DavidinCT wrote:OK, I know a LOT of people use MediaBrowser, I never have but, I have heard really good things about it. Today looking through deals, I saw an app for Windows Phone and how I can stream movies to my phone and even live tv and recorded tv (NON-DRM shows). Neat ! I am still using the default Movie Library in WMC with about 350 or so movies, most Blue-ray rips (will be moving to 4K when available)
This is the one thing that I really want for my HTPC, from the time of having Webguide on XP MCE, I have not found a good streaming option. I would like to use this on my Windows Phone and a web browser.
The setup looks a little complex due to tons of options but, here is what I am looking for. When I open the program, I just want to see my movies as I want to use it as a replacement for the buggy movie library in WMC. SO I would remove the Movie Library from WMC and replace it with Media Browser. I want other options available, so when I connect via my phone, I can see recorded shows and possibly live tv/guide. I want these parts completely hidden from WMC or an extender. Can this be done ?
With this being said, how is Extender (360), compatibility ? Does the menus/ movie list perform as well as on the WMC or how the ML works ? Does this app use any codecs or anything that could cause movies not to play on a Extender ? Is it any better in this aspect ?
Install, is this just Server> then the WMC front end, everything is configured on the server and the front end just is what WMC sees ? Any overhead on the machine it's on for resources ?
Thanks, would like to give this shot this weekend
I'll try and answer some of your questions.. I use MB3 on my own HTPC (Windows 7) as well as Windows Phone.
I have the Windows Phone app, as well as the Windows 8.1 apps and Android Apps on my daughters (2) Android Tablets.
You set up the server on the HTPC or Server of your choice. I set the server up on my main HTPC as well as Media Browser Classic plug in for WMC. (Yes both server and Client for WMC can be installed on the same PC.) It then serves all my clients on my network, my phone via Wi-Fi or on Cell Data, or over the internet through a web browser. (It's really slick).
There is some configuring to do, It's not a ton of work but I would plan out a good part of the day to do some setup and configuring as you will have server setup as well as forwarding ports on your router etc to do for access away from your home network.
The layout and display (theme options) for Media Browser Classic are good. I use Chocolate at the moment it seems to be the most frequently updated (stable) theme I have found.
I have Movies, TV Shows, Channels(streaming tv channels like revision 3 etc.) and Music on the HTPC that I have setup With Media Browser. I never liked the default movie library in WMC and Media Browser was a much better looking experience and now with all the streaming options it's just awesome. Most of my archived TV and Movies are in .MKV format and the server transcodes and plays them to all my devices.
I messed around with Live TV a bit when it was first added to MB3 but it was a bit buggy at first. I am sure it is better now but I mainly use it for my movies and archived TV. But If I remember correctly there is a guide and you are able to set recordings etc from media Browser 3. and its hidden from the regular Media Browser interface in WMC, it uses a backend service like ServerWMC or NEXT PVR which allows you access to the guide and tuners for live tv playback. (It's a bit complicated and you will need to do some reading on the MB3 website on setting all that up. like I said I tinkered with it early on but haven't tried again recently.) I used ServerWMC.
Xbox 360 compatibility.. Well at the moment this is not quite that good on an extender. Most of my collection is in .MKV with multi channel audio and I just can't seem to get some movies to play. If I had all my movies in .MP4 it would work better. However I do not at this time want to re-encode 600+ Movies.. Plex has an app for the 360 and XBOX One. I think that Media Browser will soon follow suit and release their own apps for both platforms. I know they are or were already working on a XBOX One app. I am hoping a Xbox 360 app comes at some point as well as I have 3 Xbox I would like an app for.
As far as Codec's go, I was dead set against using any codec packs for a long time. With the introduction of LAV filters I have found bliss with these and being able to play my Multi-channel audio through my AVR and also having the ability to allow MB3 to transcode any audio source to all my mobile devices. I followed this tutorial on setting up LAV and it worked great!
http://www.thehtpc.net/htpc-tips-and-tw ... subtitles/
You will install the server on the machine that you want doing all the heavy lifting (ie all the transcoding to mobile devices etc. My HTPC has a core i7 and 16GB of ram and has more power than my WHS (Core 2 Duo and 4 GB of RAM). Once the server is set up you will install the Media Browser Classic Client on the PC With WMC that you use. you will configure that to connect to the Server. Most all of the setup is then done on the server. Make sure you read up on its setup on the MB3 site. It will make things smoother. It's pretty easy to set up now and it's changed a bit since launch to be easier in fact. When the machine is transcoding it does work the CPU a little bit until it transcodes far enough ahead.. but I have never had it interfere with any other tasks the pc might be running. I think you would be pretty happy with it once it's all set up the way you like.
If you have any questions just PM me and I'll try and help you out over the weekend. I have to work Saturday Morning but should be home the rest of the weekend (off and on).
I hope this helps you out a little bit.. Also the MB Client for Windows Phone just got a big (Awesome) update..
newfiend~