JasonD mentioned buying boxee but in the US market Netflix is rapidly becoming a streaming monopoly and Roku is a great, cheap, one-time-purchase piece of hardware. There are other channels than Netflix but this product was originally called the "Netflix Player" so there's no doubt what their target market is.
http://shop.roku.com/Roku-Streaming-Player-Options-W5.aspx
I bought the basic model over a year ago for one of our home's media centers. The other media center uses Xbox/Live to stream Netflix. I just bought the high-end model to run side-by-side with the Xbox. I expect the new Roku will eventually displace the Xbox for Netflix.
I like Roku. I have it in the den side by side with an old AppleTV, I don't use Netflix but Amazon is a great backup for renting movies that AppleTV does not have. I also have a Roku box on an old TV in the basement, mainly so I can listen to Pandora Radio while I'm tinkering.
What I like about Roku is the ease of use. I don't need a degree in programming to get it to work each time.
>ease of use
Yeah, that's the main reason I'm getting the high-end version to bump the Xbox on the main media center. I never use either media center and while I have the Logitech Harmony super-duper 'mote control that does everything but bake bread, it's still a PITA to use the Xbox controls and to load up the Live account. Visitors are already cowed by the array of hardware so I don't blame them when they give up on trying to get to Netflix using the A-B buttons on the controller. I'll jack the new Roku into the network and throw them the standard-looking remote. They should be able to find their way around from that point.
We're not using the Xbox for anything other than Netflix and the Roku is about the same price range as the annual Live membership so Roku shapes up to be a no-brainer in my case.
>All the stuff on the intertubes - Yeh I'll get into it, but simply watching DVDs I buy / have bought is much more important to me than some random streaming thing.
Just the opposite for me. Though my house has a nice hardwired network and wi-fi strong enough to melt your cortex I purposely chose to set up autonomous nodes for each media center. I simply didn't want to be called upon to figure out why such-and-such wasn't streaming from A to B. My intent was to force them to get their entertainment from the cloud rather than local and thereby ditch all the data storage --whether it be mp3, ISO images, DVDs, VHS, whatever.
It's working, BTW. Over the past year the 'entertainment consumer' (wife) has come to really hate handling any sort of file or physical media.
>stream across the LAN
This one is getting a good review from Wired. Looks like they're moving in on Popcorn Hour's and Boxee's turf.
"The Live Hub is a fully-fledged media server. Once it’s on your network, you can stream its content to pretty much any device with a screen on your network: net-connected TVs, Blu-ray players, Xbox 360, PS3 — even iOS or Android devices using third-party applications. It can also share and sync media folders with PCs or Macs.
And the network isn’t just local: you can also stream content from Netflix, Pandora, Flickr and YouTube and upload content to Facebook."
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/10/western-digitals-tv-live-hub-is-the-anti-apple-tv/
>other than the UI
Apparently, that's been a common complaint with WD. So common, in fact, that those I know who buy this media center stuff like it was candy are gun-shy about this new one.
Popcorn Hour
Colin was supposed to be giving a review of this. I like Colin he checks out all teh options and saves hours.
I have a need to do just what you have done Jason. I have a few houses that I wish to burnh DVD's to. The reason is they get robbed by the guests.
So I was hopin to get a sytem (X5)to burn all thedvds to and people could then watch via a nie interface films on the main TV. Only once house have cat 5 cableing so I am not fussed about the streaming to multiple rooms.
I looked at the WD one but I like real opnions from people I trust.
I was also looking at Sonos and I want to make the whole experince as easy as possible. To be perfectl;y honest I dont what to have to spend ages explaining to people how to use it :-) I cant be arsed.
So any suggestions at to what to look for.
//Just for the UK people, I hate Xfactor. So much sceaming.
//Just for the UK people, I hate Xfactor. So much sceaming.
I dload it every week off EZTV and watch it - I think the screaming has been taken to a new level from last year!
>>So I went on a hunt and found this
Holy moley Jason that is 900 sheets.
I can't buy 5 of them bad boys.
lol
hmmm, not sure
I do need five of something.
I hate all the the choices sometimes, I need to make sur I am getting the right thing.
yes lol
However, if I pick the wrong thing and I have to spend a lot of time telling people how to work around something then I have done a bad job.
I prefer to get it right on some things, even if that means i fanny about a bit.
I agree with Jason, why would you want to buy an expensive piece of kit to possibly get stolen or broken and make complications in the use of when you can still offer the same end result with a cheaper alternative
if any DVD's go missing then charge their credit card with another £ 15 and explain this to the punter when your handing them the keys
>>Get cheap DVD players
Yes
However we do high end stuff, the fact that in one house we built a bespoke case for 300 odd DVDs and all the other stuff I would like to find an slick solution to providing decent AV. I dont mind too much that some some DVD's get swiped, but if I was at an accommodation that had a nice interfabe to watch a miriad of films I would be impressed. This impression is why we are thinking of Sonos and crazy stuff like limo pickups from the airport. I want to impress but without uber expence.
>>if any DVD's go missing then charge their credit card with another £ 15 and explain this to the punter when your handing them the keys
Mick, i hear you.
Getting house keepers to check 300 dvds is a problem though ( I struggle to get them to clean the shithouse sometimes) so I want to remove the issue. Plus some people get the arse on confrontation. Unless you can be 100% sure you cant even broach the subject.
I think I was moving towards that sort of setup.
I initially thought I could use a solution like WD and burn 5 copies of it.
Whilst I am a geek, I am not an uber geek like yourself. That is a compliment.
Setting up VPNs is a pain.
> The Roku is great but has one huge flaw for me, that being it is awful at streaming over a local network.
> But the Boxee Box - Oh god how it delivers!!
> And thats the issue with the Roku - It doesnt stream across the LAN very well / at all.
Jason, let me make sure I understand what you're saying.
Everybody I talk to loves the Roku, but I'm guessing that they primarily stream Netflix/Amazon/Hulu
You're specifically having issues streaming your ripped DVDs to the Roku?
I've inches away from buying a Roku. The only thing that's been holding me up is whether to make it a Christmas present for the wife. (Like Homer buying a bowling ball for Marge) But your post gave me pause and thinking about Boxee.
Why does boxee perform better? Does it have a big hard drive to cache the movie where the roku does pure streaming?
QuoteDoes it have a big hard drive to cache the movie where the roku does pure streaming?
That would be my guess, The roku is solid state.
What's not in the Box:
No hard-drive – We discussed hard-drive at length with D-Link, and figured people already have storage solutions, and that we should do our best to reduce the price of the Boxee Box. You'll be able to connect your choice of storage devices directly to the Box using USB
No IR – While we realize many people are using universal remotes, we believe there is a greater benefit having a full QWERTY keyboard, and the right way to do that was RF. We really wanted to also support IR, for various reasons we could not get it as part of the build. We continue supporting this in software, so you can use any IR dongle and continue using your universal remote with Boxee.
http://blog.boxee.tv/2010/01/07/boxee-box-internals-revealed-nvidia-tegra-2-ftw/
(US/Jangro) Get her the $99 Roku. Just give it to her you cheap sumbitch, hhh. Besides, it's stupid-proof. No support once you jack it in.
Gimp, the Roku/Netflix setup would be a simple and elegant solution to your landlord problems if it were available. Outside that, Jason is right, just give them a DVD player otherwise you're going to be answering support calls on Friday night.
> Just give it to her you cheap sumbitch, hhh
hehe.
Actually it's the opposite problem. When I want something I buy it, saving nothing for Christmas and birthday gifts making it very difficult come December. It has taken incredible feats of will power to have not purchased one at this point.
<added>Thanks Jason for the excellent explanation. Streaming is primarily what we do. I do have a hard ethernet cable running to the TV. I do think Roku is the way to go. It's cheap enough that I won't feel bad going with the Boxee later.
Roku needs an aff program, IMO.
Damn. None of this is going to work at all in Asia without a VPN. How does a Slingbox work compared to these setups? I might be able to persuade a relative in the US with a good cable package to hook me up.
Would a Slingbox work atop a Boxee or Roku box? Or am I just complicating things too much? ;-)
Thanks! I guess I will stray from that Slingbox idea then.
Are you making your own Boxee boxes, or buying the dedicated devices? It looks like you can throw up a mini PC box with HDMI out on it and do just fine.
Danny Sullivan appears to think Roku + Hulu Plus = Pretty Awesome (http://searchengineland.com/roku-hulu-plus-pretty-awesome-56801)
Well, that kills the Roku for me, hhh.
I didn't let that Danny Sullivan endorsement sway me. I got the Roku device this week and decided not to save it as a Homer Simpson-esque Christmas gift for my wife.
It's amazing if only as a Hulu Plus box. The HD Video for the few shows that I've watched seems better than what comes through my Verizon FiOS. Pandora through the Home Theater is great too.
I do have the ethernet hard-wired. I could see it being annoyingly slow through wireless.
Running a couple of Xbox 360s as clients here. Just picked up a copy of TVersity to run on the server, which gets around the limitations of serving from Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center. I can now stream MKVs (and other formats which the Xboxes previously choked on) and videos with external subtitle files. TVersity also supports BBC iPlayer, 4OD and Hulu in the US. Not bad for £26! All streaming off a tiny Acer Aspire Revo box, although it's running nearly flat out. On a better network and PC TVersity will do full HD.
I just upgraded to the new Xbox 360 and will be looking into TVersity tomorrow.