Be Excellent To Each Other

Ah, right, cool; that makes sense.

Screw you guys.

Is that new*? You always used to need to stream them onto the PS3 because it wouldn't do it natively.

* new = 18 months

Financial adviser started by asking if Mr. flis was my dad Which I took as a compliment because he definitely doesn't look old enough to have a 31yo daughter! Not sure Mr. flis was as happy though

It was actually a worthwhile trip, I'm reassured that we can get enough money for somewhere big enough for all of us and that we can afford the repayments. We can only get a mortgage over 15 years because of himself being fucking ancient so there was always a but of concern we wouldn't get a big enough mortgage for a house big enough to house us plus the 4 boys, when needed. Uni makes them pretty dependant for longer than I'd really considered.

So now I want to go looking at houses! *squee*

Weeeellll, it still doesn't handle them natively exactly, but you can use mkv2vob to convert them to AVCHD files without any transcoding so even a massive file takes seconds to convert to a natively playable version. So, yes, you are still the best kind of correct here, but a couple of mouse-clicks and a few extra second to convert a file means it's still playing MKVs to all practical intents and purposes for me.

The unmitigated bounders!

They're just not MKVs? Got you

A couple of mouse clicks is infinitely more effort than it takes me at the moment

We've done this sort of discussion before, when your user load is down to arguing the toss over a couple of mouse clicks then you're pretty much done and just into the realms of geeky dick-waving. Using the PS3 is a shitload less effort than Curiosity's currently going through to still not even get it working, so I stand by it as a solution to the original brief.

Well, you also need a media server.

You weren't solving anything, though, you said "Buy a PS3, best non-Windows media player ever.". Which is clearly rubbish.

Well, you need 'a PC' of some kind; but unless you've found a way to run a torrent client on Curios DVD player that was always going to be part of the equation.



Buying something that worked wouldn't have solved the problem? That's an interesting stance.

Anyway, yes, I probably should have said something more like, "Buy a PS3, best non-Windows/Linux/Mac media player ever." At least I'm assuming that's why the original statement was 'clearly rubbish' but you didn't bother to say why so you might have meant something else.

Unless he got files off a mate, or something. Unlikely, I agree.


It may well have solved the problem. It wouldn't have been the best non-Windows media player ever. It isn't even what you'd really call "good". It works for you, which is lovely, even if you do have to manually edit some stuff before it'll work.


You'd still be wrong. I'm trying to think about what would be the best now, though. XBMC on an Xbox, maybe? For streaming media, either a ChromeCast or one of those WD set-top boxes that seems to do everything. Or just a Smart TV with a network connection - but I'm making assumptions about connectivity.

Yeah, the WDTV Live is probably the "best" media player box out there still, for local streaming. It'll play anything and is reasonably cheap.
A HTPC with XBMC will give you a better UI and more features, but at the cost of setup faff and higher purchase price.

Plex, SickBeard, CouchPotato and SabNZBD laugh at your idea of "setup faff"

And so it begins. Looking at houses is a right eye opener; I remember it well .... And I remember being shocked at a) how some people lived, and b) how vendors expected to actually sell their houses in the shitty condition they were in.

Glad I don't have to go through all that again. I think I've done my last move, unless I unexpectedly come into a shed load of dosh.

Enjoy your house hunting.

So I was solving the problem after all? Excellent, I'm glad we agree.



As a 'media player' it plays everything on disc and almost all stuff you can download (with the rest requiring a very small amount of effort to get working). I'm not saying it's perfect but that feature set doesn't even qualify as 'good'? Really?



I'd rule out ChromeCast simply because it's not a player but a streamer, an important distinction if, for instance, you want to play full HD files over a less than optimum network. Or if you just want to play stuff back locally and not have to worry about network stuff at all.

XBMC on an Xbox is probably a good shout but I don't know if I'd recommend it as a general solution because of the high barrier to entry (i.e. getting your hands on an old Xbox and then doing whatever you need to do to download and install a new OS on it). I know that's something that wouldn't bother you personally but it would put a lot of people off.

The Smart TV option would be excellent but do they have the format support for stuff like MKV? I haven't really looked into it but I didn't think that's the kind of thing they would do.

All of which is reason I think a PS3 currently is at least a good player because it has as many pros as the other possibilities have cons and there really is no perfect solution; apart from just connecting a PC directly up to your TV which is the only option that will always just work. Although, if you happened to want Bluray playback even that can be iffy; I've had trouble in the past with Cyberpower et al when trying to play proper Blurays back on a PC and it's never been as good an experience as using dedicated hardware.

Yeah, that's the faff I was talking about

HrrrrnHD-DVDuuurgh


Media playback is a fickle bitch - I'm not convinced there's a good one-size-fits-all solution exists - but it certainly wouldn't be something that doesn't play everything and has baked in anti-piracy stuff (or a £150 price tag).


I've always streamed onto mine from a NAS (in the old days) or a Media server and it's been fine. Doesn't mean it would be if you plugged something into it. I could try it out, but I very much doubt I will

When the Rapture comes I reckon it'll take the seventeen people who actually own something on HD-DVD.

A fair point, God knows I'd be lost with my Laserdisc collection...



There's a massive scale between 'shit' and 'perfect' here and with the PS3s capabilities it certainly earns it's place at the 'good' end of the scale. You'll struggle to find another device that does DVD/Bluray playback and downloaded shit (albeit with a workaround sometimes required) and Netflix/Lovefilm/iPlayer in a single box for any pricetag (that isn't a 'proper' PC). And it's not like £150 is even a ridiculous amount of money for all that plus the ability to play games and surf the internet if you wanted to.



Yeah, but I'm thinking more of stuff that can properly 'play' media rather than stuff that can stream from another actively transcoding source because then you've got a lot of other moving parts to worry about.

I remember when places started selling off the 360 Hd DVD drive and people on HotUKDeals went mad for them! That's a site frequented by strange people.

In my previous job, if anything got on to that website, the stick would go in hours. It has immense weight. Especially when coupled with must have toys.

Nah.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/panasonic-d ... 6-6506.prd
£60 - and you get the added bonus that one of the bullet points is "none"

Sony even do their own version for £60, although I would imagine it was loaded with the same anti-piracy crap.

LG do one, so do Samsung (although, as normal, they're more expensive).

That Sony one plays everything. I bought it for my ex at Christmas and it plays MKV files without incident.

Also has Netflix and Lovefilm on it and a host of other apps.

Got a code for Destiny first look alpha. Does this mean I'm really special or did everyone get one? Downloading now anyway.

Oh everyone who applied got them. I thought I was a special snowflake.

Just a shitflake in a shitnado.

There was some talk somewhere of a government doing the bidding of its pharmaceutical-business mates and MaliA said "Hang on, that sounds like a TV programme". I can't remember which thread.

Utopia was based on that idea. It's on 4oD and is ace. Utopia.

Second series coming soon.

Not that I saw the first.

That's it! Thank you!

No probs. Though Curio - weren't there two series already?

Metro 2033 seems to be pretty good for the 40 mins so far. Plenty atmospheric with claustrophobic encounters and limited ammo. Worth however little I paid for it so far.

*shrugs*

Well, I just saw the ad for series 2 coming soon so either all of channel 4 forgot or I made it up.

Or it's a sinister conspiracy!

Even if you can find a cassette player I don't think that's going to sound very good...

We are so middle class we were recognised from an announcement in the nct magazine at a cafe doing suspended cakes and coffees in Saltaire whilst having lunch. Nineteen year old me died inside.

Safe to say I had a reasonably interesting night last night!

I er... What? I have no idea what is going on there but you both look awesome. You're a great looking pair of humans, that's fair to say, but you look even more amazing dressed like that.

I don't even know what you were doing, but I wish I had been there.

It was a dinner event with actors and the like, in a stately home near oxford

I'm starting to think that Kern Hall needs a life-size giraffe in a fez too.

How about a crocodile butler?

Yes.

I could say 'beer please, and make it snappy' every day for the rest of my life and it would never cease to be brilliantly funny.

Don't forget Father's Day is today.

Shit. Why don't people put stuff on Facebook about that?

That's just scary.

Would anyone be up for a hiking/camping weekend sometime between the BBQ and the cottage? Feeling restless.

Find out if Zardoz is Tinkering this year, Kern!

Zardoz, is ye doing a wee bit of a Tinker?

Borderlands is superb!