# Apple Home Sharing for Whole House A/V



## Dale Rasco

I'm sure there will be many naysayers on this particular thread who will question the architecture and end results of the setup I have put together for whole house A/V streaming and I can appreciate everyone's preferences. That being said, this particular thread is targeted to those that want that whole house option that lack some of the more technical skills, and more importantly patience, necessary to get the system up and running reliably and user friendly. Furthermore let me say that I am not a huge Apple buff and not a big proponent of MAC or OSX, but when something works as advertised and as it was designed to; then I think it should be mentioned. 

I have been trying for the past couple of years to setup a whole house system without having to invest thousands upon thousands of dollars in a large media HTPC with raid configurations, etc. I knew that if I made it too complex I would get tired of troubleshooting every minor issue that popped up and I could just forget the system being adopted by the rest of my family. The system I ended putting together was something I could have never anticipated being done for the cost. Now, before I go too far into it, there are some definite limitations to putting a system together like this one. Most importantly are the proprietaries inherent in the architecture. Apple designed this system to run most effectively with other Apple systems which have its Pros and Cons. For example:

*Cons:*

Home Sharing will run over your normal 802.11 A/B/G/N WiFi but, there may be some latency involved in streaming high definition video content. However; insert the Airport Extreme wireless into the mix and “magically” these issues go away. This obviously leads me to believe that there are some proprietary Apple protocols such as AARP or ADSP that the system is geared toward.

This solution requires that all of your media be in Apple iTunes. Any older titles that you currently use that are WMV, etc. can be converted to MP4 via Handbrake or something similar, but this can take some time and be fairly annoying for those of us that lack patience.

Home sharing works when hosted on a Windows 7 PC, but as with 802.11, the system runs much more efficiently when OSX is the operating system.

*Pros:*

 Cost! Basic infrastructure can be setup for less than $800.
[*]Apple TV $99.00
[*]MAC Mini $499.00
[*]Airport Extreme $179.00​
All of the user interfaces are similar in design so navigation is easy and intuitive. 

Home Sharing enables the user to stream to any newer Apple device such as iPhones, Ipads, Ipod Touch and any PC or MAC running iTunes. Furthermore, if enabled, any content that is purchased on any device using the iTunes account setup for Home Sharing will be automatically uploaded to the root device in the chain. So when I purchase a movie or some songs on my iPhone it is automatically downloaded by the MAC Mini from the Apple store.

This fall Apple will be releasing iCloud to store all of your media content that has been downloaded from iTunes for free and for an additional $24.99 a year it will store all of the other media you have that wasn’t purchased through iTunes as well as documents, etc.

From a budgetary perspective, the Apple solution is a much more robust and dynamic system than the SONOS offering and is not limited to audio. Additionally you get the benefit of the Apple Store new release rentals, Netflix and a host of other applications. This system is not for the hardcore. There are those out there that thoroughly enjoy taking something easy and complicating it as much as possible and to those I say, stick with your media servers and Roku players. But if you are looking a simple system that will stream your music, TV shows, digital copy movies and other media content and is extremely user friendly and has a high WAF, then look no further than the Home Sharing architecture from Apple.

Here is my current setup and how it is all connected followed by a list of my costs:











2 Apple TV	$198.00
MAC Mini $799.00
3TB Time Capsule	$499.00
Total $1496.00

I have since installed the basic system at a neighbors house and he and his wife love it. That setup, since I already knew what I was doine, took less than an hour to unbox, configure and start streaming content. Normally I would bash a company for dumbing down technology but the fact is that most people don't want to be bothered with having to continuously work on their A/V system. Yes, I know that is crazy talk around here, but I have been in IT for 17 years and the last thing I want to do when I get home is continue technical support because my users at home can be a lot less forgiving than my customers at the office. This system works reliably and with only occasional interaction for updates, etc. and I highly recommend this setup for anyone looking for a dependable whole house solution.

There are other Pros and Cons that I am sure my forum brethren will be glad to help flesh out. :T

*Update*

One of the biggest advantages to the Apple TV is the Airplay feature as it pertains to iTunes. I have Dish Network as my provider and one of the things that the Apple TV has allowed me to do is to catch up on TV shows that I may have missed due to service being out or even worse, this season's episodes of The Walking Dead due to a disagreement between AMC and Dish. 

The way it works is fairly simple. You buy a season from the iTunes store which enables you to download it to any machine that you have authorized for purchases with your iTunes account. In order to stream it from your Mac or PC, simply turn on Home Sharing as I have shown in the images below. Then enable Home Sharing on your Apple TV under the general settings using the same iTunes account you are using on your Mac or PC and Voila! You are good to go!

 
 
 

In my setup I use a Mac Mini as my 'base of operations' but a lot of the time I will download a movie or Tv show to my MacBook or my Windows 7 laptop and copy it over to the other Mac when I get home. As long as you are using the same account on all of the devices you will be able to stream straight to the Apple TV. It really is a simple and easy way to watch your favorite TV shows or all of those digital copies of Blu-rays that you have been storing up!


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## RTS100x5

I like your philosophy of "simple" and "reliable" pro's of this basic design. I have setup an ATV for my niece but was unable to stream wireless w the AT&T router, so maybe the addition of an Extreme AP router will fix that issue. Im also not a Apple or I anything fan as much as PC, WMC simply because I object to the proprietary formatting.
My cons for this setup, considering my media as well as basic joe plumber family of 5 / these you mentioned but its just my observation/validation off the top even if you hadn't mentioned it
1 cannot play bluray content unless converted (to 720p) and stored ***
2 proprietary itunes / having to reformat of all non MP4 or (apple format)
3 wireless is still wireless and will have streaming issues though the bandwidth of your design is the best possible scenario.

****I have since flashed the ATV with GREENPOSION 4.2.1 (free) which solved some issues

1 addition of XBMC allows use of bluetooth devices - in my case I setup a Logitech DeNovo Mini as a remote control / keyboard (eliminates the very tedious apple wand)
2 XBMC can network / stream any audio or video format including MKV.. ( apple still outputs 720p but that's what you get w ATV)
3 Many other useful, free add-ons for XBMC that I havent explored...


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## Dale Rasco

I would be happy to hear what else you come across in your exploration as I started this thread for what I have experienced so far, but I know there is a lot that I am missing. Finding the time to flush out all the functions is the biggest problem.


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## Sevenfeet

I'll chime in here since this thread is near and dear to my heart for a project I'm doing that's very long in the making.

I'm been converting my entire media life to digital for some years now and I decided a long time ago to build it around iTunes and a Mac server since:

1) I had them.
2) I had all Apple devices and laptops
3) Media formats were known and easy to convert to.

So here is my journey so far:

I started a number of years ago of ripping my CDs to iTunes but I got serious about two years ago and re-ripped the entire library to both Apple Lossless and AAC 256K using a special DougScript. The idea was to have lossless audio for critical home listening plus AAC 256K for media devices (iPods at first, then iPhones and iPads later). I used iTunes smart playlists to keep things managed properly, which wasn't the best solution but tolerable. I'm hoping that iCloud next month will allow me to eliminate the track duplication issue and have iCloud supply 256K tracks of my music to my devices. My iTunes library has about 18,000 tracks of music purchased since 1984.

At that point, I needed ways to distribute the streamed music in house. I looked at Sonus before settling in on Apple's Airport Express. The AE did have some bugs initially in its implementation for music but those were smoothed out. Even better, iPhone/iPad control came later which makes playing your music from anywhere to anywhere a reality. My house now has three music zones: the home theater, the playroom/kitchen area and the living room (where I keep a two channel speaker arrangement with a tube pre-amp). All zones have an Airport Express. In the living room, I'm putting up with the fact that a tube pre-amp is getting it's audio from an AE with less than stellar D/A conversion hardware. At some point I'll get an Emotiva D/A converter to solve this problem. The other two zones are served by Denon receivers with decent D/A conversion on-board.

I wanted to do video next but I knew that I had a big problem first. The wireless network in the house was ok for normal work but my first video project proved it to be a big weakness. I have two Tivo Series 3s...one in the home theater, one in the master bedroom. One morning our kids wanted to see a show in our bedroom stored on the other Tivo, so I started a transfer. After several minutes the Tivos had barely transferred anything. So I proceed to hard wire the entire house with gigabit Ethernet. The ground floor was mostly easy except for some areas. I have a great general contractor that helped me from room to room although soon, every room save a guest bedroom has high speed network access. The real problem was the top floor (with the aformentioned master bedroom). After examining the problem, we identified a chase that could be used and my contractor and I ran a bundle of 9 CAT-6 wires through the walls to the attic (we needed to open a hole in our bedroom to make it happen, repaired later). With the Tivos now on a wired network, transferring programs now took a few seconds to begin viewing, even for 1080i HD programs.

The next step was to archive and convert all video...which was a lot since I have about 600+ titles, with nearly 100 Blu-Rays. There are some obvious logistical problems....first is storage. Each DVD title averages about 6.5 GB per DVD and many are special editions with two discs. The Blu-Rays are much worse...35 GB per disc on average. During this time, I had maxed out by 4-bay Drobo with 2 GB drives but I knew that wouldn't be enough since I store other things there too. This is still a work in progress but I could begin. I began with some Mac ripping tools before realizing that fast moving copy protection technology was better served on the PC side, so I got AnyDVD and using a combination of two PC laptops I owned plus VMWare on the Mac server, I got to work. I'm still working on this, having archived about 3/5s of the library to the Drobo array. Along the way, I've been using Handbrake and the Apple TV 2 setting to transform the movies to something my Apple devices could understand. This works well except for the devices my kids have (original iPhone, iPhone 3G) but that's not as important and I can do special rips for their movies.

Now, I don't own an Apple TV although I've been looking at one. But I have a big problem with the Apple TV or else I might have one already. The TV in my home theater room is a classic Mitsubushi 65813 CRT RPTV. It was state of the art in 2003. But one weakness of the design was that it couldn't accept a 720p signal through the component or DVI inputs. The Apple TV Series 2 is a 720p device. It can work at 480p and I've tried that (I bought an Apple TV for my parents last year). But it's still not an ideal solution. The situation is worse in the master bedroom. I have a classic Sony SD TV there that badly needs to be replaced.

I'd like to examine other solutions, like media players or Blu-Ray players that can handle ripped media. But I've yet to see the ideal solution. Players like the Dune lineup of the Netgear 550 seem interesting and can be extremely flexible with network-accessed ripped media. But neither solution I would say are going to be the best for picture quality or user interfaces (after all, my wife has to use this thing too, as well as children, babysitters, my mother, etc). I like the Oppo BDP-93 a lot since it has the best video in the business and recent firmware updates now handle ripped media...but only with locally attached storage (USB, eSATA) and not network available storage (SMB, AFP, NFS). I'm not sure it ever will get that feature (in the current product) but I can always hope.

So that's my story. I'm hoping to have the video library completed by Thanksgiving although I have to buy some 3 TB drives to keep up with the video demands. I still need a media player. Any suggestions from the ranks?


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## Dale Rasco

One of the things I thought long and hard about before going down this path was storage and time. Going with a typical streaming setup, if even it is on my own LAN, would require huge amounts of storage and a lot of time to manage the solution. Updates for the server and not to mention the time to RIP/import video media. Added to the family usability of the solution and I just decided that I spend enough time troubleshooting and working on systems on a daily basis to be weighed down by it at home. 

If I have to watch Blu-Ray quality A/V I'll do it in the home theater anyway and putting in a disc isn't a huge deal for me. To me, the Apple route was simple and elegant compared to a large storage array and rack server. My LAN is gig and WLAN is 'N' so I am good to go on the internal network. With the average movie cost on iTunes being around $10 for the movies I want and most big Blu-Ray releases come with digital copies, I am pretty well set moving forward. 

As far as a media player that can do what you are looking to do, I am not sure but I would be curious to hear how this turns out. I also appreciate you sharing your experience thus far. Keep us posted!


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## Sevenfeet

One possibility I thought of with the Oppo BDP-93 was to just hang a hard drive off of it, which a lot of people (at least on AVS) are doing. The problem with that approach is that even if I limited the drive to Blu-Rays, my current library would exceed a 3 TB drive. And I need my Drobo on the Mac server right now and I don't have budget to get a second one (although that is a longer term possibility).

Bottom line is that so far, I haven't found the perfect media player. There are some that are close, but nothing perfect just yet. When I eventually replace the bedroom TV, I think I'll just make things simple and put an Apple TV there. It doesn't need the quality of the home theater, but it would have flexibility for playing anything (including all the kids videos) I have ripped not to mention have access to the music library. One thing for sure: if Apple replaces the current Apple TV with a 1080p version, I'll buy that in a heartbeat since my Mitsu TV would work with it.


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## cburbs

Sevenfeet said:


> I like the Oppo BDP-93 a lot since it has the best video in the business and recent firmware updates now handle ripped media...but only with locally attached storage (USB, eSATA) and not network available storage (SMB, AFP, NFS). I'm not sure it ever will get that feature (in the current product) but I can always hope.


I have the Oppo BDP980 and I use NFS to stream MKV files. I run vortexbox which runs Minidlna but ran into odd issues so I installed Serviio on it. I have looked into the 93 but are you sure it doesn't work with some type of dlna server(serviio, PS3 media server, Twonky, etc) or are you trying to avoid running something like that. I came across this article - http://wiki.oppodigital.com/index.php?title=BDP-93_UPnP/DLNA_Media_Streaming_FAQ so it looks like it does. So if you could run a dlna service on one of your servers that would be ideal.

Also how simple do you want this media player to be - They all have pros/cons. I recently got a WDTV Live Plus for the bedroom and love the thing. I hacked it so it is a little more flexible than stock firmware. When I finally upgraded the old TV to a 32" HDTV I didn't want anything bulky in there so I was looking for something small/compact.


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## Sevenfeet

cburbs said:


> I have the Oppo BDP980 and I use NFS to stream MKV files. I run vortexbox which runs Minidlna but ran into odd issues so I installed Serviio on it. I have looked into the 93 but are you sure it doesn't work with some type of dlna server(serviio, PS3 media server, Twonky, etc) or are you trying to avoid running something like that. I came across this article - http://wiki.oppodigital.com/index.php?title=BDP-93_UPnP/DLNA_Media_Streaming_FAQ so it looks like it does. So if you could run a dlna service on one of your servers that would be ideal.
> 
> Also how simple do you want this media player to be - They all have pros/cons. I recently got a WDTV Live Plus for the bedroom and love the thing. I hacked it so it is a little more flexible than stock firmware. When I finally upgraded the old TV to a 32" HDTV I didn't want anything bulky in there so I was looking for something small/compact.


Indeed, that is an option and I guess it's one I should explore more. My problem I guess is two fold. I've never really drunk the MKV kool-aid so I'm unsure of all the pros/cons (maybe someone can spell it out for me here). I haven't been terrible happy with DLNA in general since I've been relying on various solutions with my PS3. It doesn't help that I've been a Mac based house. PS3 Media Server has gotten better but it's not the be-all solution and the PS3's XMB interface is a massive FAIL for trying to teach it to anyone over the age of 30. Probably the best DLNA solution I've seen for the Mac is NullRiver's MediaLink. It seems to work the best without errors. What would be useful is if MKV will work without further transcoding to the PS3. That may be worth investing in.


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## cburbs

The reason I chose MKV was for the Oppo though I did run into issues when there was a handbrake upgrade 9.4 to 9.5 Some changes caused 9.5 not to work correctly unless you made a few minor changes to your settings. The only thing is the DNLA service and browsing on the Oppo isn't the cleanest thing in the world. It works but not perfect.

Also MKV works with my Tivo and my WDTV Live Plus.

I don't own anything apple right now though I might test out the AT2 with XBMC soon.

Here is a list of DLNA software for windows/linux/apple - http://www.rbgrn.net/content/21-how-to-choose-dlna-media-server-windows-mac-os-x-or-linux

Here is my setup as of right now - 

I run vortexbox on a atom pc - it works great for my squeezebox and DLNA service needed for the oppo. It also has Streambaby/Pytivo running on it for my Tivo. In a sense it is my centralized Nas box that runs the services I need for my networked devices. The vortexbox can also rip CDs/DVDs/BluRays(with Makemkv). No it isn't the perfect solution but it does work for now. Truthfully I don't think there is a perfect solution on the serving end or the streaming end. I think it all depends on what one is looking for and needs out of the device(s). 
Lately I have been thinking if there is a way to replace 3 of my devices with just one(Tivo, Opp BDP80, Squeezebox). I like netflix so I use that on the Tivo....the only thing that comes to mind is an HTPC with a tuner card etc but not sure I want to go that route.


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## Sevenfeet

I've been researching the MKV angle more, and there does seem to be some practical value to it. The MakeMKV community seems to be thriving although I'm not convinced about the stability of the application (but it is improving steadily). Vendor support is crucial and it looks like they are certainly getting that, mainly since MKV is just a container for other established and known codecs (it's just considered a better way to package them). Handbrake makes these files too but doesn't seem to be the preferred way to make them for some reason.

Pytivo does do some MKV support, mainly through transcoding since the PS3 doesn't handle MKV files. PytivoX for the Mac hasn't been updated in a while so I think the MKV support there is pretty stale, if it's there at all. I could run it out of a VM program, but I wonder what the performance would be like (even over gigabit Ethernet).

I'm making some test MKV rips over the next few days to see how they turn out and perform with the hardware I have.


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## Sevenfeet

Ok, I've done a little research. Of the two MKV tools I have, Handbrake and MakeMKV, Handbrake is the easiest to wrap my brain around since I already use it for other transcoding, but it seems to offer the least flexibility. There is no support for handling HD codecs, virtually no subtitle support and I'm just not sure what it's doing on the video front. MakeMKV's user interface is a hot mess (a real problem for most open sourced projects) and I'm still trying to figure out just what it's doing on subtitles. But the overall end product seems to work pretty well when used against the obvious program to test it with, VLC. Of course, MakeMKV rips everything on the disc whether you need it or not. You can be choosy on this but I'm still learning the options.

Of course after that, using it with a practical TV application with what I already have is another problem. First, I tested PS3 Media Server for Mac against the PS3 I own and to my surprise, it began playing the MKV movie ripped from my Blu-Ray without any fuss. But there were two problems. First, subtitles were forced meaning you couldn't turn them off. This seems to be an option MakeMKV and I'm testing a new rip today...not sure why it seems to be on by default. But after watching about five minutes of the movie, performance of the DLNA/transcode process began faltering badly. Now my Mac Mini server is the least capable of supported Macs it specifies so I'm not surprised that it might not be enough for all applications.

The second application was firing up PyTivoX for Mac and seeing if that might work for a transcode to my TiVo Series 3 units. Although PyTivoX hasn't been updated in about two years, it did correctly identity the MKV file and did a proper transcode for the test file. But PyTivoX transcodes to a MPEG2 file, which takes up a fair amount of room on the hard drive. Second, I haven't used PyTivoX since Lion and one section of it (the Streambaby code) doesn't seem to work anymore. But the transcoding and transfer to the Tivo's hard drive does work and looks like a credible alternative for watching a movie from the library on the Tivos.

More on this as I play around with it.


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## cburbs

Sevenfeet - I don't use Macs but I do use handbrake for almost all my encodes. Though I don't worry about subtitles with too much stuff. I have a few of my own presets in handbrake for movies/blu rays/nook color etc.

I also use kmttg with my tivo for kids shows and have that set to automatically use encoded settings to shrink the file size of tv shows and then those get stored on my network. Each show is not the same so some of them I have had to change which encoded setting they use.

I know conversion process can be tough in deciding what works/doesn't work. This is why I usually take some small samples from movies/shows etc say 10 minutes or less and encode/test them on my devices.

Some other options for ripping are from here http://www.videohelp.com/guides

How to convert Blu-ray to standard DVD-Video (or MKV,MP4) using free tools

How to rip Blu-ray to MKV with H264 video and DTS-HD audio using Staxrip

The other one I can think of is Ripbot but I guess off the top of my head not sure which of these is available for Macs.

 Blu-ray Backup articles


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## RTS100x5

http://download.cnet.com/Freemake-Video-Converter/3000-2194_4-75218346.html?tag=mncol;1

This is the software I use for transcoding. It it VERY versitle and can customize almost any video or audio sample rate / resolution etc..... 
It can be a little slow but its FREE 

Just throwing this out there , you may have already tried it


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## Sevenfeet

cburbs said:


> Sevenfeet - I don't use Macs but I do use handbrake for almost all my encodes. Though I don't worry about subtitles with too much stuff. I have a few of my own presets in handbrake for movies/blu rays/nook color etc.
> 
> I also use kmttg with my tivo for kids shows and have that set to automatically use encoded settings to shrink the file size of tv shows and then those get stored on my network. Each show is not the same so some of them I have had to change which encoded setting they use.
> 
> I know conversion process can be tough in deciding what works/doesn't work. This is why I usually take some small samples from movies/shows etc say 10 minutes or less and encode/test them on my devices.
> 
> Some other options for ripping are from here http://www.videohelp.com/guides
> 
> How to convert Blu-ray to standard DVD-Video (or MKV,MP4) using free tools
> 
> How to rip Blu-ray to MKV with H264 video and DTS-HD audio using Staxrip
> 
> The other one I can think of is Ripbot but I guess off the top of my head not sure which of these is available for Macs.
> 
> Blu-ray Backup articles


Thanks a million Cburbs. This post will save me probably a months worth of trial and error. I look forward to inspecting as much of it as I can.


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## mayhem13

I completely agree with Dale here on an all iOS network.....it just works. And with the addition of a Mac mini running Plex, it's a stunning Media jukebox experience. I've been running a 5 zone A/V system and haven't looked back. Now i haven't tried it yet, but there's folks out there using the ATV2's as Plex clients which looks promising as well. For $500 as a core hub with Plex, the Mac mini solution is really hard to beat IMO.

It does take time to load everything in an iTunes format, but it's well worth the wait for Windows users. With ATVs set up as Plex clients, no need as it's transcode on the fly.


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## Dale Rasco

I'm going to have to try the Plex stuff, haven't had a chance to dive in deep but luckily I've got time today and needed something to do! Thanks Mayhem!


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## Sevenfeet

mayhem13 said:


> I completely agree with Dale here on an all iOS network.....it just works. And with the addition of a Mac mini running Plex, it's a stunning Media jukebox experience. I've been running a 5 zone A/V system and haven't looked back. Now i haven't tried it yet, but there's folks out there using the ATV2's as Plex clients which looks promising as well. For $500 as a core hub with Plex, the Mac mini solution is really hard to beat IMO.
> 
> It does take time to load everything in an iTunes format, but it's well worth the wait for Windows users. With ATVs set up as Plex clients, no need as it's transcode on the fly.


Question: I've been familiar with Plex on the Mac for some time but every time I've ever tried to use it, it always seemed to be flaky (strange crashes), not-intuitive for setup purposes (external file servers, iTunes compatibility) and other things are maddening. Now I work in technology and I've done my share of ugly enterprise installation in my career. But I don't have time for this at home anymore. Has Plex gotten better to the point that I can spend some time with it and is it usable to the family?


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## Dale Rasco

I downloaded it and started working with it on Saturday and found it to be quite intuitive. Like you I'm in technology, Network Infrastructure, and the last thing I want to do is troubleshoot when I get home. I plan on flashing the ATV2 and running it on there this week sometime. I'll let you know how that goes.


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## mayhem13

Hey Seven....Most Plex users of the past year rate it as the BEST media users interface they've ever worked on. I've had a very similiar experience with it and plan on integrating it even further with a NAS.


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## Sevenfeet

mayhem13 said:


> Hey Seven....Most Plex users of the past year rate it as the BEST media users interface they've ever worked on. I've had a very similiar experience with it and plan on integrating it even further with a NAS.


I've been playing with Plex for a few days now and it has gotten better. Splitting off the media server was a good idea and it seems to do a pretty good job lining up proper metadata and artwork (although it missed 300 and 48 Hrs. in my movie collection). I'm curious about the iPad streaming app although I already have three of them and comments in the App Store seem to think that it isn't the best streamer when you're not on your local network. Still, the interface looks interesting.


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## mayhem13

if you're talking about the Plex App, haven't used it but i do use a lot of other apps for 'flinging' content from the iPad to ATV2's and Airports including Pandora, Hulu+ and others. With a strong wireless network there simply isn't another streaming config that has more available content from local storage to web content and streaming services. Once iPad mirroring hits in iOS5, it'll be end-game for all of the other streamers and HTPC's. For those with XFinity cable, their iPad app is unreal in what it can do. I'll be building an 8TB Nas shortly to start saving my BD collection.......as soon as i add some more memory to my windows PC which i use for all of my ripping/encoding. Apple doesn't play nice with Blue ray.


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## Sevenfeet

I've been playing around with MakeMKV for a little while now. I'm impressed by the speed it goes through Blu-Rays and Blu-Ray .isos. And now I think I've gotten the hang of selecting what I want to keep and what I want to toss for a single file. My big problem right now is that I can't really do anything with them without transcoding. My PS3 and Tivos can play them but both transcoded via PS3 Media Player and PyTivoX respectively. A player that can natively handle a 1080p MKV would be nice but it's not in the budget for right now. Still, I may go ahead and start ripping more of them in preparation for having a better player.


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## gstaver

Not sure if anyone is still monitoring this thread but I thought I would share my setup. I actually store all of my media on a custom built Windows Home Server 2011 machine. I would much rather use an Apple server but the WHS 2011 is actually very user friendly. It also has built a built in DLNA server so it pretty much serves media to all of my devices without any problems. I have the Plex Media server installed on it and that allows me to get to my media to my iOS devices out side of my home network. And I use Freemake Video Converter, as someone mentioned earlier, if I want to convert video to mp4 to transer to my iOS devices. All in all it works very well.

I have the latest Apple Airport Extreme connected to my high-speed broadband connection. In my living room I have a 58" Samsung Plasma HDTV. Connected to it I have a PS3, latest MacMini running Boxee, an Apple TV2, a GoogleTV and our DirecTV receiver. I also have an iPhone 4S, iPad 2, HP TouchPad, iPod Touch 4th Generation, and another GoogleTV in the bedroom connected to a 50" Samsung 3D HDTV. As you can see I love gadgets. 

My goal is to convert everything to MP4 in hopes to simplify some of this. I am currently testing MyMovies and AnyDVD to rip my owned DVD collection to my WHS 2011 homeserver for storage. This is especially useful for my 5 year old son's movies so that he can stream them rather than scratch the discs.

Anyway, that is my setup as of right now. I really enjoyed reading through this thread. Very interesting to see how everyone else has their setups working!


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## wideopenvista

Apple enthusiast here. Although I've been a Windows tech since the late 90s (less so in the last few years), I share the sentiment that I don't want to have to troubleshoot my system when I sit down to relax with my wife. That being said, I'm sure there are Windows-based media systems that are robust. Just not my cup of tea, I suppose.

I'm looking to replace my WDTV Live+ that I bought a couple years back. It's got some issues that have been getting worse and since WD has abandoned firmware updates and it's out of warranty it seems it's time to look around at a new media player. 

My setup is three pronged: 

1. Music: Macbook Air (running iTunes 11) hooked up to a Musical Fidelity V-Link asynchronous USB to SPDIF converter being fed into a Pioneer VSX-1020-K AVR.

2. Video Files: WDTV Live+ streaming files across network from 2TB "Air Disk" (formatted HFS+) hooked via USB to a latest Apple Airport Extreme gigabit router. This has worked well except for high bandwidth (Blu-ray) video files which I think is a limitation of the Live's processing power. The Airport Extreme will stream at full USB2 speed but the Live can't process it fast enough. 

3. Streaming: 3rd gen Apple TV for Netflix, MLB, NHL, iTunes movies.

I just need to replace #2 for file playback across the network. It seems the best candidates for me (since I don't need 3D) are either a Mede8er 500X2 or Dune Smart H1. Leaning toward the Dune because of its "bulletproof" reputation. Plus I'd like to catch the last Blu-ray licensed solution (for playback of BR ISO's with menus) before it pulls out of the station for good. Any recommendations?

Overall, the Home Sharing model Apple has employed has worked well for me. The one big caveat being I don't use the Apple TV to listen to music or watch video. I use my iPhone or iPad to navigate iTunes on the MBA in another room using the Apple "Remote" app for playback in the living room over the coax digital input. The quality of such a wired connection is obviously more reliable and higher than WiFi streaming over Airplay. The latest update to the Remote app where you can edit the "upcoming" playlist allows you to entertain quite well without having to make a new playlist every time. Plus you have almost as much control over the library as you do from a computer now. A very nice update from Apple! 

The shortcoming of the Apple model is the limited file types that can be streamed. Basically, if iTunes doesn't accept it, then you are screwed. That's why I rely on a media player device: cheaper than a Mac Mini or HTPC with less heat and electricity consumed. For such a narrow purpose (watching MKV, MP4, ISO, VOB primarily), it seems to fit my needs well.


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