Mobile streaming device? (1 Viewer)

[sho nuff]

We have had cheap dual screen DVD for the car that we mount on the head rests for the kids.

Its starting to have issues as these cheap things do.

We have considered just another cheap set (only about $60 or so).

But have seen out there a few streaming devices that may work and wondering if anyone has an experience with these things.

Basically portable hard drives that have built in wifi hot spots to stream to multiple devices.

That way they can watch different movies if they want on their tablets (we have an iPad mini, iPad 2, and my daughter has a Nabi2)

and we can load every movie we have for them to chose from and not lug around a big portfolio of DVDs to switch out...and don't have to max out the storage on their devices.

Have seen some reviews that have had issues with slow play back on some higher quality video.

And I worry about the durability of these things getting used on long trips (we make 1-2 trips per year to Wisconsin...12 hour trip...and sometimes another beach trip or other vacation trip thrown in...another 4-12 hours one way driving).

Has anyone used something like this?

 

[17seconds]

I'd use Plex server for this. Rip all of the DVDs on to a HD at your house and run Plex server on a computer. Buy the Plex app for each device. When you are on the road use one of your 4G devices as a hotspot to talk to the server at your house. No extra equipment or discs in the car.

 

[snellman]

I'd use Plex server for this. Rip all of the DVDs on to a HD at your house and run Plex server on a computer. Buy the Plex app for each device. When you are on the road use one of your 4G devices as a hotspot to talk to the server at your house. No extra equipment or discs in the car.

Have done that before, but the biggest problem with that is it eats up data in a hurry.

 

[17seconds]

I'd use Plex server for this. Rip all of the DVDs on to a HD at your house and run Plex server on a computer. Buy the Plex app for each device. When you are on the road use one of your 4G devices as a hotspot to talk to the server at your house. No extra equipment or discs in the car.

Have done that before, but the biggest problem with that is it eats up data in a hurry.

Right, but if you are going to spend $100-$200 on some new contraption for the car, I'd go this route and pay for it that way. Especially since he says it is an infrequent thing.

 

[sho nuff]

I'd use Plex server for this. Rip all of the DVDs on to a HD at your house and run Plex server on a computer. Buy the Plex app for each device. When you are on the road use one of your 4G devices as a hotspot to talk to the server at your house. No extra equipment or discs in the car.

Have done that before, but the biggest problem with that is it eats up data in a hurry.

Right, but if you are going to spend $100-$200 on some new contraption for the car, I'd go this route and pay for it that way. Especially since he says it is an infrequent thing.

We do have unlimited data...but worrying about a few dead spots and really streaming well.

Plus these mobile devices are also an extra external hard drive.

 

[PinkydaPimp]

why not just get 2 ipads or android tablets. Then they can bring them anywhere. Go a step further and figure out an easy way to mount those into the headrests and easily remove them.

 

[sho nuff]

why not just get 2 ipads or android tablets. Then they can bring them anywhere. Go a step further and figure out an easy way to mount those into the headrests and easily remove them.

With every movie we have?

Run into storage issues. But the solution may just be they pick a couple each and thats it.

They do have pretty cheap mounting brackets for tablets.

 

[PinkydaPimp]

why not just get 2 ipads or android tablets. Then they can bring them anywhere. Go a step further and figure out an easy way to mount those into the headrests and easily remove them.

With every movie we have?

Run into storage issues. But the solution may just be they pick a couple each and thats it.

They do have pretty cheap mounting brackets for tablets.

True, just pickup a mifi or stream using your phone tethered and use plex and your good to go. You could also get a 4g plan with the device but if its not unlimited it might be pricy.

But with android tablets you can store a good amount of media and simply buy multiple storage cards.

 

[sho nuff]

why not just get 2 ipads or android tablets. Then they can bring them anywhere. Go a step further and figure out an easy way to mount those into the headrests and easily remove them.

With every movie we have?Run into storage issues. But the solution may just be they pick a couple each and thats it.

They do have pretty cheap mounting brackets for tablets.

True, just pickup a mifi or stream using your phone tethered and use plex and your good to go. You could also get a 4g plan with the device but if its not unlimited it might be pricy.But with android tablets you can store a good amount of media and simply buy multiple storage cards.

All optio s yes.

But then im loading to apple and android and maxing out his ipad storage and buying multiple sd cards.

Or spend about 150-200 on ine of the devices ive seen and have everything in one spot ready to connect multiple devices.

Appreciate the other options though.

 

[PinkydaPimp]

why not just get 2 ipads or android tablets. Then they can bring them anywhere. Go a step further and figure out an easy way to mount those into the headrests and easily remove them.

With every movie we have?Run into storage issues. But the solution may just be they pick a couple each and thats it.

They do have pretty cheap mounting brackets for tablets.

True, just pickup a mifi or stream using your phone tethered and use plex and your good to go. You could also get a 4g plan with the device but if its not unlimited it might be pricy.But with android tablets you can store a good amount of media and simply buy multiple storage cards.

All optio s yes.

But then im loading to apple and android and maxing out his ipad storage and buying multiple sd cards.

Or spend about 150-200 on ine of the devices ive seen and have everything in one spot ready to connect multiple devices.

Appreciate the other options though.

No doubt. You have a link to these devices? Im curious to see what they are.

 

[sho nuff]

The first two I have seen (there was a samsung but apparently its just a different seagate and does not have an app for IOS)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M9B4482/ref=psdc_595048_t3_B00JSQV44S

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AQRUW4Q/?tag=techlicious-20

THe cons may be battery life on some (but can charge in the car)...and similar with my worries on a mifi like device is connection and speed for streaming the movies.

Would think a wifi right there in the car would connect better that maybe through a phone hot spot.

 

[PinkydaPimp]

The first two I have seen (there was a samsung but apparently its just a different seagate and does not have an app for IOS)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M9B4482/ref=psdc_595048_t3_B00JSQV44S

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AQRUW4Q/?tag=techlicious-20

THe cons may be battery life on some (but can charge in the car)...and similar with my worries on a mifi like device is connection and speed for streaming the movies.

Would think a wifi right there in the car would connect better that maybe through a phone hot spot.

Yea see that's why i mentioned just using the device itself. Those products do look very cool though.

But do you really need your entire library? A 128 or 256GB microsd can hold ALOT of media and you wont have to worry about a flaky wifi signal. If you do need the entire library then sounds like the option you mention might be a good one. I would try to find one that supports 5GHz signal which will give you more throughput and less interference. Streaming when you have a good connection is great, but its awful if your connection isnt solid.

 

[17seconds]

How is your media stored? If you are ripping DVDs in 2GB files then you are wasting space. You can use handbrake to get them down to about 500MB which looks fine on a tablet for kids movies.

Then you could put quite a few on the tablets.

 

[sho nuff]

The first two I have seen (there was a samsung but apparently its just a different seagate and does not have an app for IOS)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M9B4482/ref=psdc_595048_t3_B00JSQV44S

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AQRUW4Q/?tag=techlicious-20

THe cons may be battery life on some (but can charge in the car)...and similar with my worries on a mifi like device is connection and speed for streaming the movies.

Would think a wifi right there in the car would connect better that maybe through a phone hot spot.

Yea see that's why i mentioned just using the device itself. Those products do look very cool though.

But do you really need your entire library? A 128 or 256GB microsd can hold ALOT of media and you wont have to worry about a flaky wifi signal. If you do need the entire library then sounds like the option you mention might be a good one. I would try to find one that supports 5GHz signal which will give you more throughput and less interference. Streaming when you have a good connection is great, but its awful if your connection isnt solid.

I figure if I am going to really do all of this...I will get it all on something and then be able to transfer. So may be dedicating an external drive to it as it is...or just on our computer hard drive.

Most of the media now is DVD...with some already ripped an on our computer. Things my brother in law had already ripped (and a couple digital downloads that came with the movies in the past few years.

 

[PinkydaPimp]

The first two I have seen (there was a samsung but apparently its just a different seagate and does not have an app for IOS)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M9B4482/ref=psdc_595048_t3_B00JSQV44S

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AQRUW4Q/?tag=techlicious-20

THe cons may be battery life on some (but can charge in the car)...and similar with my worries on a mifi like device is connection and speed for streaming the movies.

Would think a wifi right there in the car would connect better that maybe through a phone hot spot.

Yea see that's why i mentioned just using the device itself. Those products do look very cool though.

But do you really need your entire library? A 128 or 256GB microsd can hold ALOT of media and you wont have to worry about a flaky wifi signal. If you do need the entire library then sounds like the option you mention might be a good one. I would try to find one that supports 5GHz signal which will give you more throughput and less interference. Streaming when you have a good connection is great, but its awful if your connection isnt solid.

I figure if I am going to really do all of this...I will get it all on something and then be able to transfer. So may be dedicating an external drive to it as it is...or just on our computer hard drive.

Most of the media now is DVD...with some already ripped an on our computer. Things my brother in law had already ripped (and a couple digital downloads that came with the movies in the past few years.

Right. And i have a server at home were i store TBs of media. But i dont bring the entire library with me. I would never need a Years worth of movies in any one trip. I think your first step should be ripping the media and seeing how much you have. Store that on a hard drive or nas. Then, transfer the favorites to these devices to be watched on the go. As 17seconds stated you can rip them in such a way were you could potentially store a months worth(200-300 movies) of media on one sd card for a tablet.

 

[sho nuff]

And if anyone has opinions or has used the other devices...speak on up.

 

[Mr. Ected]

I have one of these RavPower devices (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00INMB23Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and it works great for 3 kids with iPod touches. I needed to get a ssd hard drive because the regular drive I was using was 'skipping' and I was having issues with the drive staying connected. I would check one of the wifi drives posted earlier before leaving on a trip.

 

[hxperson]

Do you have an android phone or tablet with an SD card slot Sho nuff?

If so, get a 128 GB card, load all your media onto it, and then slot it into your android phone. Download the app ArkMC onto your phone and set your phone up as a media server with the SD card "shared". After this, all you need to do is put your phone into portable hotspot mode (technically, turn on the wireless AP in the settings), and any device can connect to your phone's wifi and view all the media content on the SD card, as long as they have a media player with DLNA capabilities installed (all OS' will work).

Note that you don't need your phone to have internet access for this to work. I do this on the airplane with my phone in Airplane mode to save batteries and it works fine. This is any easy way to let everyone I am traveling with watch all of my movies and TV shows.

ETA: Also, note that you don't even need an SD card for this to work, just an Android phone with ArkMC - provided your phone has plenty of hard drive space to store all of your media. Or if you are well versed with USB OTG external hard drive expansions on Android devices, you can set it up this way as well. ArkMC, or any other app that allows you to share media over wireless AP, is the key.

 

[sho nuff]

I do have an Android.

How will that work...while still using something like ESPN radio app and navigation on my phone?

Navigation isn't that big of a deal when traveling to WI...but I do end up using my phone for music or sports talk on these trips when the kids have their head phone on.

 

[hxperson]

I do have an Android.

How will that work...while still using something like ESPN radio app and navigation on my phone?

Navigation isn't that big of a deal when traveling to WI...but I do end up using my phone for music or sports talk on these trips when the kids have their head phone on.

None of that should be affected unless your phone lacks the RAM to handle all the different tasks at once. The only thing I am worried about is whether or not your carrier allows wireless hotspot/AP for your phone in the normal Android way or if it requires some alternative app/setup, as I believe some carriers in the US lock that stuff up.