Looking for a Tablet

[darcilicious]

Originally Posted by tvmaster2

is anyone streaming that drive with an iPad? I'd love to be able to do that...what's the secret?

I think the secret is the free app that comes with the device (and/or via a web browser):

http://www.seagate.com/external-hard...ate-satellite/

[IVB]

I stream it to the nexus 7, kids iPhone, another kid's iPod touch. the app is on my wife's iPad but she hasn't used it yet, I presume it works. The kids have certainly stress tested it. I know 3 concurrent devices work fine, not sure about more.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by IVB

I stream it to the nexus 7, kids iPhone, another kid's iPod touch. the app is on my wife's iPad but she hasn't used it yet, I presume it works. The kids have certainly stress tested it. I know 3 concurrent devices work fine, not sure about more.

I believe the manufacturer claims 3 concurrent 1080p streams, or 7 total devices (presumably all non-HD).

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by mdnttoker

I personally love my Asus Transformer w/keyboard.

Two SD slots (one in tablet and one in keyboard), extra battery in keyboard gives it a runtime of over 12 hours. Tegra 3 processor - power when you need it.

And, you have a nice mechanically connected keyboard for those times you need it....

My 2c.

-Dan

This tablet is amazing! I have an iPad, Acer A500 - asorted 7" no names and while all are almost equal (Android) and work for most everything. The battery life always seems to suffer.

The ASUS TF300 has incredible battery life especially with the keyboard. But it also has a buit in GPS. Most do not including the standard iPad (Need 3G for GPS).

The only downside to it is that is a little flimsy. Not quite the quality build of the Acer or iPad - very disappointed in that, but a nice case fixes that.

I have heard great things about the Nexus 7, but like the iPad no storage upgrade path. Makes me wonder why in this day and age. Why would Google follow the Apple model ...

[BobbyDing]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

This tablet is amazing! I have an iPad, Acer A500 - asorted 7" no names and while all are almost equal (Android) and work for most everything. The battery life always seems to suffer.

The ASUS TF300 has incredible battery life especially with the keyboard. But it also has a buit in GPS. Most do not including the standard iPad (Need 3G for GPS).

The only downside to it is that is a little flimsy. Not quite the quality build of the Acer or iPad - very disappointed in that, but a nice case fixes that.

I have heard great things about the Nexus 7, but like the iPad no storage upgrade path. Makes me wonder why in this day and age. Why would Google follow the Apple model ...

Can you access your SageTV with it? I do have an iTouch which works great playing recorded TV with the Mobile Web App and Airplay. I'd like to do that with whatever Tab I decide on. I know there is an Android app (or two) for SageTV. How does the experience compare?

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by BobbyDing

Can you access your SageTV with it? I do have an iTouch which works great playing recorded TV with the Mobile Web App and Airplay. I'd like to do that with whatever Tab I decide on. I know there is an Android app (or two) for SageTV. How does the experience compare?

That is a good question, and one I wish I could answer. If I have time I will take a look this weekend.

EDIT: I didn't realize taSgeTv is $29.99 (PlayStore) - So sorry I can't test it out for you.

[wayner]

I use Airplay but one downside is that it organizes via folders and filenames and that isn't efficient when you have hundreds of TV shows in one folder.

I also find that all of the streaming options for the iPad, and I have tried Airplay, Sage Mobile Web and TaSageTV seem to struggle with HD-PVR and or HD MPEG-2 files. They work fine with SD files and may work ok with these HD files if you want to just play a file straight through but as soon as you start trying to seek forward you start having problems - or at least I do.

It still would be awesome if there was a proper native SageTV app for iOS. It looks like TiVo has just come out with something like this.

[darcilicious]

seem to struggle with HD-PVR and or HD MPEG-2 files.

If they're recordings of 1080i shows, that's probably the culprit. I recently switched to fixed output of 720p on my set-top box and get smooth as silk playback on my iPad 2 via Plex now. I tried any number of streamers previously (Orb, AirVideo, Sage Mobile Web, Plex Media Server, etc) and could never get continuous playback.

I kinda miss the 1080i resolution a little BUT I don't have a HUGE TV (47"), I don't sit real close to it, and "my tv anywhere" is more important to me...

[wayner]

Originally Posted by darcilicious

If they're recordings of 1080i shows, that's probably the culprit. I recently switched to fixed output of 720p on my set-top box and get smooth as silk playback on my iPad 2 via Plex now.

I have heard that 720p also works with PlaceShifter much better than 1080i as well.

Any idea why this is the case? Is this something to do with a codec in Sage?

Are you able to seek ahead in the files as well? I also wish these apps had Skip and a Skipx2 buttons

I have a 60" TV as my biggest but I may try this as there is a debate about whether 720p or 1080i looks better, especially for sports. But if the channel is broadcasting in 1080i I don't think resampling to 720p will give any benefit but I do believe that Fox and ABC broadcast in 720p, at least they used to.

I have two cable boxes hooked up to two HD-PVRs so I will try fixing the output of one of them to 720p.

[darcilicious]

As far as I have heard, everybody uses ffmpeg to transcode and it's never done de-interlacing correctly.

But if the channel is broadcasting in 1080i I don't think resampling to 720p will give any benefit

Works for me! I specifically tested 1080i channels and they stream now; and they're recording in 720p so they should

[Skybolt]

The Asus TF300 has the Tegra 3 processor, which is quad core @ 1.2ghz which processes video real nice.

http://eee.asus.com/eeepad/transform...specification/

[wayner]

Originally Posted by darcilicious

Works for me! I specifically tested 1080i channels and they stream now; and they're recording in 720p so they should

I didn't mean to imply that it didn't work. What I meant was that there is an argument that the 60 frames per second of a 720p source gives a better picture for fast moving action such as sports than does the 30 frames per second of 1080i, therefore you are not sacrificing when you go from watching 1080i to 720p, you are actually gaining.

But when you have your cable/sat box convert from 1080i to 720p it can't actually give you 60 fps because that does not exist in the original source so therefore you can't make the argument that converting the original 1080i signal (from CBS and NBC) to 720p with your cable box gives an improved picture vs the pure 1080i signal. And with Fox and ABC you are getting the pure 720p signal unconverted.

[darcilicious]

Ah, I see what you mean, thanks for clearing that up.

The "benefit" for me is that I can stream my recordings now

[SWKerr]

I am not sure how it would work over the web but on my home WiFi I just remote into the SageTV server using Splashtop. (The Splashtop client comes with the Transformer free).

Using SplashTop I have found I can playback anything on the Transformer without a problem using the SageTV interface.

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by BobbyDing

Can you access your SageTV with it? I do have an iTouch which works great playing recorded TV with the Mobile Web App and Airplay. I'd like to do that with whatever Tab I decide on. I know there is an Android app (or two) for SageTV. How does the experience compare?

Ok, revised update on taSageTV. taSageTV runs great on the this tablet except it only uses VLC and that isn't supported on Android with Jelly Bean in the USA, according to there web site when I tried to install through PlayStore. GO figure...

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by Skybolt

Ok, revised update on taSageTV. taSageTV runs great on the this tablet except it only uses VLC

You checked the option menu?

[Skybolt]

Originally Posted by Fonceur

You checked the option menu?

Yeah, maybe I missed something but, no options menu. Only server settings from the android menu area.

Sorry If I posted incorrect information.

[BobbyDing]

Some new players have arrived over at Amazon!!

New Kindle Fire HD in many flavors...

[jt4242]

I've had a Nook Tablet (16GB) for over a week now - love it - rooted it easily and blocked future OTA B&N updates to prevent any disabling of the rooting.

I am able to play anything I've downloaded - installed MxPlayer which seems fine. The 16GB Tablet has 1GB RAM as opposed to the 8GB with only 512MB Ram.

Best sources I found (LOTS of reading and trials!) for rooting and dualbooting were:
http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/201...rd-super-easy/

http://www.quepublishing.com/article...aspx?p=1912071

Then I installed Cyanoboot so I get a boot menu and don't have to pull the SD chip out to get into the Nook side. You can have a large SD chip with the dualboot OS and still have plenty of room left for storage of films.

[pjpjpjpj]

Originally Posted by jt4242

I've had a Nook Tablet (16GB) for over a week now - love it - rooted it easily and blocked future OTA B&N updates to prevent any disabling of the rooting.

I am able to play anything I've downloaded - installed MxPlayer which seems fine. The 16GB Tablet has 1GB RAM as opposed to the 8GB with only 512MB Ram.

Best sources I found (LOTS of reading and trials!) for rooting and dualbooting were:
http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/201...rd-super-easy/

http://www.quepublishing.com/article...aspx?p=1912071

Then I installed Cyanoboot so I get a boot menu and don't have to pull the SD chip out to get into the Nook side. You can have a large SD chip with the dualboot OS and still have plenty of room left for storage of films.

You say you can play anything you've downloaded - what about streaming? Nook Color indicates it can play Flash sites, can you play Flash streaming video? I've been thinking about the Nook root thing for a while.