LeftForPlex 8 Posted July 31, 2014 Share Posted July 31, 2014 So... at least once a year I take a long trip with my kids for vacation, sometimes more often. Last week we went to Disney and drove, which ends up being a 12 1/2-14 hour drive. Being that there are not many fun activities right off of 95, the kids (7 and 10) fill their time with their iPad Mini's and 3ds XL's. That being said..... games get old, and I am not going to spend massive amounts of time transcoding movies. Netflix works mostly, but there are area's where LTE coverage is spotty, and it is tough to get a signal, plus that eats into my data caps. My thought is to build something atom or i3 powered, that would stay in the car, and run MB3, with a large SSD drive attached. The boys could then attach to the Wifi access point using the MB3 app, or Safari/Chrome, and be able to watch movies like they always do. They have been using MediaBrowser since the early days. What is the best route to take here? Do I go the Intel NUC route? Just buy a laptop? Since transcoding will be necessary I know anything ARM based most likely will not work. Thoughts? Thanks, Marcus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tharnax 49 Posted July 31, 2014 Share Posted July 31, 2014 I'm my personal opinion, I'd go the laptop route. Laptops, more importantly accessories, are more automobile friendly for a laptop then an Intel NUC plus I think you'd be better of with a more "desktop" configured laptop then a "mobile" laptop. By that I mean, you'll want the laptop to have at least an i5 for potentially multi-streaming to different devices as well larger laptops can usually hold two drives in case you want to expand in the future. The benefit of the laptop is it can also be used to watch the video directly or game on, where as an NUC unless you plan on setting up connectivity to a couple rear seat screens, it won't have a lot of other uses in the car. Also, I think it would be easier to resolve any technical difficulties with a laptop as opposed to an NUC since it'll have a keyboard, mouse and monitor built in. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14902 Posted August 1, 2014 Share Posted August 1, 2014 We're working right now on a feature that will allow you to sync content to such devices. It will take some time to mature but that will ultimately be your answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftForPlex 8 Posted August 1, 2014 Author Share Posted August 1, 2014 We're working right now on a feature that will allow you to sync content to such devices. It will take some time to mature but that will ultimately be your answer. Sync content to a Raspberry Pie, and then allow it to serve content to iPAD's, or do you mean something like a NUC? For right now I picked up a Raspberry Pie to play around with XBMC. Worst case I can always use it for something else. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14902 Posted August 1, 2014 Share Posted August 1, 2014 No, I mean sync content directly to your MB app on your phone or tablet and play it from there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A8HTPC 38 Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 You could also get an external USB portable hard drive, copy some movies to that and plug it into your laptop. have MBS point to the external. Not sure if you could use the external on a Ipad or something similar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftForPlex 8 Posted August 2, 2014 Author Share Posted August 2, 2014 No, I mean sync content directly to your MB app on your phone or tablet and play it from there. Any chance that will be out by next wed? =) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefirstofthe300 291 Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 At the pace the server releases are coming, I wouldn't be suprised to see them pass Plex in number of implemented features by the end of the year. And the features will probably be of greater quality too. Good grief you guys move fast!!! And I am REALLY looking forward to seeing the possibility of being able to sync content in the next several months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14902 Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 Any chance that will be out by next wed? =) lol - no. I keep a server on my laptop and copy content manually right now but the syncing feature will be great when it is done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A8HTPC 38 Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 (edited) At the pace the server releases are coming, I wouldn't be suprised to see them pass Plex in number of implemented features by the end of the year. And the features will probably be of greater quality too. Good grief you guys move fast!!! And I am REALLY looking forward to seeing the possibility of being able to sync content in the next several months. MB needs to move out of Alpha before remotely catching up to plex. There are new features coming im sure but still has stability issues. I don't see this happening this year. MB has huge potential...just slow coming Edited August 2, 2014 by A8HTPC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14902 Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 Did you mean MBT? it is the only component I know of that is in alpha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A8HTPC 38 Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 (edited) MBS is officailly out of alpha? What stage is it at? I thought the whole MB software group was still in Alpha. Edited August 2, 2014 by A8HTPC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefirstofthe300 291 Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 MBS is officailly out of alpha? What stage is it at? I thought the whole MB software group was still in Alpha. Correct me if I am wrong @@ebr. The server itself is considered stable on the Windows platform. Linux and OSX servers are still in beta but have feature parity with the Windows server. I am not sure when they are going to consider the Linux and OSX servers stable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebr 14902 Posted August 2, 2014 Share Posted August 2, 2014 Yes, the server on the Windows platform has had stable releases for months now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftForPlex 8 Posted August 7, 2014 Author Share Posted August 7, 2014 lol - no. I keep a server on my laptop and copy content manually right now but the syncing feature will be great when it is done. This is for my kids when they drive with my ex this weekend. I don't trust any of them enough to give them a laptop that won't break =) I ended up picking up a Raspberry Pi, installing minidlna, and making it a wifi access point. While I had to transcode all the videos to be watched, it simply works. In the future I may entertain having a Intel NUC or something like it running in my car with MB3. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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