Doug_Bbn
Auditioning
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2002
- Messages
- 10
I have two Netgear RAID setups for music rips and movie rips. They have Gigabit Ethernet connections to a Gigabit router with AX3000 Wi-Fi speed. Using a new OLED flat screen (Sony), there is NOTHING that will stream "big" 4k/UHD rips that are 1 file (mkv) 75-100 GB except an Oppo BDP-203 connected to my 10/100/1000 Ethernet network. The HDMI output from the Oppo eliminates all the network interface in the Sony TV (this is not a "Sony" problem as 4 other brands of new TVs behave the same way, something that's not surprising). Smaller disc-ripped movie files (say 65 GB and smaller) are fine and any streaming stuff saved to the network disks also works fine for ANYTHING using Android/Google TV apps. The problem only arises when the file size of a movie exceeds about 75 GB pushing the bitrate higher than the TVs can handle. I have tried Wi-Fi to the TV... I have AX3000 speed, but the TV is "AC" without a specified bit rate and that was too slow. I tried the Ethernet connection to the TV and the TV has a 10/100 port so it's not fast enough either. I have tried a USB 3.1 adapter with a Gigabit Ethernet input trying to get data to the TV faster... that comes closest to working (fewest pauses for buffering) but something in the TV is still too slow for content coming in over the network.
I tried an Nvidia Shield Pro... and returned it for not playing the ripped files (at least I think I returned it for that reason, it was about a year ago, hard to remember exactly why I sent it back). I want to find a solution that has Gigabit or faster Ethernet for the input, and HDMI output capability with at least 18 GHz output supported. And it needs to be something that will play ripped movies. It would be nice if there was an easy-to-use GUI with library management, but not 100% necessary as long as it tracks viewed content vs. unviewed content. The Oppo 203 solution is fine, but I lose the library features with icon illustrations and movie info downloaded from online and such... and I lose the ability to track what I've watched and not watched. It would be nice if the ultimate solution isn't much more expensive than an Nvidia Shield Pro.
By the way, when it comes to Android/Google/FireTV apps... VLC Media Player loses it's network connection to the Netgear RAID drives if you exit from VLC, then return later to watch something else. You have to manually navigate 2 menu layers within VLC to reboot the software. Upon restarting, the network drives appear again. I can switch between them repeatedly and everything keeps working, but if I exit VLC and come back, restarting the software is the only way it works again. MX Player (another media player app) is buggy if you use FFW/FRW... causes the app to lock up. And the list goes on and on. Only Kodi seems to have a useful level of stability and ability but it will only show me 10 TV programs in my library when there are maybe 40 of them. Yet Kodi shows ALL the movies on the same 2 Netgear RAID devices. I can access all the TV shows within Kodi, but I have to go through the Settings menu to access the library instead of the GUI. I'm finding it difficult to believe that the state of this many media playing apps is so pitiful. I submitted bugs to VLC 18 months ago but there have been no updates in all that time. I was CERTAIN the Nvidia Shield Pro was going to be "it" that it was disheartening to have to return it.
I tried an Nvidia Shield Pro... and returned it for not playing the ripped files (at least I think I returned it for that reason, it was about a year ago, hard to remember exactly why I sent it back). I want to find a solution that has Gigabit or faster Ethernet for the input, and HDMI output capability with at least 18 GHz output supported. And it needs to be something that will play ripped movies. It would be nice if there was an easy-to-use GUI with library management, but not 100% necessary as long as it tracks viewed content vs. unviewed content. The Oppo 203 solution is fine, but I lose the library features with icon illustrations and movie info downloaded from online and such... and I lose the ability to track what I've watched and not watched. It would be nice if the ultimate solution isn't much more expensive than an Nvidia Shield Pro.
By the way, when it comes to Android/Google/FireTV apps... VLC Media Player loses it's network connection to the Netgear RAID drives if you exit from VLC, then return later to watch something else. You have to manually navigate 2 menu layers within VLC to reboot the software. Upon restarting, the network drives appear again. I can switch between them repeatedly and everything keeps working, but if I exit VLC and come back, restarting the software is the only way it works again. MX Player (another media player app) is buggy if you use FFW/FRW... causes the app to lock up. And the list goes on and on. Only Kodi seems to have a useful level of stability and ability but it will only show me 10 TV programs in my library when there are maybe 40 of them. Yet Kodi shows ALL the movies on the same 2 Netgear RAID devices. I can access all the TV shows within Kodi, but I have to go through the Settings menu to access the library instead of the GUI. I'm finding it difficult to believe that the state of this many media playing apps is so pitiful. I submitted bugs to VLC 18 months ago but there have been no updates in all that time. I was CERTAIN the Nvidia Shield Pro was going to be "it" that it was disheartening to have to return it.
