Appreciate your thoughts - WMC/XBOX/NAS

Talk about setting up your home network.
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firtrees

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Appreciate your thoughts - WMC/XBOX/NAS

#1

Post by firtrees » Mon Dec 08, 2014 1:24 pm

Hi all

For a number of years I have been using a PC in my office as the media center. I then use a xbox360 in the main room as a windows media extender coupled up to a projector, and also have a couple of lincsys devices in the bedrooms. Within reason, it has all worked fine. (Its very slow to load up the recorded tv library)

So, the plan was to upgrade the network with a 1gb link (the netgear r7000 nighthawk ac1900) and put a NAS (Synology DS214play) on the network so that I have a central location for all media without the need to use WMC at all times. This is also so I can access the media over tablet devices as Iam thinking of buying a surface 2.

It sort of works, but is less than great.

The xbox will use DLNA to see the NAS drive. This allows me to see photos and videos directly without using WMC. For photos, this is ok but for videos it it terrible. Why?
  • 1 - The folder structure is lost, and all videos are in one big list.
    2 - The video app on xbox won't play the .dvr-ms (Microsoft Digital Video Recording) format.
    3- Whilst the media center will see the NAS drive it list the contents in the video library and not the recorded tv, so not differentiating between my home videos, and recorded TV/Films
    4 - I can only set media center to record to a local drive and not the NAS drive ( Read in another thread about using a service to sync as an option)
So it appears that for playing TV and Films recorded with WMC I must use the WMC interface, which is fine although disappointing, as I was hoping to be able to use other viewers, so that Iam not dependant on having the media center PC switched on all the time. And that I must duplicate all recorded files as the WMC only records to a local drive, which means the NAS is only acting as a backup and not a central server of these files unless I recode them to another format.

In summary the upgrade is great for non WMC material (Photos, videos, music), which is disappointing as all our TV, and recorded films library is through WMC.

Am I misunderstanding how to set it up properly? Or is WMC and NAS quite constrained?

Any suggestion on how to get the best from my setup appreciated. Also, how well does surface 2 tablets integrate with the WMC experience?

Cheers

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Crash2009

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Joined: Thu May 17, 2012 12:38 am
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#2

Post by Crash2009 » Tue Dec 09, 2014 3:38 am

Try putting all your recorded TV, in one folder. Do the same for Pictures and Music. In my opinion WMC loads the library faster when it does not have to dig through a bunch of folders. Movies on the other hand must be in individual folders.

I think it is possible to record to anywhere you want, Have a look in the WMC Record to section, and choose the 3rd option I believe, this allows you to map the drive you want to record to, complete with UN and PW.

Don't forget to GIG everything. Cabling-Switch, Nic's, etc.

The Surface2 should work well with your new router. Looks like it does 5 GHZ wifi. http://www.engadget.com/products/micros ... o/2/specs/

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