Media Centre vs Digital Media Player?

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MyWorld

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The title is a bit uninformative, it should be Media Centre PC vs Standalone digital media player

I'm looking at helping out a nursery school in sorting out their entertainment centre.
They use the LCD tv entertainment centre mainly to entertain the daycare kids (those who have to stay after school till mommy and daddy picks them up), and the odd educational video every now and then.

At the moment they have a dvd player that packs some serious sound.
Pro's:
Good-ish sound

Con's:
Only takes physical media (shortening the live span of the media/DVD)

What I'm looking at suggesting for the school is either a media centre PC or a digital media centre. My main drive behind this is to safe the DVD's and to eliminate as much mechanical devices as possible. You can imagine around 50+ DVD's just thrown into a cupboard, the DVD tray getting no respect. They have to repair the current setup every couple of months due to mechanical problems, mostly the volume control knob and the DVD tray.

I have never dealt with these set top digital media players before, so I have no idea how effective they will be at handling various formats (mp4, mkv, .ogg, mp3, etc.) and the traffic/abuse of a nursery school.

What I intend to do is rip everything onto the hd, this is a much more sound solution for me.

Needs:
Must have flexible storage, you never know how many DVD's they end up collecting.
Must have optical disk for the odd educational DVD or music CD.

Nice to have:
Remote control, removing the need for a mouse and keyboard.

What would be the best option/solution?

Speakers and amps will obviously be added to the system, so the whole system must be compatible with that as well.
 
Last edited:
I think a Media player that can take a single 2TB hard drive will be fine for the job. They don't need XBMC or fancy GUIs they need something foolproof.
(So, no PC)

2TB = 450 DVDs Ripped 1:1 (at a minimum - could be more if all DVDs don't take a full 4.5GB)

Make sure the Player can play the VOB Files.
I would suggest you not go the AVI route, interactive DVDs and stuff require the menu and everything to remain intact! (therefore 1:1 rips)
 
MyWorld said:
Any suggestions on a Media Player I can take a look at?
Click to expand...
I don't know of any media players that have a DVD/CD drive.
I would reconmend a Mede8er as a media player. It lacks the DVD/CD functionality that a media PC might have and I do not know If it can do what "Keeper" suggested but as a media player it but does everything else. Check here and here.
 
Looks like you are looking for a "Media Theatre" . I recently had to decide about this too. I already had an Xbox 360* which could stream content from a PC to my TV and play DVDs but it was kinda restrictive with playing digital content directly from it.

* EDIT: You might even want to consider a Playstation 3, the prices are going to drop now as the PS4 starts to come out.Comes with lots of HD space, comes with blueray etc etc

So it was between a Mede8er/Roku/Apple TV type of device which either plays content directly from buit in hard drive or stream it from a PC. I still wanted DVD/Hi-Fi features though.

I ended up with this:
http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/...blu-ray-home-entertainment-system/HT-F5550/XU

On promotion at Makro:
http://www.makro.co.za/p/37605/samsung-51-3d-blu-ray-tall-boy-home-threatre-system/
or less power (must just check what features it got vs. above unit)
http://www.makro.co.za/p/37603/samsung-51-3d-blu-ray-home-theatre-system/




This has solved all my media needs out of the box:
a: It turns your tv into a smart tv (the software on the theatre system is like on a phone, you can install apps, run apps etc)
b: You can play blueray/dvds still
c: It has USB ports where you can plug in any harddrive including the big portable ones (so it does not have to be a flash disc)
d: It has network connectivity wifi and/or LAN , so you can connect to the internet and play anything you would on a PC (i.e. youtube videos) . This also means you can connect to another PC/Laptop and play content from there (if external HD into the USB port is not your thing)
e: It got the speakers, so the sound is pretty awesome (especially if you go for a 1000W unit) , so your TV sound is obviously going through this theatre
f: It got Bluetooth, so you can play music directly from your phone/bluetooth device through this device
h: It got normal radio etc
g: It got all the remote control things you'll need, and if a normal remote is not enough, you can control it via your phone/tablet/pc using samsung's smart tv apps.

Anyway, if you scrutinise the prices of above theatre systems, considering it is a blue ray drive with surround sound speakers you'll wonder why pay R2k for hardrive media centre solution? Yes, you need to still buy an external Harddrive/ Flash Disc or have a PC or have an ipod or something to go complete digital, but the options are so much more.

In my case, i have a standard PC at home, hooked up to the internet which hosts all my digital content using software called PLEX. On the Samsung theatre i can install the PLEX player which plays the content from my PC. The advantage of using something like PLEX is, the media format is handled by the PC , i don't need to worry whether the media centre can handle the format (i.e some new type of .AVI) .
 
Last edited:
Esquire have several media players. I think this is the best product for your application. Even a smaller (500Gb) hard disc would be adequate
 
diabolus said:
Looks like you are looking for a "Media Theatre" . I recently had to decide about this too. I already had an Xbox 360* which could stream content from a PC to my TV and play DVDs but it was kinda restrictive with playing digital content directly from it.

* EDIT: You might even want to consider a Playstation 3, the prices are going to drop now as the PS4 starts to come out.Comes with lots of HD space, comes with blueray etc etc

So it was between a Mede8er/Roku/Apple TV type of device which either plays content directly from buit in hard drive or stream it from a PC. I still wanted DVD/Hi-Fi features though.

I ended up with this:
http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/...blu-ray-home-entertainment-system/HT-F5550/XU

On promotion at Makro:
http://www.makro.co.za/p/37605/samsung-51-3d-blu-ray-tall-boy-home-threatre-system/
or less power (must just check what features it got vs. above unit)
http://www.makro.co.za/p/37603/samsung-51-3d-blu-ray-home-theatre-system/




This has solved all my media needs out of the box:
a: It turns your tv into a smart tv (the software on the theatre system is like on a phone, you can install apps, run apps etc)
b: You can play blueray/dvds still
c: It has USB ports where you can plug in any harddrive including the big portable ones (so it does not have to be a flash disc)
d: It has network connectivity wifi and/or LAN , so you can connect to the internet and play anything you would on a PC (i.e. youtube videos) . This also means you can connect to another PC/Laptop and play content from there (if external HD into the USB port is not your thing)
e: It got the speakers, so the sound is pretty awesome (especially if you go for a 1000W unit) , so your TV sound is obviously going through this theatre
f: It got Bluetooth, so you can play music directly from your phone/bluetooth device through this device
h: It got normal radio etc
g: It got all the remote control things you'll need, and if a normal remote is not enough, you can control it via your phone/tablet/pc using samsung's smart tv apps.

Anyway, if you scrutinise the prices of above theatre systems, considering it is a blue ray drive with surround sound speakers you'll wonder why pay R2k for hardrive media centre solution? Yes, you need to still buy an external Harddrive/ Flash Disc or have a PC or have an ipod or something to go complete digital, but the options are so much more.

In my case, i have a standard PC at home, hooked up to the internet which hosts all my digital content using software called PLEX. On the Samsung theatre i can install the PLEX player which plays the content from my PC. The advantage of using something like PLEX is, the media format is handled by the PC , i don't need to worry whether the media centre can handle the format (i.e some new type of .AVI) .
Click to expand...

Wow, this looks amazing.

Is the Samsung player basically an Android device?

I see it has Netflix streaming built-in, does it have Hulu+? Or if not, could you still get Hulu+ through PC streaming or something like that?

To your knowledge, is there anything that the Roku device has over such a setup? (I am new to media centre stuff, but am also looking into getting a setup of my own)

I will definitely be getting a PS4 later on as well...
 
diabolus said:
Looks like you are looking for a "Media Theatre" . I recently had to decide about this too. I already had an Xbox 360* which could stream content from a PC to my TV and play DVDs but it was kinda restrictive with playing digital content directly from it.

* EDIT: You might even want to consider a Playstation 3, the prices are going to drop now as the PS4 starts to come out.Comes with lots of HD space, comes with blueray etc etc

So it was between a Mede8er/Roku/Apple TV type of device which either plays content directly from buit in hard drive or stream it from a PC. I still wanted DVD/Hi-Fi features though.

I ended up with this:
http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/...blu-ray-home-entertainment-system/HT-F5550/XU

On promotion at Makro:
http://www.makro.co.za/p/37605/samsung-51-3d-blu-ray-tall-boy-home-threatre-system/
or less power (must just check what features it got vs. above unit)
http://www.makro.co.za/p/37603/samsung-51-3d-blu-ray-home-theatre-system/




This has solved all my media needs out of the box:
a: It turns your tv into a smart tv (the software on the theatre system is like on a phone, you can install apps, run apps etc)
b: You can play blueray/dvds still
c: It has USB ports where you can plug in any harddrive including the big portable ones (so it does not have to be a flash disc)
d: It has network connectivity wifi and/or LAN , so you can connect to the internet and play anything you would on a PC (i.e. youtube videos) . This also means you can connect to another PC/Laptop and play content from there (if external HD into the USB port is not your thing)
e: It got the speakers, so the sound is pretty awesome (especially if you go for a 1000W unit) , so your TV sound is obviously going through this theatre
f: It got Bluetooth, so you can play music directly from your phone/bluetooth device through this device
h: It got normal radio etc
g: It got all the remote control things you'll need, and if a normal remote is not enough, you can control it via your phone/tablet/pc using samsung's smart tv apps.

Anyway, if you scrutinise the prices of above theatre systems, considering it is a blue ray drive with surround sound speakers you'll wonder why pay R2k for hardrive media centre solution? Yes, you need to still buy an external Harddrive/ Flash Disc or have a PC or have an ipod or something to go complete digital, but the options are so much more.

In my case, i have a standard PC at home, hooked up to the internet which hosts all my digital content using software called PLEX. On the Samsung theatre i can install the PLEX player which plays the content from my PC. The advantage of using something like PLEX is, the media format is handled by the PC , i don't need to worry whether the media centre can handle the format (i.e some new type of .AVI) .
Click to expand...

What is the menu interface like?

I have used Sammy smart blurry players before and found the menus to be slow and laggy. Plex was painful to use because of this.

If the menu is smooth, I may pop out and grab one.
 
FreeStanler said:
Wow, this looks amazing.

Is the Samsung player basically an Android device?

I see it has Netflix streaming built-in, does it have Hulu+? Or if not, could you still get Hulu+ through PC streaming or something like that?

To your knowledge, is there anything that the Roku device has over such a setup? (I am new to media centre stuff, but am also looking into getting a setup of my own)

I will definitely be getting a PS4 later on as well...
Click to expand...

Well i am not sure what OS is running on the blueray drive, most likely some form of android, but it's samsung specific, so you can't load your typical android apps on there. Samsung have its own "app store" on the device with a limited range of apps, mostly media specific apps from devs who decided to make an app for samsung OS. Plex is one of them (i have been using Plex to stream to my ipad/devices from pc before this, hence it's a bonus).

Other apps i do know is on there (which i installed) is like Youtube ,Vimeo,Ustream,Facebook,Twitter ,BBC , Al Jazeera (and a few other tv streaming channels).

You can also "pair" your phone/tablet with some of these apps. The youtube app for example, if i play a youtube clip on my ipad and i've "paired" my device with the sammy, i get a little icon on my ipad on top to make it play on my tv (no wires, it will run the youtube app and start play it).

Anyway, as for a Hulu+ app, there is (for the USA) , but i need to confirm on my device and most likely need to VPN so i get a different (USA specific) store, since i'm not seeing it in the app store (without VPN etc).
http://www.samsung.com/us/article/know-your-apps-hulu-plus

There is a built-in browser app anyway, so you can technically browse to hulu website....

I'll play around and see what i can do.


You can set up Plex to stream Hulu for you with a plugin, how well that works i can't say.


I can't really comment in detail about Roku vs. the Samsung setup. I believe Roku runs Plex anyway, so from a software side it's probably similar , i'm not sure what apps you can load on the Roku and how flexible the built-in software is. Maybe it's faster? It's definitely more portable , i mean the Samsung setup is like blueray drive + 5 speakers (or 7) and a big subwoofer . I'm not aware of anything the Roku can do that the Samsung setup can't. You will still need an external HD or a Flash Disc for the Samsung (and connect it via USB) if you're not going to stream it from a PC. The Roku comes with a HD (or at least comes with a slot for it).




Mike Smit said:
What is the menu interface like?

I have used Sammy smart blurry players before and found the menus to be slow and laggy. Plex was painful to use because of this.

If the menu is smooth, I may pop out and grab one.
Click to expand...

It's a ton faster than my raspberry Pi. I find the initial startup of a specific app can sometimes be slow (i.e. it's not instant) , but navigation after it's loaded haven't bothered me. Plex seems fine as far as i'm concerned, of course i don't navigate a whole lot because Plex have this "on deck" and "recently added" smart lists and i just press play ;-) . I think it depends on what exactly the specs are on the blueray drive/tv . I'm sure Samsung is putting this software on ALL their "smart" devices (TVs, Blueray drives etc) and not all of them have alot of RAM/CPU power. My specific model got a dual core processor.

I suppose best bet is to test it in the store?

I am also using an app on my phone/table like this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adi.remote.phone

(Samsung got their own apps too, but that one works better for me). So this helps with typing and scrolling around on the screen (much easier to type on your phone than with the remote).

And as i mentioned some of the apps, like youtube , i don't actually navigate on the samsung (unless i'm watching channels), i just open it up on my ipad/phone and tell it to play on the tv. All my devices of course on the same wifi network.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all the replies, I'll have a look at it tonight and do a bit of reading on them all to see what will work best.
:D
 
diabolus said:
Well i am not sure what OS is running on the blueray drive, most likely some form of android, but it's samsung specific, so you can't load your typical android apps on there. Samsung have its own "app store" on the device with a limited range of apps, mostly media specific apps from devs who decided to make an app for samsung OS. Plex is one of them (i have been using Plex to stream to my ipad/devices from pc before this, hence it's a bonus).

Other apps i do know is on there (which i installed) is like Youtube ,Vimeo,Ustream,Facebook,Twitter ,BBC , Al Jazeera (and a few other tv streaming channels).

You can also "pair" your phone/tablet with some of these apps. The youtube app for example, if i play a youtube clip on my ipad and i've "paired" my device with the sammy, i get a little icon on my ipad on top to make it play on my tv (no wires, it will run the youtube app and start play it).

Anyway, as for a Hulu+ app, there is (for the USA) , but i need to confirm on my device and most likely need to VPN so i get a different (USA specific) store, since i'm not seeing it in the app store (without VPN etc).
http://www.samsung.com/us/article/know-your-apps-hulu-plus

There is a built-in browser app anyway, so you can technically browse to hulu website....

I'll play around and see what i can do.


You can set up Plex to stream Hulu for you with a plugin, how well that works i can't say.


I can't really comment in detail about Roku vs. the Samsung setup. I believe Roku runs Plex anyway, so from a software side it's probably similar , i'm not sure what apps you can load on the Roku and how flexible the built-in software is. Maybe it's faster? It's definitely more portable , i mean the Samsung setup is like blueray drive + 5 speakers (or 7) and a big subwoofer . I'm not aware of anything the Roku can do that the Samsung setup can't. You will still need an external HD or a Flash Disc for the Samsung (and connect it via USB) if you're not going to stream it from a PC. The Roku comes with a HD (or at least comes with a slot for it).






It's a ton faster than my raspberry Pi. I find the initial startup of a specific app can sometimes be slow (i.e. it's not instant) , but navigation after it's loaded haven't bothered me. Plex seems fine as far as i'm concerned, of course i don't navigate a whole lot because Plex have this "on deck" and "recently added" smart lists and i just press play ;-) . I think it depends on what exactly the specs are on the blueray drive/tv . I'm sure Samsung is putting this software on ALL their "smart" devices (TVs, Blueray drives etc) and not all of them have alot of RAM/CPU power. My specific model got a dual core processor.

I suppose best bet is to test it in the store?

I am also using an app on my phone/table like this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adi.remote.phone

(Samsung got their own apps too, but that one works better for me). So this helps with typing and scrolling around on the screen (much easier to type on your phone than with the remote).

And as i mentioned some of the apps, like youtube , i don't actually navigate on the samsung (unless i'm watching channels), i just open it up on my ipad/phone and tell it to play on the tv. All my devices of course on the same wifi network.
Click to expand...

Thanks for such a detailed post! It takes time to write these out and give advice to others, so thanks again
 
Diabolus, have you tried using the device with just wifi and not the hard line / adsl network cable? Does it still work just as fast? That would be ideal
 
FreeStanler said:
Diabolus, have you tried using the device with just wifi and not the hard line / adsl network cable? Does it still work just as fast? That would be ideal
Click to expand...

I am only using wifi, my router is too far from the tv, so it was an important part of getting it. I dont actually know how fast it is with a cable . I suppose streaming a full hd blueray movie is going to be problems,but i rarely do that. I would then copy it to an hd rather than stream. I dont think the software is going to be faster based on wifi/lan, but streaming of hd content would certainly be better.

The bottleneck is mostly my adsl line (4mbps) ,not my local wifi when it comes to online streaming.

Anyway,just make sure the specific model got wifi built in,some of the cheaper models is "wifi ready" which means you need to buy a dongle.
 
Last edited:
diabolus said:
I am only using wifi, my router is too far from the tv, so it was an important part of getting it. I dont actually know how fast it is with a cable . I suppose streaming a full hd blueray movie is going to be problems,but i rarely do that. I would then copy it to an hd rather than stream. I dont think the software is going to be faster based on wifi/lan, but streaming of hd content would certainly be better.

The bottleneck is mostly my adsl line (4mbps) ,not my local wifi when it comes to online streaming.

Anyway,just make sure the specific model got wifi built in,some of the cheaper models is "wifi ready" which means you need to buy a dongle.
Click to expand...

Great advice again, thanks
 
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