Recommend sub $100 media player

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Recommend sub $100 media player

jackfry

227 posts

Master Geek

#183747 28-Oct-2015 20:48

Must be able to handle all common formats, preferably small and something I can just plug a USB stick into. Only need HDMI as well. My current one looses sync with audio and video, very annoying.

1 | 2

6036 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1415767 28-Oct-2015 20:55

Can't think of any for less than $100 apart from the chrome cast which doesn't meet your USB criteria.

For that money you could get a cheap Chinese kodi/xbmc thing. But unsure on their quality.

Previously known as psycik

Home Assistant: Gigabyte AMD A8 Brix, Home Assistant with Aeotech ZWave Controller, Raspberry PI, Wemos D1 Mini, Zwave, Shelly Humidity and Temperature sensors
Media:Chromecast v2, ATV4 4k, ATV4, HDHomeRun Dual
Server Host Plex Server 3x3TB, 4x4TB using MergerFS, Samsung 850 evo 512 GB SSD, Proxmox Server with 1xW10, 2xUbuntu 22.04 LTS, Backblaze Backups, usenetprime.com fastmail.com Sharesies Trakt.TV Sharesight

driller2000

935 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#1415805 28-Oct-2015 21:51

have one of these on the way from gearbest:

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_193367.html

pretty darn cheap - reviews seem ok - will provide some comments once it lands / i have had a play with it

jackfry

227 posts

Master Geek

#1415854 29-Oct-2015 03:00

driller2000: have one of these on the way from gearbest:

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_193367.html

pretty darn cheap - reviews seem ok - will provide some comments once it lands / i have had a play with it

Thanks that would be great.

jackfry

227 posts

Master Geek

#1415855 29-Oct-2015 03:01

davidcole: Can't think of any for less than $100 apart from the chrome cast which doesn't meet your USB criteria.

For that money you could get a cheap Chinese kodi/xbmc thing. But unsure on their quality.

Might have to find a decent one second hand on trademe.

graemeh

2078 posts

Uber Geek

#1415981 29-Oct-2015 09:58

Raspberry Pi and Pi 2 are pretty good as media players. You'll need to download an image and burn it to SD card so not quite just plug in USB but close.

robjg63

4098 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#1415986 29-Oct-2015 10:15

One thing that the Raspberry Pi (the Pi2 in fact) doesnt handle is the newer X.265 HEVC video files.
I bought a Pi 2 (had been using an original Pi) earlier in the year and was pretty impressed with it.
Have recently been seeing a few HEVC encoded files and impressed how good they look and the small filesize.
The Pi doesnt cope with these.

Just might be worth mentioning as this sort of codec will probably become a lot more common in the future.

That box from gearbest looks very interesting and extremely sharply priced. Will be interested in a review.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

Gilco2

1556 posts

Uber Geek

#1416034 29-Oct-2015 11:14

driller2000: have one of these on the way from gearbest:

http://www.gearbest.com/tv-box-mini-pc/pp_193367.html

pretty darn cheap - reviews seem ok - will provide some comments once it lands / i have had a play with it

thanks. Never heard of this and had a look at reviews and just bought one. Total cost they charged was $48NZ shipped. Under half the cost of similar units on Trademe. Thought worth the risk at this price

HTPC Intel Pentium G3258 cpu, Gigabyte H97n-wifi motherboard, , 8GB DDR3 ram, onboard graphics. Hauppuage HVR 5500 tuner, Silverstone LC16M case, Windows 10 pro 64 bit using Nextpvr and Kodi

Quic Broadband

Move to New Zealand's best fibre broadband service (affiliate link). Free setup code: R587125ERQ6VE. Note that to use Quic Broadband you must be comfortable with configuring your own router.

bongojona

253 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1416071 29-Oct-2015 12:37

I picked up a cheap Apacer media player from PB tech about 2 years ago. Now replaced with a new smart TV which can handle all media on a USB drive but the Apacer worked very well. Could not find a codec it could not play well

bongojona

253 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1416072 29-Oct-2015 12:38

Was well under $100 I recall

sxz

761 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1416108 29-Oct-2015 13:32

jackfry: Must be able to handle all common formats, preferably small and something I can just plug a USB stick into. Only need HDMI as well. My current one looses sync with audio and video, very annoying.

Got just the thing at home - WDTV. Have sent you a private message

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#1416252 29-Oct-2015 17:33

Get a 2nd hand wdtv live or roku

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

sxz

761 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1416304 29-Oct-2015 18:46

I have an original WDTV Live that was going to go on TradeMe if OP or anyone wants to buy it:

https://imgur.com/a/fDwpu

Ive just tested and it works great

have messaged you direct OP

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#1416351 29-Oct-2015 19:25

Buy a BluRay player on clearance that has a front loaded USB port, go from there.

Jase2985

13462 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#1416370 29-Oct-2015 19:37

sxz: I have an original WDTV Live that was going to go on TradeMe if OP or anyone wants to buy it:

i have one of these and best money ive spent on a media player. Use to use it ~4h per day for abut 18 months via USB, and now its network connected and our media player in the bedroom.

driller2000

935 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

#1417378 30-Oct-2015 21:57

postie delivered my beelink x2 yesterday - initial thoughts:

small lightweight unit (bright blue led may annoy some)
silent i.e. no fan
didn't get hot over the 3 or so hours i was using it
played all local files fine in kodi (see below for other comments re kodi)
kodi gui is smooth
can access full play store
i connected over wired to my server i.e. unRAID and it connected fine and played all of the files i tested
tested wifi which was a bit slow - esp for larger movies - but i never rely on wifi for streaming big files anyway
plugged in a wl kb and mouse - instantly recognised and worked properly
supplied HDMI cable is handy
supplied power supply is a bit chintzy and incl a dodgy "nz" adapter, like all imported products - so you may want to swap this out
installed spotify / flickr / facebook etc - all work fine
Netflix installed fine too - but i understand like all android boxes is limited to 720p
kodi is based on 14.2 and incl a truckload of addons - some of which needed updating e.g. genesis
while you can set the display output at up to 4k (in theory) - i couldn't test whether its real as i don't have a 4k display
kodi is/was limited to 720p output : / - as a result the video quality was meh.... so i found a modified 1080p fw - and flashed it using phoenixcard and an sd card - which went fine and now kodi plays in 1080p and is better for it - incl 34G mt2s files - so very happy with that aspect now
online streaming in kodi e.g. genesis is fine for sd and 720p (mostly) - but it does end up buffering sometimes - 1080p moreso - so this ain't so good - will dig more to see why
YouTube - capped at 720p and i also have a lip-sync issue to look into

in conclusion:

great value @ sub $50 - esp as a secondary media player
highly recommend flashing it to 1080p to get the most out of kodi
streaming local content is great
netflix is ok at 720p
streaming online kodi content is ok - ish
full play store so all apps available

so yeah....there you go - hope the above is of assistance to someone :)

1 | 2