Best/easiest Media centre solution

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Bizkit87

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hey

i want to get an easy-to-use media centre for my parents, since it will be WAYYYY to complicated to explain streaming from PC to them. what would you guys recommend? :confused:
 
Have a look at the Mede8er: http://www.mede8er.co.za/

So far very, very impressive -- can run as standalone, just bang in some type of SATA drive, or stream from LAN / Web / etc, etc.

Forgot to add: Does a pretty good job with Samba / NFS as well, so you don't have to explain streaming to them, you can just automagically make their pictures appear on their TV ;-p
 
Last edited:
Mede8er +1...works great for me...you can update their movies, etc. every now and again....
 
Yea; pretty straightforward; though probably best to check a few screenies and decide then.

Most media systems are still pretty much just a html page running in the background - this is not very different; so click up and down until you find what you want, and click play ...
 
Mede8ter or AC ryan.... they both pretty much the same thing. So get whatever one is available.

Really easy to use, very little space taken up and they work very well. Also not much that can go wrong compared to a PC
 
Bizkit87 said:
hey

i want to get an easy-to-use media centre for my parents, since it will be WAYYYY to complicated to explain streaming from PC to them. what would you guys recommend? :confused:
Click to expand...

The only media-centre that is really simple is the AppleTV. All other media centres require people knowing about file formats, bittorrent, mkv, and other techo geek stuff.
AppleTV is simple and easy to use (Hell, the remote only has 4 buttons! Since I got one, I hate other remotes :-) )
 
JStrike said:
The only media-centre that is really simple is the AppleTV. All other media centres require people knowing about file formats, bittorrent, mkv, and other techo geek stuff.
AppleTV is simple and easy to use (Hell, the remote only has 4 buttons! Since I got one, I hate other remotes :-) )
Click to expand...
Rubbish....
 
JStrike said:
What is rubbish about what I posted? That Mede8ter thing lists Samba, divx, and other techno geek stuff on their homepage. It even has a file manager!!!! What on earth does a media-centre need a file manager for!
This on the other hand, is user-friendly and not some geek-fest http://www.apple.com/appletv/
Click to expand...

Wow. Those are added features, not requirements. I'm sure you could train even the dumbest Apple Fanboy how to use one of these.
 
Mede8er gets my vote too. It's simple to use and does every format I've thrown at it.

The AppleTV looks shiny. Oooh .... for the same money you'll get a lot more from a Mede8er.
Apple TV review : http://bindapple.com/apple-tv-reviews/ "Apple TV can’t stream the most common video formats like MPEG, WMV, AVI, Xvid and DivX" seems like a piece of rubbish to me.
 
VonPickle said:
Wow. Those are added features, not requirements. I'm sure you could train even the dumbest Apple Fanboy how to use one of these.
Click to expand...

If you have to "train" someone to use it, then it isn't very userfriendly. And then you have to "train" them how to download movies and tv shows
 
masticore said:
Mede8er gets my vote too. It's simple to use and does every format I've thrown at it.

The AppleTV looks shiny. Oooh .... for the same money you'll get a lot more from a Mede8er.
Apple TV review : http://bindapple.com/apple-tv-reviews/ "Apple TV can’t stream the most common video formats like MPEG, WMV, AVI, Xvid and DivX" seems like a piece of rubbish to me.
Click to expand...

Huh? Who cares about media formats. You choose the movie/tv show you want and press rent. And it starts playing a couple of seconds later.
File formats are for geeks and have no place in the living room
 
Oh, so you've had to hack an Apple account so you can login to the US or UK store?

How is that any LESS geeky then?
 
JStrike said:
Huh? Who cares about media formats. You choose the movie/tv show you want and press rent. And it starts playing a couple of seconds later.
File formats are for geeks and have no place in the living room
Click to expand...
Firstly you can only stream what apple have... you might not even want what they have.

Secondly read carefully what the OP wants... a device that he can get for his parents so that they can see the stuff that HE has... there is no way that the apple TV can do that.
 
JStrike said:
Huh? Who cares about media formats. You choose the movie/tv show you want and press rent. And it starts playing a couple of seconds later.
File formats are for geeks and have no place in the living room
Click to expand...

Hahaha thats like telling and offroad enthusiast that a Yaris is all he needs.
 
Okay maybe train was a strong work to use. I'll rephrase it like this: I'm sure you could give a remote with more than 4 buttons on it to even the dumbest Apple Fanboy and they would be able to figure it out :)
 
ToxicBunny said:
Oh, so you've had to hack an Apple account so you can login to the US or UK store?

How is that any LESS geeky then?
Click to expand...

I have overseas bank accounts. However, setting up a US iTunes account for you parents is hardly going to require geekyness from them
 
VonPickle said:
Okay maybe train was a strong work to use. I'll rephrase it like this: I'm sure you could give a remote with more than 4 buttons on it to even the dumbest Apple Fanboy and they would be able to figure it out :)
Click to expand...

I'm not saying that a person cant use badly designed products. I'm saying they shouldn't
 
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