Differences Between RAVPower FileHub Plus and WD My Passport WiFi Drive

[eVolcre]

If you have the the FileHub bridged to an Internet connection, nPlayer does populate the metadata for each movie, including artwork. I'm using the $4.99 version of nPlayer - I prefer it over Infuse as it has more functionality for video adjustment, i.e. brightness, contrast, saturation. I have the movies on the HDD organized by genre in folders.

I’ll have to look into this. Bridged only for initial setup or every time you use it? It’ll usually be on the road so not very convenient if it has to be connected all the time.

I’ve got about 3 tb of movies sorted into 5 overriding folders. No way in heck do I have the time or patience to go through and make genre folders. There has to be a way to run a thin Client of kodi or plex on the iPad and then point it to a library.

 

[sparksd]

I’ll have to look into this. Bridged only for initial setup or every time you use it? It’ll usually be on the road so not very convenient if it has to be connected all the time.

I’ve got about 3 tb of movies sorted into 5 overriding folders. No way in heck do I have the time or patience to go through and make genre folders. There has to be a way to run a thin Client of kodi or plex on the iPad and then point it to a library.

It does some initial setup to collect metadata and a subset of the metadata, including artwork, partial cast, description, etc. is available offline. To view full cast and more detailed info about a movie (by selecting "more" in the metadata display), you do have to be connected to the Internet (it uses TMDb, The Movie Database).

 

[rui no onna]

Does that give you a front end like plex or kodi with artwork etc? Bit of a pain going through manually. I’d never know what to watch and end up watching rocky over and over again.

That’s one of the reasons I was considering the WD WiFi drive with the plex server but apparently it doesn’t work v well as a plex server. Must be a way or a program that sits on the iPad and you point it to a library on the external.

I recommend Infuse.

Tried the WD My Passport Wireless Pro but processor is just way too slow and RAM too small for running Plex Media Server.

 

[sparksd]

I recommend Infuse.

Tried the WD My Passport Wireless Pro but processor is just way too slow and RAM too small for running Plex Media Server.

I like the Infuse interface a lot but have found it to be significantly slower in accessing any of my SMB shares than either VLC or nPlayer. Videos are slow to open as is changing time position, actions that are relatively quick with the same videos on the other players (all are mp4 format).

 

[sparksd]

From what Sparksd has said, testing many of them, the RAVPower is the best. With his help I am happy with it. I find with my iPhone or iPad connected to it in 5G mode the data transfer speed is not great, but good. a 24MB file takes 2-3 seconds to download to my iOS device, maybe a little faster than that.

Yesterday I could not get the Filehub plus or RAV Filehub to succesfully download my raw files. I bought and installed the FileExplorer pro app, which works great, but during the process of finding the best way to get my files to download, what I did for the FE Pro app worke on the Filehub plus app and wanted to share.

Since the app will not allow you to save raw files to the camera roll on an IOS device, the key is finding a way to save the files as an go between. If you have an Adobe Creative cloud account. Download the creative cloud app on the iOS Device. Then go into the Files app on the iOS device and on the main screen that shows locations in the Files app, click on Edit and you should see creative cloud. This will allow you to download

Or from the Files Explorer Pro app, once you connect to the RAVPpower, you select the photos, click on copy and choose copy to local. You can create a new folder to copy the pictures into. From there, go back to the local location in the app you can click on camera roll to save them. Then if you to to LightRoom you can access and edit the raw files, or go to the Photos app.

Or you can go to Files app on your device, select the files and choose open in Lightroom or other apps.

There are a few ways I have had success in copying and editing the photos.

So at this point I am very happy with the RAVPower WP-07.

One question - for importing RAW files into Photos, did you ever consider the Apple Card Reader? On the iPad Pros like my 10.5, the new version reads at USB3 speeds - downloads are really fast. I rarely do any photo work on my iPad but I use the card reader to load my RAW images into Photos and then transfer to Lightroom.

 

[eVolcre]

I recommend Infuse.

Tried the WD My Passport Wireless Pro but processor is just way too slow and RAM too small for running Plex Media Server.

Can you point infuse to two libraries? Say one main library on the external connected to the RAVPOWER. The second .. have infuse copy maybe 100 movies to local ipad storage. My favorites that I can then watch without being connected.

That's actually a huge negative even on laptop KODI. There's only one library really with all your movies. I've got 200 GB stored locally 4 TB on the external. When I travel I have only my laptop and there's been so many times where I click on a movie to watch and it's stored on the external location!

 

[sparksd]

Can you point infuse to two libraries? Say one main library on the external connected to the RAVPOWER. The second .. have infuse copy maybe 100 movies to local ipad storage. My favorites that I can then watch without being connected.

That's actually a huge negative even on laptop KODI. There's only one library really with all your movies. I've got 200 GB stored locally 4 TB on the external. When I travel I have only my laptop and there's been so many times where I click on a movie to watch and it's stored on the external location!

I have multiple SMB connections set up with Infuse on my iPad - one points to a NAS, one points to a laptop share, and one points to the FileHub. Depending on my network connection, I can access any or all of them. I also have some videos copied locally in Infuse. (I've done the same in nPlayer). Is that what you're looking for?

Edit - I should add that the view into each is separate so I know the location I'm looking at.

 

[eVolcre]

I have multiple SMB connections set up with Infuse on my iPad - one points to a NAS, one points to a laptop share, and one points to the FileHub. Depending on my network connection, I can access any or all of them. I also have some videos copied locally in Infuse. (I've done the same in nPlayer). Is that what you're looking for?

Exactly what I'm looking for. And then when you open infuse you can point it to a particular share right? (local IPP storage vs FileHub?)

 

[sparksd]

Exactly what I'm looking for. And then when you open infuse you can point it to a particular share right? (local IPP storage vs FileHub?)

Right. I can open to any share individually (again, same in nPlayer). I'd like to hear from others their experience with Infuse and SMB shares. In the last 2 days I have completely switched over to nPlayer because it is so much faster (plus it had the additional video controls and the connectivity to TMDB for more complete movie info). I don't see going back to Infuse at this point.

 

[loybond]

You can use VLC but I don't think you'll get metadata

 

[sparksd]

You can use VLC but I don't think you'll get metadata

Right - no metadata with VLC. Good, free bare-bones player and I do like its display controls - brightness, gamma, contrast, saturation.

 

[loybond]

Yeah, easy choice to access shares without fuss, although my biggest issue is that it always crashes when resuming if the app goes to sleep.

Right - no metadata with VLC. Good, free bare-bones player and I do like its display controls - brightness, gamma, contrast, saturation.

 

[rui no onna]

Right. I can open to any share individually (again, same in nPlayer). I'd like to hear from others their experience with Infuse and SMB shares. In the last 2 days I have completely switched over to nPlayer because it is so much faster (plus it had the additional video controls and the connectivity to TMDB for more complete movie info). I don't see going back to Infuse at this point.

Yeah, Infuse is sometimes excruciatingly slow connecting to SMB shares. Most times, it's okay though. At home, I still use Plex for streaming and I haven't been doing any traveling. Also been doing more reading than watching so video playback hasn't been something I've had to look into recently.

Back when I was looking into Plex alternatives, I don't believe nPlayer had metadata support and Infuse had only added metadata support within the past 3 months or something. If nPlayer supports metadata now, I'll have to give it a try myself. I kinda replied before reading the rest of the thread.

 

[sparksd]

Yeah, Infuse is sometimes excruciatingly slow connecting to SMB shares. Most times, it's okay though. At home, I still use Plex for streaming and I haven't been doing any traveling. Also been doing more reading than watching so video playback hasn't been something I've had to look into recently.

Back when I was looking into Plex alternatives, I don't believe nPlayer had metadata support and Infuse had only added metadata support within the past 3 months or something. If nPlayer supports metadata now, I'll have to give it a try myself. I kinda replied before reading the rest of the thread.

Yes, nPlayer does have metadata now and it links further info on TMDB, better than what Infuse provides.

The problem I have with Infuse and shares is not slow connecting but slow opening of a video on a share and slow response to fast forwarding using the slider bar; in fact, it will often lock up when fast forwarding and I have to force close the app and start over. I don't see similar performance problems with either nPlayer or VLC.