moeburn Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 So I'm looking to replace my old, aging Western Digital Media Center thing. It has been good, but the remote is iffy, the network takes like 10 minutes to connect, it can't play certain h.264 MP4s but it can play others just fine, it freezes if you leave it turned on after you're done using it... so it needs replacing. I've been hunting around, and it seems the big thing these days is a media "stick"? Like a USB key you plug into your HDMI port? But all they talk about is "casting". Like how you can "cast" netflix or youtube to it from your smartphone or tablet. I have no idea what that means, and it seems way more complicated than what I want. All I want is what my WDMC can already do: browse local SAMBA shares, and play downloaded media files from the computer that downloaded them. But it does this from the WDMC ui, it is "pulling" the files. Casting sounds more like "pushing"? So would a Chromestick or one of these be able to play downloaded MP4s and MKVs and Netflix all by themselves? Or would I have to "cast" them, whatever that is? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeston Veteran Posted March 5, 2014 Veteran Share Posted March 5, 2014 Chromecast basically lets you view videos from your phone or tablet (including Netflix), or even on the web (via Chrome browser) on your TV. That Roku stick seems like the same thing. You're right, they basically "push" media to the stick and let you view them on your TV rather than your small portable device's screen. Neither will let you stream movies from your SMB share. It doesn't sound like that's what you want, really. Seems like you should just upgrade to the WD TV Play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#Michael Posted March 5, 2014 Share Posted March 5, 2014 Chromecast basically lets you view videos from your phone or tablet (including Netflix), or even on the web (via Chrome browser) on your TV. That Roku stick seems like the same thing. You're right, they basically "push" media to the stick and let you view them on your TV rather than your small portable device's screen. Neither will let you stream movies from your SMB share. It doesn't sound like that's what you want, really. Seems like you should just upgrade to the WD TV Play. That is not entirely true. Both chromecast and roku support plex and the plex media server. So, if you have the hardware available to you, you could setup plex which would stream over to the media stick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeston Veteran Posted March 5, 2014 Veteran Share Posted March 5, 2014 That is not entirely true. Both chromecast and roku support plex and the plex media server. So, if you have the hardware available to you, you could setup plex which would stream over to the media stick. True, I guess I should have said neither allow direct native access to SMB shares without the help of an additional third party server in the middle. However, as he said he wants to keep it uncomplicated, I still don't think these are a viable choice for what he wants to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moeburn Posted March 5, 2014 Author Share Posted March 5, 2014 Well that sucks. Thanks for the info, you just saved me from making a poor purchase decision. This is for my parents, actually, so keeping it simple, or better yet keeping it the way it is, would be ideal. I have a dedicated seedbox (their network router) that they know how to use to download torrents to, but it only allows access via SMB/CIFS, or FTP, or NFS. Their WD box (I think it's called a WD TV Live Plus) can then browse to the SMB share where they downloaded the torrents. I noticed there's been a flood onto the market (specifically, the Amazon market) of cheap $50-or-less ARM-powered HDMI media sticks. Can any of them play SMB content wirelessly and natively like the WD box? If not, the WD TV Play sounds like a good replacement, although probably more expensive, and it seems the only difference it has is wireless networking, and that it isn't broken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Circaflex Posted March 15, 2014 Share Posted March 15, 2014 Hey Moe, I recently replaced my boxee box with an OUYA gaming console, they are pretty cheap in the US right now because they arent very popular. I loaded up XBMC and added my sources (my external HDD along with my server). It plays everything I throw at it, including 1080p blurays, isos, etc etc without any issues what-so-ever. i am also pretty sure with chromecast you push media through chrome broswer, but i havent used one in a while Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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