Wireless media players - which to get?

[gtrboy01]

I want to play music, videos, etc from my computer on my television over the wireless network. Can you suggest a good wireless media player and how reliable and hard to use are they?

 

[L00ker]

I looked into these for a while and it really depends on how much you want to spend... I personally think you would be best off buying a tivo and connecting it to your network then you can share video audio and everything plus record tv and later download it over the network to your HD, they are in the 200-300 ballpark IIRC... other than that it seems that the offerings right now are of relatively low quality and only do 1 or the other all that well and will end up requireing the use of an agent on a machine to share the files anyways...

 

[mleonard]

Apple just announced one of these devices a few days ago that really looks nice. http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/09/12/itv/index.php 1/3 the size of a MacMini, wireless or wired LAN, HDMI, component video, analog audio, optical audio, USB. Sounds like its made to extend the iTunes market into TV & Film distribution, by syncing to iTunes. Software looks onboard, so maybe server OS and file system will be compatibale. Available begining of '07.

 

[gtrboy01]

Originally posted by: L00ker
I looked into these for a while and it really depends on how much you want to spend... I personally think you would be best off buying a tivo and connecting it to your network then you can share video audio and everything plus record tv and later download it over the network to your HD, they are in the 200-300 ballpark IIRC... other than that it seems that the offerings right now are of relatively low quality and only do 1 or the other all that well and will end up requireing the use of an agent on a machine to share the files anyways...

I'm not up on the whole tivo thing - how hard is it to setup/use and is there a monthly fee? Also is it connected with your tv service in some way because I don't live in the USA and I need to know if my service supports it.

Right now I'm running a server so that can be used as the base system - can you suggest some good models of wireless players?

 

[gtrboy01]

Originally posted by: mleonard
Apple just announced one of these devices a few days ago that really looks nice. http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/09/12/itv/index.php 1/3 the size of a MacMini, wireless or wired LAN, HDMI, component video, analog audio, optical audio, USB. Sounds like its made to extend the iTunes market into TV & Film distribution, by syncing to iTunes. Software looks onboard, so maybe server OS and file system will be compatibale. Available begining of '07.

Does this have to be used with apple systems? Right now I'm running a pc network but am planning on going all mac later this year.

Also does it have to use itunes because I've had a lot of issues with itunes and with the headaches of setting up a basic wireless media setup I'd hate to have to deal w/ itunes issues as well...

 

[L00ker]

Originally posted by: gtrboy01
I'm not up on the whole tivo thing - how hard is it to setup/use and is there a monthly fee? Also is it connected with your tv service in some way because I don't live in the USA and I need to know if my service supports it.

Right now I'm running a server so that can be used as the base system - can you suggest some good models of wireless players?

Tivo to setup/use is easy, you basically tell it which cable network (or satellite) you are apart of and it downloads your channel listings for 2 weeks ahead of the current time. It will have you do a few test to make sure it has all your channels setup correctly and a few other tests to make sure you have connected it up right but it's no more complicated then a VCR really, thats the TV half of it.

The Fee's are relatively cheap and once you start using it most find it is well worth it, here in north america it is ~$13 a month which isn't much really. Generally here you can have it setup to dial in using your phone line but once you have a NIC (Wether wireless or wired) and DHCP setup so it will grab an address, or if you choose, I have mine statically assigned as the last device in the LAN. Then it will use the internet to grab your listings from the mothership.

http://customersupport.tivo.com/knowbase/root/public/tv2054.htm?

It would appear to me that you could set it up over a broadband connection initially however, I wasn't sure... It doesn't depend on your TV service as it's not a cable box or anything it's basically a linux box that is working as a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) but you can also install 'TivoToGo' on a computer and share folders out to it a-la MP3's Pictures and I am wondering if maybe downloaded movies will be in the near future...