I had tons of Best Buy points that were going bad and weren't going to be good after the end of the so I thought since I have an older TV in the upstairs bedroom, I'd try a Roku for the wife. If I don't like it, my friend said he'd buy it from me. So, with almost $50 off, I bought the XS model.
Very small and compact and I hooked it up via wireless to my network and using the yellow, red and white cables to my non HD TV. Surprisingly, the wireless is very good even for HD video but, knowing that it was made mostly for purchased online video, I thought I'd try some of the both free and cheap home network streaming software.
I've tried Plex (free) and the $10 Roksbox. No doubt the Plex is way easier to set up and use IMO. But, the video formats are basically limited to MKV and .H264 and for now, Plex doesn't work with audio files (will soon). Both are slow to 'boot' and have limited fast forwarding and rewinding capabilities and when you're use to the NMT, there is no comparison to me but for the price, I can see why it's getting lots of geek talk time.
I still don't know if I'll keep it as it really only cost me $50 but I see many future possibilities with this device especially if the ISP's don't push their caps too far in my area. I have much to learn and little time to fool with it may try to connect to my HDTV via ethernet and HDMI.
Finally, a friend has Apple TV and thinks the Roku may be better. The $79 model seems to do almost the same but I got Angry Birds (big deal) included.
This used to happen on an iStar alot but not on my A100 i put that down to very old iStar firmware due to the company vanishing, but now it happens about 2-3 times per day on the A100.
I can watch live TV all day long so I'm pretty sure the network is stable but sometimes when I back out of live TV and go to the tv guide the box locks up on me with just the frozen guide on the screen, power + eject does not respond so I have to pull the power cord to get it up and running again. I was trying to replicate it earlier but found I had to leave live TV running for a significant length of time before it would lock up - it may be just coincidence though.
The logs attached should have several successful occurrences of going into NPVR >>Guide>>Live TV>>backout to guide between 8:35am and 9am, then I left live tv running until 8:55am (ish) this time when I backed out it died.
I'm starting to have a number of issues with my original GB-PVR PC that's working on it's 7th year of operation. It's served me well during that time but I think it's time for something new.
My question is how much benefit/utility would be realized with NPVR on a multi-core HT CPU like the i5 or i7? I currently have 5 MVPs and NMTs and a couple of PC clients (as noted in my signature below), but rarely would more than two of the clients be active at any given time, if that matters.
While I use to follow these forums closely, I've been super busy at work and am definitely out of the loop with NPVR. Fortunately GB-PVR has be rock-solid for us these past year(s). :-D I am hoping to draw on the wealth of knowledge from the user base to make a good decision.
Here's what I'm currently thinking. It looks like the Hauppauge 2250 is still a good option for a tuner, so I'll probably grab one of those and look for gen 1 NMT replacements for the MVPs. Probably get an i5 or i7-based PC with Windoze 7 (Home Premium? Pro?), but if I can save some $$$ by getting a Core 2 system that'd be advantageous. Most of the newer systems seem to come with 4-8gb of RAM, so I suspect that will be sufficient. I wired my house with CAT5 and recently upgraded my switch to a GB model, so that should be covered. Anything else to consider?
I have two hauppage cards installed. I have one that is being recognized but will not find any channels and the second card which is installed, found in the filter, but not being displayed as an option.
Just installed Music box 4. Love it! Just a couple of questions :
1. Can you select a genre? It doesn't look like it.
2. Can you import M3U files? I've exported my playlists from iTunes but don't know what to do with them.
I have some wishes for the music box plugin and am sure additional input for interface features by others are needed before a new release is written, if possible.
- When a song is played a new screen focusing on the artist or album selected with a timeline bar, having pause/ff/rw, shuffle, continuous play, next, previous, repeat options. Maybe possibility of displaying artsy stuff somewhat similar to how Win media player does.
- Ability to add, create, edit, select from multiple playlists. Also, when playing having a timeline bar and display similar to above.
I am experiencing a tremendous amount of latency when trying to fast forward, pause/resume, rewind whether watching live tv, or recordings. I have disabled comskip from the parallelprocessing.bat file as recordings run into gaps that create the same latency, which normally require a shutdown/restart of npvr. I have another issue with comskip as when I can make it past the latency period the recording jumps back to previously viewed material.
From what I gather, the latency issue may be corrected in the next release.
With the comskip/latency problems involved I am using VLC to view recordings via windows explorer or NEWA play option, which works well.
Posted by: Grampz - 2011-12-03, 03:17 AM - Forum: Wishlist
- No Replies
In dealing with the user interface, I would like the ability to double click the left mouse button to toggle in and out of full screen view. The alt/enter requires me to dig out my keyboard for the htpc.
FF/RW/Pause options on the timeline would be nice.
On a somewhat related note: Are the right mouse button options adjustable via the config.xml file? I haven't dug through the file regarding this. I would like the ability to make interface selections without going to the main menu. Also, if live or recorded showings could be shown within a small box while maneuvering through the interface would be awesome.
