EGreat media players

  • Thread starter }Fear_Inoculum{
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}Fear_Inoculum{

}Fear_Inoculum{

Senior Audioholic
Came across one on CAM (Canuck Audio Mart), and had never heard of this before. Has anyone here owned one, or had any experience with it?

This is one of the only reviews I could find online:


Was pricey new, but this guy is selling his for 200$.

Thoughts?
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
After having Plex, I struggle with fixed format players like that. They are supported for a number of years, then support drops, and the player becomes obsolete. It is nice that is plays so many formats (for sure) and does so reliably.

But, I dropped several hundred dollars on Dune media players years ago, and they have recently been pulled out of my rack for new Roku units that can connect with the Plex app to my main computer and play everything just fine.

For $200, I'm thinking it's not a bad player if you only want your movie collection available to you at a single display location in your home. It surely can work with networked movie storage on a NAS setup of some sort. Which also means you could still use that and run Plex.

I'm just not sure how it stacks up, head to head, with a service like Plex, and that's often missing from reviews. It's shameful at this point to look at any media player without comparing it to Plex in terms of ease of use and value for the money.
 
WookieGR

WookieGR

Full Audioholic
Came across one on CAM (Canuck Audio Mart), and had never heard of this before. Has anyone here owned one, or had any experience with it?

This is one of the only reviews I could find online:


Was pricey new, but this guy is selling his for 200$.

Thoughts?
I currently have an Egreat A5 I've been trying to sell. I bought it for its ability to play full Bluray and UHD Bluray ISO files with menus and also to access HD Audio files like DSD and 24/96 FLAC.

I no longer use it because I prefer the nice menus and navigation of PLEX and the Egreat doesn't support PLEX, I also strip my rips to bare movie/audio track to save space so the feature to play ISO's is wasted on me. PLEX won't even recognize ISO files.

However, the Egreat does have it's own version of KODI and a media scanner to import movies, music and TV shows with it's own nice looking GUI. If someone is not already in the PLEX ecosystem like I am, the Egreat is an excellent alternative with better picture quality, and a wide range of audio format support.

It's not a good choice if one relies heavily on streaming services like Netflix or Disney+.
 
}Fear_Inoculum{

}Fear_Inoculum{

Senior Audioholic
It's not a good choice if one relies heavily on streaming services like Netflix or Disney+.
Thanks for the info.

In regards to the last part of your post, why is that?
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
Thanks for the info.

In regards to the last part of your post, why is that?
It might be one of those players that isn't certified so some streaming services may not be present. This seems like a pure local video player. I'm sure it's nice, but you would get more functionality from something like a Shield TV. It's very powerful and has a very good upscaler (so I hear, mine aren't new enough to have this feature).

Sure, the Shield has had it's issues, but the first gen came out in 2015 and still gets updated. Not many companies do that.
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
In regards to the last part of your post, why is that?
I think the point is that this is not a 'streaming' device. It doesn't take content from online (Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, etc.) and present it to your home. It takes your personal collection and plays it back locally to a TV.

So, unlike Roku, ChromeCast, Amazon Fire, ShieldTV, or your PC, you are very limited in the functionality of this device. It is very purpose built. Which, you likely fully understand. If you want Netflix, get a Roku. This device won't do that.

There really needs to be a specific reason that someone wants a device like this. It's not a bad option. I really enjoyed my Dune players for several years. But, to say they were glitchy would be a fair understatement. Likewise, you will have a fair bit of expense, and potential work, to get hard drive going with these types of units, plus getting all the content for it if you don't have it already.

Know exactly why you want a dedicated unit over an open system (like Plex) before you buy.
 
}Fear_Inoculum{

}Fear_Inoculum{

Senior Audioholic
It might be one of those players that isn't certified so some streaming services may not be present. This seems like a pure local video player. I'm sure it's nice, but you would get more functionality from something like a Shield TV. It's very powerful and has a very good upscaler (so I hear, mine aren't new enough to have this feature).

Sure, the Shield has had it's issues, but the first gen came out in 2015 and still gets updated. Not many companies do that.
Because they are not supported.
I think the point is that this is not a 'streaming' device. It doesn't take content from online (Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, etc.) and present it to your home. It takes your personal collection and plays it back locally to a TV.

So, unlike Roku, ChromeCast, Amazon Fire, ShieldTV, or your PC, you are very limited in the functionality of this device. It is very purpose built. Which, you likely fully understand. If you want Netflix, get a Roku. This device won't do that.

There really needs to be a specific reason that someone wants a device like this. It's not a bad option. I really enjoyed my Dune players for several years. But, to say they were glitchy would be a fair understatement. Likewise, you will have a fair bit of expense, and potential work, to get hard drive going with these types of units, plus getting all the content for it if you don't have it already.

Know exactly why you want a dedicated unit over an open system (like Plex) before you buy.
Yeah, I've got a Firecube for streaming.

I was looking at this as a player to DL movies onto a hard drive and plug into so that I can get true 4K video, rather than compressed streams or buying a UHD player like the Panasonic DPUB 9000. For 200$, it doesn't seem too bad.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
Yeah, I've got a Firecube for streaming.

I was looking at this as a player to DL movies onto a hard drive and plug into so that I can get true 4K video, rather than compressed streams or buying a UHD player like the Panasonic DPUB 9000. For 200$, it doesn't seem too bad.
The only thing about things like this is your Firecube that makes it bad for what you're wanting is the fact that it doesn't support HD audio. It supports every video format under the sun though. I say give Plex a try and load the app on your Firecube and see if you like it. If you do, then spend that $200 on a Shield and get HD audio and all the video support. You get all the functionality, then some. You could also plug your drive directly into your Firecube and set up Kodi as well. It'll do the same as Plex, but might be easier since no server setup would be required.

We can help out if you run into trouble, and this experiment will cost nothing but time.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Learned something new, never heard of this brand/device!
 
BMXTRIX

BMXTRIX

Audioholic Warlord
Yeah, I've got a Firecube for streaming.

I was looking at this as a player to DL movies onto a hard drive and plug into so that I can get true 4K video, rather than compressed streams or buying a UHD player like the Panasonic DPUB 9000. For 200$, it doesn't seem too bad.
I agree with @panteragstk on this one. If I were you, I would start by trying Plex first. If you haven't downloaded ANY content yet, then that's a starting point. You are going to need to download a couple of movies. But, once you've done that, it (literally) takes thirty minutes to setup Plex on your PC, and download it to your FireTV product.

There are a ton of videos online which show you how to install Plex, if you want added information, but the first time I did it it walked me through everything. I already had a folder with some movies in them and a separate folder with TV shows in it. The program had me create an account, then asked where I stored my movies and asked where I stored my TV shows. Then it was done and ready to be used. I went to my Roku, downloaded Plex, and logged in using the same username/password I created for the account, and I could immediately playback my movies.

COST: FREE!!!

That was a big thing for me. That I could try it out in my home without any cost to see how I liked it. It was SUPER painless to setup, took maybe thirty minutes, it cost me absolutely nothing, and I was done.

The downside? You have to have a computer available to store the movies and TV shows on. A product like the Shield can perform this duty, but in my home, I had an old PC from 5+ years ago I was using on my original Plex server. I just moved it all to a much newer computer, but I still keep that computer on and running full time to act as my Plex server. It works well for this duty. If you have an old laptop or computer, you can use that for testing out Plex.

There are a TON of videos online about setting up Plex, requirements for using Plex, etc. These are tutorial videos and give you different options, because Plex offers a ton of options. You aren't as hardware limited/locked as you are with a dedicated unit like the EGreat unit. The videos are often very helpful. The software setup videos are great because they are typically about 10-15 minutes long and really show how easy the setup is.

I'm not sure how computer savvy you are, or are not. Skills vary wildly from person to person, but one thing I hated with my DuneHD media servers was that networking to them and setting up network shares for hard drives was painful. It was kind of a 'skill' they just expected people to know how to do. I did not, so it took a fair bit of research to figure it out. So, if you get the EGreat, you need to figure out how you are going to get videos from your computer to the hard drive attached to the EGreat, or you will need to figure out how to map your computer's hard drive to the EGreat. It can't just 'discover' the hard drive on it's own. Unless you use a USB hard drive, in which case you may be physically moving a hard drive back and forth all the time, which isn't convenient at all.

This is why I love (LOVE!) Plex and why my family does as well. I sit in front of my computer, I download a video to a hard drive that is inside my computer, Plex sees the new video file, updates the library, and the Plex App on my Roku, whether at home, or ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, can now see that new video file and play it back. My brother has a Roku at his home, and he can watch movies there. There is one in a vacation property several states away, and we can watch movies there. It is incredibly easy and convenient to use... and reliable.

I won't say I haven't had any hiccups, but as I said, there are a TON of videos online and most are really helpful.
 
BoredSysAdmin

BoredSysAdmin

Audioholic Slumlord
I'd add a few lines on the biggest differences between static media clients like Kodi (or egreat) vs servers like Plex:
1) Plex will keep your media collection centralized, meaning you can have multiple devices accessing the same media library without the need to rescan/redownload metadata, keep track of the watched status, and if paused, the exact location of pause with resume on another device.
2) Installing Plex clients as many said is very easy and tons of devices are supported right away
3) You don't need to worry about specific video format/codec - Plex will "translate" the video format to one supported by your device/resolution.
4) If you're watching video on a mobile device on the go - it will adapt streaming quality to best fitting the network connection
5) you could easily share your media library access with your family/friends with secure encrypted remote access.
6) Plex also supports over the Air TV tuners and could act as a TV streaming platform and even DVR functionality.
7) With hardware video transcoding, very little/cheap hardware is needed to run the Plex server. I use NUC6CAYH - A Celeron J3455 based on $200 NUC from 2016. Some NAS boxes are perfectly suitable. NVidia Shield TV box itself could be a plex server - you don't need to shell out for a plex pass to get hardware video transcoding with Shield Tv based plex server.

A couple of finer points:
1) Cost - Most of the functions are free, but DVR, hardware transcoding, and a few more aren't. Most serious Plex owners typically get a Plex Lifetime subscription (it's often on sale and could get gotten as much as 1/2 the price)
2) As noted above, Plex doesn't support ISO images at all, the same BD quality could be packaged as an MKV file without any loss of quality, except for the menus and other interactive features.
 
panteragstk

panteragstk

Audioholic Warlord
A couple of finer points:
1) Cost - Most of the functions are free, but DVR, hardware transcoding, and a few more aren't. Most serious Plex owners typically get a Plex Lifetime subscription (it's often on sale and could get gotten as much as 1/2 the price)
2) As noted above, Plex doesn't support ISO images at all, the same BD quality could be packaged as an MKV file without any loss of quality, except for the menus and other interactive features.
If you are technically inclined and like to tinker, Kodi supports all of these things for free, but the time and effort that go into setting them up can be quite high depending on the feature.

If you are an HTPC guy, Plex just released a new version of their HTPC client and it's pretty great. Plays everything you can throw at it like kodi. Including 5.1 FLAC and WAV. I have a few DTS encoded WAV files that work fine too. It works better than Plex or Kodi on android.
 
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