DLNA Servers - big PITA!

lparsons21

SatelliteGuys Master
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Lifetime Supporter
Jul 17, 2009
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Herrin, IL 62948
As IPTV becomes more prevalent, and it is a very long way away from that imo, getting all that content on the TV easily is still a big issue. We have a slew of hardware products from specialized boxes like the AppleTV; Roku; etc, other boxes that do it as an adjunct, including the TV itself, and then we have the HTPC of all kinds of configurations.

But we don't have a single place to go to get all those channels of IPTV that are out there. No hardware that is easily controlled from the couch across the room is available that will do it all. Every single item or software has many limitations as to what it can bring to the big screen. And that includes the DLNA software.

I love Playon/Playlater - but it isn't good enough when you want to use them for something like HBOGo (just a for instance, anything not directly offered within Playon is the same), making the DLNA solution pretty half-assed. Every single DLNA product suffers from the same issue, just different sources they don't support.

I suppose much of the problem is that each video source protects their product in a slightly different way, making it difficult. And of course, there's places like Hulu that don't want it on the bigscreen unless you are using their paid-Hulu+ product.

Frankly as long as it takes multiple-boxes or multi-software to get each of these services to the bigscreen, IPTV will not go very far. The bulk of the TV viewers like it simple!

 
Congratulations at arriving at the same conclusion that HTPC hopefuls have been finding since the beginning: content isn't that easy to come by.
 
Content is easy, getting it on the big screen is a PITA more often than not! If I use my Dell Hybrid, I can get all sorts of video to play on the big screen, either with software for it or web browser. BUT, the damned screen is a PITA to read from across the room for me, and the blasted hybrid changes resolution when you switch away from it making it just a little more irritating. I use MobileMouse app on my iPad to control it and it makes it a lot easier, but I end up not using it much 'cause it is a PITA overall.

Got an AppleTV (1 or 2 - take your pick, I got both!) that I use for some things. And I use PlayLater for other things with the advantage for PlayLater that I can use my DirecTV HR to view the videos.
 

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