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Thread: Advice on house wide media

  1. #1

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    Question Advice on house wide media

    Hi,

    I looking for advice on how to set up a house wide media system. I will be buying a box to record freeview (VU, Mutant or something). I plan to have a media room with giant TV and a more general room with a more normal sized TV, plus TVs in bedrooms and kitchen. House will have wired network in CAT6. I want to share the freeview recordings around all the TVs so each TV can pick a recording it wants to watch. Can I do that over the network? And what kit would I need at each TV? Are the files save by my freebox readable by vlc or something so I just need a roku or PI or something to run? What's the most user friendly way to do this? Where should the box be sited? I'm guessing in the media room so direct HDMI to giant TV but what resolution can I then stream recordings to other TVs? Any guides I can read?

    Thanks

  2. #2
    abu baniaz's Avatar
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    I hope you run at least two ethernet cables to each room as well as co-axial. You will run out on just one.

    There is an app on Kodi that allows you to watch recordings on E2 receivers. I think one of the maintainers uses the forum so hopefully he can post more details.

    Having said that, most modern TVs will allow you to play from a shared media. You can definitely share the HDD. I think you will have to enable Samba

  3. #3
    FredC
    Short answer yes, you can.

    Long answer
    There are a lot of ways to do it, but a good box (STB), with a powerful processor is a must. Make sure you have at least 2 dvb-t2 tuners, 3 or 4 if you can. Consider freesat as well. Most STBs come with DVB-S2, so setting up a small dish will give you more choice, and sometimes a better picture.

    Don't skimp on the hard disc. Go for an internal drive inside the STB. Of course USB drives do work, but fail at the most inconvient times (cables are often the problem).

    Set the STB up with a static IP address (either with a DHCP reservation, or change your DHCP settings to a smaller subnet e.g. 192.168.1.128-192.168.1.254, set you box to an address outside DHCP range)

    You'll need a hard wired gigabit network just like you are planning, but use a decent gigabit switch (Netgear or D-Link are fine). Don't depend on your ISP's router, instead hang the router off a port on the switch. How ever many ports you think you need, double it. So if you've got a STB 2 clients and a router (4 ports) get an 8 port switch. If your count goes to 5 or 6 devices, go for a 12 or 16 port switch. As Abu said, at least 2 network cables to each room. They don't need to be connected, but you'll always find a need for them in the future.

    Abu was correct in saying that modern TVs allow you to pick up files on shares, but they are usually DNLA shares. Also each TV manufacturer implements DLNA differently, and some have limits to how many files they'll show. It's an OK solution, but the media players are usually pants to operate.

    If you go for smaller client STBs on the other TVs, stick to the same make as you main STB.

    If you don't have a specific need for STBs at the smaller TVs, Kodi on a Raspberry Pi 3 is a good, cheap choice (about £55 for a Pi, case, PSU and uSD card). The Pi 4 can get a bit hot without a heatsink, but it is being worked on. It is however very fast.
    Look at installing OSMC or LibreElec on the Pi rather than vanilla Kodi. They are good fast boots, and you don't need to mess with the pi settings.
    You'll need to download the relevant PVR client from within Kodi, and configure it to point at the STB.
    Once the PVR client is enabled, Kodi will add a new section called TV, and all your channels, EPG and recordings from the STB will show up on it.

    Enable HDMI CEC (on the TVs) and the TV remotes will controll the STBs / Kodi directly.

    You may want to look at a NAS if you build up a big library of recordings, or already have a collection of media, (don't forget music and photos).


    Its a lot of stuff to go at, and you'll need to understand each bit to get it all working without hastle. But thats what forums are for. The very fact the you know to install CAT-6 is a good sign.
    Last edited by FredC; 12-12-19 at 01:08.

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  5. #4
    FredC
    Forgot to answer all your questions....

    You can stream at the same res as you recorded, by default, or you can set up on-the-fly transcoding. But best to stick with the recorded resoulution. Across a gigabit LAN you have more than enough capacity for several clients to watch at the same time (this is also why you need to spec a reasonable HDD and STB).

    If you use the suggestions I made in my first post you can quite happily access the STB using PVR clients (which will also share any EPG data stored at the time of recording). If you want PC access you may like to enable SMB sharing as well (also it can improve the playback experience in Kodi).

    Files will be recorded as .ts files and these carry all the audio and subtitles of the original stream. Very easy to play on VLC or nearly every media centre/player.
    You can sideload Kodi onto Firesticks (and I think Roku) but be wary, as most 3rd party sticks are WiFi only, which means traffic going via your router.

    As you suspected the STB needs to be near to the TV to keep the HDMI cables short, and because thats probably where your nearest power sockets are.

    Your CAT-6 cables all need to run to the gigabit switch, but this is best placed where you use the least cable for your outlets. Don't forget you need a cable from your router to the switch.

    As for guides have a look for the OpenVix wiki, Kodi Wiki (also includes a good section on Enigma 2), and the OSMC/LibrElec wikis (not the wikipedia pages, but there are dedicated wikis for them). Also have a look for guides/reviews to the STB you plan to choose.

    If needed also read up on Static / DHCP addressing, SMB, DLNA and SATA HDDs.

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  7. #5

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    Hi, thanks all for the replies. Thanks FredC for a very comprehensive reply and the pointers. Yep I know to configure networks. My first home network was over coax with bnc connectors :-). Thanks for reminding me to run more cables that I currently need too.

    Raspberry PI 3 or 4 sounds good. I see from here that you can now run netflix/prime/plex on kodi so with an enigma 2 plugin that covers all my bases. But interesting to know I can sideload kodi onto firestick or roku. That's another option which might be cheaper than a PI.

    I'm self-building a house so blank canvas at the moment. Hence I can put in CAT6 to all rooms back to central (-ish) router. I'm using a PI for the home automation so I'm familiar with that. Too cold for building work at the moment so I'm planning the wiring :-).

    UPDATE:

    BTW does this work for Freeview HD channels or just SD? HD is encrypted isn't it? I presume a enigma plugin or web client can play the HD recordings but perhaps not VLC grabbing the recording file directly.
    Last edited by malc_b; 13-12-19 at 18:49.

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    ccs's Avatar
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    Freeview HD isn't encrypted.

  9. #7

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    Thanks. My current PVR is just SD so I'm familiar with SD files and playing them with VLC. I though I read that HD was encrypted when it was saved to disk to comply with freeview rules? That would rule out playing the files direct with VLC.

  10. #8
    twol's Avatar
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    Not in E2 images
    Gigablue Quad 4K & UE 4K
    .........FBC Tuners:
    ------------------> DUR-Line DCR 5-1-8-L4 Multiswitch to 1.5M dish(28.2E)
    ------------------> Spaun SUS 5581/33 NFA Multiswitch to 80 cm dish(19.2E)
    .......................> FBC & DVB-S2X into 90cm dish (27.5W) Opticum robust Unicable LNB
    AX HD61, Edision Osmio 4K+, Zgemma H9Combo, Octagon SF8008 , gbtrio4k, h9se using Legacy ports on multiswitches
    Zgemma H9 C/S into Giga4K

  11. #9
    FredC
    Yes, all recordings fully accessible. Everything on freeview is in the clear. Some channels play tricks with by messing with the IDs to hide the picture & sound, plus some are just placeholders for streaming services (those with channel nos between 250 and 299 and the adult PPN channels).

    VLC will play pretty much anything anyway, as will kodi.

    If you can though, consider freesat. More channel choice, often in better quality, and you can get boxes with FBC tuners which give you access to more tuners, without more wires. At present there are no FBC tuners for DVB-T/T2 (freeview). Just for clarity Freeview = DVB-T/T2 broadcast over TV aerial, Freesat = DVB-S/S2 broadcast over a satellite dish.

  12. #10

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    Thanks for the info. I only tend to watch the main channels on freeview anyway. Any other programmes are prime/neflix/nowTV depending on what sub I have at the time. Or even DVD :-). Interesting point about quality. Do you mean higher bitrate over freesat compared to freeview? Is that true for the main channels (BBC1/2, ITV1, C4, C5) or just the minor channels? I guess I should run at least 2 aerial feeds. They will be in CT100 anyway so would do freesat or freeview. Or maybe that should be 3 (or 4), 1 for freeview, 2 for dual LNB.

    House faces due south at the rear, with gables to the east and the west. Not sure I fancy a dish on the rear face of the house although I suppose I could paint it to match the house which is painted too. Perhaps on the west gable peaking over the roof would work. It would blend into the roof then I think. Roof overhang isn't much at the gable. On east gable I wouldn't clear the neighbours trees. This just for astra of course.

  13. #11
    Joe_90's Avatar
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    @FredC - just to clarify. Freesat/Freeview branded recorders will encrypt their recordings to comply with their contractual arrangements, so they should only be played back on the original box. The actual broadcast streams are in the clear. The 7-day EPG data is compressed with a proprietary Huffman table, the details of which escaped into the public domain years ago. As a result, open-source E2 boxes can handle the full 7-day EPG. They will also store recorded programmes without encryption.
    GB Quad Plus, Mut@nt HD51, AX HD61, 80cm dish and Supreme Dark motor. Sony STR-DN 1060, Sony UHP-H1 Bluray, Odroid N2+ (CoreElec), Monitor Audio Bronze 5.1 speakers

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  15. #12

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    miniDLNA is bundled with Vix and would make your set top box a DLNA server.
    Pretty much any TV connected on the same network will be able to play the recorded content.

    You can try it out using a DLNA app on your phone like BubbleUPNP which will make your phone a DLNA server.
    Just make sure it is connected to the same network as your TV.

  16. #13
    FredC
    @malc_b - Not sure why, but channels seem to be clearer on freesat vs freeview. Maybe compression, bitrate, or may be a characteristic of the DVB-T vs DVB-S/S2. HD channels also seem to look better. This is as viewed on a Vu+ solo4k with 2FBC DVB-S2 built in and a dual DVB-T/T2 card option.

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