Home media centre setup

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Home media centre setup

ushare

483 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#115829 8-Apr-2013 19:04

Hey guys!

So i am planning to upgrade my current setup to a brand new one that is networked.

At the moment:
TV (Connected to)
Asus RT-N13u - average signal around house
Bluray Player
Roku XD

I have been using the bluray player to play my movies. A lot are unable to play due to the lack of support on audio/video formats. I also have to move movies onto a external hdd from pc and then plug into the bluray drive (annoying!!). The roku xd is connected wirelessly and buffers every now and then.

Plans:
TV/Projector (Connected to)
Asus RT-AC66u or Netgear D6300 (Cant decide. HELP!)
Bluray player (only for bluray needs)
Roku 3 (wireless on 5ghz or powerline wired)
NETWORKED Media player (HELP WHICH ONE!!)

So those are my purchase plans. I am leaning towards the Asus at the moment due to its rave reviews. I want everything to be connected to that. Family laptop will be connected wirelessly and my computer (with movies) will be wired to router via powerline. I cant decide which mediaplayer is best for my needs. I like to play full hd videos as well as mkv 3d videos. I have lots of movies rips on my computer which i would love to move onto the mediaplayer or somewhere where the mediaplayer can automatically play (if that makes sense).

I want something/hdd that all computers can access. This will have movies as well as files i can share with devices connected on the network (wireless or wired).

At this stage i am thinking of the WDTV LIVE HUB. I can transfer all my movies to the 1tb hdd and transfer more rips as i get them. The problem here is that i have heard the transfer speeds are really average and the interface is quite bad too.

Help me make some decisions? Please?

JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#795191 8-Apr-2013 19:32

My thoughts:

- My experience is that powerline works better than wireless for streaming

- The Hub is a great product, I have one and the menus aren't too bad. However, you state that you want to do 3D, and I don't think it will do that.

- Consider a NAS to hold the movies. At the lower end of the market something like the MyBook Live 2TB is less than $300 on sale. Media streaming capability and means you don't have to clog your laptop with content.

- If by TV/Projector you mean both, not either a projector OR a TV, get an HDMI matrix splitter. Jaycar salls a 4x2 model which should be sufficient. They you can route any input to either device without getting up or faffing around with cables.

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ushare

483 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#795207 8-Apr-2013 19:59

Sorry to be confusing. :P

Yea, i will buy an hdmi splitter that you said which would be great as i want to use the same hardware for both tv and the projector.

1) I currently use a pair of powerline adapters at the moment but they are 200mbps versions. Should i buy the 500mbps for the roku, media player and also the pc? Will that help speed and hd viewing on the roku?

2) Which router do you think would be better out of the 2?

3) If i went the nas route which media player would you recommend? I am confused :(

Sorry to be annoying guys

JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#795269 8-Apr-2013 21:48

ushare:

1) I currently use a pair of powerline adapters at the moment but they are 200mbps versions. Should i buy the 500mbps for the roku, media player and also the pc? Will that help speed and hd viewing on the roku?

Since you already have the 200mbps adapters, try them and see. It's not exactly difficult to upgrade them to the faster ones later if you need more throughput.

2) Which router do you think would be better out of the 2?

No idea, sorry. But, if you are going powerline for the main connectivity anyway, does it matter?

3) If i went the nas route which media player would you recommend? I am confused :(

Anything mainstream and networkable should work. I have WD units and like them. While I haven't tried them, I have heard good things about the Popcorn Hour and the Oplay! units. I would avoid Blu Ray players and TVs that claim to have this functionality - from what I have seen their compatibility in respect of containers, codecs and bitrates etc often isn't that good.

ushare

483 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#795290 8-Apr-2013 22:15

What would be a good xbmc mediaplayer/streamer?

So i connect nas to router and xbmc media player connects to the nas to stream the movies.
I mainly watch 1080p content and sometimes 1080p 3d

ushare

483 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#795342 9-Apr-2013 07:52

I wad thinking of this as a setup:

Levono q190 with xbmc which is wired to the router. And the router is connected the a nas.
Would that work? What is a good entry level small nas?

Is there a guide out there to setup something like this?

I m assuming the q190 connected via ethernet cable will provide much better streaming than powerline?