Centralized home entertainment system

grantza said:
tv's are all sony bravias

but i am about to replace them all (need to find a dealer i can haggle with, have to get a few) - samsung smart tv's better ?
Click to expand...

If you're going to replace them then I would definitely go Samsung.

Are the Sony's "smart" TV's?
 
ok - here is where i am as dumb as the sony bravia

what is the difference between the smart & "non smart" samsung tv's - besides the price ?
looking at a dion brochure from last week's sunday times, the smart 46" (46h7000) is R18k, the "non smart" 48" (48h5100) is R9k



**edit
i now see there is also a smart 48" (48h6400) at R13k
 
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Smart basically just means internet functionality, so you can run apps on them. In this case, the Plex app could run on the TV and be the interface between your Mac Pro and you.

So you'll run the Plex Media Server on the Mac Pro (which stores all the media). You flip on the TV, open the Plex app and watch whatever you want.
 
grantza said:
ok - here is where i am as dumb as the sony bravia

what is the difference between the smart & "non smart" samsung tv's - besides the price ?
looking at a dion brochure from last week's sunday times, the smart 46" (46h7000) is R18k, the "non smart" 48" (48h5100) is R9k



**edit
i now see there is also a smart 48" (48h6400) at R13k
Click to expand...

Besides the Smart factor the 5100 is a Series 5 price of crap compared to the awesome that is the 7000 7-Series.

Picture quality and panel quality. It's not just about the extras.

The 6-series is a reasonable middle ground.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
That's cool.

What devices do you have in each room? If you have any compatible Samsung smart TV's you could probably get rid of the WD's completely and run Plex directly using the native app.
Click to expand...

whoa whoa whoa ... sorry for hijacking your thread, but i must just get some more info on this. Currently i have a HPMicro Server, as a server, and then i have 3 fully fledged PC's sitting at each TV for running XBMC. Do you mean to tell me that the Samsung Smart TV's, can connect to a plex server, without a PC/Media center plugged into that TV?
 
Imo get a non smart if you can find a model that meets requirements and then get a roku.
 
endlesslyonline said:
whoa whoa whoa ... sorry for hijacking your thread, but i must just get some more info on this. Currently i have a HPMicro Server, as a server, and then i have 3 fully fledged PC's sitting at each TV for running XBMC. Do you mean to tell me that the Samsung Smart TV's, can connect to a plex server, without a PC/Media center plugged into that TV?
Click to expand...

The simple answer is Yes!
 
SL1v3R said:
The simple answer is Yes!
Click to expand...

Awesome, wish i new this before i went out to buy complete PC's for XBMC. But i, must confess, even though i never used Plex, just seen it on screenshots etc, i think XBMC kicks ass, all that customization options :drool:
 
Some of my devices (TV's) aren't smart or even network enabled. I have a central ReadyNAS for all my media content, I wired my house from one end to the other running gigabit with Raspberry Pi's (Got 5 of them) all running XBMC (RaspBMC). I'm happy with that ;)

EDIT: That Roku HDMI stick looks pretty awesome, would be cheaper than Pi's.
 
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Im running a Samsung smart downstairs and its plugged into the network. Next to it is my HP microserver with a few TB's of storage and running PLEX server. My TV connects flawlessly via PLEX and my LG upstairs connects wirelessly via the Roku to the server using plex.

Samsung TV is the most brilliant amazing piece of equipment I ever owned
 
I have a centralized HP microserver + ReadyNas duo in my tv lounge which feeds a 50" Panasonic plasma and my home theatre system. In my main lounge I have mounted on the fireplace wall a 43" Samsung plasma with a Netgear NTV550 placed behind the TV which runs off Zone3 of my amp.

Each room and is wired via Cat6 and connects to a switch in my TV lounge. I have a 2x4 Hdmi matrix the feeds any 4 Hdmi sources to any 2 destinations.
Outside my pool area has a pair of speakers which runs off zone2 of my Yammy amp.

Connected are 3 wifi access points which are hard wired back to the centralized switch so I can use any of my wifi devices anywhere in the house.

All this is controlled by Control4 home automation which is linked to my alarm, lighting XBMC plus more.

All installation, setup, configuration and programming was done by myself.

Oh, one more thing, I canned DSTV about two months ago and it was the best thing I could have done. The HP runs XBMC, SABNZBD, couchpotato and sickbeard
 
getafix33 said:
I have a centralized HP microserver + ReadyNas duo in my tv lounge which feeds a 50" Panasonic plasma and my home theatre system. In my main lounge I have mounted on the fireplace wall a 43" Samsung plasma with a Netgear NTV550 placed behind the TV which runs off Zone3 of my amp.

Each room and is wired via Cat6 and connects to a switch in my TV lounge. I have a 2x4 Hdmi matrix the feeds any 4 Hdmi sources to any 2 destinations.
Outside my pool area has a pair of speakers which runs off zone2 of my Yammy amp.

Connected are 3 wifi access points which are hard wired back to the centralized switch so I can use any of my wifi devices anywhere in the house.

All this is controlled by Control4 home automation which is linked to my alarm, lighting XBMC plus more.

All installation, setup, configuration and programming was done by myself.

Oh, one more thing, I canned DSTV about two months ago and it was the best thing I could have done. The HP runs XBMC, SABNZBD, couchpotato and sickbeard
Click to expand...

Geez. What a setup. Lemme guess... you live in Sandton?
 
Before you bite the bullet and buy a Samsung smart tv just do a quick google to make sure plex is in fact supported. Sometimes it takes some time for the plex app to come out for a particular model.
 
endlesslyonline said:
whoa whoa whoa ... sorry for hijacking your thread, but i must just get some more info on this. Currently i have a HPMicro Server, as a server, and then i have 3 fully fledged PC's sitting at each TV for running XBMC. Do you mean to tell me that the Samsung Smart TV's, can connect to a plex server, without a PC/Media center plugged into that TV?
Click to expand...

No mention of LG???

You can install plex on your main PC and have wifi enabled TVs in all of your other rooms. It will all stream from the server.

Question for ZoidBerg:

When streaming, does it stream from your wifi connection to your server directly, or does it go online, find your server, then DL and buffer?
 
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