New streaming media player needed. Which one?

[maltloaf]

Hi all,

I've been using a WDTVLive for over a year and it's served me well but it's poorly and I get lots of graphical nasties now and then so it's time for something new.

Things I need...
Netflix
Play sd and hd media from my network. I use a pc in the spare room which stores stuff on network shares at the moment.

Things that would be nice...
iPlayer
Itv player
Anything else
Etc etc.

My media is anything you can think of. From 480 up to 1080p and every video format. Avi, mp4, mkv etc.

And it's got to be simple enough that the missus can drive it.

What do you guys suggest and why?

Fire TV? Chromecast? Revo? Other?

Many thanks,

Malty

[reverend]

It may be worth picking up a cheaper Roku temporarily and waiting for something like the Fire TV or the new wave of media players that support h265 for 4k etc.

I've seen some scene releases turning up as h265 for 1080p and the file sizes are smaller than current stuff.

The Fire TV appears to be the fastest and slickest out there so far but they just need to work past some of the bugs.

[maltloaf]

To be honest bells and whistles are nice but anything that'll do the essentials will be enough.
Fire TV looks really flexible but will undoubtedly be aimed at the Amazon prime film thingy surely?

[reverend]

They've already got XBMC on there and Plex - there are issues to iron out but supposedly Amazon let anyone hook into the voice control API which would be good.

I'm still waiting for the perfect media player! The main one I use is still a WDTV Live SMP and it's played everything - just a shame the interface is shit!

[reverend]

I've just had another look through the Plex forums and it does doing like there are limitations with the Fire - they've still not gotten multichannel audio working and sounds like it has a maximum bitrate it can handle.

If the next WDTV had Plex, Amazon Instant Video and did the 4k stuff it would be about perfect!

[maltloaf]

I've been perfectly happy with my WDTV but in all honesty I should never have sold my Revo.

[CallmeGoose]

+1 for the revo. got mine running sickbeard and sab in the background, downloading all my shows...

and xbmc as a constant up front display with regular library updating, so easy the missus can use it using the xbmc remote on her phone

[I Black Belt]

Slightly off topic, but perhaps relevant, do you guys actually rate Amazon prime?
I've been off work for some time and took the free month trial.
Have to say, somewhat less than impressed.
Virtually every TV series they have is available on project free
and as for the films..The free stuff is very dated IMO.
Pretty much every search I did for stuff that I wanted to watch, some of it quite old, produced results, but very little of it was free. It was available of course, for a price.
I'm going to have a look at Netflix next, but in truth, bugger paying for a service which has such limitations.

[Bobby Bouché]

I took ages to get a good media player and went for a Roku3 in the end. Won't get a Amazon fire unless it can do loads. I do like XBMC and i use PLEX daily. netflix and Lovefilm are so so.

[maltloaf]

I love netflix. The missus and I always manage to find something to watch on it. I've happily paid my sub since it launched in the uk and I'm likely to carry on doing so.

I've actually been playing with the Plex media server this afternoon and got almost all my content playing on my ps3 but I'm having to go through renaming stuff especially tv series as it wasn't identifying them properly.

I'm quietly impressed with how it's working if I'm honest.

What I would like to know is if there's a current working netflix client for xmbcbuntu or xbmc linux as I have a spare pc with a hd capable video card. Might answer all my problems at once.

cheers,

malty

[stimpy]

I've been using a RasPi with RaspBMC with a similar setup to yours (separate server in another room for streaming from).

Can't really fault it, it supports CEC so I can control everything from the TV remote. SMB shares are a little flaky so I set them up as NFS and they have been flawless ever since.

The only downside is no real Netflix support.

[maltloaf]

I have a raspberry pi somewhere but god knows where, might try and dig it out but tbh I want something with wireless networking.

I've just been looking at roku3, do the roku boxes play from lan shares ?

[elephantsoup]

I have a raspberry pi somewhere but god knows where, might try and dig it out but tbh I want something with wireless networking.

I've just been looking at roku3, do the roku boxes play from lan shares ?

If you like plex then get this on your pi.
http://www.rasplex.com/

I installed it on friday for a wee play about and its working well.

I also have one of these plugged in to it for wireless

[Goldberg]

I also have one of these plugged in to it for wireless

That looks like something I have scoured the interweb for recently! Thanks for that, will come in handy for a few things I have.

[elephantsoup]

That looks like something I have scoured the interweb for recently! Thanks for that, will come in handy for a few things I have.

there is also this.

I used one of these to turn my networked laser printer into a wireless one

[bub]

Lovely bit of kit http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Acer-Aspir...item3f30631817, I don't know if you want to spend that much but this does everything I want and more. I installed w7 on it and it runs superbly. I ended up getting 2 for both my rooms. I still have my old Revo R3700 which uses the older Atom processor. The i3 processor makes a huge difference. Best of all they use so little power. The seller above has an option to pick up in any Argos

[maltloaf]

I think I'll keep my eye out in case a cheap 3600 3610 or 3700 come up. I can't justify 200 quid on something at the moment tbh.

[spyke]

I think I'll keep my eye out in case a cheap 3600 3610 or 3700 come up. I can't justify 200 quid on something at the moment tbh.

Malty, you still looking for a cheap Revo 3610??

[liveseytowers]

What is the new Revo like when playing 1080p films? R3700 uses the graphics card for video playback and uses hardly any cpu but the new one has integrated graphics so assuming it'll use lots of cpu?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[bub]

What is the new Revo like when playing 1080p films? R3700 uses the graphics card for video playback and uses hardly any cpu but the new one has integrated graphics so assuming it'll use lots of cpu?

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

1080Ps no issues whatsoever, you can adjust how much video memory is used from the Bios. you can always throw another 4gig of ram if needed as ram is used for graphics