Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Off Topic OT: Any views on best solution for streaming my DVDs

Hi All,

I've been reading this topic with interest. I am very much the 'new boy' when it comes to DVD/blu-ray streaming so please be patient with me and don't assume my questions are too stupid! I've just moved over from a 2 channel system to surround sound.

I would like to be able to stream DVDs that I have stored onto my Mac desktop into the TV and send the sound off to the 568.2 that I've recently bought. I assume that I will need some hardware such as one of the HDI Dune devices mentioned to go between the Mac and the 568.2/TV? Is it possible to use the spare hard discs in my Mac Pro to act as a NAS? At the moment, the Mac Pro is connected into the 568.2 via the optical lead and I use the remote function on my iPhone to control the playlist on the Mac via WiFi. I would like to have the same usability with the DVD playback too.

Thank you in advance,
Peter

Not usually a Mac user myself, but I'd imagine it's fairly easy. At a guess;

Popcorn Hour a200 or a210 (�150-�200) with cat5 to Router/Switch. Cat5 from Mac to Router/Switch. Optical from PCH to 562. Configure 562 for source. HDMI from PCH to TV. Bonjour. Share the drive on which reside your DVD rips. Let PCH know where this is. You should be pretty much be good to go. 3 iPhone remote apps for PCH as far as I know. (I'd imagine Dune is much the same).

One drive is going to be pretty tight for Blu-rays. You could add a drive to the PCH and copy your films over. Support is being tested fo 3TB drives according to this link.

Peter,

Yes, unless you want to connect your Mac Pro direct to the TV then some kind of additional hardware will be required.

The spare disks on the Mac cannot be a NAS as such, but you can make them network shares (afp or cifs - smb to the Windows world) and therefore visible to the likes of a dune.

An alternative to the Dune is an "old" apple tv - the grey v1 not the black puck. I run one of these with a Linux distribution and XBMC (rather than the stock Apple OS), this enables me to stream all manner of media. There is also a nifty iPhone app to control it all.

Nick

I have the ability to connect the Mac directly to the TV. (I am just in the process of moving to a new house and I will be rewiring most of it so putting in some more cables isn't an issue). I'm assuming that I connect the Mac to the TV via the DVI graphic card output and then connect the sound to the 568.2 via optical? I was going to use the Apple remote software on my iPhone to control iTunes on the Mac to play the films. Do you have any recommendations for software to rip the films in the first place?

I had a look at the Apple TV and that streams at 720p rather than 1080p. I'm assuming that I can configure the graphics card to output in 1080p to the TV?

Thanks,
Peter

Hi,

I'll have a read though all of this and then get my head around it. I only found out what a popcorn hour device was yesterday!

In terms of hard disc space, the Mac Pro comes with 4 drive slots. I'm using 2 at the moment (one for files and then other as a backup) so I have got a reasonable amount of space with the other two slots. If I need more, I can increase the disc space on the other 2 drives.

Thanks again,
Peter

Peter, if you intend to store and the play the ripped DVDs in iTunes you then this is not an easy task to accomplish. iTunes was designed to play films downloaded from the itunes store. Typically a ripped DVD will not be in this format - so "utilities" have to be used to fool iTunes into accepting these files.

I cannot comment on whether the graphics card in your mac pro can be configured to output 1080p.

Nick

This may get locked soon, but here goes.

I had a Popcorn Hour A200 until recently. It plays just about everything you can throw at it but wont decode to 6 channel PCM. Long term, this is a limitation for a Meridian owner looking to move to HDMI/HD621.

I believe the C200 does support this but havent had one myself. But then you are paying for a spinner as well and IMHO you would be better off going for an Oppo spinner so you can play Bluray/DVDA/SACD as well. Unfortunately although Oppo does support streaming of films and music, I found a number of films wouldnt play and they have no media wall front end which makes usability a major problem.

The Dune is probably better if you want a dedicated film streamer than the Popcorn Hour, I havent actually owned one but I believe they support 6 channel PCM decoding.

Given that you have the MacPro, you could use Plex as a front end to your movie collection. This works extremely well, which when you factor in the price makes it incredible. You can use Handbrake to rip DVD's.

Rather than spend money on a media streamer. I would stick to the MacPro, and instead spend the cash on PureMusic/HalideBridge combination which would give you a very high quality music streamer as well. You can then use Apple Remote to control iTunes for music playback, and the Plex client to control Plex for movies.

Thanks
Greg

+1 on HD Dune and Zappitti. Last I heard, My Movies still does not support TV Shows (maybe my info is dated). But I have been away from here for a long time.

I also have 2 ReadyNAS Pro in the set-up and it works well.

I have used HD Dune (Dune 3.0 Base) for a year or so but the streaming and playback is near perfect.

Just over a year, welcome back.

Regards,
Carl