jr:

A Youtube video on Boxee box. Pay attention in particular at time point 6:55 (Apple airplay feature).

Now Boxee is kind of up in the air right now because it was just bought up by Samsung and we're all waiting to see which way they go with it, (my guess is that Samsung plans on further competition with Apple) but this is pretty standard of most of the higher end streaming devices these days.

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> Posted by: TeeTime "JR, I too would prefer "Always ON", but I opted for "Always Available" with my Windows Home Server/WDTV Live combination. On my WHS I run the excellent LightsOut plugin that puts the server in standby after a user defined period of inactivity. If the server is in standby when I start WDTV Live, LightsOut resumes the server and keeps it up while streaming. The resume delay can be up to 2 minutes which is tolerable for me."

Yea, one thing I was thinking of is using my Mac mini as a media server. That's one of the things Apple suggested. I'll have to see what happens when it goes into standby. It does come in a server version so maybe that's what I need. I updated the firmware on my Linkstation today and I plan to bring my WD TV and D-Link Media Player firmware up to date and see how everything connects. I'll report back.

Anybody using Google Chromecast?

~jr

"Yea, one thing I was thinking of is using my Mac mini as a media server."

Most if not all these devices now allow you to stream on several different levels. I use wifi (streamed from numerous devices), NAS, usb hard drive connected directly and I also stream from the computer. I can always connect to nas because it's always on. Now I don't know if mac can "wake on lan" but with mine if I leave the computer off and I try to gain access to something on the computer the computer will wake up and serve. If for whatever reason I have the computer off completely then boxee simply say "content not available at this time"

> Reply by: Rob Franks "jr: A Youtube video on Boxee box. Pay attention in particular at time point 6:55 (Apple airplay feature)."

Very cool indeed. I like the look of the Boxee device itself too (but you knew I would). ;-) I also watched the AirPlay video and it works pretty much like an Apple TV. I looked to see if he had a video on the file sharing but I couldn't find one. How does it find files to share? I'm wondering if it would find the media on my Linkstation? I assume you're going to see files and folders and not see nice album covers. :(

How does the premium content get paid for? I know for Netflix you need to establish an account on your own. Is Vudu like that? What about the other content providers? This is a pretty nice device. I hope Samsung doesn't mess it up.

~jr

" I'm wondering if it would find the media on my Linkstation? I assume you're going to see files and folders and not see nice album covers. :("
It has built in auto cataloging. It will scan all your files (video and audio) then search the net for cover and label info, as well as movie descriptions.

If you have personal video files with covers and labels you have created then you can also have those displayed just like a commercial video by accompanying the file with an NFO file and cover pictures housed in a subfolder.

I don't know anything about file sharing... I am not really into that and I don't know much about the premium content either. I do mostly netflix

Yes... it is a nice device, but as noted the price is high. Howver I believe the other devices have pretty much fallen in line with Boxee's offerings. WDTV live does now offer youtube,netflix and other such things but it is still pretty simplistic by comparison.

1) Have Windows Home Server as main streaming device, plus individual devices do DLNA between each other. GB wired ethernet + dual 300 Wifi

2. Onkyo 717 Rcvr/Amp with Yamaha surround speakers and 15" CV sub. Sony Blu Ray for main house.

3. JVC 7.1 Amp with small near field speakers, small sub, for edit studio. Normally just a logitech computer speaker setup, or a JBL 3215 monitor system for stereo monitoring.

I have a CX-760 camera that can record 5.1, but I almost always use it in simple 2 channel mode. When I did do 5.1 output it was only for mixing the sound stage around the room, using single and dual channel tracks.

WOW!
Wanna build and customize your own streaming device? The new intel NUC (Basically a computer with an i5 in a tiny 4 by 4 box). Quite interesting:

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(1) Even though the house is extensively wired with Cat 6 for video distribution via a matrix, I haven't put in any streaming from a server. Though I suppose I could do so via the Sony BD player as it can stream videos from the My Videos folder on the desktop computer. But it apparently wouldn't be useful for DD 5.1 projects (which is most of them) as DD 5.1 is rendered separately from the video - and the BD player user manual doesn't list ISO as one of the formats playable via a network connection. I therefore just use burned BD / DVD discs on the BD player.

(2) Home cinema is 7.1 using Klipsch RF7 II 5.1 pack (L, C, R, SW, rear 7.1) as well as 2 x Sonance SURR.5 in ceiling speakers for the 5.1 FX. Amp is an original release Yamaha RX-A3000 Aventage. The clarity and detail in the speaker set up is amazing compared to the mish-mash of speakers I had up until recently. I did, however, keep the 15 year old 12" Cerwin-Vega SW in the set up in addition to the Klipsch SW.

Second question: 7.1 Klipsch corner horns, Cornwall center, Klipsch RSW-12 sub, Denon 7.1 driving Denon 2.1 for K-horns. SS1 Klipsch surround speakers, Sony XBR2 46" LCD, and a bunch of other recorders. (Bluray, D-VHS, DVD, Compact Disc, Betacam SP, VHS.)
JJK

@MarkWWW, I am running WHS 2011 with Service Pack 1, and the three client PCs are Win7. There is a MS hotfix for WHS 2011 to allow it to backup Win8, but I have no experience with that.

I also had the original version of WHS and the 2011 edition is a nice replacement, but as you probably know, it is now discontinued by MS.

/jerry

> Reply by: Rob Franks "Wanna build and customize your own streaming device? The new intel NUC (Basically a computer with an i5 in a tiny 4 by 4 box). Quite interesting:"

That was quite interesting. In fact, it really had my interest and I was considering buying one until I priced out the parts in that video with only 4GB of memory at newegg.com:

Intel NUC D54250WYK1 Intel QS77 NUC Kit........$374.99
Intel 525 Series mSATA 180GB SATA III...............$229.99
Crucial 4GB DDR3 SDRAM Memory Module..........$47.99
Intel Advanced-n+ Wimax 6250 Wifi........................$13.97
MINIDP-HDMI-3 3 ft. Mini DisplayPort to HDMI.........$9.99
Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit - OEM .....................$99.99

Total: $776.92 !!! WOW !!!

For that price I could just buy another Mac Mini with a Core i5, 4GB, 500GB HD for $599 and put XBMC on it and it would be way cheaper. In fact, I could get the Mac mini Core i7 Quad with 1TB HD for $799 if I wanted to spend that much. But thanks for pointing me to the video because I didn't know about XBMC. I'll have to check that out.

While I have to agree it was an interesting video, the Intel NUC is not quite the deal that it seems to be once you add all the missing parts. :(

~jr

" I didn't know about XBMC. I'll have to check that out."

Yeah. I've been sort of playing with it for the last month or so. There's a small glitch here and there but overall it's extremely flexible and amazing for open source software. There are a huge number of apps and add ons for it so I'm reasonably sure you can build a system to exactly what you want.

OK, I just wasted an afternoon trying to get my D-Link DSM-520 Media Player to work. After hours of trying to figure out how to upgrade the firmware manually because it wouldn't work on-line, and finally getting it to recognize my Linkstation Live media server, I discovered that this device is too old to even support MPEG4/H.264 (which all of my movies are encoded to) so it's basically a door stop. D-Link even stopped supporting it. I guess I got into this media server thing too early and nothing worked together so I waited for the technology to catch up and I waited a bit too long because now the technology is obsolete. lol. ;-)

I also played with my WD HDTV but it's also old and not a "Live" version so it has no Internet connectivity and is just a media player for the drive you have plugged into it. Not bad but not very exciting. :(

That's an afternoon of my life I'll never get back.

~jr