What DLAN server are you using with the Hopper?

[Brodieb]

I love the Home Media feature of the Hopper, but am wondering if there are better (and still free) options than Tversity. Is anyone using the new Plex Beta with DLNA? Or another great (and free) DLNA server?

I would love to be able to rewind and fast forward but I am thinking this is a Hopper limitation and not a Tversity limitation.

 

[bcbarlow7737]

Do you have windows 7? DLNA is built in to Windows Media Player
Sent from my Windows Phone using Board Express

 

[Brodieb]

Do you have windows 7? DLNA is built in to Windows Media Player
Sent from my Windows Phone using Board Express

I do and I am using it from time to time, but the lack of transcoding makes it too limited for my only use. It works well for supported formats like mkv and mp3.

 

[Chimera]

I tried tversity but it will only play my x264 stuff, won't play any AVI/xvid. I tried Serviio but that won't even display any of my media. For those using Serviio, what profile are you choosing for the Hopper?

 

[elmafu69]

Anybody try xbmc?

 

[Chimera]

Anybody try xbmc?

I couldn't even get the hopper to see XBMC, and I don't think it has any transcoding built in.

 

[HoodlumKY]

Mezzmo.Awesome. I have tweaked a profile so it plays x264 without transcoding video, while changing dts to ac3. Transcoding avi on-the-fly to mpeg2. Plays mp3 and jpeg slideshows as well.

 

[stimpson]

Mezzmo.Awesome. I have tweaked a profile so it plays x264 without transcoding video, while changing dts to ac3. Transcoding avi on-the-fly to mpeg2. Plays mp3 and jpeg slideshows as well.

That sounds like what I need. Does it do Mac?

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

 

[Brodieb]

I tried tversity but it will only play my x264 stuff, won't play any AVI/xvid. I tried Serviio but that won't even display any of my media. For those using Serviio, what profile are you choosing for the Hopper?

Tversity will play these you just need to make sure Always is what you select for the folder transcoding. Tversity thinks the Hopper is a PS3 for some reason so the Only When Needed option will not work. I am able to stream AVIs just fine with it.

I am currently using WMP server for MKV files that do not need to be transcoded (volume is better here than with Tversity for some reason) and Tversity for all other file types. I ripped some DVDs to MKV to test things out and it is working very well.

 

[bgnewb]

I love the Home Media feature of the Hopper, but am wondering if there are better (and still free) options than Tversity. Is anyone using the new Plex Beta with DLNA? Or another great (and free) DLNA server?

I would love to be able to rewind and fast forward but I am thinking this is a Hopper limitation and not a Tversity limitation.

I use PlayOn for my home media. I use it on PS3 and Hopper. Very happy with it.

James

 

[nmoline]

Any luck with rewinding etc???

 

[Brodieb]

Any luck with rewinding etc???

I cannot rewind or fast forward just play and pause. I think it is a limitation on the Hopper or Joey not the server. I can rewind and fast forward with Tversity on a web browser.

 

[Brodieb]

I have been using a great free program to rip my DVDs to high quality MKV files and you guys might want to check it out - MakeMKV - Make MKV from Blu-ray and DVD just a PSA for an easy and free way to get content on your Hopper home media library. The only downside is I will probably need to look into getting a bigger external hard drive, as I can see myself filling the 250 GB one pretty fast now.

 

[Chimera]

I use Handbrake for my BD to MKV conversions, always have. I have my entire library ripped to my 4.5tb NAS and I use XBMC on my HTPCs all linked with a MySQL database so I can stop in one room and resume in another - sound familiar? Still, the DNLA feature of the Hopper could prove very useful eventually.

 

[eckmanmj]

Do you have windows 7? DLNA is built in to Windows Media Player
Sent from my Windows Phone using Board Express

DLNA is a very loose set of standards. Windows Media Player was designed by Microsoft to stream to other Microsoft devices such as other computers, or the Xbox. Unless a DLNA playback device supports native WMV/WMA formats (which a lot don't), then transcoding is required, which as others have already said, Windows doesnt do. You need a DLNA server platform that supports transcoding to get it to work.

I cannot rewind or fast forward just play and pause. I think it is a limitation on the Hopper or Joey not the server. I can rewind and fast forward with Tversity on a web browser.

Rewinding or fast forwarding will not work when something is transcoding. Unless you are streaming video that is already in the native format supported by your DLNA playback device (the Hopper or Joey), then fast forward/rewind wont work. I am not even sure what the native formats supported by the Hopper/Joey are. This limitation exists on other devices as well, not just the Hopper/Joey.

I have been using a great free program to rip my DVDs to high quality MKV files and you guys might want to check it out - MakeMKV - Make MKV from Blu-ray and DVD just a PSA for an easy and free way to get content on your Hopper home media library. The only downside is I will probably need to look into getting a bigger external hard drive, as I can see myself filling the 250 GB one pretty fast now.

MakeMKV is a great program, but it is only free for DVD rips. For people wanting to rip Blu-Ray, you have to pay for the full version which I believe is $50. Also keep in mind that when you rip with MakeMKV (DVD or Blu-Ray), you will need a lot of disk space to hold the output file. MakeMKV does not recompress the file, so your output file is the same size as the file would have been on the source disk. If you plan on building a large library of movies, you will need a lot of disk space, unless you plan on transcoding the video into a more efficient format with a program such as Handbrake (or something similar).

I use Handbrake for my BD to MKV conversions, always have. I have my entire library ripped to my 4.5tb NAS and I use XBMC on my HTPCs all linked with a MySQL database so I can stop in one room and resume in another - sound familiar? Still, the DNLA feature of the Hopper could prove very useful eventually.

You sound like me! I have been using a MakeMKV / Handbrake combo for years with my movies. Instead of a NAS, I have a custom built server running WHS 2011 with 2 RAID5 arrays with a total capacity of 13.5 TB. The server also functions as a webserver, amongst other things. I have a custom built HTPC running XBMC on Ubuntu, and I also am storing the media library in MySQL. Its nice being able to pause and resume from multiple machines, but its also nice to be able to export my library into a spreadsheet from within MySQL Workbench. I routinely update my spreadsheet so I have an offline copy of my entire library.

 

[bobiii]

I'm using Mezzmo, works great!

 

[Brodieb]

Rewinding or fast forwarding will not work when something is transcoding. Unless you are streaming video that is already in the native format supported by your DLNA playback device (the Hopper or Joey), then fast forward/rewind wont work. I am not even sure what the native formats supported by the Hopper/Joey are. This limitation exists on other devices as well, not just the Hopper/Joey.

I am not transcoding, they are MKV files and Tversity is set to Never transcode them. MKV and MP3 seem to be the native formats for the Hopper and Joey. (I say seem because I have not and cannot find any documentation that says what the native formats are, I just know in my set up they work.)

 

[Breathing Borla]

I love the Home Media feature of the Hopper, but am wondering if there are better (and still free) options than Tversity. Is anyone using the new Plex Beta with DLNA? Or another great (and free) DLNA server?

I would love to be able to rewind and fast forward but I am thinking this is a Hopper limitation and not a Tversity limitation.

I am using PlayOn. works nicely. I just need to figure out the playlist thing on the hopper menu. How to use this alludes me

 

[Friend]

I am using PlayOn. works nicely. I just need to figure out the playlist thing on the hopper menu. How to use this alludes me

From what I used so far, playlist is a way you can queue up multiple video temporarily so, it will play one after another. When I watch my Home recorded MP4 files from Samsung camcorder, as those videos are short. Normally I would select those video and add in the playlist and play them all.

I have queued up some PBS videos using playon when kids watch so, I don't have to select next video for certain time

 

[ohioankev]

I am using PlayOn. works nicely. I just need to figure out the playlist thing on the hopper menu. How to use this alludes me

Although it's not free I am also using PlayON media server. As for the playlist Friend nailed it. It's just a feature that lets you queue up a series of videos for continuous play. Like I used PlayOn to get aquainted with Awake a few weeks ago and I added all five episodes to the playlist and then while on the playlist screen i selected the option to play to end and had myself an Awake mini marathon.

One thing I like with PlayON media server, I add the ability to stream from NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC on Demand, Hulu/Hulu+, NetFlix, Pandora, HBO Go (I know HBO Go has more content than HBO On Demand on cable not really sure how Dishes HBO On Demand content stacks up with HBO Go), TV.com, Crackle, ESPN3, plus about a dozen other channels. Then you have 3rd party plugins/scripts made by the Playon community,(G4, History.com, FearNet, etc.)

One thing, if possible, that I hope dish network fixes is that when you press Guide or Menu that it doesn't kick you out of the video you're watching via the media server.

*PS3Media Server gets an honorable mention because it's free.