[hussain]

Hi,

I have dedicated home theatre with sony vpl55 projector, onkyo 5010, emotiva amp, atlantic technology 4400 speakers and hp proliant 12tb media server.

Is there anything out there which can:
* Play 3d Bluray ISO with full menus from my Media Server
* Has slick non laggy interface
* Deliver Excellent Video/Audio Quality


Regards
Hussain

 

[sveineb]

Hi,

I have dedicated home theatre with sony vpl55 projector, onkyo 5010, emotiva amp, atlantic technology 4400 speakers and hp proliant 12tb media server.

Is there anything out there which can:
* Play 3d Bluray ISO with full menus from my Media Server
* Has slick non laggy interface
* Deliver Excellent Video/Audio Quality


Regards
Hussain

Check out Mede8er(600/800 x3d)

 

[Mr Eric]

mede8er doesn't do full menu. No 3D player does full menu... And regarding the excellent audio/video quality, this is to be discussed

unfortunately there's no media player doing what Op is asking, there will be always one of his 3 requests missing.

The only player able to do all this might be an HTPC. the close second : an Oppo, but without a nice interface. or a dune Smart (old gen), but no 3D. Or a Pi/NUC with openelec but no full menu.

One thing is sure : avoid any 4K Android player at all cost.

 

[Brajesh]

VidOn box does full menus, but it's spotty. OP, you may want to check out my thread at Kodi forum. Basically, there is no box (other than HTPC as Mr Eric noted) that will do all you want. But, with HTPC, it's also a less than ideal solution as you need to use PowerDVD or TotalMedia Theatre (via a frontend like Kodi or another jukebox).

 

[nba23tsc]

Forget full BD menu and get chromebox to run Kodi.

The market trend is that you are not supposed to be running full menus with ripped material, and if you want full menus you should be playing the physical discs.

 

[the_abbot]

Abandon full menu support and grab a chromebox w/kodi. One of the best investments I've made in my dedicated room.

 

[johnBlanker]

Or forget 3d and get a Dune smart.

 

[Mr Eric]

+1 with both comments above, and adding Pi 2 as the best value for money (soon with MKV 3D MVC and audio HD pass-through). Made the jump recently and don't regret it one second...

 

[robnix]

+1 with both comments above, and adding Pi 2 as the best value for money (soon with MKV 3D MVC and audio HD pass-through). Made the jump recently and don't regret it one second...

I just tested one out with the latest Beta of Kodi. A few things I found out.

A USB Drive for storage is a must. Micro SD cards performance was abysmal. Booting from the SD Card and using USB for storage solved this.
The HD Audio Pass through was problem free.
Some skins, even those that you may think are "light" skins were a bit choppy. Maximinimillism, no surprise, was the best performer.
Something about the BBC Planet Earth/Frozen Planet BR's made them unplayable with the Pi2. Those were the only files I had issues with though, everything played back as expected.
Worked great with my Media Center Remote USB Dongle.
Picture quality was very good.

Overall I was very impressed. For $80.00 it's a great option.

 

[Mr Eric]

Can you explain the problem about SD Card and USB for storage (a link to a tutorial would be great) ?

For skins it really depends on how much it's optimized. I can run Aeon Nox without any problem on my Pi2, even Aeon Shednox mod which is quite heavy can run with some slow down when browsing your collection. I'm currently using Aeon MQ5 mod for Helix which is really great, and used as well reFocus (there's a nice Helix mod) which is very slick and light and works very well with the Pi2. Couldn't run some Confluence mods or 1080Fx, even Bello which looks very light visually speaking isn't so light in reality...

For you Planet Earth problems my guess is that those are encoded in VC1 (I've got the HDDVD version and I guess it's the same master in VC1 you have). To play it you will need to buy the VC1 licence from Raspberry, same goes for MPEG2 (that's something like 3$ each). If you don't have the licence you get software decoding for those files, works OK for MPEG2 on a Pi2, but VC1 being used for HD doesn't work on software. once you have the licence this will make hardware decoding available and it works perfectly (FYI first 2 Dark Knights from Warner are VC1 encoded, and many other Warner titles are also VC1, certainly some masters from the HDDVD era...).

I use the Kodi official app on iOS and it's absolutely perfect and you don't need any remote control or keyboard/mouse with it.

For 80$ all included, I don't think you can find something better. If they add 3D MVC MKV and audio HD passthrough on the next openelec version (which is already running in Beta), this is a killer player and a no-brainer for its price.

 

[robnix]

Can you explain the problem about SD Card and USB for storage (a link to a tutorial would be great) ?

You use the SD Card to boot, then Openelec uses the USB Stick for storage. MUCH faster this way.

http://kodi.wiki/view/HOW-TO:Install_XBMC_on_Raspberry_Pi_with_USB_drive

For skins it really depends on how much it's optimized. I can run Aeon Nox without any problem on my Pi2, even Aeon Shednox mod which is quite heavy can run with some slow down when browsing your collection. I'm currently using Aeon MQ5 mod for Helix which is really great, and used as well reFocus (there's a nice Helix mod) which is very slick and light and works very well with the Pi2. Couldn't run some Confluence mods or 1080Fx, even Bello which looks very light visually speaking isn't so light in reality...

I was surprised by Bello as well, Titan does pretty well though which was surprising. Haven't checked the setting for use with low end hardware yet to see if that helps.

For you Planet Earth problems my guess is that those are encoded in VC1 (I've got the HDDVD version and I guess it's the same master in VC1 you have). To play it you will need to buy the VC1 licence from Raspberry, same goes for MPEG2 (that's something like 3$ each). If you don't have the licence you get software decoding for those files, works OK for MPEG2 on a Pi2, but VC1 being used for HD doesn't work on software. once you have the licence this will make hardware decoding available and it works perfectly (FYI first 2 Dark Knights from Warner are VC1 encoded, and many other Warner titles are also VC1, certainly some masters from the HDDVD era...).

I didn't think about that, I'll pick up the licensing tonight.

I use the Kodi official app on iOS and it's absolutely perfect and you don't need any remote control or keyboard/mouse with it.

Remotes are still more convenient, no need to unlock them to pause a movie.

For 80$ all included, I don't think you can find something better. If they add 3D MVC MKV and audio HD passthrough on the next openelec version (which is already running in Beta), this is a killer player and a no-brainer for its price.

Totally agree. I'm absolutely blown away by the Pi2.

 

[Mr Eric]

good catch about the unlock on the App But I easily trade it against the possibility to change the audio track and subtitles in one click instead of going through the Kodi menus

 

[robnix]

good catch about the unlock on the App But I easily trade it against the possibility to change the audio track and subtitles in one click instead of going through the Kodi menus

Harmony remote with programmed buttons on the LCD to cycle audio and subs works too

 

[Mr Eric]

I was too lazy to configure my harmony (and i saved at least 5$ for an IR dongle ! )

 

[halfelite]

Do either of you have the asus chromebox? How does the Pi2 compare I did not have much luck with the original pi

 

[Mr Eric]

I don't have a chromebox (was thinking about this solution at first, but the price of a chromebox in EU is much higher than in the US ), but my guess s that there won't be any difference in playback as both are running Openelec. Difference would certainly be in Kodi navigation and use, for example I guess that a CB won't have any problem to run any skin, hile with the Pi2 you choice can be more limited (but still plenty of choice), or thhat the library scanning could be faster with the CB.

that's just a guess.

What's sure is that I was amazed by the Pi2 PQ vs my good old Dune Smart. The Smart looks blurry compared to the Pi2, some would say "more cinematic feeling" for the smart, but blurry is the real word to be used IMO. Here are some pictures I took when I hooked up the Pi to my main screen (52"). Don't look at colors/contrast too much, this was made with my phone... But details and resolution difference are quite obvious even with a smartphone camera :

Pi 2 :





Smart :

 

[robnix]

I don't have a chromebox (was thinking about this solution at first, but the price of a chromebox in EU is much higher than in the US ), but my guess s that there won't be any difference in playback as both are running Openelec. Difference would certainly be in Kodi navigation and use, for example I guess that a CB won't have any problem to run any skin, hile with the Pi2 you choice can be more limited (but still plenty of choice), or thhat the library scanning could be faster with the CB.

that's just a guess.

What's sure is that I was amazed by the Pi2 PQ vs my good old Dune Smart. The Smart looks blurry compared to the Pi2, some would say "more cinematic feeling" for the smart, but blurry is the real word to be used IMO. Here are some pictures I took when I hooked up the Pi to my main screen (52"). Don't look at colors/contrast too much, this was made with my phone... But details and resolution difference are quite obvious even with a smartphone camera :

Pi 2 :





Smart :

Wow!

 

[Mr Eric]

exactly what I said...

I tried to play a bit with the contrast settings of the dune, but I never saw as many stars as in the Pi2 picture. i could reach a certain amount of stars not so far away from the Pi, but the final result was so ugly that it wasn't possible to use this setting.

 

[robnix]

exactly what I said...

I tried to play a bit with the contrast settings of the dune, but I never saw as many stars as in the Pi2 picture. i could reach a certain amount of stars not so far away from the Pi, but the final result was so ugly that it wasn't possible to use this setting.

So I just ordered the VC-1 and MPEG2 licenses. Thanks! I've got a SD HD Homerun Prime on the way as well. The RPI2 has me convinced that I should be able to convert the whole house over to them soon.

 

[UdoG]

Did you received the VC-1 license and performed some tests with VC-1 content?
Any issues detected regarding different frame rates like 24, 23.976 etc?