Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

...but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...



--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the server
which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file sharing
protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet sockets...and I am
fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind the faceplate in the
room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer **** actually
can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug in a USB
drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can read
a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be raw
MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...


Mate has a Sony which will play content from Windows Media Player.
I think every TV is different and the network stuff is constantly changing
even with a single manufacturer.

--
No plan survives contact with the enemy.
[Not even bunny]

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

(\__/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On 30/10/2012 17:59, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...




I have a Samsung TV which is networked. If my broadband connection
worked faster the iPlayer feature might be useful. As it is we never use
it. It probably also does Lovefilm and Netflicks.

I did find that it would not play .ts video files on my NAS via Upnp.
It won't even play these files if they are put on a USB stick.

It will display my photos on my NAS via Upnp. It will also display live
TV from my PC using the DVBviewer recording service Upnp facility.

It can get its own firmware updates from the Internet. It came with a
free blue ray player which has similar network facilities.


--
Michael Chare

In article , The Natural Philosopher
scribeth thus
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...



We've got a SONY KDL40EX503U which is a couple of years old now. Does
all that sort of thing iplayer built in plus access to things like
Youtube but you can also pull stuff of PC's on your network. Think of it
as a simple large screen monitor..

Excellent pix Freeview built in HDMI and SCART as standard and full HD

No backlight bleed or any of those things, can't fault it apart from the
sound but there're all like that as theres no cabinet to speak of..

I'm sure this ones out of production now and been superseded by a later
model.

Obtained from John Lewis avoid the sheds like the plague!....


--
Tony Sayer

On 30/10/12 18:04, David WE Roberts wrote:

"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
...
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will
be raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts
being watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...


Mate has a Sony which will play content from Windows Media Player.

Mmm. windows media player is a piece of software so I don't understand
what you mean...?

I think every TV is different and the network stuff is constantly
changing even with a single manufacturer.


probably. As an alternative does anyone know where to get a dirt cheap
32" Computer monitor, then I;ll build a cheap linux PC with a tuner in
it... :-)



--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

On 30/10/2012 17:59, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

If you go for one that supports DLNA playback then you know it will at
least follow one set of standards. However you will need a DLNA server
on your network - this can either be software running on a
desktop/server, or comes as a standard on many modern NAS drives.

In addition many can play files from a normal network share.

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

You will have to check the small print for what formats are supported.
Having said that, some DLNA servers are capable of format transcoding on
the fly if the machine has the oomph required.


And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...

Well, its getting closer to plug in and it just works...


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...

Models change so fast it's hard to know if anything from 2010 vintage
Sony TVs is relevant. But FWIW they play some things fine from a LAN
but not others - eg they certainly don't like DTS sound in an MKV
container. AIUI more recent models - and eg Samsung models - are less
fussy. OTOH the Sonys are very happy when served by a DLNA server. I
use Serviio on a PC with an Intel i7 and Windows which transcodes on the
fly when necessary. I appreciate the later is last anathema to you but
Serviio and other DLNA servers could be run on a Linux box. Oh, and
internet TV (fed by a 10Mbs cable connection) worked perfectly out of
the box.
--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

Not quite what you wanted, but look at
http://www.raspbmc.com/about/

It's a 'separate box', but it's tiny, cheap, and does what /you/ want, not
what the TV manufacturer's interns knocked up on Friday afternoon.

Theo

On 30/10/2012 17:59, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...

My samsung tv will play videos and music from DLNA servers, usb sticks, etc.
It also does youtube and few other video services.

The sony blu-ray player does more BTW.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...




I would look at a TV + GoogleTV set-top box.

Basically a TV with a reasonably meaty Android device hooked upto it - and
all the possibilities that entails - iPlayer, Netflix, Youtube etc.


--
Tim Watts Personal Blog: http://www.dionic.net/tim/

"She got her looks from her father. He's a plastic surgeon."

On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 17:59:24 +0000, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

...but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - ....

I think that sums 'em up. Fine if you want YouTube or Netflix and other
dross but useless when it comes to playing stuff from LAN based server.
The advertising will push DLNA and playing stuff over the LAN but what
they conviently miss out is the file formats that the telly can cope
with. Many tellies are very restricted, so you have to jump through loads
of hoops to get stuff into a format the telly can handle. Not to mention
the very basic text only based "file manager" interface to the server.

No ripping the contents of a DVD to a directory on the server then
pointing the telly at that directory and getting the complete DVD
playback with menus etc.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts
being watched there as well.

Some sets with the "pause live TV" feature have to have an external USB
drive plugged in for that to work. They may well be able to do timer
recordings to that as well but with only one tuner that's not overly
useful.

Personally the "smart" TV's are anything but unless you are a fully paid
up member of the consumer masses.

--
Cheers
Dave.

On 30/10/2012 17:59, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

I've done it, Sony kdl50hx-803. Wish I hadn't, I had to sort out a hub
when I got the Hummy, /she/ likes to use iPlayer directly.

Plays DLNA over the network. I don't, because on examination it's taken
the video off my PC and transcoded it to the lowest common format before
playing it. It's got all sorts of other bells and whistles too, none of
which I use.

DLNA from the Hummy to my PC though is pretty useful.

Andy

On Tuesday, 30 October 2012 17:59:23 UTC, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

You have to have a TV, because that's how you get big, cheap monitors.

You need a satellite or cable box (if you wish), because that's how you buy the tuners.

PVRs (Tivo et al) can be done either by buying retail consumer TV kit, or by re-purposing computers. Apple seem to offer the best product for this bit.

On 30/10/12 18:44, Michael Chare wrote:
On 30/10/2012 17:59, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...




I have a Samsung TV which is networked. If my broadband connection
worked faster the iPlayer feature might be useful. As it is we never use
it. It probably also does Lovefilm and Netflicks.

I did find that it would not play .ts video files on my NAS via Upnp. It
won't even play these files if they are put on a USB stick.


Mmm
That's a pain.

I've managed to set up a Upnp server and that is certainly streaming
mpegs and so on to UPNP because VLC can pick em up..

So I guess you could rip the DVDS to disk first :-(

It will display my photos on my NAS via Upnp. It will also display live
TV from my PC using the DVBviewer recording service Upnp facility.

It can get its own firmware updates from the Internet. It came with a
free blue ray player which has similar network facilities.

They do make it all so BLOODY complicated.




--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

On 30/10/12 18:48, John Rumm wrote:
On 30/10/2012 17:59, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

If you go for one that supports DLNA playback then you know it will at
least follow one set of standards. However you will need a DLNA server
on your network - this can either be software running on a
desktop/server, or comes as a standard on many modern NAS drives.

In addition many can play files from a normal network share.

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

You will have to check the small print for what formats are supported.

Yerrs...
Having said that, some DLNA servers are capable of format transcoding on
the fly if the machine has the oomph required.


Intel Atom with half a gig or RAM ...maybe..


And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...

Well, its getting closer to plug in and it just works...


makes you realise how bloody good the internet actually is compared with
all this proprietary 'I will only talk to my own brand box' stuff.




--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

On 30/10/12 18:49, Theo Markettos wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

Not quite what you wanted, but look at
http://www.raspbmc.com/about/

It's a 'separate box', but it's tiny, cheap, and does what /you/ want, not
what the TV manufacturer's interns knocked up on Friday afternoon.

Theo

huge fun. I tried XBMC bit although it could see the DNLA files getting
it to play them was nigh on impossible. It seems to be a typical 'glossy
interface that probably does what you want, but **** knows what magic
combination of screen clicks is the magic formula'

And I doubt the Pi has the wherewithal to drive a HD res screen.

Or run a HDTV tuner..

I do say tho that IF I could only get a decent large monitor cheaper
than a TV id do the roll yer own job.

--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

On 30/10/12 19:14, dennis@home wrote:
On 30/10/2012 17:59, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...

My samsung tv will play videos and music from DLNA servers, usb sticks,
etc.

will it play a raw CVD disk tho?

It also does youtube and few other video services.

The sony blu-ray player does more BTW.



--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 30/10/12 18:44, Michael Chare wrote:
On 30/10/2012 17:59, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...




I have a Samsung TV which is networked. If my broadband connection
worked faster the iPlayer feature might be useful. As it is we never use
it. It probably also does Lovefilm and Netflicks.

I did find that it would not play .ts video files on my NAS via Upnp. It
won't even play these files if they are put on a USB stick.


Mmm
That's a pain.

I've managed to set up a Upnp server and that is certainly streaming
mpegs and so on to UPNP because VLC can pick em up..

You can process .ts files to mpeg with something like MPEG StreamClip.
Works fine for me with files recorded on a Toppy and on a Humax FoxSat.
(Samsung, from Synology Diskstation). I have done a few DVDs too, can't
remember the exact path now.

So I guess you could rip the DVDS to disk first :-(

It will display my photos on my NAS via Upnp. It will also display live
TV from my PC using the DVBviewer recording service Upnp facility.

It can get its own firmware updates from the Internet. It came with a
free blue ray player which has similar network facilities.

They do make it all so BLOODY complicated.

En el artículo o.uk,
Dave Liquorice escribió:

Personally the "smart" TV's are anything but unless you are a fully paid
up member of the consumer masses.

Mate has a 50" Samsung Smart TV. Looks fantastic, fantastic picture,
but the built-in software is ****e.

For some reason, it refuses to find certain YouTube videos that can be
played on a PC or Mac even if you explicitly enter the URL into the TV's
web browser.

--
(\_/)
(='.'=)
(")_(")

On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:27:37 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 30/10/12 18:49, Theo Markettos wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

Not quite what you wanted, but look at
http://www.raspbmc.com/about/

It's a 'separate box', but it's tiny, cheap, and does what /you/ want, not
what the TV manufacturer's interns knocked up on Friday afternoon.

Theo

huge fun. I tried XBMC bit although it could see the DNLA files getting
it to play them was nigh on impossible. It seems to be a typical 'glossy
interface that probably does what you want, but **** knows what magic
combination of screen clicks is the magic formula'

And I doubt the Pi has the wherewithal to drive a HD res screen.

FWIW The Pi can output 1080p.

Or run a HDTV tuner..

That would be more tricky.

I do say tho that IF I could only get a decent large monitor cheaper
than a TV id do the roll yer own job.

Probably the best way, albeit more expensive. It's strange a large
monitor is the same price as a TV since it carrys less tax.

--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) If a man stands in a forest and no woman is around
(")_(") is he still wrong?

On 31/10/12 10:35, Mark wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:27:37 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 30/10/12 18:49, Theo Markettos wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

Not quite what you wanted, but look at
http://www.raspbmc.com/about/

It's a 'separate box', but it's tiny, cheap, and does what /you/ want, not
what the TV manufacturer's interns knocked up on Friday afternoon.

Theo

huge fun. I tried XBMC bit although it could see the DNLA files getting
it to play them was nigh on impossible. It seems to be a typical 'glossy
interface that probably does what you want, but **** knows what magic
combination of screen clicks is the magic formula'

And I doubt the Pi has the wherewithal to drive a HD res screen.

FWIW The Pi can output 1080p.

its 1920 x 1080 innit?


Or run a HDTV tuner..

That would be more tricky.


Not really if the latest Linux kernel is used..pretty good support for
normal DTV by USB dongle..not so sure about HDTV - precious few dingles
there.


I do say tho that IF I could only get a decent large monitor cheaper
than a TV id do the roll yer own job.

Probably the best way, albeit more expensive. It's strange a large
monitor is the same price as a TV since it carrys less tax.

Yerrss. TBH a TV is less cost than an equivalent monitor and generally
has a better viewing angle.


--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

Mmm
That's a pain.

I've managed to set up a Upnp server and that is certainly streaming
mpegs and so on to UPNP because VLC can pick em up..

So I guess you could rip the DVDS to disk first :-(

It will display my photos on my NAS via Upnp. It will also display live
TV from my PC using the DVBviewer recording service Upnp facility.

It can get its own firmware updates from the Internet. It came with a
free blue ray player which has similar network facilities.

They do make it all so BLOODY complicated.


Its not. Our SONY play's off a Mem stick and cards shoved in the right
sockets, quite impressive if you need to bore anyone with the holiday
pix. It does play off a streaming VLC server and a number of other
online services both audio and visual.

If I were faced with the same problem its one thing I wouldn't do and
thats make up a TV from a 'puter screen!.

We also had at the same time a SONY Blu ray CD player and the definition
on that is excellent, and that also is Ethernet connected you can do
much the same thighs thru that as the TV.

We also have a Dreambox satellite receiver for her indoors for
French and German TV thats got an inbuilt 1 TB hard drive and very easy
that is to use too as a TV recorder also Ethernet connected...

She also has a SAT receiver in her TV to record furrign TV progs. Can
replay that thru the PC or over the LAN to the main TV..

No problems at all playing most anything..

What we do do is to sit down, watch the TV, and forget about the Tech
involved...




--
Tony Sayer

On 30/10/2012 17:20, Tim Streater wrote:
In article ,
The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Basically ageing TVs are dying and SWMBO wants a new fancy one..

Now we have TV tuners on our 'puters and can record on them on the
server which can dish up MP4s or mpegs via Windows NFS or Mac file
sharing protocols...and lossa TVS seem to come with ethernet
sockets...and I am fairly sure there's a bit of CAT5 curled up behind
the faceplate in the room where...

..but the real things is how these stupid pieces of consumer ****
actually can be setup - I mean half of them seem to expect you to plug
in a USB drive or simply want to grab Iplayer content..

What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will
be raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts
being watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

So tell me all the woes of latest consumer TV kit...

We got a new Panny 32" TX-L32E5B with Internet in April. Since we are
using it in another room than before, that required new cabling to be
run, and we had some cat5 run at the same time so I can plug the other
end into the Netgear. We've only used iPlayer so far, but that seems to
work fine even on HD. Not really looked into other network related
features, but it would be nice to be able to do what you describe.


Had a Freeview HD Panny TX-L32S20B for about 2 years now. Bought a
'named' brand on the ground that it would be supported (as the Freeview
HD branding implied) for iPlayer and other networked services.

It helps itself to an IP address but does nothing else. No firmware
updates, the new IP delivered channels return 'not supported'. Also the
media player from SD card uses only an un-reproducable undocumented
AVCHD structure and was never usable.

So, very much down to the manufacturer commitment (in this case none),
YMMV :-(

Nice IPS display panel though.

Chris K

On Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:32:35 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 31/10/12 10:35, Mark wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:27:37 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 30/10/12 18:49, Theo Markettos wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

Not quite what you wanted, but look at
http://www.raspbmc.com/about/

It's a 'separate box', but it's tiny, cheap, and does what /you/ want, not
what the TV manufacturer's interns knocked up on Friday afternoon.

Theo

huge fun. I tried XBMC bit although it could see the DNLA files getting
it to play them was nigh on impossible. It seems to be a typical 'glossy
interface that probably does what you want, but **** knows what magic
combination of screen clicks is the magic formula'

And I doubt the Pi has the wherewithal to drive a HD res screen.

FWIW The Pi can output 1080p.

its 1920 x 1080 innit?

Yep.


Or run a HDTV tuner..

That would be more tricky.

Not really if the latest Linux kernel is used..pretty good support for
normal DTV by USB dongle..not so sure about HDTV - precious few dingles
there.

I don't know what the power requirements of such a "dongle" would be.
They might work off a powered up (or not).


I do say tho that IF I could only get a decent large monitor cheaper
than a TV id do the roll yer own job.

Probably the best way, albeit more expensive. It's strange a large
monitor is the same price as a TV since it carrys less tax.

Yerrss. TBH a TV is less cost than an equivalent monitor and generally
has a better viewing angle.

I guess viewing angles for monitors is not so important. However they
all use the same kinds of tech. Maybe TVs are usually IPS and
monitors TN, but then the monitors should be cheaper.
--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) If a man stands in a forest and no woman is around
(")_(") is he still wrong?

Chris K wrote:
On 30/10/2012 17:20, Tim Streater wrote:
[snip]


We got a new Panny 32" TX-L32E5B

Had a Freeview HD Panny

sigh

Would it really hurt to type "Panasonic"?

--
€¢DarWin|
_/ _/

Dave Liquorice wrote:
I think that sums 'em up. Fine if you want YouTube or Netflix and other
dross but useless when it comes to playing stuff from LAN based server.
The advertising will push DLNA and playing stuff over the LAN but what
they conviently miss out is the file formats that the telly can cope
with. Many tellies are very restricted, so you have to jump through loads
of hoops to get stuff into a format the telly can handle. Not to mention
the very basic text only based "file manager" interface to the server.

I suspect the 'smart TV' is in the same genre as the TV with integrated
VHS... nice at the time, but how much use does the VHS get nowadays?
YouTube, iPlayer, etc change formats every five minutes so it's even worse -
and the manufacturers seem to think 5 years is a sufficient lifespan. So get
used to having a separate box (which can do decode and PVR and all the rest)
- much easier to replace or upgrade the box than having to ditch the whole
thing. Just get a telly/monitor with lots of HDMI inputs - it's just a
display device after all.

Theo

On 31/10/12 13:50, Mark wrote:
On Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:32:35 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 31/10/12 10:35, Mark wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2012 22:27:37 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

On 30/10/12 18:49, Theo Markettos wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
What would be mice is a 32" HD TV (Digital terrestrial tuner)that can
read a network drive and play the content thereon - content that will be
raw MP4 style files.

And it would be nice, but not essential - if it could record wahts being
watched there as well.

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

Not quite what you wanted, but look at
http://www.raspbmc.com/about/

It's a 'separate box', but it's tiny, cheap, and does what /you/ want, not
what the TV manufacturer's interns knocked up on Friday afternoon.

Theo

huge fun. I tried XBMC bit although it could see the DNLA files getting
it to play them was nigh on impossible. It seems to be a typical 'glossy
interface that probably does what you want, but **** knows what magic
combination of screen clicks is the magic formula'

And I doubt the Pi has the wherewithal to drive a HD res screen.

FWIW The Pi can output 1080p.

its 1920 x 1080 innit?

Yep.


Or run a HDTV tuner..

That would be more tricky.

Not really if the latest Linux kernel is used..pretty good support for
normal DTV by USB dongle..not so sure about HDTV - precious few dingles
there.

I don't know what the power requirements of such a "dongle" would be.
They might work off a powered up (or not).


well the one here feels like about 250mW.


I do say tho that IF I could only get a decent large monitor cheaper
than a TV id do the roll yer own job.

Probably the best way, albeit more expensive. It's strange a large
monitor is the same price as a TV since it carrys less tax.

Yerrss. TBH a TV is less cost than an equivalent monitor and generally
has a better viewing angle.

I guess viewing angles for monitors is not so important. However they
all use the same kinds of tech. Maybe TVs are usually IPS and
monitors TN, but then the monitors should be cheaper.


Market not as big and less price sensitive I think.



--
Ineptocracy

(in-ep-toc-ra-cy) €“ a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.

On Sat, 3 Nov 2012 09:49:43 -0000, "Zapp Brannigan"
wrote:


"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
news:k6p4hr$gn5

I don't want to by a separate box..And budget is limited to £500

WDTVLive is smaller than a paperback and costs £100.

Only drawback I've found with it is the closed source nature of it.
There's an alternative OS, but it only runs on a couple of models and
the one sold in the UK isn't one of them, unfortunately.
This means I can't reconfigure it to recognise online sources that
aren't already in its firmware, which is a pita.
Otoh, it plays everything I throw at it over the LAN, it works happily
with Serviio on the PC and once I got used to the slightly quirky but
fairly easy to navigate menus, it was ok.