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Scholar
Original Poster
#1 Old 2nd Oct 2015 at 1:04 AM Last edited by d_dgjdhh : 2nd Oct 2015 at 5:35 AM.
Looking for a TV Media Player/Streamer (or other devices)
So, I'd like to know your experiences with external media devices that connect to your HDTV to stream or play video/music/picture files. Here's my situation.

I have a 46" Sony TV from several years ago. It has 1 HDMI slot available, 1 set of component cable slots available, 1 cable slot (coaxial ?) used with option to use a splitter. It is not a SmartTV. It has 1 USB 1.0 slot, with no functional options (is a service USB slot only). It does not have wireless capabilities, nor can it connect to the Internet. Basically, it's a simple unsophisticated HDTV.

So when I went to this office supplies store near me, I bought ink for my printer and browsed around. I saw this device called "WD TV Media Player". I tried it on the HDTV and it functioned just fine. Up until I tried the YouTube application from the menu. It was so slow, that it never connected to YouTube. Then I tried some of my video files from my external hard drive. It was fine, but then some files didn't play (due to formats unsupported) and some of those that are supported wasn't playable either (due to codec or resolution I guess?). I'm going to return it for a refund soon.

I was searching on which TV media player had the most supported formats, but the reviews didn't cover much of that.

I then found out about Home Theater PC (HTPC) boxes...sounded interesting. I'd like to know more about people's experiences with that and how it's used. Such as, is it the same as buying a media player box, or does HTPC have better functionality?

My priority is that the device can play the most video files. I'd like to cease burning DVDs in order to view files on the HDTV via a USB stick or portable hard drive. And I'd rather not buy a SmartTV because I don't have place to put the 46" one. My budget isn't really that important right now since I don't have immediate plans for purchasing. This is really just for informative purposes.

Check out my latest version of Superman's Classic Uniform for The Sims 2.
See what images I have posted on DeviantArt as well related to The Sims 2 and designs.
Also check out My Website to see my superhero uniform creations for The Sims 2. THANKS!!!
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Scholar
#2 Old 2nd Oct 2015 at 8:09 AM
Between HTPCs and media players, HTPCs are your most versatile and future proof options. If you want the best chance that your device will play a file format or future file format, go with htpc.

HTPCs are just computers with focus on playing media. Nothing else. You streamline the software and hardware to get a media player like experience.

Usually this starts with picking a small mini-ITX motherboard, a power-friendly CPU, a small (60GB - 120GB) SSD, perhaps a HDD for media storage although lots of people now stream from their main computer or a NAS, 2GB - 4GB of RAM and size-compatible PSU.

So you'd put everything together, install your OS and other media specific software like Plex, Live Streamer or whatever and then hook it up to your TV and network and then play the media.

Alternatively if you already own a PlayStation console you can setup a DLNA server on your main PC and stream the content from your PC to the PS3/4. No need to buy an additional HTPC. Its also already a blu-ray player and game console. Which is nifty. That's what I do.
Theorist
#3 Old 15th Oct 2015 at 7:41 PM
I'm surprised our WD TV had trouble playing some media. I have a WD TV Live (looks identical to the one in your link) and it plays everything I've thrown at it. I usually stick to downloading MP4, but it had no trouble with AVI or MKV in the past.

I use HTPCs as DVRs and media playback. I prefer Windows Media Center for ease of use, but I know a lot of people use Kodi. I use a MicroATX setup in a case that resembles a DVD player. I liked the look and also liked having the slots to add multiple HDTV tuners.
Some pics of the HTPC setups I had almost a decade ago:
http://s2.photobucket.com/user/Gnat...C?sort=2&page=1
http://s2.photobucket.com/user/Gnat...n?sort=2&page=1

Probably the cheapest possible HTPC you could build these days would be a PC on a stick. Something like the Intel Compute Stick, but you can buy off-brand Chinese equivalents of varying quality for under $100. You could then run your favorite sofa-friendly UI like Kodi or Windows Media Center.
Even cheaper than a PC on a stick is Android on a stick. There are builds of Kodi for Android, which I tried out on a $40 Android stick and it worked quite well. Only problem is I had to hook up a mouse because I don't have a remote control interface that works with Android, but I know they exist.

Resident wet blanket.
Scholar
Original Poster
#4 Old 15th Oct 2015 at 9:33 PM
Thanks for the responses, sorry for my late reply to this topic.

I guess I'll be exploring more with the HTPC route. That's neat you have your HTPC since a decade ago, and it still works today.

Check out my latest version of Superman's Classic Uniform for The Sims 2.
See what images I have posted on DeviantArt as well related to The Sims 2 and designs.
Also check out My Website to see my superhero uniform creations for The Sims 2. THANKS!!!
 
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