete LCD display. Its not very hard to do if you know how, but you can probably also find someone to do it for you very cheaply if needed. The all-in-one cd will install the apps on an already modded box, but the easier and I guess best way of doing it is by connecting by network to a pc and uploading the needed software. Specially since there are XBMediaCenter upgrades almost every week and the "install discs" only release every 2-3 months, and install a lot of un-needed stuff. U can have the xbox load the media center directly as soon as you turn it on. And it will still play your games when you want to.
>> Edited by elwarzio on Wednesday 12th April 20:22
>> Edited by elwarzio on Wednesday 12th April 20:22
elwarzio said:
It does need to be modded (soft- or hard-modded is your choice). There is also some additional stuff u can put on it, including a very complete LCD display. Its not very hard to do if you know how, but you can probably also find someone to do it for you very cheaply if needed. The all-in-one cd will install the apps on an already modded box, but the easier and I guess best way of doing it is by connecting by network to a pc and uploading the needed software. Specially since there are XBMediaCenter upgrades almost every week and the "install discs" only release every 2-3 months, and install a lot of un-needed stuff. U can have the xbox load the media center directly as soon as you turn it on. And it will still play your games when you want to.
>> Edited by elwarzio on Wednesday 12th April 20:22
Thanks for that. Looks like I'm on the look out for a modded xbox.
mcflurry said:
Why not pick up a DivX dvd player? £35 from Sainsburys and plays Divx, VCD, and XVid 
Idea for watching 90% of the stuff you can on a pee cee
Cos having to burn stuff out to disk is a ball ache and costs money. Also 24 episodes of Lost takes a lot of disks. I want something integrated, and burning stuff to DVD is messy and inconvenient.
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