Streaming Media is ONLINE!

After days of attempting to get my ripped DVDs to play across the network to my DirecTV DVRs, I was ready to give up.  I knew that the DVRs would play media streamed over the network (well, at least some), but I couldn’t find ANYONE who could give me a definitive answer as to what video and audio codecs the DVRs would accept.  I tried them all – MP4, MPG, H.264, AC3, MP2… some would play video, with no audio – some wouldn’t play at all.

Well, finally I decided that the problem might not be the codecs – but my media player.  So, I did a bit of research and found the LG BD390 Blu Ray player.  Since it was “Black Saturday”, I found a great deal at Best Buy.

This player has it all – a really nice Blu-ray player to start with – but then you add the ability to stream movies over the Internet from Netflix, CinemaNow, Vudu, and YouTube, and couple that with DLNA technology that will let you stream across the network from your computer… well, this is too good to be true.  But just for good measure – they add in WiFi, and the ability to play BD Live content!  Life really IS good

The setup was a snap.  I had to get it into my component cabinet, so I first ran the cables for it.  An Ethernet connection, an HDMI cable, and the power.  I could have not run the Ethernet, and instead used the WiFi, but I wanted lots of bandwidth to the device.

Once the cables were run, I plugged in the Ethernet, then the HDMI, and finally the power.  I slid the player into the cabinet, then turned on the TV and changed to the correct input.  And something amazing happened – by the time I did that, the player had already been assigned an IP address – so when I clicked on “My Media” – IT FOUND ALL MY SERVERS – both PC and Mac!

Then I started exploring.  I clicked on AVI movies – they played.  Next, I tried MP4 movies – they played.  Those mkv files?  They played.  In fact, almost EVERY combination of encoding that I tried, WORKED.  They just WORKED.

And then the kicker.  Those 2 DirecTV DVRs I had?  They showed up as media servers, and EVERYTHING that I had recorded on the DVR (except for DRM encoded movies from the movies on demand)… PLAYED.

A few more minutes consolidating everything into one remote control (I still haven’t automated the AV stack), and my install was complete.  Total install time – less than 15 minutes!

Related articles by Zemanta

• Vudu Makes LG BD390 the Ultimate Video Streaming Blu-ray Player [Blu-Ray] (gizmodo.com)
• Thinking Of Buying A Blu-ray Player? Read This First (lockergnome.com)

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