[H-GEN] Home NAS box and video streaming: how to choose a processor?

[David Harrison]

I would definitely agree with what Greg says and add that the problems with
video are often exacerbated when you go down the transcoding route. I've got
a modded (original) Xbox at home that has been running XMBC for several
years - it has never missed a beat and has handled almost everything in
terms of media that I've thrown at it. The only thing it can't deal
gracefully with is HD content; the CPU in it just isn't fast enough to
handle it.

So to get around that I tried using my (unmodded) Xbox 360 with a
transcoding system, running ps3mediaserver (
http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/) off my PC (which is a core 2 duo
somethingorother). It was just able to keep up with the transcoding (most of
the time) but I would regularly have problems with out of sync audio/video
and some other occasional weirdness.

I know several people that are running transcoding setups but all the guys
at work have spent all their time setting up decent HTPC rigs that will
handle local playback and seem to be much happier overall with the stability
and performance of the setup (one of our guys wrote this article:
http://www.ausgamers.com/features/read/2810841 which details how to build a
Linux-based HTPC running XBMC for ~$500 hardware spend, might be of
interest).

Another device that is popular in the office is the WD Live (note: I think
there are two different types of these things, a 'lite' version which is
much cheaper but can't do everything - the 'normal' one is around $180).
These things apparently work great and can handle just about any type of
content (including most HD variants); the only downside I've heard is that
the in-built library/navigation system is inferior to XBMCs.

--
dave

On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 9:01 AM, <Greg.Lehmann at csiro.au> wrote:

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>
> Just a comment on video conversion in general and how it often doesn't work
> or work well enough. There are so many different encoding programs that use
> so many different algorithms. They don't all implement things properly
> either, so what you get from somewhere could be seriously challenged by some
> default video conversion process you have set up to happen automatically.
> You may find you don't get this proposed approach of yours to work for
> everything. If you are a fanatic about image quality you may hate what you
> get thrown up on the screen. Also consider that as you say what TVs can
> actually handle can be limited. If you want automatic I'd be tempted to go
> for a cheap media player like the popcorn hour c200 which can handle just
> about anything, until the TV's catch up to that sort of level of capability
> and then you won't need to worry about conversions anyway.
>
> I'd be tempted to do the conversion on a PC and review results. Not
> automatic, I know, but you end up with better results. Also consider using a
> GPU if you want truly fast conversions, but again image quality can vary as
> the GPUs are a bit of a black box as far as the SW provided goes. I have
> tried the ATI GPUs and the speedup is truly fantastic. I believe the Nvidia
> GPUs come with more flexible SW. Since you are building your own NAS (I'd
> call it a server since you are doing stuff on it besides file serving) you
> could put a GPU in it.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Greg
>
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