media players

[LoveDVDFab]

I own a piece of garbage SuperSonic SC-21DVD also referred to as SuperSonic SC-21U (same thing). Maybe I am not smart enough to "configure" this thing but it cuts off all of my AVI movies that I have on my 2TB external HDD once they reach an hour mark (or so), usually a little over an hour, it skips everything after that and it automatically moves on to the next AVI file(movie) on the HDD. I thought this was to blame on Fab because all my DVDs get ripped to my external HDD by Fab, but no, all AVI movies play perfectly fine on my PC using just about any and every software media player available. Could anyone please tell me of similar experiences, and what your thoughts/suggestions are. Getting tired of this SuperSonic...

The idea is to have a decent(and affordable) piece of equipment that can play my AVI files on my TV set.

Thank you for your help.

[maineman]

Actually, my WD player performed perfectly when I first hooked it up wirelessly, even playing uncompressed Avatar over HDMI. It's only recently it has begun choppy playback even with a temporary piece of cat 5 running through the house. The reason I was considering running the cat 5 to the player's location was to get better coverage for my wireless. If I do that, of course I will hook up the player to the wireless router with cat 5. Same with my Roku player. No sense wasting a wired port. Good luck with the house sale.

Sounds like you've had better luck than most with wireless streaming. Strange that it started to become choppy...seemingly in a random manner.
Thanks for the good luck and please post back and let us know how you make out.

[maineman]

The idea is to have a decent(and affordable) piece of equipment that can play my AVI files on my TV set.

Thank you for your help.

I'm starting to sound like I get kickbacks from Argosy, but I have the HV335T, same as ram1009, and it's doing for me, exactly what you want...
playing my .avi files to my TV flawlessly.

I have about 700-800 .avi files on one of my hdds (installed in the Argosy) and the picture quality is amazing.
For .avi files, I'm still using my favorite...
GregoBoy's samsung profile

The output files are ~ 1 GB and are amazing in terms of video quality.

The Argosy can be had for about $89 from Amazon (no hdd installed at this price).
Not a bad price for what you want.
Newegg has roughly the same price and additionally offers the Argosy HV335T with a few hdd options.

[ram1009]

Sounds like you've had better luck than most with wireless streaming. Strange that it started to become choppy...seemingly in a random manner.
Thanks for the good luck and please post back and let us know how you make out.

Very strange. So much so that I suspected everything but the device. I tried several networking configurations before stringing a cat 5 to the device and it didn't help so back it goes to WD. I'll post the outcome.

[LoveDVDFab]

.... and it's doing for me, exactly what you want...
playing my .avi files to my TV flawlessly.

Do you have any information regarding the limit of characters it displays( # of characters in a movie title). The one I have only displays 12 characters(including spaces) and it does not see the rest. Also, this one does not scroll down when holding down the arrow down button on the remote control, if I want to go 100 movies down, I have to push that arrow down button 100 times. How about the one you're suggesting?

Thank you for your time.

I would like to thank the DVDFab Team for allowing this type of (non-Fab) discussion.

[maineman]

Well, I took a quick look and I found a title with 34 characters, all accurately displayed as I scrolled through the title list.
So it is at least 34.
As you highlight the title, the font size increases and the max appears to be 31. However, I believe the text will roll right to left for additional characters.

There have been a couple of firmware updates which have increased the scroll speed, but this function is still weak...JMO
It will scroll as you keep the up/down button depressed though, so it's not as bad as what you're used to...

I wish it had a page up/page down function, but alas, not yet.
Initially, I thought to organize by genre, but this is too ill-defined for some movies...and for my old noggin...
Ultimately, I created alphabetized folders, A-D, etc.
Not great, but it helps.

Oh, no problem, you're very welcome.

[LoveDVDFab]

Initially, I thought to organize by genre, but this is too ill-defined for some movies...and for my old noggin...
Ultimately, I created alphabetized folders, A-D, etc.
Not great, but it helps.

Oh, no problem, you're very welcome.

Actually, that is a wonderful tip for a newbie like myself. Thank you very much for sharing it, it sure will save me a lot of scrolling and searching if i create folders A-D or something in that fashion. I hope they upgrade their firmware so that it has a search function (like I've heard some of the WD Media Players have built in), just type a word and it finds it for you.

[macblob]

I just read through this chat and see that you both do the same as I do, with one exception...well maybe a few others too.
1. I have 9 1.5 to 2Tb hard drives hooked up to 2 five bay San Digital enclosures...ESATA enclosures. I found that transfering files in this matter alot faster than LAN. I map all the hard drives and do the same with structuring the folders, like 00 and A on the P drive and actually name the P drive Movies 00-A,,,ect. The one thing I come across the most is this:
METADATA....
I have movie Collectorz(just for cataloging), Windows 7 built in server, XMBC, Tversity, Twonky, Orb, Nero Home Media.....
Not a single one of those display the movie information on WDTV Live Plus, Netgear EVA2000, Sony Bluray Networked player, Sony Networked 55" LEDTV.

Yes I have an HDMI cable coming directly out of my computer video card and connected to the TV via a yamaha RX-V765 receiver(giving audio and video)<this just makes the TV a huge second computer monitor>.

The dilema is still to stream to the other devices using a server application that gives me all of the movie information like you would get off of IMDB or Netflix. Any ideas.