savwar Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 I need some kind of Media player for my apartment. At the minute for a tv i'm using a 24 inch monitor, and i've a set of speakers.I'm sick of connecting and disconnecting laptops to it. So i was thinking of getting a Raspberry Pi and makin a little media Centre.the good : it's a cool, interesting project, can do way more things with it. and it's cheap in a way... 30Quidthe bad: i probably shouldn't waste my time with another projecty thing to grab my attention, and it's dearer than the standalone player thing, when you get all the parts (externalkeyboard/remote/case etc.... probably closer to 60-70 (i know this is still fuck all though,,,,)) or i could just get one of these: 33quid and thats it. done.no fucking around.... seems to play most of what i'll need.. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-WDBHZM0000NBK-UESN-Media-Player/dp/B00CL61A5A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367397620&sr=8-1&keywords=-+B00CL61A5A any ideas or eperience with either of these?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savwar Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 just read that it can be great with streaming services (which is of no use to me) but bad with local navigation, which is a shame as i'll be mostly using Hdrives and usb keys... and no DTS.... or DivX (which i probably have loads of....) "Sadly, it is in use where the Play’s budget roots start to come through and surprisingly they show through most with local content. For years now Western Digital has been a past master in this respect, but the Play suffers from a number of quirks.Firstly - for all its codec support - Mpeg1/2 is missing for anyone hoping to access DVD media and secondly (and most bizarrely) there is no DTS audio support, which means a vast amount of MKV/H.264 content is interpreted as either silent film or refuses to play at all. A fix is to setup a digital pass through to a DTA capable receiver, but it shouldn’t be necessary in the first place.In addition access to local content is messy. A catch-all ‘My Storage’ app fails to properly detect folder structures on network storage and meta data so media is ordered by file name in long columns. Rivals like the Popcorn Hour A-400, Roku 2 XS and the Boxee Box all handle this better, as does Western Digital’s own premium offerings like the WD TV Live. Lag is also noticeable navigating local storageRead more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/western-digital-wd-tv-play_Peripheral_review_performance-value-verdict_Page-2#WOyOMYBBEV33oMkt.99 " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 I've got a WDTV although it isn't the one you linked to. It works really well and it's played every video I've tried on it (AVI, MP4 and MKV dowloaded from the web). The user interface is fine, but it's not exactly super slick. It certainly doesn't compare to the kind of things you can do with a HTPC and XBMC, but it's perfectly functional. The WDTV I have doesn't have apps, so I can't comment on those. In terms of playing back video though, I think it's great and as it has no moving parts, it's 100% silent. The advantage of the Pi is versatility. This is MUCH better than the WDTV in terms of UI: - But then if you just want to connect a hard drive full of downloaded movies and watch them on your TV, the WDTV will do the trick out of the box for 30 quid (EDIT - or perhaps not, depending on the codec support that you require!). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savwar Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 I don't really care about the apps on the WD, as the only thing i'd be likely to use would be youtube occasionally. well i just read that the Pi has trouble handling usb powered harddrives, and i have about 4 or 5 of them. so thats a bit of an issue.also,"Inserting a USB flash drive won’t have the same effect as it does on an OS such as Ubuntu or Windows. Instead, you will need to manually mount the device in order to use it as additional USB storage for your Raspberry Pi." does this mean every time?? as a lot of the time i would throw a few things from my pc to a usb key and use from there. And in fairness, if you haven't had any issues with downloaded stuf i'm hardly likely to. so i think i might just go for the WD thing. I actually need to sort out a NAS with all my harddrives connected and then be able to stream to the WD or Pi from there, but thats down the line... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 When I move I want some kind of wireless multi-room streaming system but I've not worked out the mechanics of it yet. Rest assured I'll come to DV and request tips and Steve will be here to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 You should have a look at alternatives to the WDTV as there are some that support DTS. I've heard good things about the Mede8er players, although they're quite a bit more expensive than the WDTV. This one looks promising: - http://www.amazon.co.uk/mede8er-MED400X2S/dp/B00APYQZXC/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1386869204&sr=8-4&keywords=Mede8er But there may well be better options than that out there. I haven't really followed what's new with these devices for a long time. @dopp - For music, check out the Sonos systems. They're not cheap, but they're the business when it comes to multi-room wireless streaming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Cheers man - I'd like to look into a small NAS as well but just as a centralised backup/print server. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 Cheers man - I'd like to look into a small NAS small NAS. LARGE PROFESSOR 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
savwar Posted December 13, 2013 Author Share Posted December 13, 2013 yeah i've had a quick look at the others, but whatever i decide on will probably be a present request, so i don't really want to bump up the price.I actually don't need the distraction of another involving piece of equipment that the Pi will cause me.The WD will probably just do the job. once i get to stop moving & plugging in and out laptops i'm happy.thanks for your help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 setting high calibre visual puns to one side for a moment, I have a 1tb NAS (WD MyBook) that I liberated from work earlier in the year. I've been using it to store all the kids films, TV series etc. on and it has served me excellently well (aside from the fact that I have to mount it as a driver on my PC in order to stream from it on the 360). It died recently, though, and I discovered that it wasn't 1tb drive, but rather 2x 500gb drives. one of them has failed meaning that all the data on both of them is inaccessible. only torrent stuff but still a major pain the cock to lose all thatin light of that happening, I'm going to get a HP Proliant G7 after christmas. they're only around £150 and have had up to 50% cashback at various points recently so I'm going to keep an eye on the best deals once i'm ready to grab one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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