IT aboard

[Bob666]

Hi!

Working with IT, I should really know all the answers, but being a Systems Engineer doesn't necessarily qualify oneself among the plethora of entertainment/consumer IT products, as I work with industrial systems.

I was wondering whether somebody could hint me in the right direction here. And/or benefit from the discussion.

Primarily I need to view movies on a TV from a hard drive.

We will be in locations with no wifi and I think there's mainly crap on TV anyway, so I have ripped all our DVDs and Bluerays. (Same goes for music, ripped all CDs to mp3, but that's another topic).

Current/planned setup:

The Wirie AP+ = a wifi network aboard, just like most people have at home.
The Wirie AP+ Marine WiFi System – The Wirie
A few laptops all running Windows 7 and 10.
iOS devices: iPads, iPhones
Android devices: tablets and smartphones
TV with HDMI IN.

Path 1
Get Google Chromecast, connect it to one of the laptops.
Buy a large USB drive, put my movies + home movie projects + Picasa images + documents and stuff there.
Get another USB drive, same size, for backing up drive # 1.
I will be able to cast the movies from the USB drive, via the laptop.
Whenever we have good wifi, we will be able to stream from the internet.
Cons: the laptop must be running.
Cons: the laptop is quite power hungry
Cons: backing up means manual job. I know scripting and there's software to remind you, but anyway.
Pros: I got 12 V chargers for the laptops. Inverter can be OFF.

Path 2
Get a NAS with RAID-1. It will have two drives, mirrored so I got backup all the time.
Googled for a while, hard to choose, I would want one that is low on power consumption, still having the features I need. Some have wifi, perhaps better. If only ethernet connected, I have to buy The Wirie Repeater:
The Wirie Ex Marine WiFi Bridge – The Wirie
Either way I suppose. Could be wise to have the repeater and while working on HD movie projects, I can connect the laptop and the NAS both over ethernet and get higher speed than just wifi. Usually, when working with HD movie material, I copy the project to the laptop's internal HDD or a USB 3 connected drive, and copy it back to external disk (= backed up) once done, so maybe not so important after all.

For streaming movies from disk to TV, not sure. Apple-TV has AirPlay, then I can use the Infuse app on iPhone or iPad.
Cons: Apple-TV draws power + inverter ON.
Cons: NAS draws power + most run on inverter.
Cons: an iPad or iPhone must be ON, draws power.
Cons: the Infuse + Apple-TV/Airplay solution isn't 100% nice, I have to double the screen on the iOS devices. I couldn't play ISO images of DVDs when I tried, which is how I save my movie projects once they're finished. (Who burns a DVD these days?)
Pros: Raid-1 means automatic backup.

One goal scenario
Low power consumption NAS running on 12 V. On a rocking boat, two SSD drives preferred? Could build a cradle for it to reduce the shaking, perhaps.
A device, similar to Apple-TV, connected to the TV, running on 12 V.
With the device's remote control, I want to be able to choose movies on the NAS, and most formats should work.
Not sure how to connect that device though. It's either wireless or wired (ethernet) I suppose.
Cons: complexity
Cons: Am I asking the impossible here?

Or another...
Or, is it wiser, on a rocking boat, to go for two fast USB drives, as the NAS, even if it's mirrored using RAID-1, might not like the shaking it's experiencing?
Having a laptop running + Google Chromecast.
Pros: less complexity than NAS solution
Pros: could skip the Wirie ethernet router.
Cons: less flexibility, if not the Wirie ethernet router, cannot connect ANY ethernet devices, could prove dumb in the long run.

[Thorne]

Way to complicated.

Do you have a Galaxy phone around?

I have a galaxy 6 plus.

I put 30 gig worth of movies on it and use MiraCast to an hdmi port on my TV and or Monitor

Belkin Miracast Video Adapter (Supports HDMI 2.0)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Phone hardly burns any power at all.

No external WIFI required if the movie is playing on your phone

[the_alpine]

Do you really need to broadcast it to multiple devices?

My setup is a pi with raspbmc os and a usb hard drive. Pi is connected via hdmi to the only tv on boat. Works great and low power draw.

[jamhass]

Raspberry pi is great, but requires DIY skills. Alternative is Western Digital TV Live. Uses a 12v wall wart, so can run directly from boat 12v. Reads usb hard drives directly.

[SV DestinyAscen]

If you plan to use wifi when closer to shore, I'd say setup a router w/ Chromecast or get a new compustick from Intel. You don't need a NAS - and a NAS would only add burden as you'll have to transfer content from another device to the NAS to justify the NAS.

The computstick means you'll be able to go ashore, plug n play - bring it back without a laptop.

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by jamhass

Raspberry pi is great, but requires DIY skills. Alternative is Western Digital TV Live. Uses a 12v wall wart, so can run directly from boat 12v. Reads usb hard drives directly.

Actually a Pi doesn't require much more than being able to put it in a case. Install openele Kodi and all the config work is done for you. Its really simple. I'm in IT also but wanted to not have to "work" on my media center. we've been running Kodi for over a year now. if it starts to act up I just reflash the SDcard takes only 10 minutes and its brand new again. adding sources is really easy.

[Paul L]

Get a TV that will read directly from the USB drive, like a Samsung. That way you don't waste the power having to run a laptop and a PC at the same time.

[Thorne]

Originally Posted by pcmm

Actually a Pi doesn't require much more than being able to put it in a case. Install openele Kodi and all the config work is done for you. Its really simple. I'm in IT also but wanted to not have to "work" on my media center. we've been running Kodi for over a year now. if it starts to act up I just reflash the SDcard takes only 10 minutes and its brand new again. adding sources is really easy.

I love it....

Spoken like a true geek.


I'm one myself and I've catch myself making statements like that once in a while..

It's so easy, You just do this, and this, and then this, and if that makes a noise you do this and this then that, but if not then just do this and this and that.

See how easy that was?
BTW I created a universal credit card system using raspberry pi's and Windows Core for Raspberry, gotta love those things.... but easy?
Ok, I think they are easy too, but others who don't know how to reflash.... ( Actually wrong term. we are not dealing with an eprom here ), the card.

Or where to get a good 2 to 3 amp 5 volt power source, or how to.........

Love to chat about RP's but this is not the right web site.

[jamhass]

EBay has lots of 5v supplies of various flavors. Been quite happy with them

[Bob666]

What about:
Western Digital WD TV Media Player (2014) review - CNET

Like somebody mentions above. Being European all talk about Amazon content etc makes no sense:
Chromecast vs. Apple TV vs. Roku vs. Amazon Fire TV - CNET

Unless Obama get the trade agreement going, I suffer the risk of having to pay toll when buying from American web shops. (My main objection against Trump, he'll ruin that + start world war 3, but that's OT).

But the article lead me on the way + comments here
I want to stream SVT play rather...and streaming is secondary in any case.

Now I just need to find a good 12 V NAS with RAID-1.

I will also get a fat USB drive as a third means of backup. And when we get wifi I will upload most important pictures to Google Drive, which is where we also store most important documents. Access offline possible so works ok. When in the hardware store I can check it for measurements when purchasing. Everything not digital is ultimately not existing.

Cheers

[Bob666]

Originally Posted by jamhass

EBay has lots of 5v supplies of various flavors. Been quite happy with them

I often take my chances and buy from eBay.com and buy from China. Only got toll once, but a bit risky with warranty and stuff. They are nice and put "gift" or "sample" on the packages. Amazon refuses that so I don't shop there.

[Bob666]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Get a TV that will read directly from the USB drive, like a Samsung. That way you don't waste the power having to run a laptop and a PC at the same time.

Old TV, just HDMI. Won't swap it.

Cheers

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Bob666

Old TV, just HDMI. Won't swap it.

Cheers

That's fine if power is not an issue.

[socaldmax]

I started out using Western Digital Live TV media players with 1TB WD portable drives. 1 wall wart for the media player, and the HDD runs off of the USB. THen I graduated to 2TB HDDs.

Now I've switched over to Android TV boxes. Small box about the size of 2 packs of cigs., 4K UHD out via HDMI, 5v wall wart power supply, runs android 5.0 and Kodi 16.1, with 100MB ethernet and wifi B/G/N, 4 USB ports and A/V out.

I added a Logitech wireless mouse and keyboard and it's basically an android tablet (computer) with internet browser that can read 3 portable USB drives at once. It can play any movie, sporting event or TV show on Kodi from anywhere in the world and upconverts most sources. SD looks like 720p, 720p looks like 1080p, but I don't think it makes 1080p look like 2160. It also has all of the standard stuff - Netflix, Hulu, Skype, Pandora, Facebook, Iheartradio, Spotify and everything on the Google play store. It automatically updates all apps and Kodi repositories.

The box sells for about $30 on Amazon, the Logitech KB/mouse sells for $20 on Amazon. The video output is truly amazing, even when the bad guy is hiding in the deepest shadows, you can still see features when other devices just show all black (like my $1,000 Windoze 10 media server with $300 graphics card.)

It also does DLNA, miracast, windows and Mac network shares, will stream to or from any device on your network, including smartphones.

[Bob666]

Originally Posted by jamhass

Raspberry pi is great, but requires DIY skills. Alternative is Western Digital TV Live. Uses a 12v wall wart, so can run directly from boat 12v. Reads usb hard drives directly.

Aha so I could skip NAS and connect a USB drive to it?

I have an issue with iTunes though. You see, at home I got all music in the iTunes library on a NAS.

I don't use it much, usually stream the very same music from Spotify as we are Premium customers.

On occasion, I want to listen to an iTunes song in my library (on the NAS). I have to boot up a laptop with Windows, launch iTunes (which I configured to point to the NAS library location), play song and choose Denon AirPlay to get it on the stereo.

I would rather start the song from an iOS device, but the iOS devices only see streaming content or iTunes purchases in the Music app.

I will have the same problem on the boat. But I can put an aux cable from the PC to the car stereo. Bugs me I have to have a Pc running though. When we cross the Atlantic for example, and want to listen to music.

Inclined to keep the old car stereo though. Can bring a few CDs along and also a few DVDs for the TV. If all the other stuff breaks.