What is the best overall hard drive media player

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djpaubes

394 posts

Ultimate Geek

#39495 15-Aug-2009 09:15

I'm going to buy my old's a hard drive media player to play avi files. Just wanted any recommendations good or bad. I realise most people here will be using a PVR or a PS3 like myself. But I want something simple, one cable into HDMI and thats it. Looking at 500gb+.

I think mediagate use to do some good ones, but I've never had any experience with them.

Cheers guys.

Toys: Ã¯Â£Â¿ iphone 4s; PS3 good times. Ã¯Â£Â¿ 13inch macbook pro. Ã¯Â£Â¿ ipad 3. Ã¯Â£Â¿ 27inch imac. Ã¯Â£Â¿ airport express & time machine. raspberry-pi running xbmc and a gopro try hard.

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cldlr76

289 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 6

#246869 15-Aug-2009 09:57

I've just bought a WDTV, http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/4a85dc34018c11822740c0a87f3b06d8/Product/View/XH9817 for the kids tv to play their movies etc. It has HDMI and RCA outputs.
The menu is pretty easy to use, only minor problem is there is no volume control on the remote (which is quite small). It has two usb ports and I've got a 2.5" drive plugged into it, so no extra cables needed.

lchiu7

6521 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 543

Trusted

#249210 20-Aug-2009 21:25

I like the Popcorn Hour. It can play off an internal hard drive, USB drive(s) or off the network. Can pretty much play any format apart (alas) from AAC-HE audio in the m2ts format (our HDTV format) and multichannel FLAC. I would imagine for most folks these are not major restrictions.

Output is svideo, component or HDMI (1.3 for the latest version).

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.

8d52797c436

264 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user

#249282 21-Aug-2009 08:07

My flatmate used to have a mediagate that we used in the lounge, and it was horrible. We had a massive music collection and it used to crash whenever we tried to load the whole thing. You also can't browse the music while listening to a song which is a PITA, especially at parties.

For movies it was ok. Nothing spectacular about it, but it worked. There were a few formats we couldnt play though, but off the top of my head I cant remember which ones they were.

scwont

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#250291 25-Aug-2009 09:11

I've just purchased an Iomega ScreenPlay, and I'm extremely happy with it so far:

https://iomega-na-en.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/iomega_na_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=20308&p_sid=Cqy_VcGj&p_lva=14432

It has a 1TB hard drive, and can also play files from network shares (via ethernet or - if you can find one that works with it - USB wi-fi adapter) and USB drives. It plays AVI (i.e. DIVX/XVID) files and ripped DVDs, but there are some formats it can't play such as H264, WMV, MOV. You can also play MP3s and view photos on it. If you intend to use it a lot as an MP3 player it'll probably disappoint, but for playing my existing collection of videos and DVDs on the bedroom TV it's been awesome so far. (Its small size is a great advantage over things like the XBOX 360 which I was also considering.)

There's a 500GB model as well, which has no network connectivity option. From your description, this may be enough for your parents, considering it's cheaper:

https://iomega-na-en.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/iomega_na_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=19872&p_sid=GMTK-cGj&p_lva=14432

Both are available from a number of retailers in NZ.

There's also a user-run wiki for this device, which is much more useful than the official Iomega support, and I highly recommend you check it out if you're considering it as an option. It was extremely useful for me when researching what the Screenplay was capable and not capable of doing.

http://screenplayprohd.wikia.com/wiki/ScreenPlay_Pro_HD

lchiu7

6521 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 543

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#250295 25-Aug-2009 09:28

The Popcorn Hour can play all of the above formats (h.264, MKV, m2ts etc.) and output up to 1080p over HDMI and currently (though I didn't check on availability today) it's available as a refurb for US$99 + $35 shipping. It doesn't come with a drive but you can insert any 2.5" drive inside it or add USB external drives.

Staying in Wellington. Check out my AirBnB in the Wellington CBD. https://www.airbnb.co.nz/h/wellycbd PM me and mention GZ to get a 15% discount and no AirBnB charges.