NAS accessed by Sammy TV, Pi, etc

Glad to hear you got it sorted, I wish more routers would simply include an access point mode as full blown routers often get miss-sold as wireless access points but the terminology for networking is so messed up they usually wind up getting a router which causes all sorts of problems.

XBMC saves it's internal artwork to a database on local storage, so in the case of a PC it saves to HDD, in the case of the AppleTV2 or Pivos XIOS DS it saves to internal flash pool (which is very limited), the R-Pi saves to SDcard.

Don't bother with an AppleTV if just after XBMC, get the Pivos XIOS DS instead, the XIOS is beta but it is steadily improving and has one of the primary XBMC developers (Davilla) working on it.
* more codec support than AppleTV
* XBMC-Linux only firmware (for best performance) or run under Android (the sites above sells the newer M3 version).
* mod to save all data to SDcard instead of internal flash RAM.

The AppleTV, R-Pi and XIOS are low end devices, they are not suited to high end skins with a heavy emphasis on coverart, the stock skin or lightweight skins (like Quartz) are best stuck to.

The R-Pi is not quite as a complete kit as the Xios, you have to buy MPEG-2/VC-1 licenses (only a few quid) on R-Pi website and then you can use Raspbmc or Openelec XBMC distros to run from SDcard. However the R-Pi is more stable than the XIOS.

Other XBMC Android options, well their is the Ouya game console if that ever appears and there are other Android based boxes out there but they don't have anyone from XBMC working on them so it's a gamble for those, you want something that is Amlogic based (same as Xios) or a Rockchip RK3066 device and use the experimental XBMC builds with support for Android hardware decoding. This path is even more unstable than any of the above.
 
Lots of options but no 'one' solution as usual it would appear

I'm going to try the Pi streaming 1080 and passing thru the audio to see how it copes ...

PS3 sees the NAS too but no fancy interface - pretty much as the oppo

It would be nice to have the video wall for the girls

I'm guessing the oppo will transcode without even twitching, but the Pi & PS3 might have restrictions

Maybe oppo will let the xbmc boys at their code and add an 'app' ... That would be good

I was speaking to a couple of guys in the office today about the router / dhcp issues and heard quite a few "Ah's"

Being a structural engineer I see the logic now, but without your help wouldn't have got there!

Keep in touch

Lighty
 
It's the server that transcodes not the client when going through DLNA so to properly transcode video requires a good CPU on the NAS, something which is not present on most commercial NAS. Transcoding is only invoked if the client cannot play the video and Arm CPU's just arent up to the task of transcoding video.

The PS3 is fairly decent bar it's lack of mkv support, it can handle most other types though it does come loaded with nasty Cinavia DRM.

The Raspberry Pi will handle most things you throw at it if you also get the MPEG2 and VC-1 licenses, it comes with hardware support for MPEG-4 ASP (XviD) and MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video out of the box.

The Oppo I'm not familiar with, I do know they can play some stuff through DLNA, it depends on the model and the firmware it could be as good as the R-Pi.

Not sure if Oppo has much of a future outside of it's boutique clients as discs are slowly on their way out, they could do what HDI Dune are doing which is they have a high end BD player in the works which runs XBMC (Dune Max 3D HD) so that will damage the competition at the high end and boxes like the XIOS will put the hurt on at the low end. There is no ETA on the DM3H so you will have to wait a bit more for the ultimate box.
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom