I've decided that the time has come to invest in one of the slick new tablets. I've narrowed things down to the WiFi only versions of the iPad 2 (32 GB) or the Motorola Zoom. The iPad goes on sale Friday, while the WiFi Xoom is rumored to be out in early April. Both have their strengths and weaknesses. The deciding factor may come down to video playback capabilities. My Delmar is that all of the movies stored on my MSS are H.264/AC3 in a MKV container. Neither product will play this format natively, but there seem to be a few add-on players that should work.

Any opinions out there as to which might be better: iPad 2 or Xoom. In addition what player did you use for playback?

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X510 w/7 TB (100% WD Green EARS)
Stock Processor, 4 GB Memory Upgrade

TechVet--

Not sure about the XOOM but I can tell you that loading Air Video on your 510 and having it transcode to an iPad-friendly format on the fly should work fine. I have all my video transcoded over to MP4 files and then I stream those MP4's to my wife's iPad using AirVideo and it is slick. I am not impressed with the XOOM; the UI is confusing. There are applications like Twonky Media Manager, though, that should work OK for what you want to do, providing the ability to stream your content.

IMHO, either one will work for you as long as you load the right software. My vote is iPad/iPad2 with AirVideo as I think it is a more refined tablet and has superior application choices overall.

Let us know what you decide and why, ok?

Jim

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EX475 2GB memory
Stock Processor
1 2TB HP Personal Media Drive via USB
1 2.0TB Barracuda® XT 7200 rpm drive
2 1.5TB Seagate Barracuda® XT SATA 7200 rpm drives
1 0.5TB stock drive shipped with MSS
Running HP 3.0 updated software

Good luck! I am really excited about both of the tablets you mentioned, and look forward to hearing what you decide to do. The iPad2 is definately more polished and will probably have a LOT more apps to get you started. I am a big fan of Android (I own the moto droid 1) but I am really tempted by the new iPad.

However, I think (my opinion) that the Xoom will evolve into a better platform for someone who:

1) Likes to tinker and make changes
2) Wants Flash
3) Already has an Android phone
4) wants the aGPS built in (apple removes the GPS chip from the WiFi only versions)
5) likes the flexibility of the openess of Android
6) Hates working with iTunes (I know I do)

For what its worth, I stream my entire video and music collection from my WHS via Subsonic and I love it. WiFi is better, but if I drop the bitrate to 300 or below I can stream via 3G to my motorola droid (1) just fine (with the Subsonic Android app)... I would imagine it would work with the Xoom as well while on the go.

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DIY WHS
AMD Athlon II X2 240
2Gb RAM
13 TB, mixed drives
400+ DVDs and 80 BD ripped using MakeMKV

~My beautiful wife is always asking me if I love my computers more than her...I don't understand it!

Right now I would probably say the iPad. You can use an App like Airvideo if you want to transcode (if you have non apple supported formats) or if you jailbreak your iPad it opens it up to other formats that you can play directly on your iPad (I have XBMC installed on my wifes jailbroken iPad, as well as other Apps).

I am at the tablet cross roads right now. In general I am not a big Apple fan based on their locked down ecosystem. However, the iPad is really the only one in the game right now on the tablet front and in many respects they have done it correctly. Also, hardware specs are irrelevant if you don't have stability and the Apps to back it up, and that is also something Apple is way ahead on. So here is my dilemna:

- buy the iPad 2. Only downside, if it is running iOS 4.3 (which I think it will be) I will have to wait to jailbreak it
- I was very interested in the Xoom originally but the ridiculous pricing (including being forced to sign up for 1month data contract with Verizon just to activate wi fi) and from what I am hearing a very unstable Honeycomb has scared me off. Supposedly BJs will have the Xoom for $539 wifi only, so that is probably the only way I would consider getting it now
- Wait a little longer. I have been eying the Asus eeePad but we are probably still a few months away from seeing (I think April it is supposed to hit in the UK first).

I would love to get an Android tablet over Apple, but Honeycomb apps are still scarce and Honeycomb appears to be way too unpolished. I don't even consider the Blackberry Playbook or HP webOS tablets an option

The one other advantage of the iPad is they hold their value well, so it may be worth getting and then just dump on eBay if the Android tablets can mature.

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

I've sort of arrived at the same conclusion. The iPad is way more developed and there seem to be at least a couple of apps for streaming videos. I'd love to see Flash content on the browser, but can probably learn to live without it. I've read more about Xoom and it sounds more and more like a half baked cake - nice hardware, not quite ready OS (but promising), and virtually no apps currently available. Of course if the price stays where it is, it'll be a slog for them to gain any significant market share.

I thinking tomorrow morning will see me ordering the iPad 2 WiFi only version.

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X510 w/7 TB (100% WD Green EARS)
Stock Processor, 4 GB Memory Upgrade

I use my ipads. Airplay works fine most of the time, but right now i am having an issue with it always being active. It sees my devices with iTunes on the WHS, but it's on and off for connecting from the iOS devices.

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HP Pavilion Windows 7 64 Bit
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PS3

Well, I broke down and ordered a iPad 2 32 GB WiFi Version in Black. It came in about a week ago and I've had some time to work with it over the past several days. It's pretty cool so far and I pleased with the purchase. Streaming/playing videos has been a mixed bag, but I've arrived at a strategy that I think will work.

I have a decent collection of ~250 DVDs, mostly standard definition. While I have BluRay players, I rarely use them. Instead I mostly use my SageTV setup. I've long since ripped/recompiled all of the DVDs using AnyDVD/Handbrake into mkv files with H264 video and DD5.1 and/or DTS audio in pass through mode. This allows me to get high quality video and surround sound all in a file about 1/3 of the native size. These play fantastic on SageTV extenders (which nicely up convert to match the HD TVs) and PCs alike. However, these files don't play so well on my iPad 2. At least I haven't been able to get them to.

The native iPad video player will only play videos in a handful of typical Apple formats. There are at least two other video player apps that will play mkv files and I bought both of them to try out. OPlayer is nice as is Movie Player. However, both stuttered when trying to play my files, which I assumed to be related to the large file size. VLC was ported to the iPad, but removed from the App Store over copyright issues so it's no longer available. I tried Air Video and it works perfectly, but as others have noted, it really kicks your server during playback. And... unless you convert the files beforehand, you don't really have 'mobile' files that can be taken off site on the iPad sans WiFi.

As I chewed on this, I came to the conclusion that I probably need to have dual file types: mkv files for SageTV/PC and m4v files for the iPad. As much as I hate doing that, I actually have plenty of disk space, so it's just a matter of converting them. Converting the files to m4v is fairly straightforward, especially if you use the batch converter feature of Air Video. It converts to files to ideal iPad format, removing any guesswork as to what settings you need to use. I'm now gradually converting my entire mkv collection using Air Video and copying the files into iTunes. I'm doing this in batches using my desktop PC, which has more horsepower and better cooling than the MSS. It typically takes about an hour or so to convert the typical video. Ultimately, this will allow me to stream the movies using Air Video and since the files are already in the preferred format, the server won't take the performance hit while doing so. If I'm leaving home and don't anticipate being near a WiFi connection for streaming, I can just as easily copy the files over to the iPad using iTunes. And since the m4v are roughly a quarter to a third the size of the mkv files I can carry a number of them with me.

If there are any other ideas, I'm open to hearing about them.

_________________
X510 w/7 TB (100% WD Green EARS)
Stock Processor, 4 GB Memory Upgrade

Unfortunately your issue is exactly the same issue I have with the iPad. This is what I have done to somewhat get around it:

- I keep a separate "Mobile" folder in my Videos Shared. I only convert a handful of movies to m4v for native playback (mostly just kids movies)
- if you jailbreak the iPad you will get access to VLC as well as XBMC. XBMC is still a work in progress but it supports many more formats, including mkvs. I tested with a few HD mkvs and I did have some stuttering issues, but this was tested on the iPad v1 which I think the Processor was choking on (and what the iPad 2 processor should be more then capable of handling)

So unfortunately there isn't a perfect solution. Having a separate m4v folder seems to be the best option but with the tradeoff of the additional space and time required

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin

I'll wait until my warranty is up before I attempt a jailbreak. Given my situation I think my solution is the best. Both OPlayer and Movie Player handle the mkv files and play the audio/video codecs okay. However, the skipping/stuttering is noticeable. It's not present all of the time, but you see it enough that it detracts from the video. Part of the problem may be the video bit rate of the file. My personalized Handbrake settings are skewed for high quality and the iPad seems to choke on it. I say this because the audio portion is perfect, it's the video that seems to struggle.

Once I get the current files converted, then new rips wil be fairly easy. The process will look like: rip, then compile to mkv, then convert to m4v. That last step will add another hour to the process. No big deal.

_________________
X510 w/7 TB (100% WD Green EARS)
Stock Processor, 4 GB Memory Upgrade

I just watched my first converted movie copied over via iTunes and it ran great. I also confirmed that Air Video can stream one of the pre-converted files with zero impact on the server. From a processor standpoint, it is very much like what I see when SageTV is streaming. I've got almost 60 of the movies converted so far. Around 200 left to go!

_________________
X510 w/7 TB (100% WD Green EARS)
Stock Processor, 4 GB Memory Upgrade

I've been struggling with the convert or not convert question myself for a while. I really dislike transcoding, but I love my iPad and want some portability for shows. I need to give AirVideo a try.

A couple of weeks ago I finished converting all of my MKV rips to the M4V preferred format for the iPad. It as a slog for my 5 year old old dual core machine, but about 1/3 of the way through I bought a i5 Quad Core Lenovo K330 and the 60-90 minute task per movie shrunk to 10-15 minutes. Now everything is converted with the M4V version living in iTunes. In the menatime, the MKV files are still intact and are served up by the SageTV hardware for playing on TVs. The AirVideo Server installed on the WHS is set to look in the iTunes Media folder for the converted videos and it serves them up with zero impact on the server hardware. And... I can copy them over via iTunes for travel. So the iPad teamed up with Bose 15 Noise Cancelling Headphones makes life very good.

_________________
X510 w/7 TB (100% WD Green EARS)
Stock Processor, 4 GB Memory Upgrade

I picked up an ASUS EeePad Transformer about a week ago and been testing out. So far so good. I haven't tried streaming any videos to as any videos I have played back so far I have copied over directly to the EeePad. I hope to have a review done in the next week or two. There are pros/cons, just as with the iPad, but overall I am enjoying

_________________
Cheers,
Damian

DIY WHS - 12.5TB and growing, too many gadgets to list

Did you read the MediaSmartServer blog today?
Blog - http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com
"Like a midget at a urinal, stay on your toes!" - Lieutenant Frank Drebin