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MediaManager, Video Streaming, and Netflix - Will it work?

Hi,

I just signed up for the Home Media package even though I only have one TV in my house because I was told that with MediaManger that is part of the Home Media package, I could watch videos from my computer on my TV. So far I have not been able to figure out how to do this. Does anyone have any positive experiences with this and how to go about doing it?

Second, the main reasin I wanted to try this out was because I have a membership to Netflix. As part of the membership, I can watch movies immediately from their site on my TV if I have the correct setup. It appears that the correct setup concerns having a set-top box that can communicate with the router. I can also watch the same movies directly on my computer. So my thinking was to run the movies on my computer and have MediaManager send the stream to my TV. Has anyone done anything similar (or the same) as this with any success?

Thanks,

Doug

Comments

TimSykes

The video streaming is in beta phase right now. No one but testers have access to that feature. As far as netflix go. I don't know who told you that would work, but as of now it would not. There has been no partnership announcement of fios and netflix. Fios would need to program netflix API into the MM program. It would be nice if they did that, but it has not been announced.

dla0819

Thanks for the info. I wished the sales rep would have explained that only beta testers could stream video. Oh well, I have a 3 month trial period, I will just make sure I cancel the service before the 3 months have ended.

About Netflix. I may not have explained myself well. Verizon would not need to be in any kind of partnership with Netflix. To stream movies from Netflix to your TV, all you need is a device that can receive an internet signal (either WiFi or Ethernet) and connect to your television. There are already devices on the market that do that (Netflix marketss one of these and promotes two or three others). In addition, you can stream Netflix movies to your computer. So my hope was that with Media Manager, since I could stream movies to my computer, through Media Manager I would be able to send them on to my TV. If I really wanted to, I could connect my laptop to my TV and stream the movies to my laptop which would be displayed on my TV, but that is a terrible pain and kind of ghetto.

TimSykes

Well netflix stream via a web browser. And unless media manager taps into the web browse netfix would not work. I do hope they integrate netflix now that they have a open API. But the likely hood is that MM will have a drop down list of sites you can use to stream video. IE youtube, break.com, mtvmusic.com, And I hope Hulu.com. But no one will know how it works until it comes out. Or if I get into the Beta program. But If I get into it. I sure I will be under a NDA and can't tell anyone else about it.

TVee

The prospect of "streaming" video from my PC to my TV was one of the things I was led to believe would be doable with the Media Manager. Imagine my disppointment to find that the only "media" I could semi-manage from my PC to my Big Screen HDTV was still photos. pfffffft!

I have hundreds of gigs of concert videos, etc., on my PC that I was hoping to view on my new-fangled-fios'ed-big-screen-tv. Color me bluer than blue. Smiley Sad

Kingscup

You might consider getting a Tivo if you want to stream video to your TV. Tivo offers Netflix, Youtube and Amazon movies. Supposedly, Tivo can stream video from your computer to the Tivo via a third party program on the computer but you will have to research that. You will lose Fios video on demand and PPV if you get Tivo. You will need a TivoHD (or Series 3) with cable card(s) in order to view Netflix movies. This replaces the Verizon set top box. Most people don't want to shell out the money for Tivo but Tivo is so much better then the Verizon box. Search the forums at http://www.tivocommunity.com for more info on video streaming.

Xbox 360 also streams Netflix.

TVee

Thanks for the recommendation, Kingscup.... But I guess my post was misleading. I'm not looking to technically "stream" video via my computer. What I was hoping to accomplish was to be able to view the hundreds of gigs of concert video content residing on my computer and its external drives from my computer to my big screen tv in the den. I was under the impression that using "Media Manager" would enable me to manage more than mere jpg's from my computer, but videos as well. Imagine my disappointment.

TimSykes

@TVee wrote:
Thanks for the recommendation, Kingscup.... But I guess my post was misleading. I'm not looking to technically "stream" video via my computer. What I was hoping to accomplish was to be able to view the hundreds of gigs of concert video content residing on my computer and its external drives from my computer to my big screen tv in the den. I was under the impression that using "Media Manager" would enable me to manage more than mere jpg's from my computer, but videos as well. Imagine my disappointment.

This is in beta right now and will be out soon. I not sure who told you is was already out, but the fios website says music and photos, the site says nothing on video streaming.

CapnTrips

@TimSykes wrote:
Well netflix stream via a web browser. And unless media manager taps into the web browse netfix would not work. I do hope they integrate netflix now that they have a open API. But the likely hood is that MM will have a drop down list of sites you can use to stream video. IE youtube, break.com, mtvmusic.com, And I hope Hulu.com. But no one will know how it works until it comes out. Or if I get into the Beta program. But If I get into it. I sure I will be under a NDA and can't tell anyone else about it.

Perhaps I have misread any agreements I clicked "I agree" on, but I am a beta tester and do not feel OVERLY constrained from commenting, so perhaps i will be reprimanded for this, but there really is not much to comment on.

So far the "upgraded" Media Manager beta which has Video streaming is supposed to (1) stream videos from your computer (Mpeg, mov, wmv, mkv files - but not divx(!)) and (2) stream videos from the internet via your computer and the media manager software - but the only internet source supported at this point in the beta testing is YouTube (!) . Nothing else (no network TV websites, no hulu, no netflix, nada).

The YouTube streaming seems to work pretty well (at least as advertised). There is a Search function available, and default lists of most popular and "recommended" for you to choose from, but in general YouTube videos are poor resolution, so I don't consider YouTube to be of ultimate end-user interest. I want a HighDef feed to pass to my TV via the Media Manager, and I haven't seen one of those yet.

As for the PC video streaming, it is EXTREMELY buggy. Many files refuse to import into Media Manager, and of those taht import, many refuse to play even when available in the list, and others show incorrect program lengths. Don't hold your breath for this capability.

I WANT it to work, but am strongly leaning toward just saving my shekels and buying a relatively capable media center PC just for the Home Theater room (I already have CAT 5e run down there) and using it directly for all of the video stored on my PC and that I wish to stream directly from ANY internet site. My initial feeling is that the Media Manager software as an "intermediary device" introduces more limitations and opportunities for degraded performance than just sucking it up and putting an extra PC there.

Ultimately, I see this as a product for the casual home user who wants the occasional item streamed from his PC. Not for the videophile who wants to have his whole library of high-quality videos on his PC available at the touch of his/her remote.

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