Slashdot Mirror

I've tried plex and I just don't like it. I have been using serviio as my home media server for many years, and it works great.

I don't quite get SNAP.

I tried Plex, didn't like it and stayed with serviio.
It has some annoyances, but has been working for me for years. We mainly stream videos from my server to computers and TVs via Rokus. Works like a charm.

I use Serviio (Free/25$) and while it's not perfect it's pretty damn good.

serviio has a linux release and its free... http://serviio.org/buy-pro/10-uncategorised/60-free-vs-pro - Daemon Scripts: http://forum.serviio.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=71

serviio has a linux release and its free... http://serviio.org/buy-pro/10-uncategorised/60-free-vs-pro - Daemon Scripts: http://forum.serviio.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=71

Serviio.

Mac Format in the UK's answer to OS X not having a DLNA server - spend 99 quid on an Apple TV instead of spend nothing and download Serviio.

As the "Anonymous Coward" above has suggested, you can:

Get a full tower case, something like a Lian-Li PC 80 with 12 5.25" bays

Then get 4 5-in-3 hot-swap bays

And as many SATA cards as you need to populate the bays (With 6 SATA connectors on your motherboard, you'd probably need another 2 4-port SATA cards to fill the box)

Top the lot off with a 750W+ power supply, and you're all set. Throw it in the basement, or out in the garage if it's temperature controlled (Would have problems with that up here in Canada; -40 makes for very unhappy PCs without a lot of sealing against condensation).

That'll get you (using 3TB hard-drive) 60TB of storage in a single case. You'll also have 2 free SATA ports, so you could have a separate SSD as your boot drive.

If you're going to be upgrading, you might want to switch to Serviio for your uPNP hosting, as it also handles on-the-fly transcoding into supported formats for uPNP/DLNA hosts using FFMpeg, and upgrading the CPU to enable real-time HD transcoding. Then you can store your media in the best format you can (Native from source, or x264/DTS if the source is raw), and not have to worry about having multiple copies around to deal with client compatibility.

This can all be done incrementally, too, especially if you don't have the funds for it on-hand at the moment (who does?).

For media server, I recommend Serviio, and not _too_ worry about video encoding that much (on-the-fly transcoding, but a few mkv files do have issues, depending on how they were encoded). And Linux/Windows/Mac version are available for free.

Check out Serviio Media Server. It works on both *nix and Windows systems. I use this extensively with my Samsung TV and it works great. http://www.serviio.org/

*shrug* Pretty well, actually.

Try Ted [Torrent Episode Downloader] with PS3 Media Server. You get the same shows you watch now. It costs you nothing. All the commercials are edited out. And you can usually watch them within 3-4 hours of their being broadcast.

The only possible alternative that is similar in functionality (shows WITHOUT commercials, not just commercials you fast forward through) is Amazon VOD. That being said, Amazon VOD is only compatible with certain devices, unlike PS3 Media Server, which works with nearly all DLNA devices. Otherwise, I would probably just buy the shows through Amazon VOD. If it only worked on the PS3, natively.

You can use Amazon VOD, Hulu, and Netflix through PlayOn, but it kind of sucks. Netflix on the PS3 (the version Sony promotes) is using a Bluray disk, and the interface is terrible. One must click through titles one-by-one, with no way to hold down the "forward" button, or flick a page at a time.

The only issue with PS3 Media Server is that you have to organize the files, because although Ted does a great job of downloading the files, they will end up in a giant pile on your drive with crappy "leet speak" names. There are a few automatic renaming utilities, but these are very kludge.

There is a new (free as in beer) DLNA server called Serviio which fixes that, by automagically downloading program names, and presenting a hierarchical interface to the user. That way, you can keep your TV shows in a big pile, and organize them whenever you want. This combination (TED+SERVIIO) represents truly automatic HD video on demand, sans commercials, of nearly any content you would want. And its free.

That being said, Serviio's transcoding is somewhat buggy, so TV Nirvana isn't quite ready yet. But it's almost there.

The funny thing is that I cannot get service this good from any provider at *any* price. I would be willing to pay quite a premium to get truly ad-free TV. But I want my shows to download automatically (or stream), I want it in HD, and I want it to work with a video game console or TV, eliminating a set-top box that would otherwise take up valuable space.

The ironic thing? I prefer watching TV on my PS3s than on my DirecTV HD-DVRs with nearly every channel.