Media Center/Player beginner question

[romero.secada]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking into the possibility of buying something like the Western Digital WD TV Live or the Pivos AIOS HD.

I don't use and I'm not interested in any internet streaming service (Netflix or any other).

Right now, I have a Blu Ray player and whenever I want to watch a movie I buy the Blu-Ray disc, put it in the player and I watch it, simple as that.
How does it work with a Media Center/Player?
I mean, I have seen several forum discussions of a Media Center/Player being more practical and useful than a Blu-Ray player but I don't know how.

Sorry for such a basic question.

[aedipuss]

a media center/player is only useful for playing your own videos if you are not going to stream from the net. the videos are usually stored on a hard drive and connected through a network or a usb port.

you might check your bluray player, as some of them can be used as media players through the same connections.

[yoda313]

I mean, I have seen several forum discussions of a Media Center/Player being more practical and useful than a Blu-Ray player but I don't know how.

What it lets you do is play anything from mp3 files to jpg photos to h264 or divx videos. And they are off of a harddrive or flash drive.

is only useful for playing your own videos if you are not going to stream from the net

Well you can stream from them your own personal nas (network attached storage) with dlna or upnp of course which you sort of hint at later on but that is what network streaming is. Though dlna and upnp aren't perfect and have their own quirks. That makes local playback via a harddrive much more desirable in my mind - plus the hassles of video seeking that can creep in when streaming your video - ie you can't always fast forward or fast reverse your videos either smoothly or at all sometimes, just the way it is. But usually a locally stored "physical" file is easily fast forwardable ( just made up a word ).


[quote="aedipuss"[you might check your bluray player, as some of them can be used as media players through the same connections.[/quote]

Yep if you have lan connection and your bluray player is upnp or dlna certified you should be able to start sharing pretty quickly with your pc.

If you want wireless and you are lan only you can get the netgear universal wifi adapter that will turn a lanned unit into wifi. I have one and can stream hd wirelessly very nicely (vudu hd in hdx 1080p a-ok with a good solid cable internet connnection, router is in the other room, wifi n by the way on both the router and the netgear unit).

Hope this gets you started.

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But you need to invest some time like ripping your movies and the like. And investing in harddrive space or a wifi network.

And if you don't do things like youtube or vudu you might not really have a need for a media center.

It might be more trouble than its worth for you, to be honest. If you just watch a movie or tv show on dvd/bluray every now and then and don't mind getting up to switch discs you don't really need a media center.

The advantage of a media center is centralizing your videos and music and photos. Its a virtual one stop shop where you can just go browse with a remote and select the movie you want and it starts without having to get up and switch discs.

But if you don't see yourself becoming that lazy and don't want to invest all the time and money into a digital media network you don't really need to.

Just some fyi there for you.

Edit - oh and if you try using a bluray player that plays digital files instead of a more sophistacated media player like a wdtv you will have restrictions you will run into. It won't play everything and can be very picky about what type of audio and video it will and won;t play. ANd you'll need to put them in certain containers unlike a more advanced media player that is more open and less restrictive.

[redwudz]

I'm not sure what you mean by 'media center'. Personally, I define a media center as a hardware device that has a remote control. WDTV would be one, but Windows Media Center would also be in there if you have a card installed for it.

My system just uses a PC for playback. I don't use a standalone BD or DVD player. I use VSO Media Player for Blu-rays from a BD-ROM drive. And usually Zoom Player or VLC player for DVDs and everything else. I don't use Windows Media Center because I find it too restrictive for playback. My videos are stored on a server in another room and I access them over my LAN.

This allows me quick access to any of the files. I also have a WDTV live, but I don't use it that often. My playback PC does have a wireless keyboard and mouse, so easy to access my network from an easy chair. I can direct playback to a LCD monitor or a video projector. All audio, PC and WDTV, is directed to my surround sound amp.

I convert most all my video files to MKV/h.264/AC3 format. It does take a fair amount of computer power for timely conversion, but the files are compact and still very good quality. I use RipBot264 for BD conversion and VidCoder for DVDs.