Author Topic: Help me find a Hi10p streaming media player and make some cash (Read 10113 times)

Menorah Jams, Pham · « **on:** October 17, 2012, 07:04:23 PM »

Okay, I'm basically at the end of my rope here. As fansubbers move to hi10p (don't tell me about Crunchyroll - I'll elaborate in a sec) I'm stuck with few if any alternatives to watch anime in my living room.

Here's the deal: in our nerd room we have the home desktop server PC thing with a NAS box attached. The NAS stores all anime and other media. It's visible over our network; on our PCs it's mapped as a network drive and it's visible over its own IP address.

In our living room we have a wireless network bridge - a router running DD-WRT - that works just fine and dandy. It and our main wireless router are both wireless-N, operating on the 2.4ghz band. We have a WDTV Live Plus hooked up to the TV in the living room which we use for Netflix and streaming media off the NAS box.

The problem is that with so many releases coming out in 10-bit/hi10p, I'm forced to resort to whichever sub group (usually Horriblesubs and now I'm told Deadfish) still does 8-bit releases. I'd rather have more accurate translations/less translation liberties taken (this is just by my preference and opinion, no arguements over translation accuracy/literacy please) and the WDTV box doesn't support app installs, so we can't use any kind of streaming app that Crunchyroll, Funimation, etc. uses.

So what I'm looking for is a budget-friendly option - as in under no circumstances will I spend more than $150 - that will play Netflix in HD and hi10p MKVs. As far as I know now, there is no such device possible.

I don't care about OS. I tried with a small form factor Atom PC, which played the anime fine but didn't do Netflix HD content - which is an issue with the Atom CPU and Silverlight, and as such I don't have a PC in there.

The criteria I'm looking for are:

-Absolute maximum budget of $150
-Quiet - silent if possible, but shouldn't be audible in a quiet room from 10 feet away
-Standard remote control (an Android app is all nice but triangles doesn't have a smartphone to use it)
-Only output needed is HDMI
-Either a gigabit Ethernet jack or 802.11n built in is fine

If you can point me at a product that fits all those, and it works, I will pay you $10 via Paypal for your time and for finally solving this problem for me.

I'm not paying more than $150 so don't tell me to buy a computer. The quiet thing is also important, and to be honest, I'd rather just have something with a standard remote, not another computer which can just have a million issues. I do IT for a living and want to not have to work when I come home and relax.

So can you guys help me out? 4chan of course is not helpful at all, their solution is to get a computer. I want to watch in the living room because it's where we hang out and have a decent sound system already.

Anyone wanna step up and make a buck or two?

Edible · « **Reply #1 on:** October 17, 2012, 07:20:37 PM »

I don't want your STEENKING MONEY, but have you considered a PS3? As far as I can tell it fits all of your criteria outside of the price (and you may be able to find a used one for 150). PS3 Media Server, a great Windows application, acts as a streaming solution and is configurable to support 10-bit streaming. It also has apps for all major streaming services.

If you're looking for an internalized solution to store and play fansubs and support netflix, I can already tell you you're out of luck unless you go the PC route. My roommates and I have attempted similar searches in the past and we keep coming back to the PS3.

Menorah Jams, Pham · « **Reply #2 on:** October 17, 2012, 07:40:37 PM »

Just as a player? I really don't want to have to do much other than plug in a device and play videos to the living room TV.

Edible · « **Reply #3 on:** October 17, 2012, 07:46:05 PM »

Yeah, once it's set up properly the effort required on your part is make sure PS3 Media Server is running on the host PC and pulling up the file on the PS3.

The PS3 is vastly underrated as a media center. We run everything in our living room through it.

Bardiche · « **Reply #4 on:** October 17, 2012, 08:19:11 PM »

Quote from: Edible on October 17, 2012, 07:20:37 PM

I don't want your STEENKING MONEY, but have you considered a PS3? As far as I can tell it fits all of your criteria outside of the price (and you may be able to find a used one for 150).

Ebay usually delivers, but you'd have to accept a used one. Personally wouldn't recommend that, since you never know what junk you might get. But you know, if it helps OP...

I do second the PS3 recommendation though. Works wonders for us.

Edible · « **Reply #5 on:** October 17, 2012, 08:29:27 PM »

Probably safer to Craigslist one where he lives. Able to test it on-site too.

IT ALSO PLAYS GAMES!

Menorah Jams, Pham · « **Reply #6 on:** October 17, 2012, 09:54:51 PM »

Quote from: Edible on October 17, 2012, 08:29:27 PM

Probably safer to Craigslist one where he lives. Able to test it on-site too.

IT ALSO PLAYS GAMES!

But PS3 has no games :V

What if there's multiple text overlays/fonts and stuff? Our WDTV does weird flickering of text for signs, TL notes, etc. with the normal sub track. Will it preserve what the media server app sends forth?

Edible · « **Reply #7 on:** October 17, 2012, 10:09:38 PM »

PS3 Media Server used to have some issues with MKV subtitles as I recall, but later versions have fixed them.

If you want me to test a recent release for you I'd be glad to. Something 10bit with funky subtitles early in the episode would be fine. Does Chuu2 have something like that?

helvetica · « **Reply #8 on:** October 22, 2012, 03:12:30 AM »

Just build an HTPC. It's not worth the effort trying to fight different media servers and transcoders and stuff to make a setup for a dedicated box only to find out fandumbers have chosen yet a new format that is completely incompatible with everything.

For the amount of money you're gonna spend on streaming gear (and mind you if you go the PS3 Media Server route this means you have to leave a machine on 24/7 or at least whenever you stream), you can build a silent HTPC, install XBMC on it, and play everything now and in the future.

I gave up trying to fight to get some obscure encode working on all my stuff and just bit the bullet and took an old Core 2 Duo 7200 I had laying around and stuck it in a cube case with an HD6670 and slapped Win7 and and XBMC on it. It plays everything and anything I can throw at. And I do absolutely nothing to maintain it. I have it setup to automatically login and start XBMC and I just grab my phone or tablet or anything with a browser and control it. I haven't had to do anything on it except recently to add drivers for my new HDHomeRun.

Seriously, for $150 trying to go the set top box route is just going to be frustrating as hell. Any and all processors that aren't Atoms or the Zacate E-350 are more than capable of SOFTWARE decoding anything you can throw at it. The only reason I stuck a dedicated card in my box is so I could get audio over HDMI (the old G965 board I had only supported DVI not HDMI) and play games if I cared. With modern processors like Ivy Bridge or the new Trinity processors, that's all built in to the CPU now, so literally all you have to do is buy a board, a processor, ram, and you can use something like OpenELEC off a thumbdrive if you want or just stick Win7 on an old hard drive like I did (I needed bluray playback).

An i3-3550 box or one of the new Trinity A8/A10 boxes should be about 150-200 for motherboard/processor/ram. Case can be scrounged up pretty cheaply, and you just need a thumbdrive or an old hard drive depending on the route you want to take. It may cost a bit more at first but in the long run it will pay off.