Hard Drive Media Players

[LovettLn]

I've had a great deal of success with for my media players. They are still working on their firmware but that’s good. I only like o-play with the ISO previews and better control of the dvd. Still the menus get lost sometimes through movie previews popping up, as I would like to see the menu first sort of as a preview for that dvd. Hope this helps.

[billbell52]

Just saw another Argosy like player. You can download the source code and do your own mods.

http://www.mvixusa.com/ultio/1080p-high-definition-home-theater-pc.html

[maineman]

One of my mod colleagues is looking at one of these.



Apparently, they are on sale at New Egg in the US for about $90.

EDIT: Gone back up in price

Sorry GregiBoy, I should have been more accurate in my pm.
The discounted price is good until 2/3 ($89.99 + free shipping), but is only available as an email promo for those who subscribe to the egg's newsletter.
I'm not sure, but new subscriber's may be eligible for this promo

[GregiBoy]

One of my mod colleagues is looking at one of these.



Apparently, they are on sale at New Egg in the US for about $90.

EDIT: Gone back up in price

[rpratali]

Look at the media players offered by Masscool ... www.masscool.com. In particular, look at model # MP-1371RS.

[Scott]

How much are you looking/willing to spend on the streamer? I just recently bought the Acer AspireRevo ($200 in the US). It's an Atom/NVIDIA ION based "nettop" box which, in its current form as sold in the US, has Windows XP, a single-core CPU, the NVIDIA GPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HD, Gigabit ethernet, and HDMI out. I'm running XBMC for Windows on it, but that version of XBMC doesn't take advantage of the NVIDIA GPU, so you need to configure it to call a separate video player which is optimized for the GPU. MPC-HC is one such player and it works great.

[GregiBoy]

Maybe another option that certainly would cost you less that what you are indicating. Just a thought !!!

Complication and I have had this discussion in varied forms over a number of years on a number of forums and we agree that we disagree as we are most probably coming from different points of the compass and with far different A/V equipment and as we both always has been said, the quality of encodes is a very subjective topic and what plays well on one setup combination may look awful on another.



On my secondary TV in the bedroom, I just have a hard Disk Player with an SD slot for convenience, but don't forget, I have between six and ten different players connected at any one time as my business is based on development and importation of Hard Disk & Network Media Players from China for resale.

As Complication said, I do not think that there is anything on the market out of the box that will do what you want and you will have to cobble together from bits/pieces/software.

As an aside, I do keep a darn good library of my 1000+ movies and I use ABCAvi Tag edotor which maintains the info (Title, Director, Release Date, Actors & more... & FREE) within the tags of the AVI file with the exception of Album Art.

Unfortunately, MOST players will not read these tags so I export the data to an Access database where I could store the Album Art.

[Complication]

I have this issue as well. But I would like to house my entire collection permanently on a server somehow.

So now you're suggesting a HTPC for my situation? What file formats does Windows Media Center support?

I don't know exactly (much info on-line). However, if you want cover art then DVD Library is probably what you are looking for. That would be a ripped DVD in a folder with XML meta data included or added.

I read this from you in another thread. Chapter stops are another thing that is of some importance to me. Will this also allow for all of the subtitle and audio tracks for the main movie? I guess I am starting up the debate again about what is the best file conversion method? ISO, H264, VOB, Xvid? And by best I mean best for me not best overall.

Best = what works for you. Best quality? Best sound? Best features? Best trade-off between quality and hard drive space?

Unless you are willing to get rid of the cover art requirement, then none of those formats will work and the file conversion debate is moot. MKV looks promising but I haven't heard of being able to use it to store meta data like the cover or of a media player that would display it.

It may be counter intuitive, but the best option for you may be an NMT (or similar) and full DVD rips in ISO. It would take about 20TB of storage but hard drives are fairly cheap. The HTPC + WHS + storage for 4000 compressed movies isn't going to be cheap either (not to mention the processor time it would take to do the compression). The interface would be text but your wife could easily click into one and be presented with the DVD menu to see if she would like it. This would kind of get her the cover art and would maintain all the chapter and subtitle options. If, in the future, the MKV option or something else came along that suited your needs then you can use the created ISOs as the source for large batch processes.

I personally have given up on the chapters and subtitles for now and just use VOB Passthrough ripped to a DNLA server. Then I use my PS3 to watch them over a wired network connection. My wife just has to look it up on the laptop or try-and-see to figure out which one she wants to watch. I also have a PCH in the bedroom that the wife ends up using when she is sick to watch Twilight for the umpteenth time.

[Dwyreaux]

I buy the movies when they are on sale and cheap and they may sit on the server for a couple of years if she said I have to wait to watch it with her.

I have this issue as well. But I would like to house my entire collection permanently on a server somehow.

Microsoft is capable of a solution using a Media Center PC connected to a Windows Home Server (WHS) like this:

Adding your DVD Library to a Windows Media Center PC with Windows Home Server on a Friday night

Again, I'm not sure what you will need to do to get the correct box cover art into the WHS but it is certainly possible. I also don't know if the WHS route would ever allow you to compress the DVD to a different file format to save space. About 4-6G x 4000 DVDs is a lot of storage but you can probably use multiple WHS devices ("... and this is my server for comedies" ).

So now you're suggesting a HTPC for my situation? What file formats does Windows Media Center support?

If the OP is not interested in menus but wants to maintain the chapter stops then an ISO using Main Movie mode would chop out the extra (and work with the WD TV).

I read this from you in another thread. Chapter stops are another thing that is of some importance to me. Will this also allow for all of the subtitle and audio tracks for the main movie? I guess I am starting up the debate again about what is the best file conversion method? ISO, H264, VOB, Xvid? And by best I mean best for me not best overall.

[Complication]

Ok so in order to possibly mediate a potential argument by some very senior members of this forum I will make a quick comment... [emphasis added]

Hey, I'm starting to resent... uh.... resemble that remark.

My only issue that I can tell is that the UI is text based and not graphical based. The biggest reason this is a concern of mine is for my fiance. I have a nearly 4000 disc collection on backed up discs because they do not have the box art, etc. So I know even if I make this a more streamlined process by introducing a media server, if it is just text based, she will still not conform.

This will be the most difficult (read expensive) problem to solve in my experience. Apple may have something available using AppleTV and converting to MP4 but I don't know too much about it. Microsoft is capable of a solution using a Media Center PC connected to a Windows Home Server (WHS) like this:

Adding your DVD Library to a Windows Media Center PC with Windows Home Server on a Friday night

Again, I'm not sure what you will need to do to get the correct box cover art into the WHS but it is certainly possible. I also don't know if the WHS route would ever allow you to compress the DVD to a different file format to save space. About 4-6G x 4000 DVDs is a lot of storage but you can probably use multiple WHS devices ("... and this is my server for comedies" ).

Maybe one day they will improve DNLA some day to include extra meta information on the titles so that browsing can have a better UI.

I too have the problem of my wife being unable to pick a movie based on text and we don't even keep the movies on the server after she has watched them unless it is one of her favourites. I've been thinking about adding some kind of WIKI on the network so she can scroll through the movies to pick one with cover art and synopsis. Unfortunately, the cover art is not enough for her to remember the movie and decide if she wishes to watch it. I buy the movies when they are on sale and cheap and they may sit on the server for a couple of years if she said I have to wait to watch it with her.

[Dwyreaux]

Also, if there are any other features that I have missed in my desired features that you think I might be interested in, please feel free to ask if it is important to me. As of right now, streaming from YouTube and things like that are not a huge issue.

[Dwyreaux]

Ok so in order to possibly mediate a potential argument by some very senior members of this forum I will make a quick comment...

#1, I see the reason for leaning towards the PCH and other Networked Media Tank machines. There's hardly anything they cannot do. My only issue that I can tell is that the UI is text based and not graphical based. The biggest reason this is a concern of mine is for my fiance. I have a nearly 4000 disc collection on backed up discs because they do not have the box art, etc. So I know even if I make this a more streamlined process by introducing a media server, if it is just text based, she will still not conform.

#2, In my very limited experience with media servers, I have encountered very high end consumer level equipment. So my views of this subject are a bit skewed. I know the functionality of these high-end devices, what I'm trying to figure out is, what, if any, is a lower cost alternative to the machines I have dealt with before, and carry many of the same features and functions? I didn't know the first thing about media servers before reading on this forum and through this thread. So that's why I'm asking some fairly basic questions.

#3, Relating to #2, I don't really know the differences between many of the choices for media servers out there? Do the NMTs do better playback quality or is it just that they can play a greater variety of file formats? Does not having a built in HDD place some at a disadvantage from other? If so, what? What are the limitations to each suggestion mentioned in this thread: NMTs, WD TV, Apple TV, etc.? I'm the kind of person who likes to do as much homework on the subject before making a purchase.

#4, Just so you guys know exactly what I'm intending to use the media server for: I am the type person who loves the special features and menus, so originally I was intending to place the entire disc on the server and find one that can play menus and the whole bit. However, the more I thought about it, I decided that I just wanted the movie on the server. If I want to watch the special features, I can still pull out the disc. So with that in mind, I want a media server that can play most file extensions. I would like it to show the cover art or poster art (see #1 above). I would like it to play as many audio types as possible. Now I will have this connected to a A/V receiver that can decode all audio file types, so I don't know if this makes a difference as far as passthrough goes. Likewise with subtitles, I would like to be able to have the option to select subtitles if the need arises. Again, this may be more of an encoding issue than a media server issue. Lastly, I would like it to play at 1080p. Right now I won't start by placing Blu-ray disc files on there, but I definitely see that as being a good possibility in the very near future. I guess alone with that, it needs to be able to play Blu-ray encoded files, whichever file extension that may be.

After I get some of these issues addressed, I will most definitely come back here and ask what file conversion format I should use to get the results I desire. I would like to have the full audio track and subtitle track options with just the main movie and have the picture quality as close to, if not exactly the same as on the discs.

Since I currently have a PS3 and Xbox 360, I am going to see how these work as Media Extenders. What are the major drawbacks to using either of these for my intentions?

Sorry this was a long message, just wanted to clarify a few things so that You guys can best address my situation. Thanks for all of the help with this!

[Complication]

While the UI is not all that important to me either, I try to keep in mind that a pleasing UI (or some other feature) might be important to someone else.

In my opinion, the major factor that I would use in choosing any media player is that it plays the media files correctly and has all the connectivity options that I want whilst any bells & whistles UI should be of secondary importance.

So if I rephrase this in terms of what you are trying to tell the OP:

While you say that UI is important, this is a mistake. It should really only be of secondary importance to you.

I'm not sure on what basis you make this argument as a good fit for the OP. Maybe device UI is not as intuitive for him as for you and I. Maybe he also doesn't like poorly designed remote controls (another PCH issue). Maybe aesthetically pleasing UI is very import to him and he should actually be considering the *cough* AppleTV *cough*.

In your defense, I will say that you obviously have a lot of experience with DVDFab and devote a great deal of time helping people here (especially the people unable to do the most basic of forum searches first). For that I commend you.

[GregiBoy]

No, i don't think that is what I was trying to say !

What I think I was trying to say is:-

In my opinion, the major factor that I would use in choosing any media player is that it plays the media files correctly and has all the connectivity options that I want whilst any bells & whistles UI should be of secondary importance.

Hope that clarifies my point of view.

[Complication]

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.

So what you are saying is that this...

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.

...should be interpreted as "you care about the UI but I don't." How is that useful as "moderator" of the discussion? I can understand if he asked "should I be worried about the UI?", but he didn't. While the UI is not all that important to me either, I try to keep in mind that a pleasing UI (or some other feature) might be important to someone else. Maybe you were trying to say, "UI is not important to me so I don't really know which devices have good UI," but that isn't the way it came across to me.

My apologies to the OP for being so off topic. Hopefully we have managed to actually answer your questions along the way.