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Home Setup, advice and scolding welcomed


salphonso

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salphonso

Hello All,

 

I am a new member but have lurked for a while.  I have switched to Media Browser from Plex, not 100% but it is a WIP.  My setup in theory will look like this:

 

Main Server:

Will run MediaBrowser Server and WMC for live TV

Main NAS:

Unraid box with 6 TB storage for Movies, Music, and recorded TV

 

Room 1:

Roku 3 

 

Room 2:

Samsung Smart TV with MediaBrowser App

 

After testing I will add more rooms.

 

My main questions are:

1. Would I be better off just building cheap mini HTPC's and put Media Browser Theatre on them and use a WMC remote in each room?

2. Is the guide function available on the Samsung tv app?

3. I asked it in another thread that I just replied on but I'll ask again on this one, Can you play converted drm recorded TV on any device once converted?  Plan on using MCEBuddy to automatically do this.

4. I have spent weeks searching and could not find any reliable info, What would you say you need resource related on the server, for each stream (HD 1080p/i)?  I only use mp4 format currently.  Tried out the apple ecosystem (don't ask why, please) so everything was always transcoded to that format.

 

Thanks in advance.  Love the work you all are doing and the community here is great.  Hopefully I can contribute some in the near future.

 

-Scott

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1. Depends what your requirements are. I have a Samsung F8000 TV in my lounge and use the Samsung Smart TV app on it.

 

2. No, not yet.

 

3. If DRM has been removed, then all clients should play it.

 

4. Not 100% sure what you're asking. My TV shows and movies are mainly MKVs and all clients play them, either transcoded (Roku/NOW TV, Chromecast) or direct played (MBC, MBT and the Samsung Smart TV app).

 

Hope this helps.

 

.

Edited by CBers
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salphonso

Thanks for the answers CBers.  As for the fourth question, I have a core 2 duo E8400, 4 GB RAM machine that is acting as MediaBrowser/WMC Server.  Basically, I was wondering if that is enough to feed 4 simultaneous HD streams.  I was searching for some sort of spec sheet that would say ffmpeg uses 'x'% of so and so cpu and 'y' amount of RAM to stream and transcode 1 HD1080p stream (18Gb file).  I know it does not use anything for direct play but transcoding can be resource intensive and was looking for some sort of guideline to decide if I need to build a new machine.  Hope that clears that up a little.

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Well, with the new throttling of ffmpeg released in the latest beta build, you shouldn't have to many problems, but you'll have to see how things perform.

 

You can adjust the transcoding settings in the Dashboard and see what copes best.

 

Will the streams be wired or wireless? If wireless, you may have issues with just a single stream.

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The Baron

Regarding the transcoding question, the answer lies in 2 parts, the first is the server's ability to handle multiple 1080p sessions. I would suggest testing the server to see how many 1080p sessions it can handle. Also, remember that files that have a different bitrates, so one file may be in 1080p and have a bit rate of 3000, for example, while another may have a bitrate of 10,000.

 

Remember that you only need to transcode at the file's bitrate, anything above that is just a waste of CPU cycles. If it is encoded at 1080p/2 Mbps, for example, you only need to stream the file at that rate - another variable to play with.

 

The other thing to check is the bandwidth available on the network, you may come up against bottlenecks if you are running multiple transcoding sessions to the server. Once again, test to see if you hit a ceiling over the LAN/Wifi network.

 

Either way, test your setup, it is the best way to define where you may be hitting a performance wall.

 

Apologies for not having a definitive answer to your query, speaking from person experience, its worth testing your setup. I find that every setup has its own particularities.

Edited by The Baron
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salphonso

Thanks for the responses.  I have some stuff to look for and test.  Everything is wired.  I wires the house in shielded Cat6 when we moved in.  2-4 drops per room.  Only things that use wifi in this house are phones, tablets, and laptops when not at desk.

 

Most of my movies are a 6k bitrate with a few around 10k.  Not sure what bitrate recorded TV will be at through HDHomeRun/WMC.

 

My network is all gigabit devices, that being said I have never tested the bandwidth to see where its threshold is. Do you have any software recomendation that can benchmark network bandwidth?  Only one I have ever used here at the office is lan speed test.  Not sure if there is any better ones out there.  Once I get home I will run that one to see what it gets.

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The Baron

I recommend using the built in Performance Monitor tool in Windows. It will show you the load on both the CPU and Network adapter card on the server.when a device is transcoding video.

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Scott84Z28

Thanks for the responses.  I have some stuff to look for and test.  Everything is wired.  I wires the house in shielded Cat6 when we moved in.  2-4 drops per room.  Only things that use wifi in this house are phones, tablets, and laptops when not at desk.

 

Most of my movies are a 6k bitrate with a few around 10k.  Not sure what bitrate recorded TV will be at through HDHomeRun/WMC.

 

My network is all gigabit devices, that being said I have never tested the bandwidth to see where its threshold is. Do you have any software recomendation that can benchmark network bandwidth?  Only one I have ever used here at the office is lan speed test.  Not sure if there is any better ones out there.  Once I get home I will run that one to see what it gets.

 

If you want to test the throughput of your LAN, use iperf.  It's a simply command line tool.  You run it in server mode on one machine, and in client mode on the other and it does a 10 second speed test.

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salphonso

Ok, so I have been busy the past few days, dropping Cat6 and rerouting coax. The attic is loads of fun in the Southern Summer heat.  that being said, we have a successful start.  HDHomeRun with a Charter Motorola Cable Card and Motorola Tuner.  Successfully streaming to WMC and a Samsung Smart TV in HD.  The Samsung can natively connect yo the HDHomerun via DLNA.  Currently configuring MCEBuddy for automated conversion and relocation of recorded TV.  The tuning adapter may be unnecessary since I don't subscribe to any premiums (HBO, CMAX, etc.)  I will test with the Roku via MediaBrowser next.

 

Also, everything is working perfectly as far as streaming my movie collection through Media Browser.  All my videos are transcoded to mp4 via handbrake so they should direct play which they did.  But I was able to stream 2 mkv being transcoded without a hitch.  Network bandwidth is not my problem for doing more.  I need to upgrade this CPU if transcoding will take place.

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MKV files should play natively to the Rokus, although you may find the audio is transcoded - check the ffmpeg log for Stream Copy of the video.

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  • 2 weeks later...
salphonso

Ok, so after some testing and tinkering I finally have the setup I think I will end up going with for the rooms.  It is a little bit more than buying rokus/fireTv/etc but worth it imo.  I went with an Intel NUC DCCP847DYE with XBMCBuntu installed.  Put in the XBMB3C addon with a Titan Browser Skin.  This little box performs better than what I thought it would.  It is very quick and smooth.  It is connected to the network via ethernet and it is a gigabit network.  I also am able to stream live tv to it and get all the channels now that I have the tuning adapter working.  Below is a link to a little youtube video of me going through some menus and playing some video.  Sorry for the quality, I could not get a screen capture program to work via terminal in XBMCBuntu so I just took the video with my phone.  Only thing left to do is get some emulators and see what the NUC can do with games.

 

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Spaceboy

what the NUC can do with games.

 

Nothing above psx is my findings. Interested to hear how you get on though

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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salphonso

I am having little luck finding posts on gamebrowser implementation into xbmb3c.  Any insight or link you can point me to would be very helpful.  I have it setup on the MediaBrowser server end but can figure out how to get to it from the client end.

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