Options for good Player for TV?
Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2015 12:03 amShort version:
1. I have Serviio Pro on a server in the basement
2. I can use my Xbox 360 as a Player, but media support isn't great
3. I can use my Vizio TV as a Player, but it lacks ff/rew and is buggy
4. What's can I do for a Player that doesn't suck?
Long version:
With Serviio running on a server in my basement, I can and do view video anywhere in my house on multiple devices. I use MediaHouse Pro on my Android and MediaBrowser or VLC on my laptop. These all support random access and/or fast forward/rewind.
On my TV, however, I'm having trouble finding a client that doesn't suck.
The Xbox 360 can play video with the "Video Player" builtin app. It will ff/rew and allow me to skip forward in sections, but its support for different media types isn't as great - it will refuse to play things, and it's not like I can upgrade the codecs on or anything.
I just bought a Vizio e600i-b3 which has Smart TV apps including a DLNA player ("multimedia"). It supports more media types than the Xbox, but it's ff/rew doesn't work - it simply says "Feature not available" when I try. And pausing is problematic at best (after pausing, when you resume it, it will go for several seconds, then pause itself again for a number of seconds before resuming, like it's got to rebuffer) and catastrophic at worst (crashes on resume).
An example - I was watching a movie this morning, got maybe 1/4 of the way through it, when I paused to go to the kitchen. When I came back and resumed, it crashed (the multimedia app exited abruptly). And my only option was to restart and watch the first 1/4 of the movie again, because I can't fast forward.
I have a spare PC with an HDMI video output, so I downloaded KodiBuntu and booted into that. That seems nice, very snazzy interface, a good TV UI - but it doesn't appear to support playing video from a DLNA server like Serviio. (Yes, it can act as a media server itself, but I'm trying to leverage the server in the rack downstairs, not start piling disks under the TV table).
What options do I have? I've got a PC I can put software on; I can just throw Ubuntu on there to run MediaBrowser, although for some reason that feels like I'm limiting myself. Do I need to look into specialized boxes to do this right, and if so, how do I figure which ones are going to do what I need and not be yet another set of compromises and limitations?
Any help appreciated - specific suggestions, pointers to articles, background reading, etc. etc.
1. I have Serviio Pro on a server in the basement
2. I can use my Xbox 360 as a Player, but media support isn't great
3. I can use my Vizio TV as a Player, but it lacks ff/rew and is buggy
4. What's can I do for a Player that doesn't suck?
Long version:
With Serviio running on a server in my basement, I can and do view video anywhere in my house on multiple devices. I use MediaHouse Pro on my Android and MediaBrowser or VLC on my laptop. These all support random access and/or fast forward/rewind.
On my TV, however, I'm having trouble finding a client that doesn't suck.
The Xbox 360 can play video with the "Video Player" builtin app. It will ff/rew and allow me to skip forward in sections, but its support for different media types isn't as great - it will refuse to play things, and it's not like I can upgrade the codecs on or anything.
I just bought a Vizio e600i-b3 which has Smart TV apps including a DLNA player ("multimedia"). It supports more media types than the Xbox, but it's ff/rew doesn't work - it simply says "Feature not available" when I try. And pausing is problematic at best (after pausing, when you resume it, it will go for several seconds, then pause itself again for a number of seconds before resuming, like it's got to rebuffer) and catastrophic at worst (crashes on resume).
An example - I was watching a movie this morning, got maybe 1/4 of the way through it, when I paused to go to the kitchen. When I came back and resumed, it crashed (the multimedia app exited abruptly). And my only option was to restart and watch the first 1/4 of the movie again, because I can't fast forward.
I have a spare PC with an HDMI video output, so I downloaded KodiBuntu and booted into that. That seems nice, very snazzy interface, a good TV UI - but it doesn't appear to support playing video from a DLNA server like Serviio. (Yes, it can act as a media server itself, but I'm trying to leverage the server in the rack downstairs, not start piling disks under the TV table).
What options do I have? I've got a PC I can put software on; I can just throw Ubuntu on there to run MediaBrowser, although for some reason that feels like I'm limiting myself. Do I need to look into specialized boxes to do this right, and if so, how do I figure which ones are going to do what I need and not be yet another set of compromises and limitations?
Any help appreciated - specific suggestions, pointers to articles, background reading, etc. etc.
That's not to say a new box may be just fine. However, use caution when looking at Sony devices, as I've heard that not everything they now sell supports DLNA.