Info Needed: How to make HDTV and Home theater Wifi ready and accept data from Samba server

onlyravi said:
Its strange that noone has yet suggested the RPI.
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How is the path from the files to the PI configured ? Is it all wired like below

laptop--ethernet-->router<--ethernet--PI(XBMC)<----HDMI---TV

laptop to pi is over ethernet via the router.

onlyravi said:
I use my laptop/Android phone to control the RPI and XBMC playback.

I have a g band wifi at home which is like 54megs. but still streaming is perfectly fine. The max file size I have tried is a 6GB vdo file being streamed from my laptop.
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The phone is just doing control ie low bandiwdth, telling xbmc to get the files, play etc.
 
The PI and router are connected with a wired connection (10/100b)
Phone and Laptop is connected to the router over Wifi (My router is b band not even n band )
TV is connected to the PI via HDMI.
Logitech Z906 to the TV via Digital Optical cable.
Movies are on my laptop. The PI maps to this folder as a library and automatically downloads the album art and stuff.(XBMC feature).
You can use the laptop (browser based remote control just like second screen) pretty fascinating.
The phone also has apps to control XBMC. Optionally TVs which have a CEC/SIMPLINK HDMI port can use their TV remote to fully control the XBMC. Sadly does not work with my TV.
 
onlyravi said:
Movies are on my laptop. The PI maps to this folder as a library and automatically downloads the album art and stuff.(XBMC feature).
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How are the laptop (ie where the media is stored) & PI connected ?

Is it through a wired link via the router ?
 
Can't reliably stream 1080p over g. If the avg bit rate goes over 20Mb/s it will stutter. This can happen even with 720p.
 
File size isn't the issue its the peak rate. Though indirectly a higher avg bit rate leads to larger files. Peak varies depending on how much action there is and encoding used. Everybody's file collection is different. So peak rates are the key determinant of whether wifi can be used if at all.

My guess is your files don't have a peak rate above 15-20 Mb/s. That's low, it can be double that and wifi unless it's dual stream with a matching client (PI is single stream ie N150 IIANM) will struggle to stream smoothly. One file i have has avg rate of 5Mbs but jumps to 5 times at amount a few times. Playback is smooth but when the peak rises it stutters. It's only 1.5GB in size.
 
If you have a n band router you can buy a n band wifi dongle for the Raspberry PI and you can also store your movies content on a storage/NAS which is connected to the router via n band wifi or with wired ethernet.
That should take care of the problem you are so worried about.
But that is not the issue at hand.

The OP wants some device to play his media because his TV is not a smart TV or connected to the network.
I think Raspberry PI is a very viable and flexible solution given his requirement and his budget.
For any more details you can google or post in RPI specific forums :)
 
blr_p said:
What about drivers for this dongle working on the PI ? its not just plug & play.
PI can do the job he wants.
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Like I said. For more details on RPI you can google and you will find many wifi dongles or other accessories supported by raspberry pi. Do not want to divert this thread towards a RPI discussion :)
But I do reckon you read about RPI+OpenElec the results are impressive.
 
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