BluRay,1080p, DLNA, MKV, HTPC, etc.

[GospelTruth]

Here are the playback methods I've come up with in my system as it sits today:

- MKV file Wireless via DLNA straight to TV > Audio return to pre/pro
- MKV file Wireless via DLNA to BluRay player
- MKV file via USB drive hooked to TV > Audio return to pr/pro
- MKV file via USB drive hooked to BluRay player
- MKV file played on HTPC
- MKV file burned as data and played on BuRay player
- Original BluRay disc played on BluRay player

I'm thinking that if you have a BluRay player with high quality video processing, your best bet is to go through that player, whether it be via DLNA, USB, or a disc.

Do people have buffering issues streaming 1080p via DLNA?

From my experience I would stay away from wireless transmission of HD files - especially if you are leaving them as is and not compressing them further. Wireless has a lot of potential issues with interference, number of users in the house using it at any given time and distance from router to your player. I've never had luck with it. With DVD rips, it can be hit or miss for me depending on how bad the neighborhood is lit up with cross traffic on the same router channels.

I use a wired connection for all streaming from my NAS to my media player and don't have any issues. If you don't have a possibility for wired, you can look at ethernet over your power lines as an alternate solution. I've used that with success as well.

I went the NAS route to store all my media files (photos, music, DVDs in ISO format). This way any device or computer in the house can access the files. Additionally, I don't have to have a computer up and running every time I want to watch a movie or listen to music. I used to have an external drive hooked up to my media player before I got the NAS. I liked that as it provided fast access and there are no buffering issues using USB. However, I got sick of unplugging the drive, copying new files to it from the computer, hooking it back up again and so on. With the NAS, I just log onto my computer, rip my music from a CD or movie from a DVD and put it on the NAS and any device can see it (with security of course). I do the same with camera pictures - a feature my wife likes so she can have access to them from any computer.

Michael

[adb3da@yahoo.co]

I've been on this project for a while too. So far I am just doing just my DVD collection. I use MakeMKV and then compress via Handbrake. I pull them into iTunes and distribute via AppleTV. I also use ServeToMe and StreamToMe to watch my movies remotely on the iPhone and iPad. Pretty slick and it works for music too (even on 3G cell network). The avg movie is about 1.5 gb when encoded. N which reminds me, I use the queue on handbrake to encode about 10-15 movies overnight.

[EndersShadow]

I think you'll just have to give it a try and see. I think your encode times will likely be similar to mine. The way I see it, if it's going to take 5-6 hours anyway, why would it matter if it took a couple of more hours?

Got a couple blu-rays and a couple DVD's done tonight. DVD's average about 8 gigs, blu-rays with lossless audio are averaging about 25-30 gigs lol. I will run outta space quick at this rate if I dont use handbrake.

I think I might try doing just my DVD's for now and then get some bigger drives and or a NAS setup for storage to use.

Also started to show off this stuff to the wife to soften her up for the HTPC I want to build for downstairs ..... because it will make playing the Disney Movies for Skye easier

[PrazVT]

While I appreciate the lossless / HD nature of blu-rays, there's no way I'd keep the native 17GB - 30GB files ...even w/ 9TB of NAS storage, it'll just get filled up quickly.

The last 3 years or so I've been encoding 1080p + 640kbps AC3 (5.1) and encoding to fit a double layer dvd (ie. 8.5GB). The only exception is if it's a long movie like Lord of the Rings. I typically use MeGui instead of Handbrake b/c of the additional features / control - but handbrake is simpler and probably a little easier to use.

Video encoding benefits from more CPU cores, so that's a worthwhile upgrade if you're still using a dual core machine. I think my 6 core i7 970 @ 4.2GHz will complete a 2 pass encode in about 2 hrs (1080p x264 @ 7,000 to 10,000 video bitrate).

[Tbone289]

Sorry guys, I forgot to do the Handbrake screen shots last night! I'll get them posted today.

[Tbone289]

Here are the Handbrake setup shots. Note that this example is a 1080p movie with a Dolby Digital soundtrack. I use an MKV package. The only alterations I would make to this setup are the width on the "Picture" tab (1280 for 720p, 720 for DVD), and the audio track would be "DTS passthru" for a DTS soundtrack. The video quality setting is critical--you do not want to use a higher RF number than 20.

These settings are a good place to start, anyway....

[rdb2001]

Glad to see this thread. I just started ripping my bluray collection. I built a 20tb server in a raid 5 config which is a little over 15tb of actual storage space. The main purpose is to be able to stream all of my movies through my house. I am using wd live players in every room. I use the actual bluray in my theater. It has been working great so far. I just have to finish about 150 bluray rips. I prefer the loseless version and I keep the 30gb files.

[falconcry72]

Glad to see this thread. I just started ripping my bluray collection. I built a 20tb server in a raid 5 config which is a little over 15tb of actual storage space. The main purpose is to be able to stream all of my movies through my house. I am using wd live players in every room. I use the actual bluray in my theater. It has been working great so far. I just have to finish about 150 bluray rips. I prefer the loseless version and I keep the 30gb files.

How do you like WD Live? I am very interested in these, since DLNA sucks.

How are you ripping your movies? What format?

[rdb2001]

How do you like WD Live? I am very interested in these, since DLNA sucks.

How are you ripping your movies? What format?

Ripping using makemkv. The wd live players can play mkv files. My main goal with this project was to be able to watch every movie I own in any room on any capable device outside of my theater. So far I have only ripped 20 blus but it has worked successfully. I was going the nas route but for the kind of storage I needed, I spent a little extra and built a server running windows home server 2011. It has been a fun project.

[Tbone289]

In the past, I've used ASUS players the same as you're using WDLive. I realized after a while that I'd rather just carry my laptop to whatever room I want to watch the movie in, and just plug in the HDMI to the system and run it from that (from HTPC shared drive). But, I rarely watch movies away from my main home theatre setup anyway.

[EndersShadow]

I was going the nas route but for the kind of storage I needed, I spent a little extra and built a server running windows home server 2011. It has been a fun project.

This is what I am thinking about doing myself slowly. Its not a big deal to put another tower of the same size next to my other desktop computer and I like that with a larger case (Midtower ATX) you can just keep adding more and more hard drives as you run out of space.

For now I am going to keep using my current computer and add a 2 TB drive to it while I buy parts from newegg as they go on sale to help keep the cost down.

I figure I will try to go with a Mini ITX motherboard, probably go with AMD as their motherboards and chipsets tend to be cheaper and go from there.

[GospelTruth]

How do you like WD Live? I am very interested in these, since DLNA sucks.

I know this was directed at rdb2001, but I use the WD Live and I love it. I have two in the house and they work great. I don't have a server, but use have a 4TB Synology NAS drive on the network where I store all my music and a bunch of movies. I didn't like DLNA and with the WD Live, you play the actual files from either your server or NAS. I like it a lot better. I don't rip Blu-rays at this point, just DVDs to ISO format so I can maintain the DVD menu system. The thing plays just about every file format out there.

As a side note, some things I really like about the Synology NAS drive is the software that comes with it. You can set up a video server, music server and even a photo server. Then if you get a URL for yourself and set it up to point to your NAS drive via your router you have other options as well. There are Video, Audio and Photo Apps on iTunes that let you connect to the NAS server via a web address (actual IP address or the URL you get) and you can listen to your music or watch videos on your iphone or ipad that reside on your NAS. I believe they have the apps for android devices as well. Of course all this depends on your cell plan data limits if you are not on a wireless network, but it's nice to be able to listen to your music in your car via your iphone. The best part, I dont' have to load ANY of the music (or videos) on my phone. It also works if you are on another network outside of your house. Pretty slick.

But back to the original question, the WD Live is great. As soon as they get an Amazon Instant Streaming app on it, it will be perfect. I don't understand why folks build HTPCs when this little box can do it all and you just needs a storage server somewhere to hold all your media. That's just me though. My days of wanting to build PCs is not what it used to be.

[Tbone289]

I don't understand why folks build HTPCs when this little box can do it all and you just needs a storage server somewhere to hold all your media. That's just me though. My days of wanting to build PCs is not what it used to be.

Your setup is likely enough for most people--those who need it for the uses you mention. WD Live plus a NAS cannot do everything a PC can. That is generally why people build HTPCs.

[adb3da@yahoo.co]

Glad to see this thread. I just started ripping my bluray collection. I built a 20tb server in a raid 5 config which is a little over 15tb of actual storage space. The main purpose is to be able to stream all of my movies through my house. I am using wd live players in every room. I use the actual bluray in my theater. It has been working great so far. I just have to finish about 150 bluray rips. I prefer the loseless version and I keep the 30gb files.

Can you talk more about the server build? Did you use a server specific mobo? Did you use 5 x 4TB drives? Do you rip on another machine that is mapped to the server? This is the route I want to go eventually. Right now I'm doing it all on my desktop PC with only 3TB and external backup.

[falconcry72]

Question for you WD TV Live guys: do you have problems streaming 1080p over wifi? Buffering issues? Do you just run the WD hard-wired? What about the PC, server, or NAS that's streaming to it?

[falconcry72]

enders: XBMC is sweet!!! Video quality is better than VLC by a long shot! I'll play around more before I start asking a million noob questions, but for now, I'm having issues using my phone as a remote... won't find the host or something... suggestions?

[falconcry72]

enders: XBMC is sweet!!! Video quality is better than VLC by a long shot! I'll play around more before I start asking a million noob questions, but for now, I'm having issues using my phone as a remote... won't find the host or something... suggestions?

Nevermind... figured it out. Any suggestions on cool features of this sweet player?

[EndersShadow]

Nevermind... figured it out. Any suggestions on cool features of this sweet player?

Umm.... havent played with video tons yet, but it does FLAC too .....

I like XBMC because I dont think there is a file type it wont play. Plus its open source so folks can tinker around with things and add in features they want and make em public for everyone.

I would head over to XBMC's site and or their wiki page and just look around at their guides to see what awesome stuff this program does.

There are tons of plug-ins and additional things you can get it to do (like automatically start up with the computer starts, etc). Also you can get it to work with a harmony one remote should you be using that..... If not IIRC a windows media center remote can be used for control as well (both require an IR connected to the computer though)

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=78179

[GospelTruth]

Question for you WD TV Live guys: do you have problems streaming 1080p over wifi? Buffering issues? Do you just run the WD hard-wired? What about the PC, server, or NAS that's streaming to it?

I haven't tried streaming 1080p over wireless - but that is kinda a loaded question. With wireless you need to know what kind of throughput you can get and what file you are streaming. Here are the maximum speeds for each of the formats. If you have DVD or Blu-ray, they would be ISO files.

• DVD (using MPEG-2 Compression): 10.08 Mbit/s
• Blu-Ray (Recordable disc): 36 Mbit/s
• H.264: 6 Mbit/s with 1080p content
• VC -1: 30 Mbit/s with 1080p content

You can use this SITE to read about and download a program to test your home network speed (wired or wireless). I would make sure if you are doing wireless that you check it from a position where you will have your device as interference and distance impact the results.

Once you have your results, then you can figure out if you have the ability to play 1080p over wireless based on the file types above.

My thoughts are to go with a wired connection if you can. The reason being is there is no interference from other routers or devices. Additionally, if you have a lot of wireless devices running in your house (kids with cell phones, laptops streaming stuff and what not) running at the same time, this could impact performance. At a minimum I would make sure you have a good router that has wireless N capability and is a 100Mbps LAN.

I have a wireless N router (ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router) and although not cheap it is way better than the cheaper routers I have had in the past. Additionally, I have a Synology NAS hard wired directly to the the router. Using wireless, I tried to stream DVD ISO files to my WD and it would work 95% of the time with no issues, but every once in a while I would get issues with transmission. This wasn't a buffering issue with the WD Live, but issues with wireless (distance to my TV and number of walls). I got sick of the wireless issues as it can kinda be suck if it happens in the middle of a movie. I wanted to go hard wired, but retrofitting can be a pain. So I opted to buy an Ethernet over powerline kit by TP-LINK. I had never tried it before, but figured why not. This works great and it's a simple plug and play. I hooked the Ethernet directly from the router to this device in my office and plugged the other outlet directly into my WD Live in the living room. With this solution I don't have ANY issues with streaming and have excellent transmission rates. If you want to have a wired connection but don't have Ethernet wired in your house, I recommend this solution. You do have to make sure that both plugs in your house go to the same electrical panel.

If you have any other questions, let me know!

[Drenis]

I own MakeMKV. Yes, I paid the guy because I feel he deserves it. Well, that and I don't have to constantly update the registration code.

I watch the movie once from the MakeMKV lossless copy, then archive it using Handbrake to compress. With the correct Handbrake settings, I can rarely tell the difference between the lossless and lossy copy, but the lossy is usually about 1/3 the size. I do this with DVD and BluRay, and I'll even reduce some of the less-important (to me) archival copies from 1080p to 720p to cut the size even more.

I don't use NAS yet. I just store it all on HDs in my HTPC and use externals for backup.

How's that HTPC running these days any ways?

[falconcry72]

I haven't tried streaming 1080p over wireless - but that is kinda a loaded question. With wireless you need to know what kind of throughput you can get and what file you are streaming. Here are the maximum speeds for each of the formats. If you have DVD or Blu-ray, they would be ISO files.

• DVD (using MPEG-2 Compression): 10.08 Mbit/s
• Blu-Ray (Recordable disc): 36 Mbit/s
• H.264: 6 Mbit/s with 1080p content
• VC -1: 30 Mbit/s with 1080p content

You can use this SITE to read about and download a program to test your home network speed (wired or wireless). I would make sure if you are doing wireless that you check it from a position where you will have your device as interference and distance impact the results.

Once you have your results, then you can figure out if you have the ability to play 1080p over wireless based on the file types above.

My thoughts are to go with a wired connection if you can. The reason being is there is no interference from other routers or devices. Additionally, if you have a lot of wireless devices running in your house (kids with cell phones, laptops streaming stuff and what not) running at the same time, this could impact performance. At a minimum I would make sure you have a good router that has wireless N capability and is a 100Mbps LAN.

I have a wireless N router (ASUS RT-N66U Dual-Band Wireless-N900 Gigabit Router) and although not cheap it is way better than the cheaper routers I have had in the past. Additionally, I have a Synology NAS hard wired directly to the the router. Using wireless, I tried to stream DVD ISO files to my WD and it would work 95% of the time with no issues, but every once in a while I would get issues with transmission. This wasn't a buffering issue with the WD Live, but issues with wireless (distance to my TV and number of walls). I got sick of the wireless issues as it can kinda be suck if it happens in the middle of a movie. I wanted to go hard wired, but retrofitting can be a pain. So I opted to buy an Ethernet over powerline kit by TP-LINK. I had never tried it before, but figured why not. This works great and it's a simple plug and play. I hooked the Ethernet directly from the router to this device in my office and plugged the other outlet directly into my WD Live in the living room. With this solution I don't have ANY issues with streaming and have excellent transmission rates. If you want to have a wired connection but don't have Ethernet wired in your house, I recommend this solution. You do have to make sure that both plugs in your house go to the same electrical panel.

If you have any other questions, let me know!

That ethernet over powerline looks cool. That would be a lot easier than installing a second modem/router.

[GospelTruth]

Ethernet over Powerline is a great alternative to wireless and can provide better speeds without the interference with wireless. If you have many devices at your theater (PS3, HTPC, smart TV and so on) you can use one Powerline Ethernet adapter that connects to your router in another room and then use this switch at your theater. Just run an Ethernet wire from your powerline adapter to the device. Then connect all your other devices via Ethernet to that device as well. The switch will handle all the routing. There is no need to get another router. I did this at my entertainment center as I have a PS3 and WD Live both using this solution.

Just a couple notes on Powerline Ethernet:

• Both plugs must be on the same electrical box
• You cannot plug an adapter into a power strip. It must be plugged into a socket on the wall. From my understanding power strips interfere with how these work.
• Distance of the wires to/from the electrical box will impact speed.

I don't think you'll regret it though if you can conform to above requirements.