Hard Drive Media Players

[GregiBoy]

From this statement of his:-

"I guess a big concern of mine is that it seems like the user interface for these systems seems a bit primitive or basic."

It appears to me that he wants a bells & whistles UI.

[Complication]

As I have said before, I do not let any of my devices upscale as I think the $4000 TV does a better job.

I hadn't come across an upscaling TV yet. My old-school idea of a TV is that it faithfully represent what is being sent to it, good or bad. I feel the same way about my speakers.

I guess having that feature on your TV turned on all the time may make errors in the source content much less noticeable for you. This may explain why you and I disagree on the merits of DVD source material converted to H264. For me the compression errors are annoyingly distracting. On the other hand, I think Blu-Ray is over priced for what you get compared to DVD quality.

As far as the interfaces, I'm more concerned with how the device plays the files rather than album art and all that sort of stuff.

So long as the device will allow me to navigate easily to a filename where I can press the "PLAY" button, I regard the other bell & whistles as superfluous.

I understand your position, but I'm not sure how it relates to the OP.

[GregiBoy]

Hi Complication,

As I have said before, I do not let any of my devices upscale as I think the $4000 TV does a better job.

As far as the interfaces, I'm more concerned with how the device plays the files rather than album art and all that sort of stuff.

So long as the device will allow me to navigate easily to a filename where I can press the "PLAY" button, I regard the other bell & whistles as superfluous.

[Complication]

The WDTV does not support DVD Menus in an ISO yet and there is no word on the WDTV Live support but the dominion are hopeful:

http://wdtvhd.com/index.php?showtopic=1201

The Popcorn Hour (PCH) brand NMT devices do not require a hard drive. I use one in the bedroom to silently stream content. NMT plays almost everything (including DVD Menus from a ripped DVD directory or ISO) but is not as polished a device as your typical consumer device. Firmware updates fix things now and again but certain bugs remain (ex. NFS access of subdirectories).

I'm not sure how important quality is to you, but most of these devices have the same internal chip(s) that handle the decode and upscale. The only downside is that they do not upscale as well as the PS3 or Oppo (DVD player not media streamer). It looks like these devices simply take the SD video and expand it to fit in the 1080 space so any blockiness in the source material will be amplified. The better upscalers will smooth the lines so that the image looks sharper than it really is.

It seems that devices designed to be DVD upscalers do a much better job than those designed to be simple media players. Unfortunately, the PS3 does not play all the formats like the NMT does, will not connect to simple SMB or NFS shares, and has no way to stream a DVD Menu to it. For simple picture quality enjoyment the PS3 is a joy to watch streaming video on. I'm still on the lookout for a device that upscales like the PS3 and plays everything from everywhere like the NMT (throw in Netflix streaming support and I'll probably burst with excitement). However, I haven't tried or researched the latest PCH device that allows a Blu-Ray drive to be installed.

[Dwyreaux]

After having done some more homework I now understand more about what you are saying with the network media tank class of players. They do offer a host of abilities and having an internal HDD is a good way to utilize a lot of the online features.

I guess a big concern of mine is that it seems like the user interface for these systems seems a bit primitive or basic. The extent of my experience with media servers goes back to the Kaleidescaoe days. This most closely resembles the Escient interface with graphical representation of the movies on the server by using cover art and the MediData for the files. Does the NMT have this that I have not seen yet? Or do you know of a device that does have similar user interface functionality?

I know I keep going back to the WD TV Live, but it seems to be, from what I can tell, attempting to recreate the best features of the NMT without the built-in HDD. It also seems to be leaning towards the graphical interface of the higher-end media servers of old? Does anyone know this to be true, or am I misinterpreting something along the way?

Does anyone know of any other solutions that resemble the interface and functionality that I am referring to?

[GregiBoy]

To be quite honest, I prefer the "Network Media Tank" class of player such as the Popcorn Hour and there are many versions/models available and I would always go for one that could have a hard disk installed internally.

Use that as your google search criterea. I cannot really comment on what is available in the US but I actually import devices in Oz from www.midte.com and www.szweitu.com and have had great success with these. Maybe you can find an importer locally.

You clearly need to check out the connectivity of any device and on the 2 channel front, most devices that I have tested, there is a "Downmix 5.1 to 2 channel" option so I encode all my files with 5.1 and if necessary when connecting to a TV or A/V system with only 2 channel input, turn this on.

[Dwyreaux]

I disagree with the ISO being the way to go. Why would I want to store up to 9Gb of garbage that uses an outdated video codec when I can store it a close as dammit to the same quality using a newer more efficient codec eg: generic.h264.avi. audiocopy profile.

And before we start a flame war about quality, I have had at least 50 opinions on these files played on my Samsung 52" HDTV (LA52A850) and not one of my friends can pick the difference between the H264 file and the original DVD.

Unless you are an absolute videophile, I think that is the way to go but I am underwhelmed with the WDTV and as you have said, Complication, there are plenty of other devices out there with better features.

I did as you said and read (and reread in some cases). Could you lead me in the right direction as to which devices you are referring to? You said you were underwhelmed by the WDTV, does that include the newer WDTV Live? Seems like they fixed some things with that one.

In that thread you also state that you like devices with hard drives built in, any direction to give there? I'm not great at researching devices from lesser known brands, so it makes researching new technology a bit of a crap shoot. If you have had any good experience with some brands or devices, I would appreciate the knowledge.

In another thread, you told someone how to get 2 channel audio. These devices do support multichannel audio, yes? I tend to be of the type that enjoy the bonus features and menus, chapter breaks, etc.... what is the best format for my desired results? And which player would you recommend for those best results as well?

Thanks again!

[GregiBoy]

Try searching the forum for WDTV as quite a lot has been written on this lately (especially by me). "SEARCH" is your friend !!!!

After that research, feel free to ask any further questions.

[Dwyreaux]

I apologize if a similar thread exists out there but I was unable to locate it so I though I'd post my question here. Please feel free to merge this with an existing thread if one exists.

I was wanting to know about Hard drive media players. I was surfing through the forum today and learned about them just today. I can't seem to find a lot of good information from googling so I thought I'd ask you guys who have experience.

I have seen reference to WD TV a few times and seems to be the most popular out there. But I have also seen where people say they prefer media players with hard drives built-in instead of through USB 2.0 connections.

I guess my question is, what are the drawbacks to not having a built-in HDD and what features should I look for in a HDD media player? I know some play different formats. Do they support chapters in all formats?

Also, what about the user interface of each? Someone who has used these please let me know which are easy to use and which ones have attractive designs?

Again, I know these are a lot of questions, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks.