# Streaming question: Please help



## rf5000 (Mar 13, 2010)

Guys,

I'm finishing my dedicated theater. I have an equipment rack right outside the theater where I will locate my amplifiers, receiver, blu ray player, DVR cable box, etc. I have (2) strands of CAT6 internet ran to this rack.

What I want to do is have a constant selection of BLU RAY QUALITY movies available to rent from an onscreen menu and display in my theater. Is there any service, media player, etc. available for this currently that works very well and is fast, just like watching a blu ray disc? And that has the movies available the day they come out on disc? Can I acheive this by streaming or do these movies have to be downloaded first to a server and then watched? Please help


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

There are many possible ways to get what you want however BluRay (HD streaming) is compressed and you can tell if you have a large display like a projector and screen. Also as far as I know none of the streaming/download venues available have the uncompressed audio available it will only be DD5.1
Most cable/satt companies offer PPV there is also Netflix and even Apple TV


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## rf5000 (Mar 13, 2010)

What about a service like Vudu? They claim to offer 7.1 and HDX quality for rentals?


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I highly doubt that its discreet 7.1 and HDX is still a compressed format.


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## rf5000 (Mar 13, 2010)

But you said Blu Ray is compressed too?


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Sorry bad wording, I meant to say HD over streaming/downloads not BluRay as the physical BluRay disc is going to always give you the best picture and sound


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## BD55 (Oct 18, 2011)

Are you looking to do a HTPC type of setup? afaik you can stream 1080p via CAT6 from a network attached storage to a HTPC running one of several media programs (XBMC is really cool imo, and looks great). You would just need a IR blaster to control the HTPC from the theater room.


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## rf5000 (Mar 13, 2010)

Would I need to use HDMI blauns? How many cat6 wires would I need?


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## BD55 (Oct 18, 2011)

rf5000 said:


> Would I need to use HDMI blauns? How many cat6 wires would I need?


I'm not an EE, but my understanding is cat6 can handle 10 gigabit throughput. A BR is roughly 25-50Mb/s, so you should be able to stream a ripped BR no problem. I don't have this setup, but have been looking into it for a while, so I know you can get 1080p...whether that's 1080p24 or whatever, I'm not sure, but a hard drive has no problem pumping out that amount of data, and there are media programs that can handle the interface with HD files. As far as audio, I don't know what XBMC is capable of putting out.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I personally have two of these WD TV Live media players. Ive had good luck with them so far. It uses wireless network also so very easy setup.


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## BD55 (Oct 18, 2011)

tonyvdb said:


> I personally have two of these WD TV Live media players. Ive had good luck with them so far. It uses wireless network also so very easy setup.


How does it do with streaming? Do you use it for Netflix and stuff like that, or for ripped/downloaded content? Those look like a good solution, but it seems like wireless would have some trouble with high bandwidth content, or no?


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## moparz10 (Sep 21, 2010)

i like the wd tv because of it's simplicity,streaming quality and it has front and rear usb ports,it plays pretty much anything you throw at it, i have 2 hard drives hooked up to it and am very happy with a 99.00 expense.


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## trevorv (Oct 8, 2012)

With regard to Baluns. I use Key Digital. We just recently finished a job with their 5x11 HDbaseT matrix switch and Baluns. We used cat6 and it worked flawlessly except for 1 bad input card. The Key Digital products are very well made. I've used Gefen before but we ran into a problem when their HDCP scheme didn't match our Scientific Atlanta cable box. I've also tried HDMI over coax with mixed results. 
As far as a Blu-ray server I install and personally use the Mozaex products. So far we have got great responses from clients and I've had no problems with mine. The one I use was 2TB but I increased it to 11TB. Mozaex plays stored Blu-rays in a ISO format so it's bit for bit the same as the original disc. They also include their NetPlay service which includes NetFlixs, Hulu, and Amazon. 
You will never get the picture quality or sound of a Blu-ray streaming over the Internet. The infrastructure just can't support that amount of bandwidth. So it's a matter of convince over quality. The only product available that I know of is called the Prima Cinema. It's $35,000 dollars and $500 per view, but it allows you to watch a movie the same day it's released into the theaters and then gone when its out of theaters.

Sent from my iPad using HTShack


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## mjennens (May 3, 2011)

Hi RF5000,
I see you're in North Dakota. I'm in Bismarck. Where in the state are you?
Mike


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