List of Media Servers

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Hub Discussions
1

Here’s a list of just a few media servers for those that are interested.

Playon - it contains both a free version and a premium version.  For content like Hulu you will need the premium version.

TVersity - it contains both a free version and premium (pro) version.  Same as Playon.

FUPPES - is a free, multiplatform UPnP A/V Media Server.

MediaTomb - is an open source (GPL) UPnP MediaServer with a nice web user interface, it allows you to stream your

                     digital media through your home network and listen to/watch it on a variety of UPnP compatible devices.

Mezzmo - allows you to stream all your music, movies and photos from your computer to your TV, home theater, games 

                 consoles and digital media appliances.

 MythTV - a Free and Open Source alternative to Windows Media Center or Tivo.  Is also flexable client/server

                architecture allows multiple frontend client machines to access content served by one or more backend servers

                (although the most common installation consists of a single computer running both the client and server

                 together). 

Nero MediaHome 4 - Stream music, videos, TV programs, and photos throughout your home, Organize your media

                                  libraries at the touch of a button, Stream your iTunes® files with just one click, Convert media

                                  formats automatically for any device, Access web radio stations and popular podcasts

Twonky - you already have a form of this with the HUB

Wild Media Server - (UPnP, DLNA, HTTP) - program, which provides media resources (photographs, audio and video

                                 files) on your computer to other UPnP (DLNA) devices in the home network

Windows Media Player - you should already have this on your Windows PC.

2

Could you post your experience with any of these, and which one you use currently, or which one(s) – I just got that play.on working the other day and it blew me away… Didn’t know anything like that was even possible. you totally made my entire week haha… Cant see anything surpassing it’s gigantic database of tv shows and movies… but if you’ve tried any others that offer a different realm of stuff that play on doesnt, i’d like to hear your experiences about any of these, and if you still use any of these over play on ?

3

i cannot get tversity to stream mms links with good quality on wdtv live hub.

but It transcodes and streams fine with great quality to my ps3.

4

Pulazki wrote:

Could you post your experience with any of these, and which one you use currently, or which one(s) – I just got that play.on working the other day and it blew me away… Didn’t know anything like that was even possible. you totally made my entire week haha… Cant see anything surpassing it’s gigantic database of tv shows and movies… but if you’ve tried any others that offer a different realm of stuff that play on doesnt, i’d like to hear your experiences about any of these, and if you still use any of these over play on ?

Playon & TVersity are the 2 to beat.  In my opinion Playon is probably the best, although I have used both, its’ been a while since I used TVersity.  But as I remember, it was much harder to setup and there was a much bigger learning curve with it, as where Playon is more of “FIre and Forget” program.

As for the rest in the list, some are free and some are payware, but the majority of them are simply file share media servers.  They will allow you to share your PC, but you can’t use them for internet content, or at least that is what I can figure out from reading their sites.

I only offered them up in the list because they are media servers and are available for anyone that wants to try them.

5

I first tried Nero MediaHome and its not working with our hub. The hub doesn’t see nero’s media server and when I looked for some solution, I’ve read in other forums that other wd tv users not just the hub experience the same problem so I guess thats not compatible with our device.

The next one I’ve tried which is the one that I’ve been using now is Mezzmo. Its a fairly good media server in playing videos from my laptop to the hub. I prefer using media server in playing contents from my laptop compared to network share as using network shares compiles the hub’s contents for minutes before you can use it. With media server, there is no compiling. Although this is only for PC contents and can’t use it for internet contents.

I also tried PlayOn which is a good media server if you want to watch internet videos from the hub but in my case its not useful as most internet videos requires you to be living in U.S. and I’m living in Philippines. PlayOn’s file sharing is still in beta and when I tried using it, its not working and it just says browser error so internet video watching is all it can do.

My suggestion: If you want file sharing media server, use Mezzmo but if you want internet video watching, use PlayOn or if you like both functions, use both media server as you can’t use either for both functions.

6

Yes, Playons’ “My Media” network share is in beta, and even though I don’t use this to access my shares (I prefer to browse network shares rather than use the media server), you do have to remember to install VLC media player since Playon requires VLC (as I understand it) to transcode the media.

7

XBMC and Boxee both have free Windows MC software. Anyone tested these?

8

Whilst i mainly use Playon, also have Orb installed as well

9

Boxee does not work as it is only a client for now.

XBMC is free and is a server and works with the HUB. very nice too.

10

I’ve used Twonkey Server and Twonkey Manager on my Media server for a couple of years and have been quite impressed with it.

It’s easy to use and fairly reliable (in 2 years I’ve only had to re-build the database once after corruption), there is probably better ones out there, it’s a case of  “better the devil you know”.

11

What’s xbmc?

12

http://xbmc.org/ http://xbmc.org/downloads It used to be the media center software installed through homebrew on the original XBox when someone wanted it converted to a media center. It is now designed for all kinds of platforms.

13

WHAT DO PEOPLE PRIMARLY USE IT FOR?  I went to the website, and I didn’t see anything that would benefit me.  Could someone shed some light on this?  Is it better than play on?  does it allow me to browse the web from my live hub?  And are there any major hic ups when using it?  Thanks.