support for this, but not for that
support for this, but not for that
support for that... with caveats a, b, c
:\
a tiny fanless HTPC still wins.:thumbsup:
It will play MKV's and MP4's but they need to be H.264 encoded with the audio in AC3. Not sure if AAC is supported?
Have any friends in the states that could ship you one?
support for that, but not for this, support for this, but not for that, can't make me pancakes, can make me scrambled eggs, need a new wife.
can we get a tiny fanless pc with OS for $100?
Yup, it all depends on what you want. For me, it's easier to roll your own NAS, drop Plex on it and put Rokus all over the house then to put tiny fanless PCs all over the house and use a prebuilt NAS to stream from.
It will play MKV's and MP4's but they need to be H.264 encoded with the audio in AC3. Not sure if AAC is supported?
Have any friends in the states that could ship you one?
AC3 audio is only supported by the Roku in pass-through mode, meaning it cannot decode the audio, it can only pass it through to an amp/receiver which is capable of decoding it - so it can only direct play if that is the case. If you do not have an AC3 capable device connected to it, ensure your Roku and Plex configs accurately reflect this.
I would re-encode the Stereo AC3 Soundtrack to AAC Low Complexity. Doing this would have AAC stereo cover direct play and AC3 5.1 surround stereo for pass-through to a receiver. AAC is the preferred stereo track for buffer free playback on the Roku.
Dangit, when are these things coming to Canada?!
I want to supplement my WDTV SMP with one of these, when I tried the Roku 2 a month ago I was super impressed with the streaming capabilities and channels like USTVNow. Plus the Roku's Netflix interface is way better.
Actually, if it plays MKV and MP4s natively(is that what you're saying? without the need for a Plex server running on my laptop?), my poor beloved WD is getting sold.
This really confuses me, and by extension all of the other recommendations of this and Plex in this thread. How can this rival an HTPC when I still need another friggin computer running to use Plex and stream stuff? I want to make this clear in case anybody else feels misled here:
You still need a separate PC running a Plex server to stream movies to the Roku box. The Roku box in no way can play movies from a network drive on its own.
I have a dedicated NAS that I rip all of my movies to. From what I can tell there is ZERO WAY to play those movies without having another computer running at the same time. Apparently you can stick a USB drive into the box and possibly go from there, but that's not what I wanted. This is a huge and glaring limitation (for 3 versions in a row now) that makes this thing worthless compared to any HTPC. Considering you can get a windows based all-in-one SFF PC for a little over $300, this box has no business in a home that already has a device to stream Netflix (as that's all it can do for me now).
Unless I'm missing something big here that somebody can help me out with, this thing is going back tomorrow.
There arguement isn't which is better between HTPC and the Roku. It's about functionality. The complaint is about lack of DLNA, and still requiring anothing device to run Plex on.
It's about what you want, what you need, and what you're going to do about it. Plex isn't perfect, and in some cases I would like a HTPC instead...
I think the AC3 only works IF you are outputting the audio to a receiver that can decode it, otherwise you have to stick with AAC.
From the Plex forum....
Bingo... I wasn't even going to respond to that post as it seemed to miss the point entirely.
Also, ND40oz made a good point. Instead of building a HTPC, it might make more sense to use similar (or even cheaper) hardware to make my own NAS which can run the Plex server itself. Then the Roku would be much more useful. AND I'd have room for more drives, where my current NAS is only a 2 bay.
If you wanted to do this you would need to have all of your content in a format that Roku could support. Don't expect a NAS device to transcode, unless you are buying a big boy.
He already has a pre-built 2 bay NAS, he's talking about building his own using current parts. You can build your own using a mITX Z77 and a i5-3570k for cheaper then a 5 bay QNAP or Synology and have no issues transcoding with that setup.
He already has a pre-built 2 bay NAS, he's talking about building his own using current parts. You can build your own using a mITX Z77 and a i5-3570k for cheaper then a 5 bay QNAP or Synology and have no issues transcoding with that setup.
you seemed to have accidentally deleted the most damning part of the bit you quoted... namely the support for X with caveats, A, B, C.support for that, but not for this, support for this, but not for that, can't make me pancakes, can make me scrambled eggs, need a new wife.
can we get a tiny fanless pc with OS for $100?
you seemed to have accidentally deleted the most damning part of the bit you quoted... namely the support for X with caveats, A, B, C.
maybe you can get the Roku toy running linux for $100... i don't know.
as for an HTPC, linux is free and a perfect OS for an HTPC... and the best part is no caveats a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h that the Roku toy suffers from. as for the $100 spending limit, probably not... caveat-free is not that cheap, but it is inexpensive.
as to the pancakes, eggs, wife... was that an argument?
I've had a Roku 3 for a few weeks now. It's my first Roku device. I thought about building an HTPC. But now that I have the Roku, I feel like I made the right choice. This thing is super easy to use, I love all the channels, Plex is freaking awesome and plays everything I have with no problem at all (and I got stuff in all kinds of formats).
All of this in a tiny little box, that sips power, and only cost $100. Makes me wish I had purchased a Roku earlier.
Only negative I have about it has no YouTube. That's a pretty big negative, but it's otherwise so awesome, I can overlook this.
For noob clarity --- I'm assuming when it is stated that you must stream Plex off a server to the Roku 3 that it can simply be Plex loaded on the PC where you have your content stored? That seems like not a very big deal.
A PC worthy of transcoding 1080p, of course