Streaming media over home network

[Jeff Gaines]

Currently I rip my DVDs to mkv/mp4 to stream over my home network from a
NAS to a Roku Express 4K. Process is to use an app on Linux (Brasero) to
create an iso then use that iso to create the mkv/mp4.

Copyright law in the UK allows you to make personal copies of media
(ebooks, digital music or video files etc) you have bought, for private
purposes such as format shifting or backup.

I have after what seems like years of searching found some streaming
software (Mezzmo Pro) that will actually stream the iso files direct.

But I have the following issues:

Roku media player plays them fine but I can't turn off subtitles.
The media player on my Panasonic Blu Ray has the same problem and won't
fast forward/back.
My WD TV player plays them with no sub titles but any attempt to fast
forward/back just dumps you at the beginning again.

VLC Media Player plays them as good as gold but is not available for Roku,
in fact the only streaming device it seems to install on is a Fire TV
Stick or Fire TV Cube.

Looks like I need to cough for a Cube since I don't want a dongle hanging
off my TV, I want to feed it into my HiFi along with all the other boxes.

Anybody done anything like this who can make any suggestions, not too keen
on getting sucked in to Amazon proprietary kit?

Many thanks.

[Theo]

Post by Jeff Gaines
Looks like I need to cough for a Cube since I don't want a dongle hanging
off my TV, I want to feed it into my HiFi along with all the other boxes.
Anybody done anything like this who can make any suggestions, not too keen
on getting sucked in to Amazon proprietary kit?

Not done it myself, but you could look at a Raspberry Pi running Kodi or
similar. The RPi should be able to mount the PC/NAS as a Samba share and
then loopback mount the ISOs. That way it should look to any player
software like a native DVD. Then you don't need anything to stream, it's
just regular network file traffic.

I'm not sure if there is a way to do this nicely in the UI though - but
maybe it could run a script for you.

Just an idea, especially if you have a spare Pi kicking around to play with.

Theo

[André Coutanche]

Post by Jeff Gaines
Looks like I need to cough for a Cube since I don't want a dongle
hanging off my TV, I want to feed it into my HiFi along with all the
other boxes.
Anybody done anything like this who can make any suggestions, not too
keen on getting sucked in to Amazon proprietary kit?

Not sure if what I do matches your requirements, but I play ISOs a lot
using Kodi. An earlier version of Kodi played them fine, then they
updated it and broke the playing of ISOs (wouldn't restart a partially
played ISO), then they updated again and it worked again. That was a
couple of versions ago, so I can't say whether the current version
(21.1) still plays ISOs OK.

I have a Humax Aura PVR which I ALMOST like, but it does have the
advantage of being Android based, so you can run all sorts of things on
it - including Kodi. Before I got the Humax Aura, I had a separate
Android streaming box to run Kodi on.

HTH.

André Coutanche

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by André Coutanche

Looks like I need to cough for a Cube since I don't want a dongle hanging
off my TV, I want to feed it into my HiFi along with all the other boxes.
Anybody done anything like this who can make any suggestions, not too
keen on getting sucked in to Amazon proprietary kit?

Not sure if what I do matches your requirements, but I play ISOs a lot
using Kodi. An earlier version of Kodi played them fine, then they updated
it and broke the playing of ISOs (wouldn't restart a partially played
ISO), then they updated again and it worked again. That was a couple of
versions ago, so I can't say whether the current version (21.1) still
plays ISOs OK.
I have a Humax Aura PVR which I ALMOST like, but it does have the
advantage of being Android based, so you can run all sorts of things on it
- including Kodi. Before I got the Humax Aura, I had a separate Android
streaming box to run Kodi on.
HTH.
André Coutanche

Many thanks for this :-)

I emailed Humax and asked if the Aura could play file streamed over my
home network and they said:

"We have no process in place for accessing content from your home media
server on Aura, only using the built-in FTP server only with  PC - Aura
transfer files."

Does that seem right to you? I may have worded my question badly.

[André Coutanche]

Post by Jeff Gaines
I emailed Humax and asked if the Aura could play file streamed over my
"We have no process in place for accessing content from your home media
server on Aura, only using the built-in FTP server only with  PC - Aura
transfer files."
Does that seem right to you? I may have worded my question badly.

What Humax said was right, insofar as it relates to the native Humax
Aura system. The point is that, since it is Android based, you can
install any(?) app that runs on Android - including Kodi.

So when I play ISOs on the Humax Aura, I'm actually playing them on Kodi
which is using the Humax Aura as a hardware platform. There is a button
on the Aura remote control for 'Apps' and you select Kodi from that.
That means I don't need a separate streaming box connected to the TV (or
in my case, an AV amp).

Please shout if I haven't explained that properly!

André Coutanche

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by Jeff Gaines
I emailed Humax and asked if the Aura could play file streamed over my
"We have no process in place for accessing content from your home media
server on Aura, only using the built-in FTP server only with  PC - Aura
transfer files."
Does that seem right to you? I may have worded my question badly.

What Humax said was right, insofar as it relates to the native Humax Aura
system. The point is that, since it is Android based, you can install
any(?) app that runs on Android - including Kodi.
So when I play ISOs on the Humax Aura, I'm actually playing them on Kodi
which is using the Humax Aura as a hardware platform. There is a button on
the Aura remote control for 'Apps' and you select Kodi from that. That
means I don't need a separate streaming box connected to the TV (or in my
case, an AV amp).
Please shout if I haven't explained that properly!
André Coutanche

That is excellent thank you :-)

[David Paste]

Post by Jeff Gaines
Looks like I need to cough for a Cube since I don't want a dongle
hanging off my TV, I want to feed it into my HiFi along with all the
other boxes.
Anybody done anything like this who can make any suggestions, not too
keen on getting sucked in to Amazon proprietary kit?

I have a Vero 4k+ STB which plays ISO files just fine. It's a great
little media player. I believe the software innards are Kodi. HDMI to TV
and it also has a 3.5 mm audio jack for stereo output. It'll play 10 bit
video, too, if that is useful to you.

I used to have Kodi running on a RPi 2 before I was given the Vero. The
RPi is now in service running OpenMediaVault as a server for media
files. The vero connects via Samba (as does the computer used to manage
the contents), and my other TV connects via DLNA.

DLNA only makes available certain files, and won't present ISO files but
I suspect the TV wouldn't play them anyway.

The RPi2 has so far been tested playing different 1080p video files to 4
different clients - Vero, TV, mobile phone, and iPad. It's quite useful!
But it only has a 100 mbps ethernet jack, so uploading can be slow, and
it shows how low a bitrate the video files are!

[Roderick Stewart]

Post by Jeff Gaines
Looks like I need to cough for a Cube since I don't want a dongle hanging
off my TV, I want to feed it into my HiFi along with all the other boxes.
Anybody done anything like this who can make any suggestions, not too keen
on getting sucked in to Amazon proprietary kit?

I use an HDMI selector switch followed by a pass-through audio
extractor that provides analogue audio for a hi-fi system. It's all in
a shelving unit with the other AV and hi-fi gubbins and not hanging
off the back of the TV. There's nothing plugged into the TV except a
power cable and one HDMI cable. Not even an aerial.

The streaming device is an Amazon 4K Max, but even though it's a
dongle it's behind other stuff in the shelving unit so not visible, so
I don't care what it looks like; it works.

I would suggest locating the gubbins fairly near the TV, as HDMI
doesn't behave very well with long cable lengths, though I have no
problems with a 5m cable feeding a 4K telly. HDMI repeaters are
available for longer cable runs but I have no personal experience of
using these.

Rod.

[Jeff Gaines]

Post by Jeff Gaines
Anybody done anything like this who can make any suggestions, not too keen
on getting sucked in to Amazon proprietary kit?

Many thanks for all the replies :-)

Nice variation of how many ways there re to do things, might see if I can
find a recording streaming device if there is such a thing.