Apps Infuse vs MrMc(Kodi)

[normanfox]

I just bought and installed MrMc (kodi) yesterday when it was released since I know XBMC/Kodi for a long time on other platforms.

I am very disappointed that the UI and the controls are so dated. the interface is nothing like tvOS one. Touch control is jumpy and frustrated. beside playing back any movie format well, everything else is just out of place.

I wish apple app store allows app trial. I checked out Infuse Pro on youtube and very impressed. its UI and control is very tvOS like.

anyone have both of these players, can you give some pro's and con's between the two?

 

[d21mike]

I have 3 players.

Infuse Pro - Best UI by far at the moment. But very slow. I have reported the problem. They say the larger the file the slower but should not be 15 seconds that I am seeing. My files are 7gb - 12gb. 15 seconds to start viewing and after you pause from FF.

NAStify - Very Fast but UI is not Wife Friendly. More like a computer file system. At this time due to speed I am using this one. They say things will get better with the UI.

MrMc - A bit clumsy for my taste. Not as fast as NAStify but still videos start right away.

All three are pretty new and I would expect them to get better. Infuse has a very polished UI, hope they solve performance problems soon. I am currently using NAStify daily which also has a delete file function which is nice. Am using it to watch DVR Vidios which I delete after watching.

 

[normanfox]

installed free version and like it alot. so I bought the Pro version.

 

[normanfox]

I played Avatar movie with 16GB and it started within 3 seconds. start playing after FF within 3 seconds.

 

[d21mike]

I played Avatar movie with 16GB and it started within 3 seconds. start playing after FF within 3 seconds.

Interesting. MPEG2 or MEG4 or? To compare NAStify is < 1 second. Almost instant. Your 3 seconds gives me hope. My Apple TV and NAS WD Ny Cloud are connected to the same switch. Also, MrMc is pretty close to instant as well. I also use Channels with HDHomeRun for Live TV of these recordings and I switch channels and pretty much instant. I think Infuse should also be Instant. Why FF then pause then continue and even have to wait 3 seconds.

 

[normanfox]

Avatar is in MKV. I connected my ATV to Synology NAS 713+ using ethernet.

 

[d21mike]

I think MKV is a container for MPEG 4. Which is generally smaller then MPEG 2. How big is your file. They said the larger the slower.

Sorry. Read again 16gb. That is encouraging.

 

[normanfox]

I tried another one The Hobbit 3D 16GB, and it played within 4 seconds

 

[Rigby]

I think MKV is a container for MPEG 4.

MKV can host many different video codecs.

Which is generally smaller then MPEG 2. How big is your file. They said the larger the slower.

It may have to do with the position of certain meta-data in your particular files. Many video processing tools have an option to optimize streaming by moving meta-data to the beginning of the file so they are immediately accessible rather than having to read far into to file (which may cause a delay depending how the application processes the meta-data).

 

[normanfox]

finding a movie with Infuse is a challenge. I don't know how it sort files. I had to go back out to the top favorite and go back in for it to sort alphabetically.

 

[DesertDog]

Here's what I've been playing with and my take on them:

NAStify: Fast but UI needs a lot of work and refinement. Has a lot of potential if the developer can pretty it up and make it easier to use.

Infuse: Great UI, but painfully slow. Currently the metadata takes awhile but that's supposed to be fixed in a version waiting for review. Like Mike, videos take about 10-15 seconds to start playing and for scrubbing to a new location. It's also slowest by far for navigation. Opening a folder takes several seconds. If they can fix the speed issues it'll be really good.

MrMC: Total mess. Bad enough that I'm considering getting a refund, something I never do. UI that only it's mother could love. The controls are horrible. The siri remote jumps all over the place and doesn't respond well. It's metadata support is being a pain. I'm organized as TV/genre/show/season/espisode. When I added TV it tried making each of the genres into a show (ie "Drame" became the TV show "Total Drama") and every episode for each show within was named/artwork/etc. for that genre show instead of for the show. So it looks like I have to go in and add each genre as a share point. My other big gripe is that it doesn't work with the version of SMB that Macs have. You either have to use SMBup or set-up NFS. I would think that an app meant to be used in the apple environment would be made to be compatible with the Mac's flavor of SMB.

Air Video: Slightly different since it requires a server app, not just a SMB/NFS share. It's my goto right now. UI is basic but laid out well and intuitive. It's nice enough that I would stop my Mom for using it. Everything plays and scrubs quickly with it. A couple nice things with it marks what you've watched and will automatically sync that along with where you were browsing across AppleTVs and their iOS app. Also has parental controls and can be remotely accessed from the internet (the bonus of it having a server component).

 

[normanfox]

Here's what I've been playing with and my take on them:

NAStify: Fast but UI needs a lot of work and refinement. Has a lot of potential if the developer can pretty it up and make it easier to use.

So it is in the same situation like MrMc? great potential, fast but horrible UI that needs alot of work. I don't like to pay for an app to wait for it to improve alot.

Infuse: Great UI, but painfully slow. Currently the metadata takes awhile but that's supposed to be fixed in a version waiting for review. Like Mike, videos take about 10-15 seconds to start playing and for scrubbing to a new location. It's also slowest by far for navigation. Opening a folder takes several seconds. If they can fix the speed issues it'll be really good.

I experience none of what you and Mike described. Movie starts within 3 seconds. opening a folder is quick. my shared folder has about 225 movies.

one thing I don't like is that downloaded subtitles are not saved in the movie folder on my NAS. so if I reset my ATV, all downloaded subtitles have to be downloaded again.

MrMC: Total mess. Bad enough that I'm considering getting a refund, something I never do. UI that only it's mother could love. The controls are horrible. The siri remote jumps all over the place and doesn't respond well. It's metadata support is being a pain. I'm organized as TV/genre/show/season/espisode. When I added TV it tried making each of the genres into a show (ie "Drame" became the TV show "Total Drama") and every episode for each show within was named/artwork/etc. for that genre show instead of for the show. So it looks like I have to go in and add each genre as a share point. My other big gripe is that it doesn't work with the version of SMB that Macs have. You either have to use SMBup or set-up NFS. I would think that an app meant to be used in the apple environment would be made to be compatible with the Mac's flavor of SMB.

exactly how I feel. UI and controls are like from the 90's.
How do you get a refund from app store? I want refund too.

Edit: just submitted a refund request.

 

[normanfox]

my Synology SMB1 was the default. I just enabled SMB2 with large MTU. my understanding is that Infuse does not support SMB 3 yet.

 

[ibarnett]

Do any of these play .VOB files?

 

[americanguy]

Any of these apps support FTPS protocol ?

 

[DesertDog]

So it is in the same situation like MrMc? great potential, fast but horrible UI that needs alot of work. I don't like to pay for an app to wait for it to improve alot.

It's a different situation then MrMC. MrMC is just bad. NAStify is more of a young situation and should be easier to polish. It's already a decent grid view but needs better graphics for folders and then either thumbnail generation or pulling in metadata. A little bit better system for saving and setting network endpoints would also be nice in it. There's a decent thread on in the ATV Apps and the developer is active in it.

I experience none of what you and Mike described. Movie starts within 3 seconds. opening a folder is quick. my shared folder has about 225 movies.

I wonder if it's the type of SMB server that's being used. I'm using my mac mini server for it which is SMBX, Apple's version of SMB2. It could be it verses the SMB2 that your Synology uses. If it is, hopefully that's something that's easy for them to fix.

Any of these apps support FTPS protocol ?

I'm not sure about FTPS, I don't have a server set-up with it. Both Infuse and NAStify both support SFTP though and NAStify also lists FTP. So it might do it also.

 

[geesus]

Well Infuse doesn't play back files smoothly, for me, whereas MrMC does, and the UI seems fine to me, once you set up your sharing folders.

 

[z06gal]

I have 3 players.

Infuse Pro - Best UI by far at the moment. But very slow. I have reported the problem. They say the larger the file the slower but should not be 15 seconds that I am seeing. My files are 7gb - 12gb. 15 seconds to start viewing and after you pause from FF.

NAStify - Very Fast but UI is not Wife Friendly. More like a computer file system. At this time due to speed I am using this one. They say things will get better with the UI.

MrMc - A bit clumsy for my taste. Not as fast as NAStify but still videos start right away.

All three are pretty new and I would expect them to get better. Infuse has a very polished UI, hope they solve performance problems soon. I am currently using NAStify daily which also has a delete file function which is nice. Am using it to watch DVR Vidios which I delete after watching.

I have the Infuse Pro beta James sent out yesterday. Metadata fetching and video loading is MUCH improved. I also have MrMC and videos load fast and are very smooth for me but I definitely prefer Infuse Pro UI. It is just beautiful. I love the changes/features he is implementing.

 

[normanfox]

another thing that I like about Infuse is when you set audio passthrough DTS/AC3, it passes DTS to the receiver to decode. then turning the bluetooth headphone, Infuse automatically changes to decode the audio itself. so you can still hear audio fine through the headphone. turning headphone off automatically changes back to passthrough.

On the other hand, turning on bluetooth headphone with passthrough setting on, MrMc would continue to pass DTS signal. you only hear static noice through the headphone. so To use headphone for Movie with DTS or AC3, you have to go to settings menu and turn off passthrough. it is very inconvenient.

 

[d21mike]

I wonder if it's the type of SMB server that's being used. I'm using my mac mini server for it which is SMBX, Apple's version of SMB2. It could be it verses the SMB2 that your Synology uses. If it is, hopefully that's something that's easy for them to fix.

I am using WD MyCloud for this but I also have a Sinology and familiar with SMB differences. Not sure what WD is using. However, I did try with UPnP which I not that familiar with but I have the same slow performance. The reason I was hopeful about this is because NAStify works better with UPnP then it does with SMB. I mean both start instantly but the SMB is not as solid. Like when I pause or FF or REW it does not always restart instantly with SMB. Also, last night I had some problems with restart while using SMB. Then switched back to UPnP and absolutely no problems. The reason for using SMB is the folder structure and you can also delete files after viewing them if you want. However, I did have some problems with the delete function. Hopefully the problems will get resolved. Regarding NAStify UI, they really need to put the Servers in a separate place instead of the main screen. And they need to add either Favorites or Bookmarks so I can get back to Movies Folder (from Main Screem) or something like that. The Infuse UI is really good with this part.

 

[normanfox]

Today I played Ant Man movie. Infuse buffered at 12:35 min and it stuck there. the only way to pass that point is to fast forward.

MrMc plays the same movie at 12:35 min just fine. I also tried VLC on a PC and it plays without any problems.

Infuse has nice UI but playback is still buggy while MrMC has solid playback and horrible UI.

 

[lparsons21]

While I like the interface of InFuse better, I just bought MrMC and it is the only one of the DLNA apps I've found that deals consistently well with Playon streams. I can live with the interface though I've never been a fan of XBMC which is similar.

 

[GIZBUG]

Avatar is in MKV. I connected my ATV to Synology NAS 713+ using ethernet.

What do you mean connected? Plugged ATV into your Synology? Or streamed from synology?