Page 1 of Media Streamers anyone? From PC/Mac to TV

Hi guys! Long time no speak. Love all the changes you`re doing on here RJS - top work!

Anyway, been looking into media streamers recently and was wondering if anyone here used them at all? Quite simply I`m looking to stream media from my Mac to my TV.

I already do that with my bedroom TV via the PS3, but for downstairs I typically plug in the iPad and stream via that, but it can be a bit of a pain especially when someone wants to use the iPad. So I was wondering whether anyone was using something like Boxee, or a WDTV Live Player or Asus O!Play.

So any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

Hi Ben,

there`s a few of us (me, SJ, 1mills) who have invested in the acer revo (nettop pc
with dual core atom cpu, 4GB ram, nvidia ion2 gpu) to do pretty much what you`re
doing. these things are tiny and can be attached to the back of a tv / monitor.
they`re also pretty much silent.

these have been set up to use xbmc (the old xbox media centre software from aeons
ago). it`s been adapted / coded to run from sources such as windows / linux and mac.

my personal set up is this:
revo (4GB) wiped clean and xbmc live installed directly to it`s hard drive. i then connect
to my NAS over my home network via ethernet. because it has the ion2 chipset, it plays
720 and 1080p files flawlessly. i haven`t encountered a file type or container that it won`t
play... handles avi, mkv, divx, xvid, vob, iso files plus loads more that i can`t remember.

http://www.ebuyer.com/279898-acer-aspire-revo-r3700-nettop-pt-semec-036

the one above is the model below mine... mine has 4GB Ram and wireless mouse / keyboard.

here`s the thread i created re: xbmc live http://www.dvdreviewer.co.uk/Forums/Hardware/t840650/XBMC_Live/page1

here`s the xbmc homepage http://forum.xbmc.org/index.php

hope this helps?

Ste
My Flickr Photostream

This item was edited on Tuesday, 6th December 2011, 07:03

The Revo is brilliant if you can get it for a decent price (as the availability on the older ones is low and prices are high even second hand).


I think if you don`t want any storage or to be able to play off USB, so purely streaming, then the Apple TV 2 could be the option, as that can be jailbroken to have XMBC on there as the interface (pretty easy if you have a Mac from what I`ve seen).

They can generally be picked up for about £85.

I was leaning down this route at one point, as it`s small nice looking and has a decent remote, but in the end I felt I needed the Revo more (it ended up being my temporary PC for a while).

It can only output 720p is a bit of a kick (but not sure what the other options you are looking at are like), it can play 1080p files, it just downgrades them to 720p.

I would have a little look up and this deal is now dead on price, but might have some info in there for you

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/new-apple-tv-2nd-gen-84-41-amazon-1060764?page=2


I did quite a bit of research before so if there`s any questions I "might" know to save you looking (bearing in mind I`m not the most techy on here).



In fairness even without Jailbreaking "I think" it would stream from the Mac with *cough cough* dodgy content, no problems anyway, it`s just that the XMBC interface is too good to resist in my case (plus I was streaming from a NAS rather than Mac aswell).

www.last.fm/user/1mills

This item was edited on Tuesday, 6th December 2011, 08:18

I use a Boxee for all my HD media streaming and works perfect for me, It`s dropped down to £164 and i think this is the cheapest it`s been.

Thanks for all the tips guys. I had some bad experiences with using XBMC recently, when I spent hours setting it up for my dad on an ION Asrock. In the end he bought a Mac Mini and that`s been flawless, although way out of my price range.

Ideally I`d have something out of the box, which is why the Boxee was attractive. Skirpy, is the streaming good/reliable and what kind of in-built services does the UK version offer?

As 1mills mentioned, the Apple TV looks a good option. Shame it`s 720p, but then I think I can live with that. By installing Firecore you can do much more with the device, so it`s a good option. Has anyone done this at all?

Thanks for the advice!

Quote:
Ben Franklin says...
Ideally I`d have something out of the box, which is why the Boxee was attractive. Skirpy, is the streaming good/reliable and what kind of in-built services does the UK version offer?The only problems i have had in the past have been a bit of frame skipping or HD audio drop out with 1080p 24hz DTS but there is always a quick fix  and it get sorted pretty quick with a new firmware, the latest firmware has not caused me any problems.

Better to read through the forums, while some people like myself have no problems other people on the forums do, there are loads of options to tweak in the menu and plenty of channels to use straight out of the box, even more if you put in repositories.

I only use my Boxee for streaming 1080HD rips and for Navi-X.