Home Cinema / Media Streaming Discussion

I want a low power solution as well as small. I've been reading these NUC units can go from power on to ready in not many seconds so that is another plus to the small box - power off and on easily via the remote. As to future proofed a couple of years will do me.

Have to say during my trials of xbmc I've been amazed by some of the add-ons. Some of the content you can access must come from sources we can't discuss here. Can't see me using such things but an eye opener anyway.
 
Wow.. that's cool!
 
I have a Zotac AD11, same form factor as NUCs. Cold boots to ready in less than 10 secs running Openelec, plays everything. Only complaint is heat, but newer generation core i3 models are better than these AMD ones.

I'm switching to Plex though, had enough of the bugs and flakiness of the XBMC shared library....and I discovered my LG tv has a pretty good plex client built in so the other half only has to deal with one remote which makes my life easier!
 
mid_gen said:
had enough of the bugs and flakiness of the XBMC shared library
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What bugs are those? I've got 6 xbmcs using a single central shared library with no problems that I have found.
 
Just had problems with duplicated items appearing, even with only one client. After a lot of faffimg about and manually manipulating the DB to clear up the mess it got into, I gave up and went back to separate libraries. Shared is only ever a hack on xbmc, plex works that way out of the box, I have better things to do with my time!
 
Not come across that, although I could imagine the library system being confused if you have films in two places in the system, both added to the library.... Have to say I have an intense dislike of media servers - especially closed source - preferring smb shares as the "universal" solution. I've never found one that organises things the way I want it, although I'll give plex the once over as I've heard a number of good reports of it.
 
Plex Server is brilliant. Point it at a folder and away you go.
 
Plex is something else I've not looked at. As it is 'closed source' is it still free or do you buy it? Couldn't see prices from a brief look at the web site so I'm assuming its free. Not downloaded anything yet.
 
inkiboo said:
Plex Server is brilliant. Point it at a folder and away you go.
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Which is all I do with xbmc.... ;)

PMS is free but you can purchase PlexPass for access to "premium features". Surprisingly (or perhaps not given how many NAS' are based on it) there is a build for FreeBSD (my media server is FreeBSD based). At the moment (all of 15 minutes after install) I can't see any reason to move to it - particularly as you seem to need a plugin to stream to xbmc clients. SMB shares is still way simpler IMHO - at least for local content/devices. May look into it for remote access - although I'm averse to opening ports on my firewall - especially one so well known as plex - and will probably stick to a VPN tunnel if I need that feature.
 
I used to run XMBC on, funnily enough, an Xbox! I just found the implantations on the PC/MAC buggy as hell. Plex just works for me, especially on the Mac Mini and I run the server component on my Qnap.
 
inkiboo said:
I just found the implantations on the PC/MAC buggy as hell.
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Strange. I've been running xbmc since xbox days too and moved to the PC/linux version in 2009 (Camelot). This was the first stable release IMHO. Since then, I've only stumbled across 1 real bug in that time (a downmix bug causing crackly audio on loud passages).
 
Plex is free and works well straight out of the box. You obviously need the server and client running on separate boxes (they can run on the same but not advised).
The issue I had with Plex was that you cannot have filtered access so theres no way to ensure that the kids can only watch fims suitable for their age. Everyone can se every film in the library where as with xbmc users can be setup to achieve that. Ours sits there constantly logged in to the filtered account so my son can watch whatever we have given him access to. We just switch the account when we want to watch a 15 or 18 rated film.
 
In playing with plex, the other thing it doesn't do well (which may or may not be important to you) is handle files in directory structures. I have some test sequences, which are the same material, stored in different containers and organised into directories. The directory structure is part of the file naming - importing this into plex with the files option flattens the directory structure so you get 3 copies of the same thing next to each other. I couldn't find a way to get it to leave the directory structure intact. It's issues like this which is why I don't like auto library/server systems.

BTW: if people are using stock xbmc, the best way of managing the info for libraries is to use something like Media Companion or Ember, write sidecar files, and get xbmc to pick up the info from those files. Solves all the hassle of scraping and with an auto-import script running in xbmc, you can keep the library up-to-date quite easily (and correct the occasional inevitable issues with auto scraping). A good source for understanding what extra tools are available can be found here: http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Supplemental_tools and then click on your platform of choice.
 
I have a 256 mSATA SSD I was about to put on eBay if you are interested!
 
Mine is pretty straight forward....

1x ever expanding Storage Area Network - currently running at 16TB
1x Apple Mini Server running as the server
3x Apple TV as the main consumer devices linked to Home Cinema Amps for Plasma (60" x2) and Projector (2.1m wide x1) in different rooms

Then naturally other devices can connect to server as as well, and for my Oppo blu ray player it has access to direct blu ray images...Oh and Harmony remote controls, the activity based system is just brilliant...

Works for us and provide something for the whole family across different rooms in the house...
 
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