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Ask Slashdot: What's Your Media Setup?
An anonymous reader writes: There's no dearth of media technology today. Not only do modern console emulate set-top boxes, but there are dozens of tiny appliances that bring TV shows and movies to your screens with varying levels of convenience and cost. So, what setup do you use? I'm curious about the hardware you use to collect, transmit, and display the media, in addition to the software running it, and the services you use or subscribe to that provide the media. I imagine there are a lot of cord-cutters in this crowd — if that's the case, how do you acquire the shows you want to watch? What problems still need to be solved in this area?
A library card and a comfortable chair. Though I've been using the same chair for a long time so I probably need to upgrade the firmware.
MythTV for OTA an Dish distributed around the house.
Chromecast for simple things
Xbox One for Amazon/Bluray
It's a little heavy on electricity draw, but I use a 2006-era dual-core Opteron machine with a bunch of disks running Debian 7 and MiniDLNA for the media server duties.
I have a Linux box with a RAID array full of media. I run Plex server on it, and stream to a couple Rokus running the Plex client on a couple different TVs, as well as the Plex app on phones/tablets/laptops.
I sound like a Plex app, but it really is fantastic software.
I've got a Mac Mini pluggued to my HDTV with 3 tv tuners hooked to it. It runs EyeTV from Elgato, I pay about 20$/year to get the program list automatically. The tuners are hooked up to an antenna in the hattic. The thing can record 3 shows at once. The software lets be watch recorded shows and live TV on my iPad/iPhone if I whish so. The media library is also shared to my other computers in the house. I've been using the setup for years and it's a joy to use.
Menzoberranzan Networks
For my personal media, the server is a VM running ubuntu 14.04 and plex, connecting to a 4TB Raid 1 iSCSI, the clients are smart TVs and RasPI's with various Kodi releases, Sony PS units, and XBox units. For streaming services I have Netflix and Sling. Sling is the only problem child
nexusplayer with kodi and netflix. I did buy an ethernet adapter for it. works much better.
6TB NAS with movies/tv shows.
HD Homerun with tvheadend for local stations/recording/live tv on kodi.
PS3 for Blu-Rays and DVD's
Network is all wireless AC/wired 1GB with router and switches.
Pirate Bay, BitTorrent, and stacks and stacks of poorly labeled, mislabeled, and unlabeled DVD-R.
I have a laptop and a PS3 that share a hdmi cable, one end of which is connected to the TV. I swap them out depending on what I'm doing. Gaming and Netflix is through the PS3. The laptop doesnt get connected that often but when it does, I play old school games.
Lear 8 track in the car, Nakamichi cassette at home. Chick magnet 24x7.
I've an ITX chassis with 5 HDDs in RAID6 for storage. It runs Kodi (formerly XBMC) and plays any 1080p content I throw at it , syncing the TV to the same Hz as the content, which is nice.
I mostly listen to free podcasts from around the world, buy DVDs from the artists themselves (then they get 1/2 the money instead of 0.001 percent), and the rest is that old shibboleth Comcast.
Once 40 Gbps Internet rolls out in Seattle, I'll ditch them. Got used to that at work. We even have 3 100 Gbps ports, but those are more expensive.
Been downsizing the physical screens, going for higher energy efficiency 32 inch LCD HDTV and monitors.
If I could get a $20 a month 20 Gbps package like most first world nations, with basic soccer TV and use HDTV antenna for local broadcasts (higher resolution over the air signal than cable), I'd do it.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I get to watch maybe 2 shows a week when I'm paying attention. 0 when I have other things to do.
It's not a case of being able to access specific shows, it's a case of whether or not there is something to watch in the vast number of shows available to me. There usually is.
Currently half way through Salamander on Netflix.
There are plenty of places to pay for movies online if that's your bag.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
I use Sonarr and Couch Potato to grab TV Shows and movies through NZB/Torrent and use Plex via consoles and Chromecasts throughout the house. I cancelled cable 6 months ago and haven't missed it one bit.
I have a Plex Server on my network along with the requisite Plex Home Theater on a PC tower connected to the TV. I use this for movies and TV shows I own. Chromecast for those streaming services that support it, i.e. Netflix, Pandora, etc. And the PC for the other streaming services and hard copy movies, DVDs & Blu-Ray. I also occasionally use an XBox 360 with the Plex App or different streaming services.
Boxes connected to TV(I only have 1 TV, but test various devices), Nexus Player/FireTV/FireStick, ATV2, and others. Running Plex or Direct to my NAS. HP Microserver G7 running OPENMEDIAVAULT(OMV) On the NAS I have SICKRAGE going out to grab the .torrent files. Torrent Client on OMV to download those TV shows. I then have a script running with FILEBOT to move the downloaded files into their own directory.
Devices above also run KODI.
I also have a HDHOMERUN
Gear: I have a Nexus Player / Blu-ray player / Receiver in the Living room and a Nexus Player for the bedroom.
Control: I use a Logitech smart hub to control the living room and the included remote for the bedroom.
Software: I run KODI (ala XBMC) for file viewing, a NAS (w. MySQL) for shared files and KODI shared viewing history. There's Youtube / Netflix built-in and anything else I need, I use the Nexus Player's built-in chromecast support.
Cable: None! Woo!
I've literally tested dozens of media viewing solutions over the years and I've finally reached the point where there's essentially no pain points. It still requires some marginal level of instruction for guests, but its very minor.
Bye!
I've been using XBMC since XBMC was first a thing... so there's is some level of inertia here. But nonetheless I still use xbmc/kodi based solutions.
I've been using rpi's with openelec for many years now, all content sourced from smb shares on a central box. It does 1080p on all displays, with no issues co-sharing the same content. Usually gigabit, but when I have to use wifi for the display-attached unit, I use the network settings tweaks in advancedsettings.xml for Kodi in order to let the device buffer. The buffering does tend to wear down microsd cards faster than normal, but for devices with physical drives it's a non-issue.
The only problems I would like to see solved in my solution that I've been using for well over a decade... is the lack of DRM-required plugins. Which is to say, I would happily throw money at Netflix or Hulu or HBO Go if I could make them work with kodi/openelec. I wouldn't mind the ability to record those streams to be watched at my convenience either.
Big screen TV. No connection to the intertubes.
XBox 360. No connection to the intertubes.
BluRay player. No connection to the intertubes.
Yamaha amp. No connection to the interubes.
PVR from cable company (bought outright).
Apple TV connected to my desktop machine, haven't used it in months except to play music through my amp. Paired bluetooth keyboard so I don't have to type with tiny little remote.
Building a media center in a kit and maintaining it really isn't something I can muster up enough interest to give a damn about.
I pay for bandwidth, so the cable company's streaming service (included in my bill) makes sense, whereas something like NetFlix doesn't.
Oh, and I still buy physical copies of movies so I can play them as many times as I want without involving the assholes from the media companies.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
My personal media is on a 24TB (6x4TB in a ZFS RAIDZ2) FreeBSD server that runs Plex server and I use a variety of Plex clients to watch it. I cut the cord years ago and haven't missed a thing.
I started with an XBMC build for the RaspberryPi long ago. It was slow and the interface was painful to use due to the limited hardware in the Pi, but it ran movies flawlessly. An upgrade to the RaspberryPi 2 and switching from RasBMC (XBMC) to OpenELEC (a different build of XBMC or now as it's called KODI) and I have a smooth as butter interface.
Media is stored on a NAS and all TV series and movies are cataloged on OpenELEC.
To interface with the media centre I use an app called Yatse. It stores an offline catalog as well so at any time I can open up my phone, browse through what I want to watch, click the show, the RPi automatically turns on the TV and start playing. It also supports CEC so once the TV is on I can use the TV remote to control the media centre and play / pause etc.
Because the RPi 2's CPU has enough grunt I also added a DIY ambilight style system using the Hyperion plugin. For those who don't know what Ambilight is here's an example. It may look weird but in my opinion it enhances the movie experience quite a lot.
OpenELEC also acts as a good UPNP target and supports Airplay too, so with the RPi attached to my sound system I can stream music to it from any device without having to turn on the TV. Works great at parties.
The server runs minidlna, and the media players are connected to "dumb" TVs. The house is wired with Cat 5.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Plex on a win box, 12TB of storage on a linux box, some combination of rokus, firesticks, ATVs, Chromecasts, and portable devices strewn about the house willy nilly.
Plex managed to out-Apple Apple on the just works front. Just works at home. Just works on the road (okay - not quite, my LG G3 on Verizon stutters annoyingly, but everybody elses shit works fine). I spend almost zero time managing it.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Pretty much the same here...
Running Plex on FreeBSD 10 with 24 TB of ZFS goodness. I use PlayOn for internet video "caching" and there's a Roku attached to every TV. NoWhereMan's private Roku Channel picks up all the local broadcast I'm interested in as well.
Nothing evolves faster than the word of god in the minds of men who think themselves divinely inspired.
I cut the cord a while back, but since I only have one decent spot in my house where I get decent reception, I use an HD HomeRun Connect and then use either VLC or the PS3/PS4, depending on what display device I'm closest to when I want to watch something.
For streaming media, I ostensibly have access to stuff via Amazon Prime Instant Video through my Amazon Prime subscription, but I hardly ever use it. I've never been a big movie watcher, and there's more than enough free TV around here that I can find something to watch if I'm in the mood. I used to keep a Windows 8.1 computer around just for Windows Media Center, but got rid of it when I realized I was just recording stuff I wasn't getting around to watching. My video game backlog is big enough, I don't need a DVR backlog, too.
http://crummysocks.com
FlexGet -> Transmission -> Serviio -> Samsung D-series Plasma TV. Serves me quite well.
We started using a FireTV sideloaded with Kodi (SPMC build to be specific). Have a network share from our server that stores our library and any downloaded media. Loving it. Have not used any of the actual apps on the FTV, just use it to host and run Kodi.
While I still subscribe to AT&T Uverse TV, we've been watching less and less TV on it and instead using our Kodi appliance more and more. Going to be picking up another FireTV or 2 for same purpose soon.
I highly recommend Kodi, and the FTV makes a great platform to run it from, quad core, very small form factor, low power draw, etc.
Connected to my TV. It's clunky and unintuitive, but it works. I can connect to local shares on my lan and run netflix. Good enough and I don't have the time, or the will in my old age, to setup something more fancy.
I store my iTunes library on a 20TB (~19TiB)Pegasus array today. /Volumes/Pegasus/iTunes/ -type f -a \( -name \*.m4v -o -name \*.mp4 \) -ls | awk '{tot+=$7}END{printf "Total size: %.4f Gig\n",(tot/(1024*1024*1024))}'
Video size currently:
MigiMac (OSX) [~ (master)]$ find
Total size: 6802.7659 Gig
Mix of ripped movies and TV shows, but I also purchase a few season passes from the iTunes store... it's close to a-la carte cable and ends up being cheaper than getting all the channels required would be. I do actually purchase most movies on blu-ray (3d if avail.. it's fun sometimes). If it comes with a digital copy that works in iTunes.. great. If not, I rip a copy. Ultraviolet can go screw itself. Rips are done via makemkv/vobcopy -> handbrake -> iTunes.
I use AppleTVs to watch stuff probably 90% of the time. Another 8% or so is watching disks via my PS3... the remainder is Cable and streaming (I tend to not use netflix/hulu very often and cable TV only as background noise from time to time).
For backups (you do back up, right?)...
Tier 1 is scripted rsync to a Synology DS2413 with ~18TB of disk
Tier 2 is rotated 2x6TB striped disks in 2 identical Lacie 2Big Thunderbolt external drives. I rotate every couple weeks so one is locked in my desk at the office for "off-sites". I also rotate a disk in a static bag at the same time for my linux box's data backups (email/web/photo gallery).
My MBP (iTunes on it has my master music library for syncing to iOS dev due to history) is also backed up to it's own Time Capsule but I also use rsnapshot on my linux server to back it up to the disks rotated out at work in the static bag so I have off-sites for the MBP as well.
- My favorite error message: xscreensaver, running on an old Sparc 5 w/ 8bit color: bsod: Couldn't allocate color Blue
I was previously a Windows Media Center guy, with a nice Ceton cable-card tuner. MCE had a nice, high wife acceptance factor, and made for a better DVR than any of the big guys -- although consumer DVRs have caught up nicely in the last few years.
Times have changed.
Because I still enjoy games in my living room, the primary device now connected to my television is an XBox One, and nearly all television is watched on Plex. Plex is, in a word, fantastic. It was worth the $100 I shelled out for a lifetime pass.
In the closet is a QNAP 4-bay NAS. It's running a suite of Sickrage (choose your own Sickbeard fork), sabNZBplus, Transmission, and Plex. I've purchased a pair of block Usenet accounts on competing backbones, and I download about 25 gigs a month from them to get the number and quality of shows that I want. I keep them forever on the QNAP.
I rip or download any movies I want into Plex -- I converted my entire physical library some time ago -- and they're watchable anywhere, in part because I have Cox's Gig service in Phoenix.
On Sundays I still turn on the cable feed to watch the NFL, and a couple Saturdays a month I turn on the cable feed to watch a UFC PPV, although I expect to watch their next game on the UFC app on the XB1.
[A TB Usenet block is available on sale for another 10-15 hours at NewgroupDirect for $40 right now...]
I've got a laptop running Kodi connected to an external hard drive where I store my media. I can access Kodi via my Roku right now, but I want to hook it right up to my TV.
My problem right now is that my DVDs are holding me back. We have so many DVDs and no place to put them other than in the cabinet under the TV. While in there, they are difficult to look through and just take up space. I want to store them somewhere but don't want to put them in a place that will ruin them. (For example, the heat in my attic would make them unplayable after one summer.) I'm not sure if putting them in a Rubbermaid bin in the basement would ruin them. (The basement doesn't tend to be overly damp.)
The second problem is that our living room TV is an SD set. Yes, I know that HD is much better, but money is tight and we're using this SD set until it dies. So I need to figure out the best way to hook a laptop up to a RCA input.
Any suggestions on DVD storage or laptop-to-RCA converters would be appreciated.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Not being a linux guy, there's a bit of a learning curve when I set it up, but now that it's running, it's pretty amazing.
If you're unfamiliar with unRAID, it's pretty slick. I no longer worry about drives failing, or running out of space.
Clients are Plex apps on phones and tablets. TV's either have Roku or Amazon FireTV sets running Plex apps.
Plays everything. Looks great. Not sure what else you'd want.
it can stream from any computer running itunes or put a USB flash into an xbox and play from there. plus all the streaming services out there. simple to use
I've got a post below, but I'm with you. MCE well configured with a Ceton card was great. ...except for those days when PlayReady decided to be a bitch.
I use dumpster-found comptuers, networked with cat5 stapled to the walls. Bitorrent everything. Cost is minimal.
I'm cheap, and always have been, so it's an easy choice. Google has made this immeasurably easier.
There are a number of TVs in the house, and I have this thing called "wifi".
I picked up a couple of the Google Chromecast dongles for $25 each, and they go in the TV. We have Android phones in the house, so we use Chromecast to stream pretty much everything to the TV - Amazon Prime, Netflix, or the local Plex server.
Local media (movies and audio) are kept on a FreeNAS box, and Plex is one of the trivially configured plugins available (through the FreeBSD jail system).
I also have wireless HDMI adapters, so that solves the "I want an extra monitor while I'm working from the living room" problem.
I also have a rooted Wii (with eg. dlna client) and a Blueray/DVD player, so there are alternative means of streaming if an Android phone isn't available... but there are at least 6 in the house...
If I had a stereo to speak of, I'd just use something like the Chromecast Audio dongles for the same functionality (or maybe, this: http://www.amazon.com/Kinps%C2%AE2-Switch-Splitter-Input-Output/dp/B00NNHWRGW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1445449981&sr=8-2&keywords=hdmi+switch+2+out)
Conveniently, all my media is also available through Plex wherever I go with Internet access.
Really, the only limit for full home automation is your budget, at this point. it's trivial to do with ubiquitous home automation kits... My favorite is Ubiquiti brand.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Mac Mini running Front Row with a RAID box containing four 3 TB HDs in a RAID 5 configuration.
For media, I rip my CDs, DVDs and BluRays (on a separate PC) and also download shows from various on-line sources.
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
emby backend, kodi front end for media. Ripped from DVD and blu rays using makemkv and handbrake (the former I've found to be needed after trying to use only handbrake for a while)
mythbackend, and I still use myth frontend. Tried to use the kodi frontend but it would never shut the hell up about notifications and it seems not to be configurable, and kodi's seek to a video from mythtv is terrible compared to mythfrontend.
There's also a netflix subscription in play, though increasingly less time is spent. It's frustrating as shows disappear in the midst of being watched, or a season is unavailable, or if I want to revisit a series again. It's all you can watch renting which is sometimes nice, but getting as close to 'owning' as the media companies allow is better (at least having something they cannot 'revoke' my ability to watch).
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I didn't see TIVO mentioned, so 'TIVO'
The Roamio I have cost $300 with lifetime service and I have an antenna. The TIVO combines my Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, and Netflix down in to one interface.
If I want to see episodes of (say) Stargate SG-1, it'll show me what's available from my streaming sources. If an episode isn't available, it'll record it for me when it comes on the air. It's really a fantastic solution and keeps all of my services in one spot instead of having to bounce between them. The software on the TIVO is really the killer app.
Before that, I had a Mac Mini & HDHomeRun with EyeTV software. That handled all of my recording needs, but I still needed Safari for Netflix or Amazon Prime.
Each TV at home has a small computer running OpenELEC or similar XBMC/Kodi distributions. The bigger computers are nettops like the Acer AspireRevo series. The smaller one is a Raspberry Pi 2B.
They all connect to a NAS share that contains all my videos. I rip DVDs and BluRays that I own (several hundred) and more recently rent (via Red Box).
Remote controls are Logitech Harmony One remotes for a couple of the boxes and an old iPad running an XBMC/Kodi remote control app on one of them.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
I have that Visio. Among it's best features is that it's also a Plex client.
TV: 46" Sony Bravia 1080p from like 2006 Amp: Marantz PM8004 (stereo only, don't need surround) Turntable: Denon PM-3 with Ortofon 2m-Red cartridge PC: Intel NUC running HDMI out, raspberry Pi with hifiberry DAC OS: Openelec on the NUC, Runeaudio for the Pi Storage: 4TB USB3 for NUC serving video, 2TB USB2 for the Pi serving FLAC Pi is headless, controlled from phone or tablet NUC is controlled via Flirc/harmony remote
made the switch from from Win media center over a year ago to kubuntu desktop/server with 4TB of media running kodi; wired to 2 other Pc's/Tv's also running kubuntu/kodi, much happier with linux once i figured out NFS...also have minidlna dameon running which works well for smart tvs, but prefer kodi interface. would like to build a r-pi box, but have two spare htpc's from my previous windows htpc days that also allow web browsing on the tv's great for FF football!
Have gnu, will travel.
Netflix and Amazon subscriptions + rip anything worth owning for me. Not bothering with OTA stuff at the moment.
In terms of the ripping/encoding, I use a combination of MakeMKV and Don Melton's transcoding scripts for my blu-rays and DVDs, since they allow me to preserve full surround sound and a high quality video image while encoding in a format that I can use across all of my devices without additional or on-the-fly transcoding (a la Plex) being necessary. I used to use Handbrake for the encoding, but I find that Don's scripts work much better for me and are a lot less fiddly in terms of their output. For now, I'm serving them up from a Mac Mini via iTunes Home Sharing to an Apple TV (and any of the Apple mobile devices in the house), since I found iTunes Home Sharing to be significantly more reliable and easier to manage and use than DLNA or other methods I've tried in the past, but I'm not averse to switching media servers in the future as my needs change, and since the files aren't DRM-encumbered, it'd be trivial for me to do so.
Otherwise, as far as the media hardware goes, I have my PS4, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Dreamcast, and Apple TV all in a closet and hooked up to an Onkyo A/V receiver (TX-NR609) that then goes to my TV. I use the Onkyo AVR's remote for both the AVR and the Apple TV (since the Apple TV can be trained to recognize other remotes in its Settings). Because I keep all of that equipment in the closet (i.e. not in line of sight for IR signals from remotes) I use a Next Generation Battery Transmitter Remote to transmit the IR signals via RF into the closet. Such an awesome product, since, unlike most IR transmitter/receiver devices, it effectively turns your IR remote into an RF remote, meaning that you don't have to have an ugly box sitting next to your TV to catch and retransmit the IR signal. Don't ask me how the thing works, since all I know is that you put the provided RF transmitter in place of a AAA or AA battery in your remote, and somehow it knows what to transmit to the receiving end. And the thing barely ever needs recharging, plus it even has a standard battery size you can buy at Walgreens for the user-replaceable, rechargeable battery it uses.
Sorry for shilling out, but in case it wasn't already obvious, I really do love the little thing, even if it does look like a UFO.
As for OTA TV, meh. My wife has already told me she'll need the Olympics whenever they come around next summer, but NBC just launched a channel on the Apple TV, so I figure we'll just use that, or else we'll stream it via AirPlay to the Apple TV from one of the Macs or iPads in the house.
TV is addictive, if you have it you watch it. If you don't have it you don't miss it.
I schedule recording of over the air broadcasts, strip commercials, and archive. I buy blu rays or DVDs of shows when they are released as full collections of all seasons for $40 or under and archive those on my NAS as well and serve to the house. I don't always watch the latest things right away but I get most of the popular stuff. My library also carries many TV series and films and I can borrow them for free. Also swap with friends.
Twinstiq, game news
40" TCL 1080p 60hz dumb tv (got it for $250 on sale).
Roku 3 ($99)(1st version, no voice search)
Philips 2.1 sound bar w/ virtual surround. $80
I have a fairly small living room and this setup does the trick.
Certain videos and shows (mainly youtube stuff) have a strange "laptop speakers" effect through the sound bar unless I disable the virtual surround. It must have something to do with the way the soundbar encodes the audio into separate channels?
I also have an old dvd player that I use once in a blue moon for library rentals
On occasion I will move my PC across the living room to the tv and do some couch gaming when the wife isn't around. She always lets out a distinct *sigh* whenever I make a move to my computer desk, as she knows once I've started the machine there will be no netflix&chill for the remainder of the evening.
Home server downloads and stores the torrents, and serves a Samba share containing a neatly organized library of symlinks to the media files. I can play these back on any general-purpose computing device. One of them is a dedicated HTPC in the living room.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I'm currently using a FireTV Stick with sideloaded Kodi, once the folks at Silicone Dust finish their client I plan to add one of the new HDHomeRun boxes and a NAS for OTA and use Kodi to front end that and finally cut the cord since I find myself mostly watching streaming content these days but it would be good to have some way to get the locals.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Windows 10
VCD
MicroATX i3 w/ 4gigs of memory
250g solid state drive
CD/DVD/Blueray drive
All mounted in a custom build frame inside of a 1930's style cathedral wood radio.
That connects to a 500w head unit with 4 sets of speakers (12",6",tweeter, each) and a 48 LED flat screen.
Youtube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, DVDs, and low intensity video games all play wonderfully.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
When my Comcast bill steadily crept up and reached $250 with all the bundling (internet, cable, phone - which I didn't even hook up after a year), I got fed up and seriously looked at cutting the cord. Plus, the customer service was so frustrating that I just wanted to shake off the whole bundling and customer service mess so I could breathe a little better.
I first solved the internet problem by hooking up with a local vendor - a setup that I ran in parallel with Comcast's internet for a month or so. I live in a building and my local vendor has hooked up her pipe directly to the Ethernet switch in my building, so all I have to do is to hook up my wireless router to the Ethernet port in my living room. Quite elegant actually. Cabling is Cat5, but really, for my needs (~30-50mbps), that really is quite sufficient. The only downside is that the local vendor is not fiber or even copper all the way through. They have a wireless connection before they reach my building, which means that in really bad weather, connectivity is sometimes spotty. And sometimes, the wind is so strong that it moves the dish that they use for transceiving. So a tech has to reposition the dish, and I lose internet connectivity when that happens. Has happened a few times last year, but all in all, the service is decent and support is actually quite nice and human.
Next problem: OTA. I was really tempted by options like Simple TV. I especially liked its Roku integration - which meant that I could have used Roku as my one stop shop for all TV content - on-demand or live. However, the reviews also indicated that it did have some drawbacks. So I ended up buying a Mohu Leaf indoor antenna (powered), a ChannelMaster+ DVR without storage, and a 256GB pen drive for $80 to act as storage. Antenna positioning was a bit finicky but in the end, the setup worked. Channelmaster was quite decent actually in terms of user interface, and would even get programming info from the internet for free. I didn't go for a Tivo because I hated paying a monthly fee for channel info and for their service - in my mind, the whole point of cord cutting was to reduce these monthly payments.
I already had Netflix and Amazon Prime, but the Roku2 XS was hanging fairly often. So I replaced it with a Roku 3 (about $90) and boy, did it make a difference. I also added Hulu and Sling subscriptions. Sling really represents the future of television broadcasting. The only downside was their sports coverage - while they show ESPN, I was unable to get football. I was getting football on OTA but due to several storms etc during last winter, the coverage was often spotty. In a couple of cases, I had recorded football games and was avoiding seeing the score so I could watch it later not knowing the outcome. However, a significant part of the match was unwatchable because the screen was totally pixellated or too flickery. It is interesting to see how much we have taken reliability for granted. A nice thing about Sling though is that it allows you to see all programs in all channels "on demand" that were aired in the last 48 hours. In other words, it acts as a DVR that records everything in every channel for the last 48 hours. Something that no DVR currently does today. Well, scratch that. Comcast allows us to see a lot of content "on demand", but it often takes them a few days to make the content available on demand after it has aired.
Finally, I also got Google Chromecast so I could throw or cast non-youtube content on to my TV. Roku finally has a youtube channel and also has a couple of other apps but there are often limitations. I did a A/B comparison of youtube over Chromecast versus youtube via Roku (directly via Roku as well as streaming from my phone - but casting into Roku's youtube channel instead of casting into Chromecast). The funny/ironic thing is that the quality of video and audio on Roku's youtube channels (direct streamed as well as cast from my phone) was significantly superior compared to Chromecast. Ironic because Google's Chromecast is inferior for Goo
Currently I use: Services: Netflix and Spotify. Tried Apple music but dumped it due to having no web player for use at work, or Sonos interface (yet). Kit: HP ML115 server running Windows 10 and Plex (for media collected before my streaming days) Samsung Smart TV and PS4 Cambridge Audio stereo amp with Monitor Audio Silver speakers Sonos x 3 And there is the rub. Sonos. I have no way of piping the TV/PS4 sound to Sonos (ok, maybe somehow with a lag). Spotify provide a crap API (I think), while Sonos refuse to allow Spotify Connect to directly send music to my speakers. The worrying thing is, the more of these walled garden, monthly fee charging companies that are around, the more likely you'll need to subscribe to many of them to watch what you want. This encourages piracy by making stuff difficult. Similarly, when a service provider decides to not play ball with another, it leaves the user no choice but to switch to a different service. Not so difficult with music, as most of them see to claim millions of songs these days. So, I'm tempted to sell Sonos and see what happens with Google Chromecast Audio, or one of the Spotify Connect devices which will no doubt be much cheaper than Sonos.
Proliant Microserver with Synology software on it, so I can access my media on all my devices at home or on the road.
I just plug a laptop into an external monitor and some bookshelf speakers for Netflix/Hulu streaming. The monitor sits on an old piano bench in front of my bookshelves. When I want to use the monitor for my desktop computer, I unplug it and carry it across the room to my desk. I also have an old Android phone that I use just for music from Pandora/Spotify. I switch the speakers between the phone and the laptop by unplugging the audio cable from one and plugging it into the other.
I stopped paying for cable about 8 years ago. I switched to Netflix for dvds and buying a season pass on iTunes 4-6 times a year. Not long after I was able to get netflix streaming, and a few years ago amazon prime. More recently we added HBO now. This itunes/netflix/hbo arrangement is still how I consume most of my movies and tv today.
My setup includes a 6tb hdd connected to my router that serves as my iTunes library on my desktop for "legacy media" ( i.e. ripped dvds that all sit in the attic now ). Out of the three rooms with tv's in the house two of them have xbox ones with an apple tv plugged into the hdmi in, the third tv only has the apple tv. All movies and tv shows from the past 5-6 years are all digital and recently with games we switched to all digital starting with steam and then later switching to digital on console with the xb one.
I don't mean to sound insulting, I just don't understand why people have that much storage at home for tv shows/movies? Maybe its just me but I rarely watch something more than once.. There are only a few select movies that I have watched more than once.. Star Wars, LOTR, just to name a couple. So to have that much space holding on to things i'll never watch again, I just don't get it.
On top of that, i've run custom setups and I just got tired of maintaining it. Now with Netflix, US Netflix, Shomi and my PVR I have a long list of content I have to watch. I have been eligible for a new PVR for quite awhile now but I can't seem to clear the backlog.
"Thanks to the remote control I have the attention span of a gerbil."
Do you have a music streaming rig?
I really like Clementine as a front-end.
On the back end, I do have a little shoebox ION server with a RAID1 library. But I don't really enjoy maintaining all that myself; I really prefer having streaming music playing from some human-curated feed. http://somafm.com/ has a lot of great streams, as does http://di.fm/ and http://sleepbot.com/ is also quite unique.
I'll occasionally use streamripper to record and m3u tag streams for, uh, time-shifting on the car or subway. It also makes a good icecast proxy, so I can have several clementine players around the house connected to my central box, so the house is just consuming one stream from the site, but I can walk from room to room and have everything playing at just about the same place.
Diskstation has been a great user friendly alternative for someone not Linux literate (gasp). Very plug and play and intuitive software.
You can use Plex with it, or its own native phone apps / Roku channel.
Streaming everything both from the internet and our server through a Roku accounts for 90% of our TV now. The kids love it.
Why would you need anything else.
I run a very simple (tomcat hosted) jsp based web page which reads my disk structure and renders a hideous html page which allows you to: 1) Play the movie in the browser (for the kids' iPads mostly, or 2) send a REST call to the Roku to play it on the roku (using a custom "channel" I wrote, which consists of about 5 lines of Roku's proprietary Brightscript.
The Roku channel I wrote can also parse an xml file that my hideous jsp can generate, which will build picture based menus on-screen on the roku. This was so my 4 year-old could find and play whatever the hell they wanted to play. My one design requirement "4 year old can use it"
For the grown-ups, we just have an amazon fire stick (17 dollars on sale) plugged in to the TV. Side-loaded XBMC (now Kodi or something) and pointed it to the same network fileshare that the tomcat server serves up.
My setup is a patchwork, but it works on Android, FireTV, Roku, iPad, and desktop, and it was free, and I have made barely any changes to it beyond adding content for the past 2 years. The biggest downside to all of it is when less techie people come over they always ask "can you set this up at my house?" and my answer is "um, uh, not really." If it were more portable and "standard" it would be better... but it works for me and my family.
I live in the rural third world. I pay 15 USD per GB for slow and flaky 3G mobile internet. So I ssh into an old laptop at my father's house in the UK to download media from iPlayer or usenet or bittorrent using his comparatively luxurious broadband. Then every couple of months he copies it onto micro SD cards and mails them to me. Then I mail them back. Not exactly instant gratification, but I get what I want eventually and it costs next to nothing.
To watch them I just use mplayer on my laptop with a Logic3 clock-radio for better sound.
And a DVD player.
There's almost nothing on worth watching anyway.
I live by myself so this wouldn't work for anyone in a family.
I've got a 27" iMac on my coffee table which I use for watching a few shows I download. If there are any movies or TV programs that I really like I buy them. I use iTunes for listening to podcasts and music. I tried Vox and while it sounds great it keeps changing the default application for my MP3s to Vox even though I tell it not to. So I'd love to find another program like that which has great equalizer presets. It puts iTunes to shame for sound quality.
Backups are sent to a Synology NAS which also runs my torrent client, proxy server, and is connected to my VPN so all my Internet traffic is on there instead of having each computer/phone/tablet connecting to the VPN. I just mount a drive on my iMac to access any downloaded media. I also run the BitTorrent Sync server on there and my iMac to act as my own personal cloud. I store my books and magazines on there which I read on my iPad. It loads much faster since it's on the LAN instead of having to go out to Box or Dropbox.
I've been thinking about getting a speaker or two to connect to my iMac if I find a good music player. It'd be nice for shows too.
I've been using something like this for about the past five years now. Before I had a laptop which I was running the torrent client and watching shows. I haven't had cable or satellite since 2003 and don't miss it at all. And I've been using the iPad for reading for the past three years. Before that it was old fashioned paper.
1. A hosted server on OVH Kimsufi to run mldonkey (and a couple personal websites). tvu.org.ru and sharethefiles.com for link listings (mostly ed2k, the occasional torrent).
2. A home file server running some Linux (Arch at the moment). A dozen multi-TB drives as ext3/ext4 on an LSI PCIe card. Files downloaded direct through SSH to circumvent P2P throttling from ISP. Organized with a custom FUSE filesystem of symbolic links, which handle metadata and subtitles. Only metadata is backed up, files are retrieved (when disk fail) through stored ed2k hash. Appear as a single 31TB share on Samba.
3. A Windows desktop as client, running MPC-HC.
The files are also served from home as HTTP if I want to watch the occasional video remotely (MPC-HC handles that OK) or share some show to a friend.
I DVR what shows I care to watch off DirecTV as a figleaf to the media cartels, then frankly pull the commercial-free copies by torrent. I have a 2-bay Synology NAS running Twonky DLNA feeding Roku boxes in the two rooms with TV (grownups & kids). Netflix for streaming media, and I use a combo of MakeMKV and Handbrake to cook down optical discs (yes I still get them) to add to the NAS tank. And NO, I don't torrent the disc contents; why bother? I can stuff the MP4/MKV files onto a thumbdrive and carry them when I travel so I don't have to be concerned with pulling them from my home box over questionable bandwidth.
So stop buying DRMed content?
No sir I dont like it.
For me, most of my content came from my personal physical albums and DVDs that I ripped.
The idea of bringing and sorting media is CRAZY. I use Sickbeard to grab my TV, and it shows up in Plex without a hitch, beautifully. For movies, Plex **just works**. I put in my original thousand movies and I had to manually correct fewer than two dozen of them. Albums worked nearly as well. TV requires a minimum of sorting and renaming to work perfectly, but Sickbeard knows exactly how to name them if you're downloading them as they air.
Aside: I'm not advocating torrenting movies over renting them legally, but if you wanted to, I assure you that **EVERY** release on RedBox is available in pristine 720 or 1080 rip from a "reputable" group like Yify before it's available at your local RedBox kiosk.
Third generation Apple TV and Netflix. I don't have to waste any time managing it and it just works.
Apple made a stupid mistake by removing the optical audio output on the new model.
Wirelessly connected to a TV.
You don't need anything more.
Trolls are like broken clocks. They show the truth two times a day. The rest of the day they talk nonsense.
For Cable TV DVR, I have a windows 7 MCE with Cablecard which takes care of recording everything including premium cable (HBO and Cinemax). The PC is directly hooked to my primary TV. It also run plex server which streams media to Roku box hooked up to my other TV
Linux server running PLEX server with 4, 4tb hard drives.
several nexus players running PLEX client.
Desktop with BDR drive, ANYDVD, and handbrake to "collect" the content.
Why? because fucking american internet sucks for uncompressed 1080p content with full surround. And when the internet is down, you want to watch a movie...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
BBC is going to cut off people using VPNs from outside of the UK soon... http://www.wired.co.uk/news/ar...
Mythtv, antenna, 3 ATSC tuners, 8TB raid storage, OTA Program Guide, no subscriptions to anything. Picture and sound are not degraded by cable company compression. Commercial skip in mythtv is pretty good. I don't know how I could watch TV without it as commercials are inserted at critical points in dramas. Live sports is great delayed at the start by an hour or more. I can skip right over half time and 30 second time outs too. I'll never run out of new (to me) programming. I have some series that I have never watched.
Plex from a 2TB MyCloud drive (which I'm starting to hate; I'm running into an issue where Plex can't see the media but I can play directly from Windows Explorer) to assorted handheld mynocks. I also do streaming via PS4 and still like my Oppo BD player connected to a Pioneer SC-35 receiver. I also have a completely analog setup for my headphones: turntable feeding a ESS P06 phono stage to Bottlehead Crack headphone amp into Beyerdynamic DT 990 cans)
I'm running Kodi on a First Gen Intel Mac Pro 2x2 Xeon. Plenty for what I need. I've got a lot of hard drives plugged in for various libraries, some Firewire. I do all the ripping on my Linux system that has a bunch of optical drives and actually outperforms the Mac on that task.
I'm thinking about switching it over to Linux, a lot of the Kodi plugins don't work and I'm not sure if that's because it's on a Mac or the plugins just suck. I'm going to test them on my Linux box first.
I use the Yatse Remote for my phone, a Rii Keyboard as the "common remote", and I have the HTTP remote enabled so my wife can operate it from her fruit phone (I can't explain how the remote disappears so often).
Also my now elderly LG BluRay player with UPNP and DLNA support is on my desk in my office - it's not very reliable anymore but I can use it to play anything on the server on an extra HDMI monitor I have. It wasn't reliable enough to leave in the living room anymore, but okay tor occasional geek use.
I really need a new TV. I've still got a 36" Dimatron CRT with a VGA to S-Video converter box. At least the setup in my office actually does HD.....
The preceding post was not a Slashvertisement.
CentOS fileserver with ~16TB (4x2TB + 1x8TB) running Plex and Roku's attached to each TV (or projector). The new Roku 4 is available today, by the way, for $129 and supports 4k streaming.
...I also time shift old school Netflix DVD/BD rentals.
Although, with HBO Now I might do less of that.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
1 laptop connected to the big-screen TV, with internet connection for Netflix and ABC iView, and an external HDD for stored content.
1 blu-ray player connected to the TV for occasional discs.
1 eeePC with external powered speakers, exclusively connected to Live365 for music.
Other family members all have a laptop for school, work, and netflix.
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
Your "solution" is just sad. As a living room interface, it's crude in all of the ways that Linux gets accused of being. There are actual applications that are much better for this kind of stuff than a web browser. Plus desktop web browser plugins are PIGS.
Pretty much everything you're doing screams for an ARM appliance.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Even if you rent a DVD or BD, it still makes more sense to feed it through some sort of media server solution. That goes triple for BluRay.
Although I have a novel idea for populating your media server...
BUY SOMETHING
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
With volume like that, you might want to consider moving to RAID 6 or even RAID 10, though the latter would require you to purchase more HDDs. RAID5 isn't really reliable at those capacities.
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HP desktop PC (Engineering workstation) with Zotac video card upgrade. I run Win7 and use VLC media player for most stuff. Netflix if I want to eat up my data cap (rural area, Hughesnet satellite... ugh, only choice). I have Amazon Prime but watching their video really eats up my data cap. Sometimes 1/5th of my monthly allotment for a single movie.
I primarily use my desktop PC (running Lubuntu) to *ahem* "acquire" media content via torrents or blogs(which link to file storage sites), over my fiber optic connection (Japan, used to Speedtest at 100up/100down, now more like 80/80 on a good day). It's then copied to my USB3 3TB external hard drive (either directly, or over my network if I have the drive plugged into my RPi2). I really need to shuffle my storage around so videos and music are on my 2x4TB drives instead of the 1x3TB.
The RPi2 runs OpenElec/Kodi and pumps HDMI to a 42" AVOL plasma TV with a basic sub + 2 speakers sound system.. I hate this TV, really energy-inefficient but I bought it used, so...whatever...
Books are either read the old-school way or, if electronic, on an iPad Mini. I have a Kindle but it's often loaned out to friends.
I have a server to download/store my media with 8 external HDs. I bought a cheapo 10 port USB hub and kept buying HDs as they filled up. The player user to be wdtv live but now is Raspberry Pi 2 with OSMC on it, accessing the external drives as a share. No RAID, no expensive NASes, everything works. Cheap, effective.
3 HDTV tuners for OTA, Internet, etc. I don't do Netflix though since I don't like subscriptions.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
well i'd _like_ to tell you but it would be unwise of me to describe the setup in a public forum. but i can say that the only reason i have a TV is because i am in a rented apartment which is set up nominally as a "B and B", and that i love tennis and you really have to have like Eurosport to get it. i did have USB-TV dongles as an experiment (an SDR one) but they're a bit of a pain.
File server in the dining room with 8x WD Red drives divided into 2 LVM volumes providing 28TB of storage. All movies and TV shows backed up using MakeMKV, music backed up using dBpoweramp. The server is hardwired to a router and each room has a switch also hardwired to the router.
In the living room is a HTPC running Windows 10 connected to a Sony receiver for surround sound which is connected to a Panasonic plasma TV. VLC is used for all media consumption, music and videos, and a MCE remote is used for controlling playback.
In the bedroom is a gaming system running Windows 10 connected to a 27" monitor. All media consumption using VLC as well. Games from Steam and GoG. There is also a 32" LED TV in the bedroom with and HDMI switch that an Xbox360 and PS4 are connected to for console games. An AppleTV is also hooked up to it and mostly used for the PBS and Crackle apps, as well as viewing previously purchased iTunes content (prior to having switch to backing up my own media).
The most recent upgrade to all of this was the addition of a PCIe Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy sound card to the HTPC to get 92/24 audio support for music purchased from Pono, and to provide an amp for headphone use over a long audio cable run.
All of the consoles and STBs used to be in the living room hooked up to the receiver but I found I spent more time on my main gaming system consuming content through websites like Twitch, Youtube, Vessel, and GiantBomb. So, I moved all those devices into the bedroom so I could multitask between media consumption and games.
I'm a single adult male living alone in an apartment. :) :| :(
-==- Buy a Mac and leave me alone!
I have a 2", 24 track Studer A820, which I run through a 32 frame D&R Orion into a Mackie Big Knob, selecting either a pair of KRK Rokit RP10-3s or a pair of tiny Denon speakers, powered by a NAD amp. The problems I still need to solve are mainly hooking up outboard gear: compressors, delays, reverbs.
Maybe
I cut the cord years ago. I have a DB4 antenna on the roof for receiving my local areas 15 full HD OTA channels. I have 2 HDHomeRun Dual network attached ATSC receivers plugged into the antenna, which serve OTA viewing to a dedicated PC running Windows Media Center. I have yet to find a better 10 foot interface for DVR / guide and TV viewing than WMC, plus it's included with Win 7 for free. I run a Plex server on the same box (the PC is hooked up to the TV, and that's it), which streams all my content stored on a NAS box. There's a Windows Media Center plug-in for Plex Home Theater, which gives you Plex streaming without having to use a mouse or put down the remote (Harmony 880). There's also an Amazon plug-in for WMC, and up until recently a Netflix plug-in. WMC is the best "dummy / girlfriend" proof interface I've found. It records scheduled shows through the guide perfectly, and has all the standard "cable box" type features including time shifting. An added bonus is the OTA streams are pure, vs the compressed HD you get from your cable shills. I've been on this setup for ~4 years, and I love it.
I'm a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.
Dual hex-core 2.8GHz Opteron based server, running Debian Stable off a Samsung evo 850 SSD with 7 x 3TB 7200rpm drives in RAID 6 with a hot spare.
Media organised and served by Plex, FTA TV served by an HDHomerun dual tuner.
Streaming duties are shared by my Yamaha amp (Pandora), Roku 3 and Asus Nexus Player (YouTube and Plex to tv), and various android devices elsewhere in the house. The TV, xBox360, Ps3 and Ps4 offer alternatives for streaming in a pinch, and a separate DVD player (region unlocked) and Bluray player (purchased pre Ps4) round out the playback options.
Video - not bothered.
Music - no.
Is there anything else?
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
MythTV backend - HDHomerun and a PCHDTV card for 3 OTA channels at once, plus a PVR250 fed by my Dish Network satellite box and a LIRC. So that's 4 simultaneous recordings at once. Front ends run the gamut - blueray players over UPNP, WesternDigital TV box, Fire TV Stick, Roku, PS3, several first gen Xboxes with XBMC - and then you have the Android tablets for TV-anywhere.
Phono cabinet with (from top to bottom) - Dual record player with an AC to DC and DC to AC converter so that I get 220V/50Hz - Aiwa tuner with time clock - Kenwood amplifier - Monarch equalizer - Grundig CD player - Technics tape deck - Aiwa dual capstan tape deck Next to that a really old midi tower PC running Windows with VLC player and hooked up to a Samsung 42" (ok, that is not that old school). Klipsch satellite speakers and subwoofer US Robotics analog audio remote transmitter and receiver so that I can send and receive audio signals between the living room and the office, rebroadcasts on FM Most of the gear is over 20 years old, but works the same as on day 1. My wife eyes that spot for another bookshelf and eventually the plan is to record all records and tapes and CDs to MP3 and use a Pi 2 (or whatever they will have by then) strapped to the back of the TV to replace it all....actually, more move the equipment to a different spot.