Poll: Do you stream HD media around your home?

by Darren Murph posted Mar 15th 2008 at 12:00PM

Here recently, we've seen quite an outpouring of HD media streamers, not to mention a fresh report suggesting that 33 million homes will be HD streaming by 2012. Judging by the comments we've seen, it seems as if whirling HD media around one's domicile is all the rage. Still, we're hesitant to believe that the bulk of techies have really bit the bullet and invested in said technology -- particularly when wireless streaming is still so finicky. Still, we're interested in seeing if you've bought in, and if so, what your experience has been like. You know the drill, exercise that right to vote below (and feel free to elaborate in comments)!

Filed under: Polls, Media streamers

Tags: hd streaming, HdStreaming, media streamer, MediaStreamer, poll, polls, stream, streaming

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

John @ Mar 15th 2008 12:25PM

I bought a Popcorn Hour and have been pleased with it. Have only had a few minor problems and their support has been very responsive.

Neutral

Tyler @ Mar 15th 2008 12:23PM

Vista Media Center and Xbox 360 make the perfect (at least for me) HD streaming combo. The only HD I stream is OTA HDTV, but still, it works like a charm.

Neutral

Brad @ Mar 17th 2008 2:48AM

I stream from my XP server to two XBOX360s. We have HD and SD content and it'll serve both at the same time. I love that Media Center Extender feature.

Neutral

eric2184 @ Mar 15th 2008 12:57PM

I have a PS3 in my theater that connects to a Wireless Draft N router via ethernet cable. I have my "media server" iMac in the living room that connects to the router via WIFI (N). What makes the whole thing work is a $20 piece of software called MediaLink from Nullriver. This allows the PS3 to access the hard drive of the computer and stream (or even copy) the files on it. It can do my iTunes library (with album art), my photo gallery (with some really cool slideshows), and video files (including HD podcasts). The only downside to the setup is that it will not play files that have DRM and I don't know of a way to remove DRM from iTunes movies (and am unwilling Torrent movies), so I am limited to HD files that are DRM free (video podcasts, and there are some really cool ones). Considering this whole setup only cost me an additional $20 to get working, I'm really impressed. I still think that we are a long way off from online distribution (given the lack of high quality content), but it's a start.

Neutral

Jon @ Mar 15th 2008 1:18PM

Still looking for the perfect solution ... Using Xbox360 and Vista , Ati Tv wonder w/ Cablecard . Backed up 4 TB of my DVDs onto my HP mediasmart server , Used VOB2MPG and now Videoredo to play ripped DVD on Xbox360 , i could use my XPS420 on my tv directly but there are overscan issues on my 60" Sony XBR2 SXRD when using HDMI .. Still would like a media streamer that plays VOB so i can use Poster art as the icon , I know about popcorn hour and i am on waiting list , but id still like something more upscale without going into the $1,000's ... I dont know if there ever will be a 100% perfect solution for me but its a fun game to play

Neutral

milachy @ Mar 15th 2008 3:43PM

I use slysoft anydvd hd with videoredo tv suite. I rip the movies to dvr-ms files and then put them on my ex470 mediasmart. I use a GREAT addon for MCE called mymovies check it out at mymovies.dk it is a free program.

Neutral

Se7enwolf @ Mar 15th 2008 1:48PM

the free Tversity from my PC to my/your PS3 (and/or laptop) is all you need. Does help having a good internet connection. All these streaming media hubs that do nothing but stream are worthless and to much for nothing. Get the PS3. Well worth the money, easier to set up and you can do alot more with it.

Neutral

Alan Strangis @ Mar 15th 2008 2:22PM

Tversity's picture quality is pretty janky on an HDTV (though not as bad as Orb - even when tweaking both). The combination of buffering and sub par image quality doesn't do it, at least for me.

(though I DO have Tversity running just so I can access content on the go with my Windows Mobile phone - on THAT account, Tversity rocks)

Neutral

Alan Strangis @ Mar 15th 2008 2:22PM

Neutral

Jason @ Mar 15th 2008 1:54PM

I just enable media sharing in WMP and then have it automatically add the folders I want. Then I can view all my media on my PS3, works great for me!

Neutral

andres @ Mar 15th 2008 2:05PM

i stream everything on the 360 exept for hd. i haven't found a problem free way to do HD- .MKV files which are all you can find online and they look so much better then wmv and xvid. but the xbox cant stream them so i just watch them off the pc connected to the tv.

Neutral

Alan Strangis @ Mar 15th 2008 2:11PM

Windows and the 360 is a well nigh perfect solution.

For optimal OTA signals given limited antenna placement, my best option was to bring the HD OTA signal into my Vista box and stream over a wired connection to my 360 through Media Center (18 channels in Toronto, Canada).

I also use the straight up file sharing on the 360 to play my HD-DVDs ripped WMV-HD, and they look (and sound) spectacular.

Also use Juice to download HD podcasts, which are saved in a folder shared with the 360, so I can watch (mainly rev3) podcasts in high quality.

I just wish Amazon Unbox would come to Canada (and in HD) because it's fully compatible with the 360 media center, and their selection is amazing. My cousin in New Jersey had the same setup as me, and Unbox was awesome.

The only gripe I have is that some file formats won't play from the 360 Media Center interface, due to licensing issues. But that's pretty minor.

I haven't fired up my old XBMC setup in months.

Neutral

Jon @ Mar 15th 2008 2:16PM

To follow up i have PS3 and i think its a terrible media streamer .. if you have lots of media files you have dig and dig through folder after folder to get to everything , the integration is just not there in my eyes

Neutral

tranzparentl @ Mar 16th 2008 8:22AM

I use the PS3 and Xbox as Media Extenders. I personally like to browse through the folders the same way it is setup on my computer. Keeps it organized that way. Better than taking 500 videos and putting them all in alphabetical order.

Neutral

BK @ Mar 15th 2008 2:16PM

I have been running mine using TVersity and the PS3. All on my wireless network with my laptop. Sometimes it disconnects with wireless errors but i blame the laptop as its getting older and i constantly have around 40gigs being shared. Anyways its awesome, despite a few glitches every once in awhile.

Neutral

Alan Strangis @ Mar 15th 2008 2:19PM

hey andres.

I've used the program gotsent (in google it's the second link). It's worked flawlessly for me, and converts mkv to mp4. It's a front end GUI to automate the splitting, re-flagging and recompiling into mp4 of mkv files. It doesn't transcode so it only takes about 15 minutes to convert on a low end Core 2 Duo system, and doesn't degrade the picture quality at all.

I used the beta 10 version, as beta 11 was buggy for me. I notice there's a beta 12 out, but can't attest to how that works in comparison.

I've done a few mkv TV shows this way (I'm quickly running out of drive space, so missed 2 weeks while I was on vacation).

Neutral

andres @ Mar 15th 2008 8:33PM

hey alan
i tried it out and it worked great, except for when i tried to play it on the xbox. wouldn't even recognize it. i tired changing the extension and it recognized it with an .avi extension but would only play sound no video. any suggestions

Neutral

Ben Wraith @ Mar 15th 2008 3:09PM

I have both my PS3 and Xbox 360 set up to stream, but I don't really use them for that.

Neutral

Galley @ Mar 15th 2008 3:10PM

My Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station pumps out HD to my 160GB Apple TV. Rock on!

Neutral

andres @ Mar 15th 2008 3:25PM

reaply - Alan Strangis

thats interesting, i have not heard of it. and if it dosent transcode and there is no lose of quality that may be something im gonna try next wknd
thanks for the info

Neutral

tc @ Mar 15th 2008 4:40PM

Obviously the best HD content is encoded in x264 or in just plain MPEG-2 TS, but there's no reliable way to stream or playback these files on anything else but a windows or linux PC (yes I own and tried it on Mac, it's just too resource intensive). Of course, when we start seeing finalized wireless-N routers, I'll give it a try again.

Neutral

Brian @ Mar 15th 2008 11:49PM

tc, your post doesn't make any sense. A PC of equal power will not play back HD video any better than a Mac would. MPEG2 is not that processor intensive, although in HD streams your talking about a lot of data and a wifi network will probably have trouble streaming it. H.264 uses about 1/4 of the bandwidth of mpeg2 at similar quality, so it's much easier on your network. BUT, H.264 takes a decent CPU to decode it. So, if you have an old mac or old pc you may have problems. But, if you have modern hardware (pc or mac) you won't have any problems at all playing back H.264 even at 720p or higher resolutions. You don't say in your post what was connected to your HDTV trying to decode the H.264, the AppleTV and Xbox360 both work great for H.264 HD video, but you are limited in codec support. With the 360 playing back mpeg4, H.264, wmv, DivX, and Xvid it plays all of the popular formats and is probably the best media extender IMO...plus you get the benefit of have the best gaming platform...also IMO. :)

Neutral

wreckedchevy @ Mar 15th 2008 5:21PM

not yet still waiting for popcorn hour to send me my invite to order one :-(

Neutral

Brian @ Mar 15th 2008 11:31PM

I'm using a Mac Pro with Connect360 installed ($29) to stream to my Xbox360 and it works far better than I expected...I'm really impressed. The 360's interface isn't as nice as the AppleTV, but the more powerful processor handles higher quality HD streams than ATV. Nice that 360 and ATV both take the same H.264 video now.

Neutral

Trevor @ Mar 15th 2008 10:33PM

Wireles streaming? No. It is not reliable enough...especially with HD. I used to use two XBMCs as my extenders but they retired when I changed to mostly HD content. I have 3 MCE2005 systems now. One does all the recording and the others are basically extenders over LAN. I tried the 360, but too many file format issues. Also have a separate XP based DVD storage system that streams to the "extenders". I don't want to have to change all my various file formats to make it work. I don't want to have to add in buggy software re-coders for on the fly streaming. It's just easier to use a real PC with MCE. Unfortunately, they have to be tuned to play all the file formats, but that only has to be done once. I hope the Popcorn Hour lives up to the hype, but until one of my "extenders" dies, I won't need one. If they can make a device that allows you to throw whatever formats you've got at it, and it "just works", they might be able to get some of the "regular folks" to ditch their VCRs.

Neutral

mixja @ Mar 16th 2008 8:09AM

Use Windows Media Player 11 on Mac Pro to stream to PS3 and XBox360.

PS3 is my main media playback box, stream back recorded re-encoded/remuxed HDTV shows, HDTV movies and HD movies (derived from HD-DVD or Bluray).

I love the PS3 as it can stream surround sound (Dolby Digital 5.1) for H.264 AVC, MPEG2, DivX, Xvid movies. I have many HD-DVD/Bluray movies that have been muxed into an AVCHD container without requiring re-encoding of the video source (only requires audio source to be converted to Dolby Digital 5.1 - small sacrifice). These all stream perfectly over 100Mbps Ethernet.

Only limitation is for VC-1 HD-DVD/Bluray and WMV-HD movies, which is what I use the XBox360 for.

Getting the content into appropriate formats for each playback device is very technical, requiring a number of steps and utilities (e.g. extract raw streams, process streams for playback compliance, re-encode audio if required, remux into new container), hence not for the technically faint-hearted. Having a high powered dual Xeon Mac Pro with multiple physical disks helps immensely - doing this on even a fast single disk computer takes a long time. This is the major barrier in my opinion.

Neutral

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