Best Streaming Media Centre

[TomD]

The DNLA capabilities on my devices are limited and I cannot get my VU Duo to stream to either of my blu-ray players (both DNLA compliant). As a result I am thinking about buying a media centre (Boxee Box or similiar) and would like to ask the other members which media centre works best with what plug-in to stream from the Duo?

Any advice would be great.

[pacha2]

From my experience DLNA provides a network standard on the server side and delivery method and also the player.
It uses uPnP so it can automatically find the available servers. This part seems to work pretty well.

Where the problems start is on the content, especially with video as there are many containers (.avi, .mpg, .ts, .mkv) and then even more codecs (xvid, h264) or compression methods.
So while your Blu-Ray player support the DLNA protocol for streaming, it does not support the mpeg stream and/or the .ts container for this stream.

I am sucessfully streaming to a Popcorn Hour A110 in HD and SD both the live video stream and recorded content.
I believe many other devices will play the .ts mpeg steam but only some are available to stream the live feed.

[Alec]

I find my system suitable for my needs: Med8 media player ; my Sat with HD; VD recorder ; DVD player are all connected to a AV amp. I can play most formats downloaded from the net on the media center, and I can stream downloads from laptop on to media player to the TV.

[davidream]

i have DM800 hd pvr. from where can i get the best image file??

[Raitsa]

I am very happy owner of an Xtreamer Sidewinder 3.

It plays anything and everything. Enigma2 recordings and subtitles 100% ok etc.

http://eu.xtreamer.net/products/Xtreamer-SideWinder3.html

[TomD]

I am very happy owner of an Xtreamer Sidewinder 3.

It plays anything and everything. Enigma2 recordings and subtitles 100% ok etc.

http://eu.xtreamer.net/products/Xtreamer-SideWinder3.html

Thanks for this one I did check it out but understand that the XBMC is not compatible with the VU Duo? The popcorn hour looks good if a bit pricey. I am also tempted to go for the Vulkano Lava which I've heard is pretty good.

[im85288]

I have a Mac Mini, this combined with PLEX makes a very powerful media centre. The latest XBMC Eden edition has support for PVRs including a Vu+ plugin, personally I find it is not quite there yet..but it is improving all the time.

[river-rat]

right this is what i have at home for streaming::thumbsup:

nero mediahome on laptop as well as ps3 media server software

with this i can stream to my ps3, Panasonic tv and my LG cinema sound

the cinema sound is great, £150 or so and has 2, yes 2 optical in`s i use one for sat box and one for ps3