Aura - Should I or Shouldn't I?

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Aura - Should I or Shouldn't I?

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Graz

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First I'd like to say thanks for letting me join the forum.

So I'm thinking of buying an Aura but there's a few things I'd like it to do for me that I'm not sure if it does or not.

I currently have a VBox Android TV / DVB-T2 box which I was hoping to be able to use as a TV streamer and recorder for viewing around the house but it's woeful and I really don't want to waste anymore time with it to get it to do what I want.

The Aura would be connected to our living room TV where the VBox currently resides so would be used there as is.

The main thing I'd like to be able to do with the Aura is to stream live TV and anything I've recorded to an Nvidia Shield TV Pro in another room which is connected to a projector and so on. It seems like that should be possible as the Aura will connect to my network and already has an app that does similar to Android devices. Is there an Android TV app I can load straight onto the Shield to access the Aura direct? With the VBox I use a Kodi PVR plugin to connect to it from the Shield (this doesn't work that well), is anyone aware of a Humax plugin for Kodi?

The other thing I use the VBox for is to run Kodi to watch a selection of media on the living room TV that I have on a Windows server box using SMB shares. That in itself isn't a problem, what is the problem is the VBox's complete inability to offer any sort of audio pass through from Kodi. Does the Aura do that okay? As a minimum I'd want Dolby Digital and DTS but for future expansion Dolby HD and DTS-HD would be great and anything beyond that a bonus.

I really like the sound of the Aura, the fact that it's a proper Freeview+ box with all the catch up stuff on so on makes it a very attractive proposition and would hopefully be a bit more wife / kid friendly than the current setup but I really don't want yet another box that is "almost" there in terms of functionality.

Thanks for reading and your responses.

Cheers,
Graz

| Mon 29 Mar 2021 14:57:49 #1 |
grahamlthompson

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If it helps VLC on a PC can stream from the aura 4K Media Player which is a dlna server and my laptop can connect to a TV using a HDMI cable. If you can add a DLNA client like VLC on the shield it may well work.

You have access to live TV and recordings.

I will try VLC on an android phone to see if that works.

EDIT

Not good news. I can find android apps that will show the DLNA folders and contents. Replay starts and immediately stops.

So far only Kit I have that can playback is VLC on a laptop PC and my Panasonic 4K Blueray player.

| Mon 29 Mar 2021 15:02:10 #2 |
grahamlthompson

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grahamlthompson - 43 mins ago »
If it helps VLC on a PC can stream from the aura 4K Media Player which is a dlna server and my laptop can connect to a TV using a HDMI cable. If you can add a DLNA client like VLC on the shield it may well work.
You have access to live TV and recordings.
I will try VLC on an android phone to see if that works.
EDIT
Not good news. I can find android apps that will show the DLNA folders and contents. Replay starts and immediately stops.
So far only Kit I have that can playback is VLC on a laptop PC and my Panasonic 4K Blueray player.

| Mon 29 Mar 2021 15:45:34 #3 |
grahamlthompson

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I have a 4K firestick in one of my AVR inputs. Looking as if the aura android app when replaying a recording can cast to this. I will test this out tomorrow. If so this should work on another TV.

| Mon 29 Mar 2021 16:22:27 #4 |
andyd1302

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grahamlthompson - 51 mins ago »

grahamlthompson - 43 mins ago »
If it helps VLC on a PC can stream from the aura 4K Media Player which is a dlna server and my laptop can connect to a TV using a HDMI cable. If you can add a DLNA client like VLC on the shield it may well work.
You have access to live TV and recordings.
I will try VLC on an android phone to see if that works.
EDIT
Not good news. I can find android apps that will show the DLNA folders and contents. Replay starts and immediately stops.
So far only Kit I have that can playback is VLC on a laptop PC and my Panasonic 4K Blueray player.

Hi Graham,

A quick question you might be able to answer regarding streaming Aura recordings via a laptop connected to a 2nd TV.

Will the laptop retain the Aura recording's HD resolution when streaming on VLC, or does it lower the quality?

Reason I ask is, I've managed to DNLA via Windows Media Player on my laptop via "Other Libraries" where the Aura's visible along with the recordings, but so far I've been unable to get a HD picture from the remote library.

Hope you can help

| Mon 29 Mar 2021 16:44:09 #5 |
grahamlthompson

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Light Bulb Moment. The Vbox presumably has a built in chromecast. If you connect this to a second TV you may be able to use the Aura app to cast to the other TV.

| Mon 29 Mar 2021 17:11:59 #6 |
grahamlthompson

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andyd1302 - 28 mins ago »

grahamlthompson - 51 mins ago »

grahamlthompson - 43 mins ago »
If it helps VLC on a PC can stream from the aura 4K Media Player which is a dlna server and my laptop can connect to a TV using a HDMI cable. If you can add a DLNA client like VLC on the shield it may well work.
You have access to live TV and recordings.
I will try VLC on an android phone to see if that works.
EDIT
Not good news. I can find android apps that will show the DLNA folders and contents. Replay starts and immediately stops.
So far only Kit I have that can playback is VLC on a laptop PC and my Panasonic 4K Blueray player.

Hi Graham,
A quick question you might be able to answer regarding streaming Aura recordings via a laptop connected to a 2nd TV.
Will the laptop retain the Aura recording's HD resolution when streaming on VLC, or does it lower the quality?
Reason I ask is, I've managed to DNLA via Windows Media Player on my laptop via "Other Libraries" where the Aura's visible along with the recordings, but so far I've been unable to get a HD picture from the remote library.
Hope you can help

It's SD at best 960 x 540. If you copy to a PC using the built in Webif it's possible to rescale to 720p 1280 x 720. Only way to get a HD picture is to use the Box HDMI output and connect a digital modulator or a Cat7 balun pair with a cat7 cable. I feed HD to a Kitchen TV using the baluns. My amp has two zone switchable output zones.

| Mon 29 Mar 2021 17:19:00 #7 |
Graz

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Thanks for all the responses so far.

So on the face of things it doesn't seem completely cut and dried yet but may be workable. If VLC on a PC can play streams from it, either recordings or live TV then there's every chance some app on Android TV on another client could do the same. VLC is available for Android TV so that might just do it anyway.

Casting is another option and I'm guessing from what I've read is that the app offers that. The Nvidia Shield has Chromecast features out of the box. Any more thoughts or input on streaming options much appreciated though.

Back to the other question, anyone able to confirm that audio passthrough works properly with Kodi running on the Aura, preferably including HD audio formats.

Thanks!

| Tue 30 Mar 2021 10:09:12 #8 |
grahamlthompson

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Graz - 1 hour ago »
Thanks for all the responses so far.
So on the face of things it doesn't seem completely cut and dried yet but may be workable. If VLC on a PC can play streams from it, either recordings or live TV then there's every chance some app on Android TV on another client could do the same. VLC is available for Android TV so that might just do it anyway.
Casting is another option and I'm guessing from what I've read is that the app offers that. The Nvidia Shield has Chromecast features out of the box. Any more thoughts or input on streaming options much appreciated though.
Back to the other question, anyone able to confirm that audio passthrough works properly with Kodi running on the Aura, preferably including HD audio formats.
Thanks!

VlC for android does not have the upnp options found in the Windows version.

| Tue 30 Mar 2021 11:42:57 #9 |
grahamlthompson

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managed to cast a recording from the Aura DLNA server to chromecast plugged into my AVR.

Using bubbleUPnP for DLNA/Chromecast/SmartTV

There is no cast option in the Aura app.

| Tue 30 Mar 2021 12:34:10 #10 |