Best setup for streaming HD content from Laptop/External Hard Drive

PS3 isn't the best media player out there. You can stream wireless all of you media if you were to considerably downgrade the picture and audio quality of the movie with Handbrake.

I used to do this a lot, but it is time consuming. It take about 3 hours to do one blu-ray movie.

I ended up building my own unraid server, which is were I've got all of my movies stored at the moment. I can stream them to 4 different location without any issues.

I also got media players. I've got a Dune Smart D1 series in the living room and a AIOS in the master bedroom. They both play all of my movies without any issues.

My suggestion would be to think about what you really need. If you are not going to keep ripping movies, I would just get an external hard drive format it as FAT32, make sure all of your movies are 4GB or less, which is the limit for FAT32. Transfer all your movies to that external drive and hook it up to your PS3.

If you want the best picture and sound quality you will have to spend more $$$.

The AIOS is a very simple and inexpensive media player. I only use it to stream movies from my server and nothing else. It has a few apps, but I don't use them, and I can't tell you if they work or not. I have not tested this media player with an internal drive either. I have heard some people having some issues with installing and accessing the internal hard drive, but I think that is due to not formatting the drive correctly.

AIOS has their own forum, and Aasoror, which is a member here can help you out with any issues you have. He helped me a lot with setting up a jukebox, which I don't use anymore because it is easier for me to update the Dune's jukebox. AIOS uses a combination of ThumbGen and TVix program to create a jukebox, and at the end I got tired of it.

Therefore, I only use the "list" option for my movies. It only give me an alphabetical list of all my movies, and it doesn't have a search option either.

Over all, it does support HD video and audio. It plays all of my M2TS and MKV files via network without any issues. It supports DVD ISO, but it doesn't support BD ISO's with java menus.

So, if you do not want to spend a lot of money, and want to give it a try buy it from Amazon.com just in case you don't like it you won't have an issue with it.

Here's the pivos website with their description and supported files:
http://www.pivosgroup.com/#!vstc3=sp...stc2=productsa

Here the pivos/AIOS forum
pivosforums.com

Price at amazon.com $89.99
http://www.amazon.com/Pivos-AIOS-Net...6494829&sr=8-1

Another media players I would suggest looking into:
Mede8er---is a little bit more then $200, but it is a good media player here a review of it done by Damian / dbone1026. I used to have one, and I sold it. I regret it now lol.
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2012...e8er-med500x2/

Popbox V8 $130
review site: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2011...iew-popbox-v8/

Netgear NeoTV550 $84.95 on amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-NTV550...6495157&sr=8-1

The NeoTV550, is similar to the AIOS. However, it does play DVD and BD ISO's. The downside, Netgear does not support this player anymore. A large number of people like this player, but there are some that have had issues with it.

WDTV Live $89.99
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...6495324&sr=1-1

I bought this media player for my parents because it is an all-in-one media player. It has netflix, hulu, vudu, and pandora, which is what my parents use. I tested this player, and it played all of my files within an external hard drive. I did not test this player playing the files via network.

Patriot Memory / PBO Alpine $99.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...media%20player

This is a new media player, which replaces the Patriot Box media player. It is android based OS 2.2 I believe. It is fairly new, and I haven't read anyone on this forum getting one or writing a review. So, I can't recommend it, but it is there. It doesn't support HD sound.

Micca EP950 / EP600
EP950 $150.00
http://www.amazon.com/EP950-Digital-...6495717&sr=8-1

EP650 $120
http://www.amazon.com/Micca-EP600-G2...6495717&sr=8-2

EP950 has room for internal hard drive. EP650 doesn't. They are both the same. They play 3D movies, but they are having some issues with stuttering at certain frames. micca is working on the issue. Jack@Micca is a AVSForum member, and is the only person who I know to provide support for this device.

I almost bought this media player to replace my AIOS, but I didn't once I heard it was having some issues with stuttering. However, there have been reports from some Micca owners who do not have any issues. I don't believe this media player has any issues with playing regular DVD and BD movies.

Then you have the "elite" and "expensive" media players:

Dune media players and PCH media players. If you have the money, I would suggest the Dune player over the PCH. I used to own a PCH-A300 when it first came out, and I had a lot of issues with it. After testing, spending $$ and time with other players, I ended up buying a Dune Smart D1 series, and it was the best media player I've own so far.

PCH-A300 has new firmware, and it appears that Popcorn Hour is working on all of the issues. The player still has some bugs, but it is a lot better now, and it is a lot cheaper than the Dune media players now.

So, there you have it. I wish I can tell you just buy this media player and you will be set, but it just doesn't work that way. You will have to just buy one, try it out, and see if it works for you.

One other thing, if you decide to buy any media player that are able to have an internal hard drive do not be surprise or alarmed when you try to transfer a file to it, and the fastest speed you see is 6 MB/s to 12 MB/s if you are lucky.

There are a lot of people who complaint about transfer speed with the media players even the ones that have gigabit ethernet connections are slow. That's just the way it is. Theses media player are designed to play files not to transfer / receive files.

Hope this helps.

Gus, that was very good! Would make a good stickie!

Thank you

1. speed of streaming or rather the smoothness of it without any stuttering or sudden pausing or stuff like that cos this is the very reason I'm moving away from my ps3 in the first place so...

The speed will depend on your network set up. I would suggest having a gigabit network, which mean all of your devices will have to support gigabit. For example, I use a WNDR3700 router, which all of my devices that do not support gigabit are connected to it such as my PS3, Xbox360, Xbox Slim, Dune Media player. I have a 8 port gigabit switch which has all of my gigabit devices such as W7 PC, Server and a 5 port gigabit switch located in my master bedroom.

I don't have any issues with stuttering at all. You've got to make sure you get good ethernet cables such as Cat5e or Cat6. I would recommend monoprice.com they've got the best prices for pre-terminated cable or you can do it yourself like I did since I need to make long runs of Cat5e.


2. support for all major codecs (both video and audio including bd iso and mkv)

Pretty much all of the media players I've mentions support all of the formats. It is also depends on how you rip your movies.

3. easy and uninterrupted interfacing with a NAS drive since it's from the NAS drive that I will be streaming the content from.

Again this will depend on how your network is set up.

4. Atleast a basic jukebox, even if it has to be installed as an addon, to make life simpler.

AIOS, MICCA, Netgear NeoTV550 do not support a jukebox. It is possible for the AIOS to support one, but you will have to do some Linux code in order for it to work. It isn't hard, but it was time consuming for me since my media library was pretty large. Micca can support folder.jpg files, which shows the front cover of the movie. The program AIOS uses is a combination of ThumgGen and TVix, which isn't hard to learn. If I can do it anyone else can. WDTV Live / HUB uses ThumgGen as well.

Here's the link to the WDT live forum with pictures of the jukebox, the AIOS is similar to it since it uses the same sheets.
http://www.wdtvlive.net/showthread.p...0-Movie-Sheets!



I do not need support for apps as i never use them and in any case have a ps3, smart tv and a network receiver for those functions. I do not need an internal drive slot.

If you don't need app. then any of them will do, witch the exception of WDTV Live, which is an all around media player.

I know I'm pushing my luck here by repeatedly asking your suggestions but do the above factors help in narrowing down on one of these?

Not really. The only media player I've that I've found to have the easiest and simplest jukebox to use is the Dune media player. I use Dune in combination with Zappiti, and it is very easy to set up and use. The PCH-A300 has an internal jukebox, which means you don't need to use a computer to run it. You run the NMJ jukebox within the media player, which is pretty good looking, but as I said before I had issues with it, and I ended up returning the media player. However, it might work better now. I know that Popcorn Hour is working on having the same set up for their PCH-200 / 210 series to have the same internal jukebox by updating the firmware. I've been trying to find a PCH-200 / 210 on ebay for a good price less than $200, but so far no luck.

Hope that helps.