2014-02-20, 16:53
I'm a relatively new user of XBMC and my initial impressions are very good and lots of promise. Thanks to all that have brought this wonderful solution to the masses.
My initial primary interest was to find a solution to my problem; being able to access my media files (movies, music, videos, photos) which I have stored on an external network HD that is connected via USB to the home wifi router (has dlna capabilities). I have had a Samsung Blu Ray player (BD 5500 - ethernet to the router) and an LG blu ray (BP620 wireless to the router). Niether of my LCD TV's are smart capable. Recently I added a Chromecast dongle and an iPush dongle (1080 capable) to the mix. And all of this managed thru my Toshiba laptop running WIN 7. I also have an android tablet which I use in the mix at times.
I've had a surprisingly difficult time trying to gain access to my media with the variety of 'media' apps that are available. In short, the best solution I've used is Nero Media Home and recently XBMC. With Nero and XBMC I can access and playback all media files with my LG which is also the only configuration I can do so with. The Samsung is extremely limited in what it will playback. And the dongles I can use Chromecast for streaming and using cntrl O for files. The biggest problem being Google's control for access. The iPush holds promise but it too has it's quirks.
I originally installed Frodo and got everything set up and working fine. Then I learned about the alpha releases which include support for UPnP, DLNA, Airplay, which intrigued me for use with the iPush. When I downloaded and installed the initial daily build (2/18) I was able to select a movie and stream it thru the iPush to my TV. This was limited though to ripped DVD's and ripped blu ray's threw an error "invalid resolution" which may be an iPush issue and not an XBMC issue. Since updating on day 2 I now can see XBMC communicating with the iPush but the files never seems to get delivered/displayed. I say this because of the on screen display which shows file transfer progress 'spins' as if something is happening but "0" for the actual transfer. When I attempt to send music files I get the same response (app displays as if it is attempting to receive the file but the transfer never is received or played back.
Chromecast BTW doesn't show as an option with XBMC.
If anyone has any thoughts around the above. Also, I'd like to help with some of the testing but I cannot afford to sign up for a full QA role at this time.
Thanks
Ken
My initial primary interest was to find a solution to my problem; being able to access my media files (movies, music, videos, photos) which I have stored on an external network HD that is connected via USB to the home wifi router (has dlna capabilities). I have had a Samsung Blu Ray player (BD 5500 - ethernet to the router) and an LG blu ray (BP620 wireless to the router). Niether of my LCD TV's are smart capable. Recently I added a Chromecast dongle and an iPush dongle (1080 capable) to the mix. And all of this managed thru my Toshiba laptop running WIN 7. I also have an android tablet which I use in the mix at times.
I've had a surprisingly difficult time trying to gain access to my media with the variety of 'media' apps that are available. In short, the best solution I've used is Nero Media Home and recently XBMC. With Nero and XBMC I can access and playback all media files with my LG which is also the only configuration I can do so with. The Samsung is extremely limited in what it will playback. And the dongles I can use Chromecast for streaming and using cntrl O for files. The biggest problem being Google's control for access. The iPush holds promise but it too has it's quirks.
I originally installed Frodo and got everything set up and working fine. Then I learned about the alpha releases which include support for UPnP, DLNA, Airplay, which intrigued me for use with the iPush. When I downloaded and installed the initial daily build (2/18) I was able to select a movie and stream it thru the iPush to my TV. This was limited though to ripped DVD's and ripped blu ray's threw an error "invalid resolution" which may be an iPush issue and not an XBMC issue. Since updating on day 2 I now can see XBMC communicating with the iPush but the files never seems to get delivered/displayed. I say this because of the on screen display which shows file transfer progress 'spins' as if something is happening but "0" for the actual transfer. When I attempt to send music files I get the same response (app displays as if it is attempting to receive the file but the transfer never is received or played back.
Chromecast BTW doesn't show as an option with XBMC.
If anyone has any thoughts around the above. Also, I'd like to help with some of the testing but I cannot afford to sign up for a full QA role at this time.
Thanks
Ken
