Quote :

"still love my popcorn hour - wouldn't trade it for any of the options available yet"

same here, in terms of function, nothing i've found can beat it. the UI is absolute garbage, however.

That said, have you (or anyone else with a PCH) loaded a 3rd party UI? I'd like something close to an XBMC style movie jukebox rather than a list of filenames.

googling around, YAMJ looks like the ideal solution

8/4/2011 10:31:31 AM

So I've got XBMC on my appleTV.

Had a few problems with it crashing at first, but the XBMC forums/FAQ is really well documented, so was able to resolve without much trouble.

For 1080p files, which I have a lot of, the ATV2 tries to downconvert to 720p, but in practice it looked choppy as hell. I'm not sure whether this is due to processor overhead or throughput over 802.11n, but either way, that's the showstopper problem that makes this a non-solution.

8/9/2011 2:55:15 PM

any way you could test on a wired ethernet to rule out bandwidth issues?

8/10/2011 10:20:45 AM

right now it's in the only room int the house without wired ethernet.

but I probably will eventually to see how it works in my main home theater, which does have gigE already.

8/10/2011 10:35:18 AM

how does the Revue/GoogleTV do with DLNA/streaming from a media server? i am considering picking it up to replace Java PS3 Media Server that I've been using for years now. Does it support xvid/divx?

8/10/2011 3:43:13 PM

supports:

MKV - H.264/AVC
FLV - H.264/AVC, H.263
MTS/MT2S/TS - H.264/AVC
AVI - H.264/AVC, DivX MPEG4, XVid MPEG4
MOV - H.264/AVC
MP42

[Edited on August 10, 2011 at 4:00 PM. Reason : supposedly]

8/10/2011 3:58:30 PM

source? i'm reading conflicting info about MKV support as well

El Nachó did yours arrive yet?

8/10/2011 4:19:49 PM

Yeah, I got mine. I posted in some length about it over in the Google TV thread. I'm really not very happy with it, for various reasons, but mostly just because I didn't realize how useless it is if you don't have a STB with a pay TV service (which I don't). I ended up putting it up at my mom and dad's house and playing with it quite a bit this evening, and it's not bad, but I really don't think I'll end up using it much at all until they go to Honeycomb and it gets 3rd party apps.

BobbyDigital said:

Quote :

"For 1080p files, which I have a lot of, the ATV2 tries to downconvert to 720p, but in practice it looked choppy as hell. I'm not sure whether this is due to processor overhead or throughput over 802.11n, but either way, that's the showstopper problem that makes this a non-solution."

Up to a point, it depends on your bandwidth, but for some files, I just don't think the ATV has the horsepower to handle them. My ATV is literally sitting on top of my wireless router and I can stream almost every 1080p movie just fine, but a couple of my higher bitrate rips buffer every 5-10 seconds, making them unwatchable. Plugging in ethernet doesn't help the situation at all. The ATV in my dad's living room is about 20 feet from his router and behaves the exact same way. Most every 1080p movie plays just fine, but my mom has an ATV in her room which is at the other end of the house, and almost all movies we've tried to play in there are unwatchable. So I'd guess that unless you have some raw, super high bitrate rips, finding a better signal, or running ethernet is gonna make the 1080p stuff watchable. Or you could try running it through a media server that downsamples stuff on the fly. I really hate having to do that, but it is at least an option if you can't get an optimal internet connection in that one room.

8/10/2011 8:23:33 PM

So I've noticed most blu-ray players these days have wifi and claim to stream netflix and a few other things. Are they half decent or is a more dedicated player preferable?

9/13/2011 9:52:25 AM

if you are looking to buy a bluray anyway, and all you want to stream is netflix, then it will probably suffice. If you want to get in to other stuff, especially the more specialized things like local media, flash websites, or other streaming media, then you'll want to start looking at more customizable options.

9/13/2011 10:48:11 AM

any updates on xbox tv?

9/16/2011 9:10:06 AM

^

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/05/microsoft-reveals-new-tv-providers-on-xbox-360-in-the-us-and-int/

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/05/soon-xbox-companion-will-let-you-control-your-console-from-wind/



Step 1: Create this Xbox Companion program for both WP7 and Windows 8 tablets

Step 2: Allow people to control certain 360 games from the controllers and integrate 360 games into tablets and phones

Step 3: Upstage Nintendo Wii U before it even comes out

10/5/2011 6:13:29 PM

Quote :

"roku + playon conquers all"

care to share more about this setup? i'm interested in trying the same

10/14/2011 12:11:04 PM

i've yet to use my PBO...it's sitting there with a 500gb laptop hard drive in it, collecting dust

10/14/2011 12:40:01 PM

i sold my apple tv a few weeks ago to buy a roku xd. very happy with the decision i'm also excited to see that roku is getting HBO go soon as well.

10/14/2011 1:53:56 PM

^ are you planning to stream any local media to the roku? that's the main reason i'm leaning toward the new wd tv live... new ui and built in wireless

and to my previous post, i'm interested to see if anyone has any experience using playon to stream espn3

[Edited on October 14, 2011 at 2:38 PM. Reason : espn3]

10/14/2011 2:35:38 PM

no, only netflix, hulu and hbo go.

10/14/2011 4:17:42 PM

Can anyone think of why my HP laptop (1gb ram, dual core (not core2duo), and integrated graphics) provides choppy netflix playback while the roku xd doesn't? I'm not using any interface like boxee on my laptop, just accessing netflix via google chrome. It's probably worth mentioning that it's running Windows Vista.

[Edited on October 14, 2011 at 10:14 PM. Reason : .]

10/14/2011 10:10:16 PM

My appletv2 does everything better than you.

10/14/2011 10:28:39 PM

I'm trying to get some avi's to play in apple tv, but I can't get it recognized in iTunes. Am I being a moron in thinking that ATV doesnt support avi?

10/19/2011 8:50:43 PM

not without jailbreaking it.

[Edited on October 20, 2011 at 1:50 PM. Reason : and iTunes only recognizes quicktime IIRC]

10/20/2011 1:50:03 PM

Why would you have to jailbreak it to play one of the most common video formats? That makes no sense to me. Man sometimes I really dislike Apple. My wdtv will play anything I can throw at it.

10/20/2011 11:34:00 PM

Love it or hate it, that's just not what it was designed for. It's just a way to get stuff from iTunes to your TV. As far as Apple is concerned, that's all they want it to do. It's like complaining that your iPod doesn't play CDs. If Apple wanted to make a CD player, they would.

10/21/2011 2:26:08 AM

Playing CDs is not a function the iPod is capable of. Your analogy is flawed sir.

10/21/2011 8:33:26 AM

Quote :

"V0LC0M All American 18915 Posts user info edit post Old thread was dead. Their lineup of content and channels has massively increased since the last time I looked at this. http://www.roku.com/roku-channel-store Anyone using this? Thoughts? "

[Edited on April 5, 2012 at 12:27 PM. Reason : .]

4/5/2012 12:26:48 PM

Ive been using a Roku2 XS with the plex media center to stream all my local content. It is very user friendly IMO. It handles 1080p from netflix, and amazon instant video. Browsing the massive library on amazon video takes a while because all you can do is scroll to the next video unless you search for an exact movie you want to watch but its better than the web version using a keyboard on a htpc. I am on the verge of getting the playon channel to complete my TV desires.

Can anyone comment on Roku with the PlayOn channel?

4/5/2012 3:16:26 PM

PlayOn is nice feature to have on my iPad for amazon videos...

I wish the boxee would step up and deliver more punch for somethings....but I do enjoy it.

4/5/2012 10:41:58 PM

Has general opinion on this remained the same? What type of boxes did most of you ending with?

I read an article on Lifehacker the other day about set top media solutions and it sounds like something I really want to look into doing.

http://lifehacker.com/5900626/create-a-kickass-seamless-play+everything-media-center-the-complete-guide#hardware

They promote ATV2 though, which seems to have a negative vibe in here.

4/19/2012 4:51:37 PM

i just connect my tv directly to my desktop with an RGB cable and use a wireless keyboard and mouse. i do enjoy a ROKU upstairs in the bedroom though.

4/24/2012 12:44:19 PM

I ended up putting ATV2's at all of my TV's and installed XBMC. I have them all synced and have not had an issue. The biggest thing I worried about was my wife and kids being able to navigate but that has turned out to be a non-issue.

In my opinion, I don't see why more people don't go the ATV2/XBMC route.

SABnzbd, Sickbeard and Couchpotato took me a bit to get setup. However, once its set you don't have to worry about it.

[Edited on April 24, 2012 at 3:49 PM. Reason : asdf]

4/24/2012 3:48:55 PM

ATV2 struggled alot when i threw files at it but that was a couple software updates ago, it might have changed

4/24/2012 10:48:53 PM

Same here. However, since the update to EDEN (v11 i think) I've not had any issues. I would get random buffering every so often but now it doesn't exist. All of my files are h.264 720p or 1080p

4/25/2012 3:51:54 PM

laptop is wired with SMB, atv2 is wired

you convinced me to try again so i flashed with seasonpass, updated to Eden

it STILL cannot handle 720p files i throw at it, actually it looks great and plays fine for 2 min and then just jumps right back to the menu

then i tried a 175mb Daily Show file and it couldn't even play that without buffering every 5 min...

do i need to change some video/network settings??

4/26/2012 8:35:20 AM

SSH in and run this command. I think this might fix your issue.

apt-get install com.nito.updatebegone
reboot

4/27/2012 7:29:02 PM

i dont know if its relevant or not to what you just recommended but i didnt install xbmc through nito, i installed a nightly because they specifically said it was the only version of Eden that would work with the 5.0 update

4/27/2012 8:03:32 PM

^No, you should definitely try what he recommended. There was a problem with the ATV trying to update itself during the middle of watching XBMC and freezing up/rebooting back to the menu. What you are describing sounds just like that. What ^^ He suggested should fix your issue.

^^Good catch, I had forgotten all about that.

4/27/2012 8:19:24 PM

ok thanks guys, will try later and report back

4/27/2012 8:25:02 PM

i got this

Quote :

"Apple-TV:~ root# Apple-TV:~ root# apt-get install com.nito.updatebegone Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree -sh: Apple-TV:~: command not found Reading state information... Done Apple-TV:~ root# Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done com.nito.updatebegone is already the newest version. 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded."

4/28/2012 8:33:59 AM

lol so i disabled teletext and that seemed to solve the problem a bit somehow...

it still kicks out of 720p files but now after 30 min which is at least bareable to deal with and gives me auto-bathroom breaks

4/28/2012 9:44:03 AM

Found this buying guide about it. Haven't read all of it yet though.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/17/2997361/buying-set-top-box-buying-guide

5/18/2012 11:36:54 AM

bump

9/23/2012 7:15:51 PM

^thanks

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I am tired of getting raped by Comcast. My bill last month was $175 for HD DVR package with no premium channels ($102) and $60+ for internet. I have called them in the past threatening to cancel, and gotten them to lower it to 115, but I really dont watch enough tv to justify that kind of money anymore.

Anyways, I read through the thread and there didnt seem to be any consensus, so I figured I would toss this out there. I have a PS3 that, according to the site linked in the previous post, can do Netflix, Hulu plus and Amazon video. I am trying to get the most bang for my buck and it looks like a combo of the PS3 and Boxee could be my best bet, without duplicating capabilities. This is really the first time I have considered something like this and would appreciate your more informed opinions on this and any other better options. Thanks.

9/23/2012 7:17:07 PM

I would recommend the WDTV over Boxee, but only because it's half the price and does just as much.

9/23/2012 9:54:33 PM

http://lifehacker.com/5946193/how-to-find-the-best-tv-set-top-box-and-ditch-cable-once-and-for-all

9/25/2012 2:08:50 PM

Thats a great chart.

9/25/2012 3:14:39 PM

^ they only thing they neglect is that you can use your iPod/iPad/iPhone as an AppleTV remote.

9/25/2012 3:21:50 PM

They also missed the game consoles

9/25/2012 4:48:02 PM

Great, thanks guys. I just downloaded a trial of Playon last night and checking out right now. It seems like a nice program, but most everything is in SD. I have also found the following link, but given that I have to maintain a security clearance for my job, I dont think I can go down this road. However, if this were not the case, I would be all over it. http://www.totalhtpc.com/the-complete-guide-for-setting-up-sabnzbd-sick-beard-couchpotato-and-headphones/

I am still looking into this, but it looks like the best, legal way for me to do it is with the PS3 with Playon, one of the boxes in the above chart, and an HD antenna (although that is a whole other issue that I am just now researching). Any further suggestions are always appreciated.

9/25/2012 5:55:44 PM

^^^You can also use those devices as a remote for your Roku.

Additionally I am glad this got bumped to tell folks about a new feature for the Roku. If you download the latest update to the iOS app, it gives you the Play on Roku capability. It allows you to select photos or music from that device and stream it to your TV via WiFi. You can do it by album, artist, etc. I have really enjoyed this little feature as I now can stream my music from my iPod to the TV in our bedroom while I am shaving, doing laundry, etc. I really love this additional feature.

9/26/2012 10:06:41 AM

So in the last few months I've got to try out a Roku 2 XS and a new WDTV Live. And I can't, for the life of me, figure out how the Roku got to be as popular as it is. The way I see it, it's got Amazon Instant video, and Angry Birds, and those are the only two things that are even remotely better.

I guess if all you care about is Netflix and Hulu and other online content, then it really doesn't matter much what box you get (although I was surprised to see no YouTube on the Roku at all). None of the boxes I've tried really have a great playback UI, but the Roku is probably tied for last place with the Google TV, as far as I'm concerned. It's pretty awful. Also no AVI support sucks (I had to convert several files to mp4 to watch them, which isn't something you have to do on any other media device on the planet that I know of) You need a DLNA server installed to do any sort of network streaming while the WDTV will see Windows shares just fine, and the Roku doesn't decode/downsample DTS audio to a 2 channel output to a receiver-less TV like my 4 year old WDTV (and the new one) do just fine. Overall, unless you just REALLY like Angry Birds, I can't see why anyone would choose a Roku over a WDTV. I picked up a refurbished unit off a slickdeals link for $59 shipped. My popcorn hour got hit by lightning a while back and I was planning on waiting until the new A-400s came out before ordering a new one, but honestly, I really don't feel the need anymore. Not at almost 5 times the price of the WDTV for just a few more "professional level" features. WDTV really is the way to go, IMO, and I can finally say that after trying out almost all of the other guys.

11/10/2012 10:18:29 PM