WD Live (or similar) - Album, Video and Folder Art maintained with Mezzmo

[smitbret]

I'm getting ready to dump my PS3 as a media server. I like to rip my BRs to my PC and serve them up using Mezzmo, but Cinavia is really starting to create a hassle so I need to dump it for something Cinavia free. The WD Live family looks good and so does LaCinema or Boxee. My question is, now that I've got my library all configured in Mezzmo know is the album, video and folder art is maintained on the Western Digital Live devices. I've worked hard to get my library completed with this info and this way my 5 year old can identify the shows she wants by the "movie poster"?

If/If not, is there a better device (UPnP or DLNA) with this feature that is Cinavia free and will stream video files in the following formats:

.m2ts = h264 + AC3-5.1 and 2.0 (Blu-Ray Rips)
.mp4 = h264 + AAC-5.1 and 2.0 (Downloaded Digital Media)
.vob = mpeg 2 + AC3 (uncompressed DVD rips)
.avi = Xvid + AC3-5.1 and 2.0 (Old DVD rips and DL'd media)

All of these are natively compatible with the PS3, so there's got to be something out there that does this.

This Pivos AIOS HD Media Center also seems attractive since I have a spare 500GB HDD sitting around that I could insert, but it doesn't appear to work with Mezzmo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815645001

I wouldn't mind the convenience of using a DLNA enabled BR Player (just in case I wanna throw a disc in) if I knew that Cinavia wouldn't be an issue and that operation would be as smooth as my PS3, i.e. easy interface, REAL FF/Rew and album/folder art support. Unfortunately, the Oppo's out of my price range of $100-$150 bucks or less.

Any ideas would be awesome. No HTPC or AppleTV, please. Thanks.

 

[LokutusofBorg]

I am pretty happy with my WDTV Live SMP. I have yet to tackle the media info/art that I think you're mainly asking about, though. But the WDTV plays just about anything you throw at it, no network streamer needed. If we want to watch a disc that I haven't ripped yet, we just use the PS3.

 

[smitbret]

I am pretty happy with my WDTV Live SMP. I have yet to tackle the media info/art that I think you're mainly asking about, though. But the WDTV plays just about anything you throw at it, no network streamer needed. If we want to watch a disc that I haven't ripped yet, we just use the PS3.

Yeah, I keep leaning towards the WD Live Hub. How does WD Live handle media that is stored on its local HDD? With the PS3, you select the Video crossbar and there's an icon for the DLNA streamer so that I can access videos across the network and the locally stored files are lined up down the crossbar after that.

How wife, kid and Harmony Remote control friendly is the WD Live?

 

[LokutusofBorg]

The remote is fully IR so you can easily manually program your Harmony. I think Logitech has the WD Hub in their database too. The Hub and the SMP are virtually identical (people say the same Harmony code works for both). Consult the master thread on AVS Forum for all the details.

I have just added a couple folders to my Media Library, and my wife has no problem finding stuff she wants to watch. My kid is only 4 years old so we haven't turned him loose to watch by himself, so I can't comment on how easily a child can navigate. But it's as straight-forward a menu system as I've seen, so I'm sure it's in the same league as other media players that have a reputation for ease-of-use.

 

[rdb4133]

You can try the new beta version of Plex it has DLNA capabilities built-in. But if you want to really get the full capabilities of Plex I would go for a device that is Plex compatible like many of the somewhat newer Samsung Blu-Ray players. I have 3 BD-D5300 and they work great with Plex.