Stream anything to any device over a home network "catch-all" thread.

LeapingGnome wrote:
misplacedbravado wrote:

Is there a good tool for adding metadata to m4v files?

One of my summer projects is making the DVD library into something Roku 3-friendly. DLNA streaming from NAS to Roku Media Channel is working great, but browsing with only file names and generic icons is getting less efficient as I convert more movies.

What OS? I use Identify on OSX to add metadata to my movies to stream from Plex to Roku.

I use PS3 Media Server and well, a PS3.
Can I add metadata to this end as well or achieve it some other way? Cause browsing by file names does suck.

LeapingGnome wrote:

What OS? I use Identify on OSX to add metadata to my movies to stream from Plex to Roku.

I have both a Mac and a Windows 7 box. Thanks for the recommendation -- I'll give it a try!

misplacedbravado wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

What OS? I use Identify on OSX to add metadata to my movies to stream from Plex to Roku.

I have both a Mac and a Windows 7 box. Thanks for the recommendation -- I'll give it a try!

You're welcome! It is pretty good about auto-finding if the file is named the same as the movie. Otherwise if it is slightly off what I have found is the easiest way is to go to IMDB and take the id code out of the URL and put it in the finder.

RolandofGilead wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:
misplacedbravado wrote:

Is there a good tool for adding metadata to m4v files?

One of my summer projects is making the DVD library into something Roku 3-friendly. DLNA streaming from NAS to Roku Media Channel is working great, but browsing with only file names and generic icons is getting less efficient as I convert more movies.

What OS? I use Identify on OSX to add metadata to my movies to stream from Plex to Roku.

I use PS3 Media Server and well, a PS3.
Can I add metadata to this end as well or achieve it some other way? Cause browsing by file names does suck.

I think so, I messed around with PS3 Media Server a few years back and from what I remember there are add-ons you can install that will push the metadata. My first foray into streaming was DLNA servers like that to my PS3. It was never satisfactory and I find Plex + Roku is MUCH better. Roku's entry price is pretty cheap if you want to try it out.

misplacedbravado wrote:

Is there a good tool for adding metadata to m4v files?

One of my summer projects is making the DVD library into something Roku 3-friendly. DLNA streaming from NAS to Roku Media Channel is working great, but browsing with only file names and generic icons is getting less efficient as I convert more movies.

I use Mp3Tag for all my video and audio files. I typically format my metadata for use on the AppleTV and iPad, but it should do the trick for your needs.

Hm. Identify is working great, but the only metadata the Roku Media Channel is displaying correctly is release dates.

Maybe I should start playing with Plex. Pity that it's not supported on my NAS.

misplacedbravado wrote:

Maybe I should start playing with Plex. Pity that it's not supported on my NAS.

But, he is magical, so there is an upside.

IMAGE(http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/Bq1y8x2xRdI/hqdefault.jpg)

m0nk3yboy wrote:
misplacedbravado wrote:

Maybe I should start playing with Plex. Pity that it's not supported on my NAS.

But, he is magical, so there is an upside.

IMAGE(http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/Bq1y8x2xRdI/hqdefault.jpg)

I'm pretty sure there is some NAS support, I'm not sure how mature that development is.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/dSEbqI8.png)

Nice. I did wonder how long they would hold out with the connection to Xbox in the title. Not sure I'm a big fan of 'kodi', but I don't really care as long as it works as well as XBMC has done for me

The following is as much a brain dump as anything.

So I've just moved into the house my children will grow up in and my wife and I will grow old in. It's a lovely big home, by far the biggest I've lived in outside of shared accommodation as I'm used to living in single bedroom apartments.

Living in a single bedroom apartment, or a share house, makes media setup easy. The computer runs most stuff and running cable to things is a relatively easy process. This is a different story.

My old setup was something like this: I had a PC in one corner of the living room and TV/Consoles on the other side. The PC had an external hard drive full of all our ripped DVDs and music and I'd have the PC serve media. The PS3 would serve as the main media client machine, handling the Windows Media content as well as Netflix. I ran a long HDMI cable out from the PC to the TV for watching HBO Nordic and Popcorn Time, controlling the input with GMote. It also meant I could play Steam Big Picture mode from the sofa.

In this house things will be a bit different but I still want the same functionality.

PC Upstairs, runs Steam, Popcorn Time, HBO
Samsung Smart TV Downstairs with TiVo box which handles linear TV and Netflix
Hard Drive full of stuff normally attached to PC but could also be migrated to a NAS

The PS3 never gets used for games and can be boxed. I've got my old dual core and few-generations-old video card lying around and a raspberry pi sitting in a drawer somewhere. I don't envisage buying into the current console generation but a Steam box is not out of the question (hand rolled or store bought)

I've got a spare 5.1 decoder boxed somewhere and a decent set of surround speakers. I'm also going to want to set up at my vinyl/cd turntables and have them go through the living room speakers.

I have a lot of empty conduit I need to route cat5e through. I'm putting 2 sockets in behind the TV and one in where the PC is upstairs. I'm also considering routing HDMI through them as well although it strikes me that may be excessive.

Primary goal is I want to be able to get Steam, HBO, my video and music library, and Popcorn Time on the TV.
Secondary goal is to get all that working with 5.1 sound and my hifi equipment.

Primary goal is I want to be able to get Steam, HBO, my video and music library, and Popcorn Time on the TV.
Secondary goal is to get all that working with 5.1 sound and my hifi equipment.

Okay, well, the easy way to do that is just to buy a new Windows PC, and run HDMI to your receiver. Install whatever programs you want there. Boom, done.

There are cheaper and more complex ways to approach the problem, but that's the fastest solution.

Yeah I can't justify the expense of two games-capable machines.

They don't need to be. Just hook up something basic in the living room, you can stream games/media from your main PC.

I think I'll need to set the main PC to wake-on-network.

Here's how my house is set up, maybe this will help.

My main PC is in the living room and wired to my router downstairs. My games live on here and that's about it (I lost my office when the girls were born and this had to go somewhere).
My media PC is downstairs. This is an old PC that I have running 24/7 basically in silent mode. It's really low power and handles all my plex/serviio/and backups required. It's also hooked up to my TV downstairs and has a copy of steam on it. Nothing installed but that lets me stream games from my upstairs computer to my TV and comfy chair downstairs. It works really well but I have everything wired with cat6.
The living room TV has a PS3 on it hooked up with the wireless that only really functions as a netflix/amazon/Blueray machine. I really should be a media remote for it.
My bedroom has a TV with a chromecast on it.

And that's about it. By building that PC out of spare parts and putting it downstairs, I have eliminated the need to have my main PC on in order to have media all over. In addition, I've added an additional PC to backup all my pictures to and to handle uploading the cloud backup and to let me play console-focused ports with a controller on a TV without running an HDMI cable across 15 feet of living room.

Yeah, I'm thinking of scratch building a machine out of old components to run in the living room to stream Steam to. Set it up with a 10 foot UI and make sure it can handle Popcorn Time. Move all the media to a NAS which can live upstairs by the switch and have it serve UPnP and it should be golden.

So I recently updated my streaming setup from my old Boxee Box running to a "dumb" NAS on my network. My drives in my existing NAS were certainly long in the tooth having run for 24x7 for at least 5 years and I started to hear them exhibit occasional clicks. For the last 6 months or so I switched to a Plex Server running on my PC as the front end but I wanted to take that into a more idea setup for my wife (she loved the Boxee Box) and so once the Xbox One client was released I figured it was a good time to switch it completely.

I did some research and found a NAS that runs Plex Server very well and went with that. The NAS I picked up is the Synology DS214 Play (the Play is the key as it has hardware transcoding support), a 2 bay unit that can support up to 12TB in Raid 0 (dumb!) or 6TB in Raid 1. 6TB drives are still pretty expensive and honestly even with my fairly large collection I'm just now approaching 2TB's so I went with a 4TB Raid 1 volume.

After some confusion using Synology's own package manager to install the Plex Server and then the Xbox One not seeing it as a valid library I realized I could manually install packages so I downloaded the latest Plex for Intel based NAS's and that did the trick. I can happily say that performance was snappy from my Xbox One and 1080P streamed sources looked awesome over wired Ethernet.

Add to that the ability to stream remotely from the internet and I'm in heaven. Highly recommend this combo for Front End/Back End streaming throughout your home and internet. The Amazon Fire TV is another far cheaper front end option than the Xbox One if you simply want to stream without having a Game Console. The Fire TV works equally as well (I have that connected to my Bedroom TV)

Do you do transcoding on the Synology?

LeapingGnome wrote:

Do you do transcoding on the Synology?

Yes it has support for transcoding.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Do you do transcoding on the Synology?

I would imagine it would on any content that the One doesn't natively support. I have the Synology 212 (non play) and haven't run into anything that the XBO won't play but the Roku & 360 are another story. That was a great idea for them to couple hardware video transcoding in versions of their lineup. When it comes time to upgrade I will look for that.

TheGameguru wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

Do you do transcoding on the Synology?

Yes it has support for transcoding.

Yeah but "support" and real-world watching are different things. I have used Plex for a while with the server on an iMac and streaming to a few Rokus. I haven't jumped to Synology for the server yet because I have always read the transcoding speed has been iffy. I wondered how improved it is on the new ones with hardware decoding.

I've been kind of keeping my eye on the Minnowboard, which is a small Atom processor board that takes five or ten watts; it's more or less like a Raspberry Pi, but a lot more powerful. The current board doesn't have open source drivers for the video, but the upcoming Max will use stock Intel graphics, which are well supported in Linux. It'll be dual core at 1.33GHz, up to 4 gigs of RAM, Intel HD something-or-other graphics, about $150. Has a gigabit network port, a couple SATA ports, a couple of USB 3 ports, and some GPIOs like the Pi.

It's supposed to be out anytime now, at least per Mouser's delivery ETA. It's a lot more expensive than a Pi, but a heck of a lot faster, and should be a near-direct replacement for many of the Pi's use cases.

I would expect Steam streaming would be real easy for it.

LeapingGnome wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

Do you do transcoding on the Synology?

Yes it has support for transcoding.

Yeah but "support" and real-world watching are different things. I have used Plex for a while with the server on an iMac and streaming to a few Rokus. I haven't jumped to Synology for the server yet because I have always read the transcoding speed has been iffy. I wondered how improved it is on the new ones with hardware decoding.

Plex turned on the hardware transcoding for the Intel Evansport NAS which the DS214 Play has.

TheGameguru wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:
TheGameguru wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

Do you do transcoding on the Synology?

Yes it has support for transcoding.

Yeah but "support" and real-world watching are different things. I have used Plex for a while with the server on an iMac and streaming to a few Rokus. I haven't jumped to Synology for the server yet because I have always read the transcoding speed has been iffy. I wondered how improved it is on the new ones with hardware decoding.

Plex turned on the hardware transcoding for the Intel Evansport NAS which the DS214 Play has.

So update a few weeks in and I'm dissapointed to say that the DS214 Play isnt able to stream high bitrate files @ 720P/1080P the CPU spikes to 95%+ and you will get stutter and pauses when you stream to pretty much anything (I tried my iPad, Xbox and PC both on the Local network and through the internet) If you have low bitrate stuff it works fine which was what I was watching initially but once I got into my larger files I noticed the issues. IT could be that Plex fixes the issue with a software update but I have no idea.

So back it goes and I'm now going to try a Netgear ReadyNAS 516 (which is about 3 times the price) so for the most part I can't see how using a NAS for your Plex Server makes much sense when you can get an Intel NUC and some cheap USB storage for about half the price (or just leave your PC on 24x7)

Doh! Disappointing to hear. I was really close to pulling the trigger on one of these last weekend but decided to wait for the software support to mature a bit more.

When you say high bitrate, what do you mean numberwise?

So, there's going to be an HP Mini desktop. Inexpensive Steam streaming client?

I recently found out about Limelight, which uses nVidia's GameStream. Basically, it's an open source alternative to nVidia Shield's client. I've tried it on my Nexus 7 (oldie but goodie 2012) and it works pretty well.

Combined with Android's SixAxis, you can use the DS3 or any BT enabled controller.
Windows has the 360 drivers and controllers.

There's development for Android, iOS and PC (incluing Microsoft's very own RT fiasco).

I tried the PC very early build (still in .jar form). No touch input yet, but pretty awesome.

The Android client, which is the most advanced version so far, is not polished but fully functional. Rooted version allows for touch input, while the non-rooted app will require a controller paired to input commands.

I've tested LAN only, but the app claims streaming over LTE.

Razer announced Forge TV; a direct Shield/nVidia GameStream/Steam InHome Streaming competitor;

from Gizmodo;

Every year, Razer comes up with a crazy product to wow the crowds at the Consumer Electronics Show. A tablet with a built-in controller! A Lego-like desktop PC! But this year's surprise is actually four products that work together: an Android TV microconsole, a Bluetooth gamepad, a streaming service, and a wireless lapboard. The best lapboard ever.

You see, Razer thinks you don't want to buy another gaming computer specifically for the living room, or lug your existing gaming rig. You might, however, like to play some Android games with your friends. So what if you had a cheap microconsole that could play those games some of the time, but also stream titles from your PC like the Nvidia Shield?

You just described Razer's Forge TV.

Are people trying things like NVidia streaming because Steam in-home streaming isn't up to snuff? I'm new to this stuff and yesterday I tried streaming from my desktop to my MacBook Pro. It was a little laggy. Close, but not quite there for games with heavy action. It made me wonder if it would all be fine wired or if I needed to use a different protocol.