XBMC vs Netgear 9150

[tekdoc]

I am considering adding a media player to my system and would like some opinions on the Netgear 9150 which I know a lot of people in this forum really like vs an XBMC box. I would be using my NAS to store the media. I am not clear if the Netgear can read Blue Ray ISOs. Also what has been the experience with the audio quality from both and control with C4? Thanks.

[maxspivak]

I'm testing Netgear 9150. ("Testing" means that I can still return it to Fry's)

Pros:

- Excellent integration w/C4

- Flawless support for DVDs

Cons:

- No support for BD iso or BDMV folder structure

- Rips (of owned BD's) done with MKV sometimes hit the bandwidth underflow error, even on wired ethernet.

Not going to keep it. Is there another media player with better BD support that integrates well with C4?

[blub]

I'm testing Netgear 9150. ("Testing" means that I can still return it to Fry's)

Pros:

- Excellent integration w/C4

- Flawless support for DVDs

Cons:

- No support for BD iso or BDMV folder structure

- Rips (of owned BD's) done with MKV sometimes hit the bandwidth underflow error, even on wired ethernet.

Not going to keep it. Is there another media player with better BD support that integrates well with C4?

Hi

What banwith/encoding setting have you used, I never encoutered this problem and I used an average bandwith of 12500 for video.

greetz

[maxspivak]

I don't encode. I tried ripping BDs to BDMV directory structure or into MKV container, but again, without any lossy encoding.

[crazybuppie]

My plan is to use an Acer Revo running XBMC.

[maxspivak]

Netgear 9150 is going back to Fry's today. I just ordered Dune 3.0 Base. According to Mike at duneplayer.com, the ability to control Dune via IP should be available soon via firmware update.

[well_armed]

Just run XBMC you guys, you wont be dissappointed.

[maxspivak]

I tried XBMC on my Mac. Unfortunately, Apple's implementation of HDMI handshake conflicts with my scaler's (Anthem Statement D2) HDMI handshake. It's a known problem. So much for standards -- the good thing about standards, is that there are so many to choose from.

XBMC and it's derivatives Boxee and Plex are nice. But having run an HTPC in the past, I just don't want to deal with one in the AV rack. I prefer a dedicated high-performance media player rather than a general-purpose cheap pc special-purposed for media-player duties.

[tumult]

I bought a 9150 when they first released so it was on its original firmware. I posted my findings here a long time ago. It seemed solid with dvd, but I thought its ability to play HD was lacking. I ended up selling it to my dealer. Our new house is getting the C4 treatment this week or next and I'm going to try out xbmc for the theater and distributed throughout the house. I've been testing it since October and its been nearly flawless, but that's just watching movies on the htpc and no automation. I think it will work fine, except switching audio between theater (hdmi) and distributed video (analog) might be problematic.

tum

[alanchow]

its pretty simple

XBMC - feature packed but may require some maintenance. Recommended only for tech savy consumers who want to tinker and arn't too fussed about rebooting or fixing their xbmc box should it go down.

EVA9150 - not so feature packed but is hassle free out of box.

[chicagoskiguy]

May be of use to anyone pondering XBMC.... Lifehacker's "Ultimate Start to Finish Guide to Your XBMC Media Center". I'm guessing you can skip the section about "getting set up with a remote" but most of the rest should apply.

http://lifehacker.com/5536963/the-ultimate-start-to-finish-guide-to-your-xbmc-media-center