Best Way to Stream MKVs to Living Room

[poofyhairguy]

It's kind of difficult to come up with something other than an HTPC that will do everything without needing to go through a transcoder like plex or media browser.

Not really. Chromebox+Openelec can play any file (short of HEVC and 3D isos) out there. And I don't say that willy nilly, my library is huge and diverse and it works without any transcoding. It's CPU is powerful enough to do the job.

Here is a great guide:

http://pricklytech.wordpress.com/20...lling-openelec-standalone-setup-no-chrome-os/

I mean technically the Chromebox is a "HTPC," but given how its fanless and Openelec turns it into an appliance I think it is much more like a Roku. It certainly is a better XBMC experience than any Apple device. And XBMC/Kodi is the best 10 foot interface to playback local media, period.

 

[gus6464]

My Roku 3 plays some pretty demanding MKVs with Plex without transcoding. I have some really high bitrate 10bit anime MKV's with subs and the unit doesn't flinch. 5.1 audio as well.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Well yeah, the Roku 3 has a decoder chip in it better than your average Blu Ray player so it can take mkvs that are within its spec.

The problem is the problem with any decoder chip solution- what happens when you get outside its spec? Like with a massive 1080i file, or a weird VC1 file, or that scene encoded mkv where it has numerous B-frames per minigop to be used as reference (which COMPLETELY violates the standard that most hardware decoders depend on). In those cases you are transcoding (and I bet you are for the 10bit too, I see NO WHERE in Roku's documentation that they support 10 bit in hardware).

Nothing beats a powerful x86 CPU plus FFMPEG (aka the backbone of mplayer, kodi, etc.) for decoding robustness.

 

[ScottFern]

Popcorn Hour A-410 or Mede8er 1000X3D

 

[at80eighty]

You missed the part where we were saying skins moving forward.
Eminence is Gotham only.
We're talking about XBMC 14.0 onward (Helix).

I'm sure most of the skin works on Kodi, but for stability sake, I would rather use a Kodi release skin as I've had all types of odd issues trying to use skins made for Gotham on Helix.

(sorry for the intermittent name changing, stupid new names are annoying).

You're right, I did miss that. Tried quite a few skins, but outside of confluence, I found eminence to be the fastest performing skin which didn't look like ass.

Now only if the geexbox guys will come up with a Kodi release for the cubox-i. No response from the forums at all

 

[poofyhairguy]

Now only if the geexbox guys will come up with a Kodi release for the cubox-i. No response from the forums at all

That is the exact reason I won't recommend ARM boxes for Kodi outside of the FireTV- longterm support.

 

[at80eighty]

That is the exact reason I won't recommend ARM boxes for Kodi outside of the FireTV- longterm support.

While I agree with the sentiment in principle; since we're talking of devices costing only $100+ ; it's totally worth it as long as it works; which, so far has been pretty damn great

 

[Nebor]

I've been pretty impressed with Plex on my Samsung TV with the server running on my desktop PC. The movie quality is good and it streams DTS & DD without issue. The interface is slow, presumably due to the TV's low processing power, but it looks really slick, with cool pictures & graphics in the background related to whatever movie you're looking at.

I imagine an Xbox running Plex will look the same but operate a little faster.

 

[poofyhairguy]

While I agree with the sentiment in principle; since we're talking of devices costing only $100+ ; it's totally worth it as long as it works; which, so far has been pretty damn great

Yeah, you are right. The fact that anything can match and beat ION1 at $100 (when I was SO freaking exciting to get ION1 in the first place in 2009) is pretty awesome. I was scared when Intel locked other GPU makers out of their chipsets that would do in the magic ION brought, but it turns out ARM has created a competitive element that showed my fears to be baseless.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I've been pretty impressed with Plex on my Samsung TV with the server running on my desktop PC. The movie quality is good and it streams DTS & DD without issue. The interface is slow, presumably due to the TV's low processing power, but it looks really slick, with cool pictures & graphics in the background related to whatever movie you're looking at.

Welcome to the party of a modern 10 foot interface for movies. That is what I keep saying, the best way to stream mkvs is through a proper interface like that. It gives you fanart, boxart, and metadata like descriptions, years, actors, ratings, etc. It allows you to sort or categorize movies. It allows you to add in emulators or streaming sites (like free Hulu) and have them be all be remote driven. It allows wife's, kids and mom to sort through a huge library and pick what they want Netflix-style without mouses or keyboards.

You think Plex is cool, take a look at XBMC+Aeon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4RO46edh-4

 

[Nebor]

Welcome to the party of a modern 10 foot interface for movies. That is what I keep saying, the best way to stream mkvs is through a proper interface like that. It gives you fanart, boxart, and metadata like descriptions, years, actors, ratings, etc. It allows you to sort or categorize movies. It allows you to add in emulators or streaming sites (like free Hulu) and have them be all be remote driven. It allows wife's, kids and mom to sort through a huge library and pick what they want Netflix-style without mouses or keyboards.

You think Plex is cool, take a look at XBMC+Aeon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4RO46edh-4

Unfortunately my Samsung TV is 2011 model and only the 2013+ models can run XMBC.

BTW I had the slick interface, fan art, etc. with My Movies in Windows Media Center on the HTPC. The problem is then you're still dealing with powerDVD, java updates, windows updates, NVidia updates, etc.

 

[tential]

Welcome to the party of a modern 10 foot interface for movies. That is what I keep saying, the best way to stream mkvs is through a proper interface like that. It gives you fanart, boxart, and metadata like descriptions, years, actors, ratings, etc. It allows you to sort or categorize movies. It allows you to add in emulators or streaming sites (like free Hulu) and have them be all be remote driven. It allows wife's, kids and mom to sort through a huge library and pick what they want Netflix-style without mouses or keyboards.

You think Plex is cool, take a look at XBMC+Aeon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4RO46edh-4

Without genre's, years, actors, ratings I would NEVER pick a video to watch. My library is too large to be able to do so without some way of narrowing it down.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Unfortunately my Samsung TV is 2011 model and only the 2013+ models can run XMBC.

Any TV can run XBMC with a Firetv or Chromebox hooked up!

The problem is then you're still dealing with powerDVD, java updates, windows updates, NVidia updates, etc.

Nope, avoid the Windows and avoid the disks. Rip it all, plug in the box and serve it up in a way fitting for 2014!

 

[Nebor]

Any TV can run XBMC with a Firetv or Chromebox hooked up!



Nope, avoid the Windows and avoid the disks. Rip it all, plug in the box and serve it up in a way fitting for 2014!

Like I said, I still need a way to play actual disks, so I'm going with the Xbox One.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Like I said, I still need a way to play actual disks

And like I said, you can get a dedicated Blu Ray player for less than a USB external Blu Ray drive for the odd time you play a disk:

http://www.amazon.com/Philips-BDP210...BCQ/ref=sr_1_6

Seems like the holdup between you and the optimal solution of "The Best Way to Stream MKVs to the Living Room" is the fact that you don't want to fill up two HDMI ports instead of one. Or more likely you are just trying to justify an Xbox One purchase, especially when you consider that Blu Ray player plus a Chromebox together would cost around half what an Xbox One costs for what will be an inferior experience due to forced transcoding in Plex.

One last thing I will say against the Xbox One plan- that thing eats a TON of power to just sit there and do what any of these boxes could easily do if that is the main reason you want it:

 

[Nebor]

FWIW I have no intention of playing games on the Xbox One. But I do have several Windows 8 PCs, a Surface Pro, and a Windows Phone, so I'm hoping the Xbox One integrates better than a Chromebox or standalone blu-ray player would.

I have a fairly high end yamaha receiver with plenty of HDMI ports, and I'm only using 2 of them (AT&T uverse box & HTPC.) I plan on just swapping out the HTPC for the xbox. It'd be nice if the xbox took a standard PC-style power cord so I don't have to dig around in the entertainment center. Just plug in the ethernet & power and chuck the HTPC in the garbage!

 

[poofyhairguy]

FWIW I have no intention of playing games on the Xbox One. But I do have several Windows 8 PCs, a Surface Pro, and a Windows Phone, so I'm hoping the Xbox One integrates better than a Chromebox or standalone blu-ray player would.

I can see that. I know people that are the Apple equivalent that loves their Apple TVs so I understand.

 

[tential]

FWIW I have no intention of playing games on the Xbox One. But I do have several Windows 8 PCs, a Surface Pro, and a Windows Phone, so I'm hoping the Xbox One integrates better than a Chromebox or standalone blu-ray player would.

I have a fairly high end yamaha receiver with plenty of HDMI ports, and I'm only using 2 of them (AT&T uverse box & HTPC.) I plan on just swapping out the HTPC for the xbox. It'd be nice if the xbox took a standard PC-style power cord so I don't have to dig around in the entertainment center. Just plug in the ethernet & power and chuck the HTPC in the garbage!

How exactly do you think an Xbox One will integrate well with Windows 8?
I feel like you'll be let down in that regard.
Edit: Only way might be that HDMI Passthrough.

 

[Nebor]

How exactly do you think an Xbox One will integrate well with Windows 8?
I feel like you'll be let down in that regard.
Edit: Only way might be that HDMI Passthrough.

So far integration between Windows Phone, Windows 8.1 and my Surface Pro has been terrible. Xbox Music sharing, "play to" functionality and other things that seem pretty basic are broken or tedious to get working. I'm hoping the addition of another Microsoft device will straighten this all out.

 

[Nebor]

Also, FWIW, Plex on my Samsung TV works without transcoding. It's able to directly stream the files from the NAS with DTS. One would think that an Xbox One, being infinitely more powerful than a TV, should be able to do the same thing.

 

[Ketchup]

So far integration between Windows Phone, Windows 8.1 and my Surface Pro has been terrible. Xbox Music sharing, "play to" functionality and other things that seem pretty basic are broken or tedious to get working. I'm hoping the addition of another Microsoft device will straighten this all out.

LOL! Isn't that what 8 was designed for? Way to go MS!

 

[tential]

LOL! Isn't that what 8 was designed for? Way to go MS!

The odd thing is that it's broken already and he wants to get another device that will somehow magically fix the issues.

If you're getting an Xbox one not for the games but for it to work seamlessly with other products you're in the wrong world. I specifically didn't get the Xbox one because it doesn't play well with the windows ecosystem but hey, it's his choice.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Also, FWIW, Plex on my Samsung TV works without transcoding. It's able to directly stream the files from the NAS with DTS. One would think that an Xbox One, being infinitely more powerful than a TV, should be able to do the same thing.

Actually I wouldn't bet on that. The Xbox One, for certain, does NOT support direct play with Plex:

https://forums.plex.tv/index.php/topic/123720-xbox-one-profile-direct-play-mkvs-help-please/

Microsoft have not yet exposed their October update to the 3rd-party developers. Plex is on the consideration list though.

So unlike what you assume, EVERYTHING will transcoded to the device. You are more likely to get direct play on that Samsung TV, because any number is greater than 0.

 

[Muadib]

Any TV can run XBMC with a Firetv or Chromebox hooked up!

Is there any advantage with one over the other? The firetv is $79 now, so I'm leaning towards it, but I'd love to hear your insight as I'll be new to the XBMC world.

 

[poofyhairguy]

Is there any advantage with one over the other? The firetv is $79 now, so I'm leaning towards it, but I'd love to hear your insight as I'll be new to the XBMC world.

Sure, I would be happy to lend my insight between the two.

The FireTV is an ARM box deep down, which means its CPU power is somewhat limited on single core performance (which the XBMC interface loves). This port can't use all XBMC plugins, and the CPU of the FireTV isn't powerful enough to decode what the GPU couldn't decode from the factory in every case. It does a pretty good job for an ARM box- I think it the best one in that category especially for that price. I think the FireTV is a good option for those on a budget, or those who want Netflix/Amazon/Hulu streaming capabilities with XBMC on the same box.

The Chromebox is a full x86 computer. In Openelec mode it runs what is THE most loved (by the developers) port of XBMC that can use almost EVERY plugin ever made. As a bonus, unlike a FireTV, the Chromebox has enough CPU power to decode almost ANY file you throw at it and not just what the GPU can handle. This extra CPU power also means you can use better skins and a bigger library with less lag. It is fanless and small, and it works very well for the job of XBMC.

It comes down to priorities.

Where the FireTV will lag a little on the interface, but maybe not if you use a skin like Bello. It should still play most local content, but not admittedly everything if you have some esoteric library like mine with some large VC1 files. But for that it will give you Android, which means the box can do more easily for more people- like games, Netflix, etc. That makes the FireTV the better all-purpose box. It is pretty amazing for what it is, and beats what $300 could buy me in 2011.

Meanwhile the Chromebox is meant to be a XBMC appliance, that if you know linux can be hacked to do cool stuff, but otherwise is a XBMC appliance. I like that about it personally, I feel simple and appliance like is the best case. So I recommend the Chromebox more for people who want "the best way to stream a mkv.". On an XBMC scale from 1 to 10, the Chromebox is a 9 (only a custom Nvidia rig is better) and the FireTV is like a 7.