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Should I buy a NOW TV box for remote access?


cw-kid

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cw-kid

Hi

 

New Emby user here, looking for a cheap box for my parents house. I guess Now TV boxes are the cheapest. I did have one at one point but sold it as I got it free and didn't need it. Now I do! 

 

What is the Media Browser app like on the Now TV? Is it responsive enough on large media collections? 

 

Or would I be better getting a proper Roku or Amazon Fire TV?

 

Thanks. 

 

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CBers

I have had a Now TV box since they were first launched and it works really well with the Emby app.

 

I never have any issues streaming 720p or 1080p to it, as Emby transcodes accordingly.

 

It's a good introduction for your parents if they've never used a streaming box before.

 

@@radeon has several of his family using Now TV boxes streaming from his server, so when he sees this, then hopefully he can add more words of wisdom.

 

For a tenner, just get one and have a play :)

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cw-kid

Hi CBers

 

Thanks for the reply, so you are using yours locally on your LAN. 

 

Does Emby always have to transcode the content to the Now TV or Roku boxes? 

 

My server is only a little HP Microserver so the transcoding can hit the CPU usage.

 

Only experience I have of remote connections is Kodi on my brothers Windows 8.1 laptop and I also installed the Media Browser app for Windows 8.1

 

For the most part It seemed to direct stream which is obviously better than it having to transcode on the fly. 

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CBers

Install guide that I wrote here if you haven't found it already.

 

Depending on what the source is, will depend on transcoding or not. I think MP4/MKV files with AAC audio will play direct.

 

I would say that the MicroServer is very underpowered for transcoding. I've just got a friend of mine to upgrade from a MicroServer to something more powerful as his transcodes were always stopping/starting during playback.

 

If you're going to use it as your server and open it up over the internet, then perhaps you could sync your content to the cloud so that the Now TV plays direct from there rather than your server ??

 

.

Edited by CBers
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cw-kid

Install guide that I wrote here if you haven't found it already.

 

Yes that was the first thing I found! Thanks for the guide..

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CBers

Did you see my updated post above ??

 

The guide might need updating a little, so if it does, please let me know.

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CBers

Looks like you can only buy the Now TV box with a 3-month Movies, Entertainment or Sports package for £19.99.

 

Still not a bad deal.

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cw-kid

They seem to be £19.99 now not £10, at Currys at least. Still cheap I guess compared to my 700 quid HTPCs. 

 

I've not looked in to the Emby Cloud Sync features as yet. 

 

I doubt they have enough room to upload my entire collection LOL. 

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CBers

Looks like we were posting at the same time :D

 

You could sync selective content.

 

Find out what they want to watch, sync it, then they can watch it.

 

Just a thought.

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cw-kid

Thank will have a look.

 

Other options my old man was talking about buying a new TV at some point, so I told him to get a Samsung Smart TV so could use the Emby app.

 

Or I may just installed Kodi Media Center and the Emby add-on for Kodi on their laptop and they could connect it to the TV via HDMI. Which is what my brother is currently doing. 

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CBers

I use the Emby Samsung app almost every day.

 

It direct plays on my LAN, but not sure what it would do over the internet.

 

Perhaps post a question in the Samsung forum.

 

My son use the Kodi addon on his Raspberry Pi 2 with Emby as the backend server - works really well.

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c0m3r

Samsung tv will direct stream most content remotely. Have a couple of family members using their tv to connect to my server.

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  • 1 month later...
francisuk1989

I have had my NowTV box model 2400 for a year now and can share theses info (from settings)

 

720p (no 1080p) HD output

4:3 and 16:19 Widescreen

Max video bandwidth is 3.5 Mbps.

 

Audio

 

PCM-Stereo

DD

DD+

DD+, DTS

 

3.0.5641.4 windows version reports the device as a Roku LT 2

 

Remote access? If you dont mind the 720p max then is worth £15, Wait till Auguest and get the new nowtv thats based on Roku 3 which means it should finally support 1080p streaming too! http://www.engadget.com/2015/06/16/sky-now-tv-august/

Edited by francisuk1989
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cw-kid

Hi

 

I just bought a Now TV box today from Currys for 9.99. 

 

I downloaded the Emby app from here: https://github.com/MediaBrowser/Emby.Roku/archive/master.zip 

 

but in Developer mode when trying to install it I get an error

 

5582b8b47d380_NowTV.png

 

Thanks

 

EDIT:

 

This works:

 

http://emby.media/community/index.php?/topic/17260-roku-app-v179/

 

You have to extract the zip file within the zip file. 

Edited by cw-kid
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CBers

No, you downloaded the ZIP incorrectly, as I did in that post :)

 

From a desktop PC you need to download the Emby.zip file as RAW.

 

Looks like you're sorted anyway.

 

.

Edited by CBers
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cw-kid

Anyone know how you tell if the Now TV box is using the SSL connection to the Emby server? 

 

I recently added my own SSL cert to the server and setup all the Kodi clients to use HTTPS etc. 

 

Currently have the Now TV box on my LAN, but will take it down to my parents house later as its for them, but so far so good! 

 

Cheers

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cw-kid

Got the box down at the parents house now so its remote, but in the Emby app we are not seeing any artwork images at all, so no movie covers are visible for example. 

 

Tried logging in using Emby Connect and also by manually setting up the server. 

 

Any ideas? 

 

Thanks

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cw-kid

Yeah I am connected to the server OK and can go in to the Movie library and all movies have a default grey coloured cover with a TV /Monitor type icon on them, If I click in to a movie and play it, it plays OK, I just have no artwork showing anywhere in the GUI. 

 

When I connected the Now TV box on my LAN at home it was OK and all the artwork was showing fine then, but now I am remote at my mum's house none of the artwork is displayed. 

 

Thanks

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cw-kid

Could I remove the Emby app some how from the Now TV box and install it again and start again maybe ? 

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cw-kid

Just tried that its still the same, I deleted the Emby app off the Now TV box and then restarted the Now TV box, I then installed the Emby app again and logged in using Emby Connect but I still have no artwork images yet I can see the content. 

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cw-kid

The problem seems to be related to using HTTPS and SSL. I recreated the server connection in the Roku Emby app and this time I used HTTP and the HTTP port number and now we have all the artwork showing OK. 

 

But if I use HTTPS and the HTTPS port number the artwork is not displayed. I wanted to use the SSL connection but guess I cannot at the moment. 

 

Thanks. 

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