Anyone Using Wd Live Tv Unit?

[stux]

How does the Itunes intergration work? Can you see your itunes play lists etc on the XBMC GUI? Also will XBMC show you a list of all your AVI's etc on your main PC HDD and you can just choose one to play it?

You use the standard apple appletv iTunes playback. Which works perfectly.

XBMC appears as just another option on the main screen once installed

 

[Diesel80]

Truman,

What TV do you have downstairs? Is it DLNA capable, does it have ethernet?

I have played around with Mezzmo, a DLNA server software for your computer. It can convert media on the fly to be streamed by all sorts of devices (into a format support by the device), if your TV supports DLNA then you may not need another device at all.

It is a good piece of software that I will be purchasing and configuring to my needs when I get some free time. They have a Full version demo you can trial for a month which is pretty good for seeing if it suits.


Cheers,
D80

 

[jkmeldrum]

Truman, have you considered an apple Airport express?

http://www.apple.com/au/airportexpress/

If it's only streaming music you want from an existing wireless setup, then this should do the job. You can plug speakers into it then control it with apple remote app for iPhone (free from app store)

I don't have airport express but I do a similar thing with apple remote using my Mac Mini in lounge networked with my other MBookPro in study. Using apple remote I can control music from both computers from my phone.

The airport express extends you wireless network with the streaming of music.

Might be worth considering

 

[mfeighan]

see if you use xbmc you dont have to install anything extra, just enable file sharing on your computer. No need for DLNA servers/transcoders which chew up cpu usage. It will even play files inside rars so you done even have to extract the files.

 

[Truman42]

What about the Kaiser Bas Wifi Media player?

Anyone have one of these? They seem to have all the features I need and have a wifi dongle included, all for only $149.00.

They play a variety of file formats including full menu support etc for DVD's, and have 2 USB ports. You can also download torrents direct from the menu without having to turn on your PC which would be a handy feature.

 

[Truman42]

I think the missus might be buying me an Apple tv for xmas and was wondering if anyone knows if Airplay will still work on a jailbroken appletv with XBMC installed?

Tried googling this but didnt find anything useful.

 

[fraser_john]

I use a WD TV Live and have Cat5 cable laid through the house to the 8 port switch which is connected to a ubuntu headless server which holds all me streamable media.

Works flawlessly apart from one really niggly issue, which you can easily find in the forums, after about 10 minutes it loses network connectivity for some odd reason, once it gets it back it is fine for the rest of the session whilst powered up.

For the price, very good value for money.

I bought it when I got jack of trying every linux media server out there and not being able to get them to work with all the different sort of audio/video codecs out there without having to spend hours tuning every transcode option.

 

[pk.sax]

you could....

get an external hard drive and make iTunes host your media library on it. Plug this external hard drive into your router so it works as a network drive.

Then get a media player that is capable of playing media off the network, configure it to read off the network drive and you are in business. This part can easily be done with a little standalone PC. Actually, if thats is what you use, that would take away the need to have an external hard drive, use the PC as a server and point your PC's iTunes to use the media library on it.

Anyway, this comes to mind... http://www.i-store.com.au/product/?productid=14229... just add a hard drive or 2 in there. Locate the internet router next to it and plug it in... hey presto! network drive. Use iTunes to store its library on it and use a media server to pick up the network drive over wifi and play stuff. It will make playback on your own computer a little slower because it will be accessing things over the netwok, but its not that big a loss. I used to run this setup to share movies in the house with my housemates, never had a problem with buffering or whatever. Just use a good router/modem-router.

Best part of this... you can turn the computrer off and still access the media.

 

[Truman42]

My current setup is a PC upstairs with a 2 tb drive. Connected to a wireless router. Then I have a second wireless router downstairs next to the TV connected to the first router with an ethernet over power device kindly donated to me by Foxtel when they installed it. (This gives us great wireless coverage throughout the entire house.)

I had a second PC next to the TV and used XBMC and also tried Boxee to stream movies from the upstairs computer, but it was to old and the video card was only 128mb. Tried a second PC but its fans sounded like jet turbines winding down.

So I wanted to go away from PC's in the loungeroom. (Plus the missus cracked it and said it looked ugly next to the tv.)

I will probably add on a network drive eventually (but for now already spent to much money on xmas presents etc) so I don't need to turn on the PC upstairs but am looking into its WAKE ON LAN feature to see if this will allow me to turn on the PC via XBMC or firecore.
For now I just want to be able to stream movies and music from the main PC to the TV downstairs, but I definitely don't want to be tied into Itunes and having to convert all my movie files.

So my choice is between the wdlive tv and the appletv2 jailbroken with xbmc or maybe even firecore. From everything Ive read it was suggested that WDlive tv has a clunky GUI so I am leaning towards the Appletv.
Although as I said the missus may have already brought me one for xmas so Im stuck with it anyway.

I was just curious to know if airplay works on a jailbroken atv, so you can play movies or view pics from your iphone via airplay to your TV.

 

[AndrewQLD]

I just bought a seagate 1.5 terabyte external drive, transferred all our movies and music from the computer and connected it to the blue ray dvd player via usb to play on the tv, also works via usb connected directly to the flat screen tv.

I know a lot of tv's and dvd players can't read the external hd drives because of the formatting but all I had to do was reformat the hd as FAT32 and it works a treat.

Andrew

 

[Fourstar]

I just bought a seagate 1.5 terabyte external drive, transferred all our movies and music from the computer and connected it to the blue ray dvd player via usb to play on the tv, also works via usb connected directly to the flat screen tv.

I know a lot of tv's and dvd players can't read the external hd drives because of the formatting but all I had to do was reformat the hd as FAT32 and it works a treat.

Andrew

i hope you dont plan on storing any files on there over 4GB. BlueRay Rips or Full DVD ISOs might run itno some strife with fat32

 

[seemax]

AppleTV with the $4 AirVideo app.... stream HD video/audio to any device (iphone,ipad,tv) ... no iTunes.. too easy.

XBMC is pretty darn good too but requires more fiddling.

 

[AndrewQLD]

i hope you dont plan on storing any files on there over 4GB. BlueRay Rips or Full DVD ISOs might run itno some strife with fat32

no, so far everything is well under the 4gb, hope it will stay that way too.

 

[QldKev]

no, so far everything is well under the 4gb, hope it will stay that way too.

Those porn video never go for more than 15mins anyway, eh Andrew

 

[AndrewQLD]

Those porn video never go for more than 15mins anyway, eh Andrew

for sure Kev, but the 1.5 tb is filling up quick all the same.
Merry Xmas mate.

Andrew

 

[Truman42]

Well lucky me my missus brough me an Appletv for xmas.

I think seeing an ugly beige computer with loud jet engine cooling fan sitting next to the TV was all the hint she needed to get me one. (Now to throw some hints for brewing gear for my bday in Feb.. )

Ive since jailbroken it and installed XBMC and it works great.

One thing though any of you fellow HTPC users know of some good add ons to allow me to stream some brewing vidoes. Ive seen one called Brewing TV but not sure what add on I would need to be able to view this on my TV through XBMC.

Im getting tired of watching that lady from Montana on You tube do the "OHSEE" Brew in a bag method, espeically the last one I viewed where she came out of the pool and her t shirt and boardshorts were very figure hugging...

 

[WarmBeer]

Im getting tired of watching that lady from Montana on You tube do the "OHSEE" Brew in a bag method, espeically the last one I viewed where she came out of the pool and her t shirt and boardshorts were very figure hugging...

Links, man! Links!

 

[Truman42]

Links, man! Links!

Mate..trust me..You dont want to see it....theres a reason she was wearing t-shirt and boardies in the pool and not a bikini..but they're very informative I must admit and thats the main thing..