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

I've only tried wired, and didn't have any issues. Wired should give you a much better, faster LAN connection that isn't prime to interference in the same way that Wi-Fi is.

I will be buying the forge day 1.
At least one controller, maybe 2. Would be nice if they offered a deal if you buy extras on launch day.

I've been waiting for an Ethernet enabled android tv. The nexus player only offered wifi.

It made me wonder if it would all be fine wired or if I needed to use a different protocol.

I'd try it that way. There will always be some latency in streaming, but over a gigabit wire, it doesn't have to do much compression, meaning latency can be quite low. When the bandwidth is just wireless, then it would have to do a lot more compression, increasing latency quite substantially. You can also get packet loss, which probably plays hob with most streaming protocols.

This was the biggest reason I didn't think much of those streaming game consoles... the bandwidth to do that well, with low latency, just isn't there yet.

DSGamer wrote:

Are people trying things like NVidia streaming because Steam in-home streaming isn't up to snuff?

I'm enjoying some games on my Android tablet. Divinity: Original Sin on a big enough tablet lets you take your time with NPC conversations at your leisure.

I'm unaware of any way to stream Steam to tablets, only other PC's so far. Is that correct?

Also, I just became aware of KinoConsole.
I'm about to test drive it this weekend.

There are PCs that are also tablets.

Not sure this applies here or not but whatever.
So I pre-ordered the Razer Forge TV device and a controller. Was supposed to ship today.
I just got an email this morning telling me it was back ordered! Says
"Thank you for ordering from us. As indicated during checkout, one or more of the products you ordered is currently unavailable and cannot be shipped. You will receive an email notification when your order has been shipped"

It never indicated anything about a back order at checkout. This sucks because the address I had them to deliver to won't be valid after the end of may. I've emailed them with a change of address. We'll see how it goes.

Does anyone here use Plex with Windows 10? I just started playing around with it and I can't get it to work unless my Windows Firewall is disabled. Needless to say this is a non-starter.

Windows 10 as the server machine, or as a client? I have been running it for a few years but on OSX as a server. Their forums are pretty active, I would search there for the issue and I bet it has come up before. You might just need to turn off the internet stuff in the settings (streaming remotely, etc).

I have plex and serviio running on my win10 host. No problems.

Plex servers running on my Win10 machine for a few months now.
Never had an issue.

Maybe something with to do with your ports?

This is Windows 10 as the host. The client is an Android app, but the console page shows it as having trouble as well. Mainly because Plex's servers can't call back into it unless my Windows firewall is disabled.

Have you added Firewall exceptions to the Win10 'server'? Otherwise, there won't be any connection allowed in, which would also fit with it working when the firewall is down.

Along with ensuring that Win10 is allowing connections on the port, ensure that you have a Plex account (free is fine) and are logged in to that account both on the client and server.

I concur. Win10 as a hosting has given me zero trouble ever since I did a (dirty) upgrade from Win7.
Maybe the Plex Server installation on Win7 is better polished and the configuration passed through to Win10 without the conflicts.

I did had to re-open the 34000 port on my router when I upgraded from Wiin7 to Win10 because my router saw Win10 as a separate, new PC.

PSA for those still using cable boxes and DVR devices from Comcast, Verizon etc. it's time to ditch them for a TiVo. The TiVo Bolt and Minis for an initial capital expense probably have a year or 18 month payback vs continuing to pay the cable co monthly box fees

The Bolt also has all the major streaming apps (Plex) included and supports 4K as well. I'm now using all TiVo in my new home and save $60 a month in box rental fees for a $2 month Cable Card.

The Minis stream from the Bolt live TV and Apps through Ethernet or MoCA (over coax)

It's been a while since I checked, but is OnDemand working with the bolt? Sounded spotty at best. I have 3 TVs total and I think Comcast jacks the cable card up to like $10/month after the first or second one.

Don't you also have to pay a TiVo Service plan too though?
That has always been a barrier for me in moving to TiVo if I was to cut the card. The real barrier is trying to get internet only provider at a reasonable rate.

Month to month I'd expect the cost comparison to be a wash. I expect that the Tivo software is still better overall, even though I still rely on a Roku for most of my streaming. TWC has a Roku app that lets me do some of their On Demand content; I've never looked at whether any of the premium rental stuff works through it.

There's still an "all-in" single purchase price for the box with lifetime service if you buy the hardware direct. They tend to launch new models ever 3-4 years, so it ends up being cheaper if you plan to keep the box for that long (and seriously boosts the resale value if you want to upgrade the next time). If your cable system uses Switched Digital Video, that's another box to connect up and power. CableCARD pairing, though, can usually be done over the phone, and often with a dedicated department that literally has flow charts for the Tivo setup interface. At least, once they mail the cards and find the tuning adapters for you.

PoderOmega wrote:

It's been a while since I checked, but is OnDemand working with the bolt? Sounded spotty at best. I have 3 TVs total and I think Comcast jacks the cable card up to like $10/month after the first or second one.

On Demand will not work over a cable card for the most part. I've heard that Comcast supports it though but I can't verify. You really only need one cable card though (and one Bolt) as the TiVo Minis will stream from the Bolt (up to 10 Minis per Bolt). I believe the Bolt allows for 4 simultaneous TV feeds.

Torq wrote:

Don't you also have to pay a TiVo Service plan too though?
That has always been a barrier for me in moving to TiVo if I was to cut the card. The real barrier is trying to get internet only provider at a reasonable rate.

You do yes. You get the first year free then it's $149 a year which covers a Bolt and any number of Minis. Unless you only are replacing one Cable Box/DVR the TiVo still comes out cheaper annual.

One of my co-workers displaced 2 DVR's and 5 cable boxes and saves $1200 annual on the fees now.

Huge update for Plex. They partnered with Silicon Dust and they now support HDHomeRun devices. This means you can record from ota or cable-card directly into Plex.

To Air is Human, Plex DVR is Divine

I think I am going to test this out with the $99 three-tuner cable-card HDHomeRun Prime and the $25 Channels App for Apple TV. That will give me a whole home DVR and Live TV so that I can cancel my TiVo sub, sell my TiVo boxes and cut my cable hardware rental to one single cable-card.

The other option is to go ota with an antenna and also kill cable - but that will take some convincing with the missus. I have a fairly low cable bill. My goal is to be 100% on a single box - which right now the best option is Apple TV.

Interesting, I'll keep an eye on real-world reviews, especially with OTA. Only downside is you have to have Plex Pass ($40 per year) but that is still cheaper than the cheapest Tivo sub.

Most new features appear first to Plex Pass holders. There's a possibility it will become generally available at some point simply because it's in SiliconDust's interest for it to be as widely available as possible.

The FAQ makes it sound like Plex Pass will always be required, since they have to pay for the guide data somehow.

Anyone know how to setup a spare Pi 2b as a pc mirroring device?

Hobear wrote:

Anyone know how to setup a spare Pi 2b as a pc mirroring device?

Do you mean as a backup server? The easy way to do a backup server would be to install Raspbian, connect an external drive, share it via Samba, and then do backups to that share.

However, the Pi is extremely slow at this kind of application. Its very, very limited IO speed is a severe problem. Your total throughput, either reading or writing to the share, will be maybe 6 megabytes/second, or about a twentieth the speed you should see on a gigabit network.

Even the cheapest possible PC would be WAY better.

My fire sticks and Sony blueray plates have both just not been able to connect up for WiFi direct mirroring or miracast mirroring to multiple phones and computers. I used to be able to do so with the fire sticks at least from my phone. Any thoughts? They will attempt to connect and fail.

I'm looking to get a plex server box, but a lot of the info I'm finding is outdated. I'd like something capable of 4K streaming. Being able to hook up a 2-4TB drive is enough storage for me. I'd also like it to have low power consumption as I plan to have to running all the time. Being small enough to fit on our dresser is also a plus.

It seems one possible answer is to hook up a hard drive to an nvidia shield TV. I'd be okay pre-transcoding my video files to make it work, but I've been getting mixed messages if this is possible. Also, if I do this, will I be able to transfer files from my PC directly to the drive, or do I need to connect it to my PC whenever I want to add new shows?

Any other suggestions?

What is your budget? For example a Mac Mini is a perfect Plex server (appliance-like, can do your transcoding for you, fast), but will cost $700+ to get the optimal config.

<$400. Preferably under $300, though I understand if I have to go higher to get 4k.