Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Vocalpoint]

No pain here as I would never use a browser for any sort of media presentation  - except maybe YouTube type stuff on my own workstation.

We have Roku and the apps (NetFlix, Prime and Crave) on the new Samsung TV and it handles it all perfectly. Plus onDemand from our cable provider. No issues finding or resuming anything.

For the ripped home movie collection - we of course use MC. And for owned BluRay - I still lean on the good ole Oppo BDP-205.

But like others have said - movies will never be easy to work with from a studio perspective. Sounds expensive. Like really expensive.

VP

[stewart_pk]

So here's the idea in a very simple way.

There are two stages.

1.  Build a front end that searches for movies, keeps login information for multiple services, gets metadata, plays trailers, and then plays the movie you select.  It also keeps track of where you've been and what you played.  For playback, it uses a browser.

I potentially have a problem with this.
Browsers are OK but by far not the best way to consume material on a Windows HTPC.
The best way is the native apps such as the Windows 10 Netflix app and the Microsoft Films & TV app.
Both provide some 4K content, surround sound, Netflix can even provide 4K HDR.
The last time I checked 4K, 4K HDR and surround sound won't come out of a web browser.
The above mentioned apps will even remember the last few things you've watched and will resume right where you left off.
So, I'm quite concerned the browser option will be left wanting.

[stewart_pk]

No pain here as I would never use a browser for any sort of media presentation  - except maybe YouTube type stuff on my own workstation.

We have Roku and the apps (NetFlix, Prime and Crave) on the new Samsung TV and it handles it all perfectly. Plus onDemand from our cable provider. No issues finding or resuming anything.

For the ripped home movie collection - we of course use MC. And for owned BluRay - I still lean on the good ole Oppo BDP-205.

But like others have said - movies will never be easy to work with from a studio perspective. Sounds expensive. Like really expensive.

VP

Apple TV for streaming.

JR MC for ripped movies.

Sony X-800 for discs.

No pain at all.

You've seemingly avoided the pain by avoiding JRiver, but I'm not sure how that helps those who haven chosen not to.

My HTPC running JRiver is my only audio source into my amplifier making it my digital pre-amp as such.

[Vocalpoint]

You've seemingly avoided the pain by avoiding JRiver, but I'm not sure how that helps those who haven chosen not to.

Can't help you with your choices, my friend.

On demand streaming 4K/HDR content via an easy to use and dependable interface (Roku, app, smart TV etc) is king now - with a singular goal of getting it to the family living room in the most trouble free way.

@Hilton said it best

"If I'm at my PC, it's always MC that I use, and if it's my own audio collection, there's no other product near MC quality or capability.... but... everywhere else is now an APP. Its just easier, it works and I can, as others have said, search with Google Assistant and it will tell me if it's in my library, or on Google or wherever, and I can then select and play it. All using my Harmony Elite Remote."

Except for the Google part - this is me. Even with the Harmony remote.

Trust me when I tell you that I tried for years to get MC as the centerpiece but my family had their say long ago. The "easy to use" part was the last straw for them. In the end - I really had no choice but to pare it back to what I described.

Continued success with your efforts.

VP

 

[mojave]

A current issue with browser playback is that there is no support for any of the immersive audio formats (Dolby Atmos) or for 4K UHD playback. On a Windows 10 PC, the Netflix App is required for 4K UHD playback with Dolby Atmos. There currently isn't a PC solution for Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, & Vudu.

[stewart_pk]

Can't help you with your choices, my friend.

On demand streaming 4K/HDR content via an easy to use and dependable interface (Roku, app, smart TV etc) is king now - with a singular goal of getting it to the family living room in the most trouble free way.

@Hilton said it best

"If I'm at my PC, it's always MC that I use, and if it's my own audio collection, there's no other product near MC quality or capability.... but... everywhere else is now an APP. Its just easier, it works and I can, as others have said, search with Google Assistant and it will tell me if it's in my library, or on Google or wherever, and I can then select and play it. All using my Harmony Elite Remote."

Except for the Google part - this is me. Even with the Harmony remote.

Trust me when I tell you that I tried for years to get MC as the centerpiece but my family had their say long ago. The "easy to use" part was the last straw for them. In the end - I really had no choice but to pare it back to what I described.

Continued success with your efforts.

VP

Don't worry I totally understand. My family only operate a separate television with a ChromeCast. 

[stewart_pk]

A current issue with browser playback is that there is no support for any of the immersive audio formats (Dolby Atmos) or for 4K UHD playback. On a Windows 10 PC, the Netflix App is required for 4K UHD playback with Dolby Atmos. There currently isn't a PC solution for Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, & Vudu.

Agreed and that was the point I was trying to make.
Just wrapping services up into the inbuilt browser will most likely lack 4K, HDR, surround sound let alone ATMOS.
So even as someone who only uses a HTPC as my source, I probably wouldn't even use that functionality.
Especially if Amazon and Disney come out with their own apps because it would quite likely render internal browser playback obsolete for those services.
It would probably be obsolete from day one for Netflix, Microsoft Films & TV and most likely any service that currently has a Windows App.

[Awesome Donkey]

Another potential issue is the Chromium embedded browser (CEF) MC uses for Chromium lacks the Widevine CDM plugin needed for the DRM the streaming services use. CEF stopped shipping it some time ago and I'm not even sure it's possible/legal to bundle it or not.

[darky]

the big problem is not having all the movies and series in one place online ( to rent or buy),
You need an extra job to pay them all if you have different people in the house with different taste.

[RD James]

the big problem is not having all the movies and series in one place online ( to rent or buy),
You need an extra job to pay them all if you have different people in the house with different taste.

Buying one new UHD Blu-ray here ($30) is enough to pay for a month of Netflix ($16), Prime Video ($6), Disney Plus ($7), and have money left over.
As I said in my post, I'm not all-in on streaming, but I certainly see the appeal.
Dealing with HTPC stuff is just a hassle these days; when it used to be the more convenient option than maintaining a physical library of discs. It hasn't evolved and has been leapfrogged by online services.

[Vocalpoint]

Dealing with HTPC stuff is just a hassle these days; when it used to be the more convenient option than maintaining a physical library of discs. It hasn't evolved and has been leapfrogged by online services.

+1

HTPC is all but gone here too - I cannot handle the hassles any longer. The Roku and Samsung apps (on our new QLED TV) are instant on, instant search and instant show time.

The Roku is truly killer as it uses our existing MC DLNA connection and plays all our movies faster and easier than MC can do it.

It finally dawned on me that I am now basically maintaining my MC (media server) install as nothing more that a DLNA access point and have no need to use MC to actually play anything anymore.

The best part of this new reality (for me) is no more family tech support - they simply grab the remote and go.

VP

[RD James]

+1

HTPC is all but gone here too - I cannot handle the hassles any longer. The Roku and Samsung apps (on our new QLED TV) are instant on, instant search and instant show time.
The Roku is truly killer as it uses our existing MC DLNA connection and plays all our movies faster and easier than MC can do it.
It finally dawned on me that I am now basically maintaining my MC (media server) install as nothing more that a DLNA access point and have no need to use MC to actually play anything anymore.
The best part of this new reality (for me) is no more family tech support - they simply grab the remote and go.

VP

In my setup, Media Center isn't even doing that. Infuse on the Apple TV pulls directly from the network share. I could run it all from a NAS.
MC is only used for streaming music via JRemote, and not often at that, since there's no convenient search option or voice commands, and I'm not really adding to or maintaining it much any more.
I also recently suffered a large loss of data due to some drive failures, which has pushed me further in this direction. A 4TB Samsung SSD that wasn't even six months old managed to fail in such a way that it took down an entire SATA controller while it was connected to the PC, which corrupted a lot of data.
 
I said that this is the direction JRiver needed to head in years ago.
Library browsing/management tools are dying; rich search-based navigation via convenient apps is the way forward.
 
Media Center is still great for DVD playback - nothing matches the quality of madVR combined with MC's VideoClock feature.
But I don't have many DVDs now, and there's no convenient way to integrate that into my home theater setup any more.
I've been thinking about doing something like using screen capture software to 'bake' the output from that into an MKV file I can play on any device without issues for those remaining videos. There may even be a better way that can transcode it with that processing applied directly.

[Manfred]

For playing a movie or a series from amazon prime etc. on TV I also never use the browser of my connected MC based renderer. I use the App's on my LG Smart TV.

Nevertheless I would never give away my MC based media renderer with madVR. WHy? Watching music concerts using madVR the picture quality is stunning and sound quality through Devialet AIR or Devialet USB Asio driver is a magnitude better then feeding the TV via HDMI audio and putting it out via optical to the Devialet.

A JRiver MC App for SMART TV with some price tag would be very welcome. This would lead to a architecture: Local MC Server->Endpoint Device. I have this for audio Local MC Server->Devialet AIR->Devialet D220 Pro.

For video it would then Local MC Server->streaming protocol t.b.d.->Smart TV with MC App. and for high end picture and qudio quality  Local MC Server->streaming protocol t.b.d.->local media renderer->Devialet/TV

I have also tried Apple TV with Infuse, but I don't like the sound quality through HDMI->TV->optical-> Devialet. Also the picture quality was not the same as with madVR.  But for series and movies I could live with it - not for music concerts.

[stewart_pk]

It seems like this got split off the "Dreaming of Movies" thread.
Of course I use a browser for media because how else am I going to consume Amazon and Disney+ for example on my HTPC?

[RD James]

Of course I use a browser for media because how else am I going to consume Amazon and Disney+ for example on my HTPC?

The apps?
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/amazon-prime-video-us/9nblggh4vgd7
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/disney/9nxqxxlfst89
 
But I'd much rather use something like an Apple TV or other streaming device/smart TV app.
 
EDIT: Even though these were showing in the Microsoft Store for me, apparently they're Xbox-only. Says a lot about the state of HTPCs to be honest.

[stewart_pk]

EDIT: Even though these were showing in the Microsoft Store for me, apparently they're Xbox-only.

Yes, I've been tricked by that one before.

Says a lot about the state of HTPCs to be honest.

You got it. The want for HTPC's is seemingly going down and has been for some time and that can only mean the want is going down for JRiver, KODI, MediaPortal etc.

[JimH]

The want for HTPC's is seemingly going down and has been for some time and that can only mean the want is going down for JRiver, KODI, MediaPortal etc.

Just as a data point, our sales are up a little.

[BryanC]

On that note - I am testing Plex here now and I have to say - this could be the game changer for us. It has apps for all our viewing vectors (Smart TV, Roku, iPad and to a much lesser degree - Desktop) and so far seems to work flawlessly with all of them.

Now - of course it does not have the tech factor that MC does (at least without a Plex Pass) but the ease of use and streaming movie playback (of our home library) is indistinguishable from the same from coming from the MC HTPC. The bottom line for this is that the family is not looking for technical achievements or how good something looks and sounds - they just want to watch the movie - and do it as easily as possible.

I am not too far from seeing myself using just a single instance of MC (on my PC) as a library/organizer/metadata editor and letting the Plex apps join the others (Netflix, Prime Video and Crave) do all the heavy lifting around the house for media consumption.

VP

The quality of Plex streams to my Roku TV are far inferior than the rendering provided by madVR. It's the only thing keeping Windows on my HTPC. Maybe 10-bit 4k content that doesn't have to be upscaled is fine, but most of my rips are 1080p. The difference is stark enough to justify keeping the old 300W HTPC in operation as opposed to switching to a 5-15W NUC, Udoo, Pi, RockPro, etc., which I would much prefer.

[Vocalpoint]

The quality of Plex streams to my Roku TV are far inferior than the rendering provided by madVR. It's the only thing keeping Windows on my HTPC. Maybe 10-bit 4k content that doesn't have to be upscaled is fine, but most of my rips are 1080p. The difference is stark enough to justify keeping the old 300W HTPC in operation as opposed to switching to a 5-15W NUC, Udoo, Pi, RockPro, etc., which I would much prefer.

Understood. Our Roku (Premiere+) is connected to the "family" Panasonic TV upstairs where no one cares about a quality review. It's just movie time. But I get it - MC definitely has some cool tech - but only I would appreciate that

VP

[stewart_pk]

Just as a data point, our sales are up a little.

Well I'm a bit surprised.
Perhaps this is the high watermark.
I think you have a fairly strong support base that probably upgrade year after year.
But I wonder if that support base actually use the product like they did five years ago.