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My Dad has seen all my boxes of tricks in action - Apple TV, DLNA Blu Ray players with built in iPlayer etc - and wants similar. His minimum requirements are:
1. iPlayer on the "big telly"
2. Showing photos on the big telly
He doesn't want to go down the route of plugging in his laptop; we both agree that is a pain. He likes my Apple TV but he doesn't own any Mac stuff so it is a bit limiting. Several Blu Ray players offer a cheap way to add iPlayer and media client capabilities to the TV but my experience with the DLNA media streaming side is that it will be too much faff and kerfuffle for my old man.
What else should I be looking at? YouView looks good - if expensive - but isn't a media streamer so no good for photos. Boxee? The new Google thingummy?
Ta
Cheap Sony bluray? My £100 (370 model I think tho yr or 2 old) has Iplayer via cable to router.
BD player was my first suggestion to my old man, but my experience of the DLNA side is that they're not great for sharing media (e.g. photos) from a PC. I have the same model as you.
xbox? cheap, iplayer works well, can't say i've tried using it to browse photos but you can plug in usb sticks etc. and in theory should work well with windows machines for streaming etc. (again not tried it, I use a mythtv box for that sort of thing)
It works with a MS remote as well, not just gamepad.
PS3, Blu Ray, Iplayer, can stick photo's on it via USB, added bonus of a games console 🙂
Old Apple TV jailbroken with XMBC installed?
my experience of the DLNA side is that they're not great for sharing media
Serviio. Supported natively by Sony BD players. You're welcome.
xbox
Much as I love my Xbox, its iPlayer implementation is bobbins (or was last time I checked, anyway).
Serviio? Is that new? I've tried Twonky and at least 3 others and what let it down was the client side implementation rather than the server itself.
Why is plugging in his laptop a pain - especially if the laptop has an hdmi out?
Why is plugging in his laptop a pain
turn on laptop, wait for it to boot up, faff around trying to plug it in (no HDMI), start iPlayer, mess around trying to get the right input on the telly, realise you've not changed the display output on the laptop, spot that the battery is running low on the laptop, scrat around for mains lead, sit down, phone rings, crawl on all fours to press pause on the laptop etc.
It's just a make-do solution based on my experience and I know my old man will hate it. I can access iPlayer on my BD Player with the same remote as for my TV and Apple TV and don't need to plug anything in or do any faffing. I've also found that the quality via a plugged in laptop is way below the native apps built into "Smart" AV devices.
new smart TV?
A Humax Fox(sat) HDR will allow the use of YouView, and the displaying of photos and is pretty OAP friendly in use. With the improved firmware you can also add a Twonky server to it.
new smart TV?
Their TV is not that old, it's just not "smart". A £100 BD Player is looking favourite at the mo'
Thanks Cranberry, I didn't know YouView could now do that. That could be an interesting option...
The Fox T2 HDR doesn't have YouView, but does have Iplayer.
Raydon's firmware can be found [url= http://myhumax.org/blog/?page_id=166 ]here.[/url]
Xbox, its iPlayer implementation is bobbins
Seems fine to me, can find and watch what I want, in HD or not.
I've got one of these: [url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TECHNIKA-8320HD-SMARTBOX-320GB-HARD-DRIVE-FREEVIEW-HD-DIGITAL-RECORDER-/281003278498?pt=UK_AudioElectronicsVideo_Video_TelevisionSetTopBoxes&hash=item416d19c0a2 ]TECHNIKA-8320HD-SMARTBOX[/url]. It's just about average as digibox and HD freeview recorder but the photo sharing and iPlayer are great on it. iPlayer is on channer 222 (bbc in old text speak) and it's easy to navigate. You can stream photos/videos/music from a laptop, network drive or via two usb slots. Cheaps as chips as the company that make them has gone under