Best Media Streamer

[JetJockey]

Wow, Finally a seperate forum for this fast growing area.

Anyway, Can anyone out there please advise on the best Media streamer (in thier opinion).

I have spent a fortune on a Thecus 5200 running Raid 5 with 5 x 500Gb disks. I have started ripping my Movies and Music DVD's to this storage device using DVDFabDecrypter (although a mate swears by AnyDVD and DVD Clone 2). The Movies are all in folders as VOB files. I am only a short way into this process and don't want to continue for weeks only to find that the best Media streamer does not play VOB files!!

I am using a little Maplin ATMT media player at the mo which gives fantastic results whilst being easy to use. However.... It uses an internal hard drive and has no LAN connecter so cannot stream from the Thecus. Dohh!

I recently tried a Netgear EVA 8000 and after a major firmware update it seemed quite promising. Certainly the browser seemed fairly quick and the remote control was very responsive. Unfortunately, it seemed to be still designed for the American market, asking for a Zip code after setting the Home base as London?? This detracts from it's operation as several of the services are based around this. Anyway, it went back.

After some research it would appear that the EVA 8000 is getting better write up's than many other units on the market. The HDMB200 that I really had my eye on seems to be getting some bad reviews!

All I want is to be able to stream the Films and Music from my Thecus storage box to my Plasma. Anything else like Internet Radio and "You tube" video footage is just a distraction really.

Just as an aside, I have tried the HTPC but I find there are too many issues with 60Hz output on 50Hz movies (Judder).

Any help appreciated. Cheers, Gerald.

[dodgyd]

The Popcornhour player (discussed here Popcornhour Media Player but perhaps should be moved to this forum now?) seems to be the media player of the moment.

Dave.

[JetJockey]

Hi Dave.

Yes, seems to be a lot of buzz surrounding it.

Only wis I could find out more. I gather the only real info on the operation of this thing resides on the beta testers site and I can't find it.

If it's as good as it appears then I would get one (somehow, somewhere, somewhen).

Cheers, Gerald.

[PD_BARBS]

Take a look at Rapsody N35, if you can setup your data sources using NDAS, this may fit the bill

[rhubarbe]

In the absence of being able to buy a popcornhour just yet, since they have sold out, I suggest that this is still the most tried and tested and overall best performing:

http://www.tvix.co.kr/eng/products/PVRM41104130SH.aspx

http://www.popcornhour.com is the web site for that and if you want to read a review you need to go to see old Hi-Jack:

http://www.mpcclub.com/

[Autopilot]

This months PC Pro magazine has a selection of streamer reviewed. It's not exactly in depth and there is only about 10 review, but its worth a look.

[badbob]

Local shop has a cylinder looking media streamer, any idea what this is and any good? He's amazed with it, I guess ok but compared to a HTPC...although his is quick and easy to install.

[rhubarbe]

That'll be one of these:

http://www.tvix.co.kr/Eng/products/5100sh.aspx

I've spent 30 hours so far trying to set up HTPC MKIV: no tuner found, no DVDs played, no sound, wrong resolution, wireless MCE keyboard pile of junk, and I am wondering why I ever sold my DVico TVix and built this HTPC.

Did I mention the noise?

[badbob]

That's the one.
What's the situation for files greater than 4GB? What partition type do those units with hard drives have?

HTPC does have it's issues but so do ready made media storage players.

no DVDs played, no sound, wrong resolution, wireless MCE keyboard pile of junk...Did I mention the noise?

No problems with that on the HTPC. As for noise much lower in noise than a DLP projector, just a soft whirr.

[rhubarbe]

Loud whir, Bob. The others that you say are no problem might not be to you but they are to me and I wonder just how many hundreds of hours you spent setting yours up?

[phfjones]

I am not qualified to give advice other than a very high level of enthusiasm, but I have recently bought the Netgear EVA 8000, and it has been one of the best purchases I have made.

The interface is quick and intuitive, the picture and sound is ecellent, and if you are been using a PC to previously stream media,this will be a great addition to your system, as it has a much better footprint.

It seems to play all but x264 files, so I am one happy shopper!

[happyuser]

TViX 5100 handles ripped dvd's into single .iso files of 6+Gb with no problem.

NTFS preferred to avoid 32Gb limit of FAT32

[fayraz]

I am currently looking at this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/D-Link-DSM-3.../dp/B000X4F7RO

It is going on sale at the end of this month; I am looking at something that I can stream via wireless. I am not going to stream HD files just standard DivX and XVIDs.

Any other recommendations would be great.

[Autopilot]

I would take care when you see "wireless" and "HD" in the same product description. Current wireless network speeds can cope with the bandwidth requirements of large true HD content.

[rhubarbe]

He's right you know. Lost count of the number I have had that claimed HD over wireless.

I use those Homeplug Turbos now. No issues, they just work.