What I Want

[kingandy]

I've been looking at media players and boxes to go under my telly (from the Apple TV to the upcoming YouView) alongside my XBox 360, but until now I haven't really tried to pin down exactly what I'm looking for in such a glittery bauble. UNTIL NOW.

Requirement	Fulfilled by
Able to play media off my PC	XBox, for certain file types.
BBC iPlayer and, ideally, other OD services such as 4OD	Apple TV, YouView.  XBox will play iPlayer files downloaded to PC, but it's extra faff.
Able to play media (AVI files, etc) off DVD	XBox, for certain file types.
Makes less noise than the XBox	Everything except for XBox.  Though that does include the quieter XBox 360 S.

Hmm, that appears to be it, really. The HD freeview and PVR aspects of the YouView are still a draw - because I like to get an HD signal on my HDTV, and I'm excited about the way it ties the OD services into the programme guide so you can just flip back in time and watch things you missed. And the Apple TV appeals because it would play well with my iPod Touch. But setting those "shiny toy gadget" aspects aside, the big thing at the moment is that the XBox is somewhat lacking as a media centre on account of the encoding restrictions and the lack of internet connectivity.

I wonder if a decent NetBook (one with a DVD drive) would be a decent option?

Comments

[ed-fortune.livejournal.com]

We use a Wii for iPlayer and a cheap-ish (£50) DVD player for playing .avi files via a USB stick.

Seems to work.

[kingandy]

But I want one box that does everything! And, ideally, without intermediary storage media. If I want to put files on a USB stick there are even cheaper options.

though god help me even that is tempting because it's coooool

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

There is already such a thing.

[kingandy]

Does it communicate with the PC? Nice.

Sadly it's a little outside my budget...

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

Yep, via DNLA you can stream to heart content.

[pax-draconis.livejournal.com]

We use the Wii to access 4OD/Iplayer, and the XBox360 for everything else.

[richc.livejournal.com]

Depends how geeky you want to be but I've got a little Atom powered box running mythtv and xbmc.

Advantages: scriptable, does what I want it to, web interface to schedule recordings, will play anything

Disadvantages: requires moderate geek skills to set up

[stsquad.livejournal.com]

Ohh, linky?


I'm thinking my next purchase may well be a Buffalo Station or something similar. What I really need is a chunk of network storage with a low poer footprint....

[richc.livejournal.com]

It's just an Revo R3600 with Ubuntu and more up to date XBMC and Myth on it. Plus a cheap USB dual tuner. I've got an old Debian box on a shelf in the hall as a file/web/db server which also runs MythWeb to give you recording (and playback if your connection can take it) over the web.

[wibblefish.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly sure there is a server app that will transcode most things to the xbox on the fly so you can play pretty much anything on it.

[kingandy]

It turns out there are all sorts. Thanks chap, I have acquired myself such an app! It is now the work of moments to drop old Doctor Who episodes into a transcode folder, rather than hours of file conversion. I am even considering forking out for the "pro" version of the app so that I can get iPlayer support, though a) that is against the "license paid" nature of the iPlayer and b) I strongly suspect somebody somewhere will do it for free...

Not sure why I didn't twig that the XBox was using an open interface to commune with Windows Media Player ... Vuze/Azureus has been showing up on it for months. Oh well, chalk it up to experience.