Best way to stream from 1 computer to multiple TVs?

[yourbeliefs]

Fate willing, I will soon be moving into my new house, and I am planning on not renewing my Cable TV contract and just going with internet because it doesn't make sense to keep it from a financial standpoint as it's unreasonably expensive and I don't watch enough television at home to justify it. I plan on making my desktop computer my main entertainment "hub" to stream audio and video, but now I have an issue of that I'm going to have 2, perhaps 3 televisions not directly hooked up. Are there any good, economical ways to share the content from this main computer to the other tvs that doesn't require me buying multiple pcs and networking them together or something similar? Are there any devices built for this exact purpose that I don't know about?

 

[harshness]

There are media players available from many sources. Some of the newer TVs have them built in. Several don't even require fancy media server and can play from simple file servers.

Serving up three sessions may be asking a lot of the typical home media server. At some point, you need to step up to a fancy RAID setup as well as multiple network connections. Home Media Computers have not come a long way in the several years that they've been available. I don't think the state of the art is up to what you're looking to do.

The big problem in all of this is the selection of content to play and that's not particularly slick. If you and your housemates can't reasonably use it, it doesn't really matter what could be done from a technical perspective.

 

[osu1991]

WDTV Live Streaming Media Player. (make sure it is the latest version and not the old wdtv Live Plus)

I have 2 and a WDTV Live Hub and stream from my RAID Server and my HUB. I can also stream from the laptop, but don't as I don't need to.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/homeentertainment/mediaplayers/

They do Netflix, HULU Plus and VUDU along with some other streaming options. I use Hulu Plus and it works great. It plays all my mkv, avi, mp4 and iso files.

Edit: If you're a big Itunes user, then I would say an Apple TV.

 

[yourbeliefs]

WDTV Live Streaming Media Player. (make sure it is the latest version and not the old wdtv Live Plus)

I have 2 and a WDTV Live Hub and stream from my RAID Server and my HUB. I can also stream from the laptop, but don't as I don't need to.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/homeentertainment/mediaplayers/

They do Netflix, HULU Plus and VUDU along with some other streaming options. I use Hulu Plus and it works great. It plays all my mkv, avi, mp4 and iso files.

Edit: If you're a big Itunes user, then I would say an Apple TV.

The WDTV would probably work but that's a little too expensive for my blood between the hub and all the receivers I'd need to buy. Also I have very little iTunes content so Apple Tv isn't a smart option in my circumstance.

Ive actually looked online a bit and I think I may do a more DIY solution and buy some Raspberry Pi devices for $25 each, get some Ethernet to Wifi adapters, and then install XBMC so not only would they stream from my computer but also could stream their own content via the XBMC add ons. I still need to confirm with people more knowledgable on XBMC if this is possible, but all I know is that I got more and more excited the more I read about it.

 

[meStevo]

Plex + Roku is one of the best and coolest things I've setup for what you describe. Now we can access everything on my computer not only from every TV, but from our phones and tablets, home and away.

Here's a screenshot, I ripped Boiler Room from DVD in like 3 clicks using MakeMKV and then compressed it using Handbrake. Plex recognized the movie and grabbed the cover and all the other information you see like format.



UI on some of the devices are a little different, on PCs at least you can even get completely different skins.

In our house we are pretty much done with DVDs. Now to see if we really need to keep our BD collection around too...

 

[bhawley]

using MakeMKV and then compressed it using Handbrake.

What platform are you compressing on, I find Handbrake very slow.

 

[yourbeliefs]

I'm investigating the Plex + Roku option. I checked out the price and it's actually cheaper (or about equal depending on the model) to just buy multiple Rokus than to buy all those Pis, not to mention a thousand times easier to configure. I'm running into a few issues now, but to be fair I first tried this after getting less than 4 hours of sleep, so maybe a 2nd look later in the day will yield better results. Not thrilled that I have to buy the apps for iOS and Android, BUT it is nice that now I can stream to both. My current streaming service (StreamToMe) only goes to iOS devices.

 

[meStevo]

What platform are you compressing on, I find Handbrake very slow.

I haven't needed the space really, so I've only compressed a couple of DVD Rips, most are sitting there uncompressed still. When I do do it, I'm compressing on my Win7 gaming machine/media server, an i7-920. Haven't done any since installing Windows 8.

 

[yourbeliefs]

Ok I'm running into a few issues..

The main issue is response time on my Roku. I don't know if it's the app or my Roku or my CPU but when I browse through my folders the lag and delay is ASTOUNDING. It also often will get "stuck" on a particular folder, so if I first click on Folder A, then exit it and tell it I want another folder, 9 times out of 10 it will pick A again. This makes selecting content more of a chore than it needs to be. On the flip side the streaming quality is quite good which is nice, but not if I need to wait 2 minutes just to pick (not load) a movie. I also don't like how it defaults to listing every movie I have, as opposed to a folder structure which would make more sense, as I have a lot of television episodes, which can lead to multiple folders having multiple files.

Speaking of movies, while the content matching system is a nice perk (Matches titles based on name and gets the info for them) more often than not the matches were SOOO wrong that it was mind boggling. I also can't tell how exactly it is getting the said matches either. I don't know how I have 5 entries for "Avatar" or any of the Star Wars movies, as none of those are on my machine, and while some of the false positives do make sense (I had a video file named Baby and it matched to a movie named Baby) I don't see how "The Crystal Skull" can be derived from a RiffTrax movie.

As I said I'm not sure what the real culprit is as far as browsing performance goes. My computer has an i5 2500k processor with 8 GB of RAM, which is hardwired into the computer, while the Roku (Last gen XD Model) is hooked up via Wifi, but it is less than 5 feet from said Router. The false matches I just need to suck up and fix myself.

 

[bhawley]

I don't see any browsing issues, plex server is running on an atom processor. I don't have many folders or tv episodes, just one folder with all my movies. Maybe that makes a difference?

 

[yourbeliefs]

I don't see any browsing issues, plex server is running on an atom processor. I don't have many folders or tv episodes, just one folder with all my movies. Maybe that makes a difference?

Not sure. I mean I have quite a bit of content (117 GB, 676 Files, 51 folders), and the issue seems to be when I browse my computer folders. If I use the add-ins from the Plex (ie Nick Jr) then it works MUCH better. Maybe I'll head over to the Plex forums and see if I can get more info there. I would like this resolved also because I want to add my music folders, which is 30.4 GB, 6098 files, 322 folders. If it can't handle the video stuff I don't see it doing much better with the music onslaught..

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

WDTV Live Streaming Media Player. (make sure it is the latest version and not the old wdtv Live Plus)

I have 2 and a WDTV Live Hub and stream from my RAID Server and my HUB. I can also stream from the laptop, but don't as I don't need to.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/homeentertainment/mediaplayers/

They do Netflix, HULU Plus and VUDU along with some other streaming options. I use Hulu Plus and it works great. It plays all my mkv, avi, mp4 and iso files.

This would be my suggestion as well.

 

[yourbeliefs]

This would be my suggestion as well.

Maybe, but my thing is that it's rather expensive, as I will probably have 4 televisions that need hooking up. I need about 3 receivers which is $267 ($89 X 3) and then pay for the hub which is $150 (and will be hooked up to my 50" plasma), so we're talking $417. Also I have to copy all my content from my HDD to the hub, and I don't think I can stream content to the internet with it. If I can get the Roku/Plex method to work, I'd just need 2 Rokus (I already have 1, and can get 2 more for $50 each), so that's $100, and I don't need one for the plasma as it is hooked up to the computer. Also I'd be able to stream my stuff to the internet onto my SkyRocket and iPad.

 

[osu1991]

Maybe, but my thing is that it's rather expensive, as I will probably have 4 televisions that need hooking up. I need about 3 receivers which is $267 ($89 X 3) and then pay for the hub which is $150 (and will be hooked up to my 50" plasma), so we're talking $417. Also I have to copy all my content from my HDD to the hub, and I don't think I can stream content to the internet with it. If I can get the Roku/Plex method to work, I'd just need 2 Rokus (I already have 1, and can get 2 more for $50 each), so that's $100, and I don't need one for the plasma as it is hooked up to the computer. Also I'd be able to stream my stuff to the internet onto my SkyRocket and iPad.

You don't need the hub unless you want it. The live will stream content directly from your computer hard drive. Look for sales too. I think I saw a 2 for $75 sale on the LIve about a month ago.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[yourbeliefs]

You don't need the hub unless you want it. The live will stream content directly from your computer hard drive. Look for sales too. I think I saw a 2 for $75 sale on the LIve about a month ago.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

Yeah but can I get streaming to my iPad and Android? I don't think they have any apps for that on WD..

 

[harshness]

Having three TVs running Wi-fi is likely going to bring your wireless network to its knees.

 

[osu1991]

Yeah but can I get streaming to my iPad and Android? I don't think they have any apps for that on WD..

I use built in dlna apps on my android tablet to see the content on my Raid server and on the Hub.

WD does have an android and iOS app for the Hub and Live

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[bhawley]

Not sure. I mean I have quite a bit of content (117 GB, 676 Files, 51 folders),

Some serious content! I suspect that is the root of your issue, Plex is choking on all that data.

 

[meStevo]

I'd narrow plex down to just one folder or something to test that theory. I haven't had any problems myself like that. Mismatches yes, but not crazy slowness.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[yourbeliefs]

Well the thing is that I have one folder that holds a bunch of subfolders. I wonder though if it doesn't help that I have an older Roku model (XD model that constantly goes on sale on Woot.) I may inquire on their forums, as they seem to have some helpful people there. I was strongly tempted to try a factory reset to see if that helped, but I'll leave that as final resort.