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    media player to play off windows network share

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by yuio, Jan 14, 2011.

  1. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    so I'm look for a recommendation for a media player for files that are being share on a local windows share. I'm not downloading these files rather I want to stream them.

    I've tried VLC it's choppy.

    I've tried Qucktime with a pluging to play .mkv files and it's awful VLC is far better.

    my windows PC with windows media player has no issues with this.

    for my macbook this isn't an issue really but I'm considering buying an imac and this must work on that machine. period.
     
    yuio, Jan 14, 2011
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  2. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    is there no others?
     
    yuio, Jan 15, 2011
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  3. blue68f100

    blue68f100 Notebook Virtuoso

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    If you able to access the files OK, the problem is your network or how the host is feeding the files. What wireless setup are you using, 11g, 11n. How may computer on network....

    I use iTunes and just point the file location to my network share.
     
    blue68f100, Jan 15, 2011
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  4. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    well I don't think it's my network... my windows PC's all play flawlessly.

    I'm on a N network (and older one but it should still be fine).

    in windows VLC can at times have trouble as well but Windows media player never has problems...
     
    yuio, Jan 16, 2011
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  5. snork

    snork Notebook Evangelist

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    Since you mentioned .mkv files, I'm guessing they're HD video files. Plain and simple, Macbooks/OSX isn't great a playing them back. Video playback software just doesn't seem to have good access to the drivers for full optimization in OSX. 720p is ok and 1080p can really suck at times. I use VLC (ok for 720p, choppy on 1080p) and mplayer OSX extended for 1080p stuff (with buffer set to max at 256MB). I've tried streaming them from my Synology NAS and my Dell laptop to not much of a good experience considering local playback can be troublesome.

    It also comes down to network speed. I have a 802.11n which shows 130mbps connection (theoretically about 12MB/s)...but in reality, it maxes out at 3-4MB/s which is enough for 720p but not usually enough for 1080p.

    If you're thinking of getting an iMac...I'd say try one out to see how well it plays before plunking down the cash if it's critical to your use.
     
    snork, Jan 17, 2011
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  6. yuio

    yuio NBR Assistive Tec. Tec.

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    ah ok, I know the network is fine, as all my PCs play the same files over the same network with no issue. oh well my plans got scrapped anyway, I got an iPhone 4 instead.
     
    yuio, Jan 17, 2011
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