Low price media devices

[highfigh]

Since we already have a thread for the WD TV Live, does anyone have experience with the Seagate or LG media units? I was at Best Buy and the variety caught me by surprise, mainly because I never looked as much and because of the low prices.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173001&cm_re=zotac-_-56-173-001-_-Product

Just get this and use xbmc/boxee.
The rest just dont measure up to this config.

 

[tbergman]

+1 for Ion and XBMC

 

[sholling]

I think as far as out of the box $100-120 media devices it comes down to the WD TV Live and the Asus O Play. At least according to Gizmodo's media player shootouts. They rated the two a tie with the Seagate a distant third. I googled WD TV Live vs Asus o play and there were a lot of fans on both sides and each had its own strengths. I used what I learned there to pick the Western Digital and I will be buying a second for my master bedroom. Each will have a network connection and it's own external drive.

http://gizmodo.com/5415699/asus-oplay-review-best+priced-hd-video-player-is-the-new-champ
http://gizmodo.com/5397986/hd-media-player-battlemodo-apple-tv-killers

Moving from a HTPC to a media device my requirements were simple but firm:

• It must play FLAC files (lossless audio) flawlessly
• It must play DVD rips at full quality
• It must play Blu-Ray rips in full 1080P
• It must have a seamless remote control, the remote must turn it on and off, and there must be no need what so ever for a bulky keyboard
• It must have an interface optimized for English speakers
• It must be simple to update and be backed by a company that will keep updating with new features
• It must have low energy use
• It must be quiet/silent
• It must be networked and play music across the network
• If it uses a local drive (in addition to the network) there must be a way to sync with my media files on the server.

The WD meets all of those requirements. For the last I mapped the WD's external drive as a network drive on my main PC and schedule GoodSync to run a one-way sync weekly.

 

[highfigh]

I think as far as out of the box $100-120 media devices it comes down to the WD TV Live and the Asus O Play. At least according to Gizmodo's media player shootouts. They rated the two a tie with the Seagate a distant third. I googled WD TV Live vs Asus o play and there were a lot of fans on both sides and each had its own strengths. I used what I learned there to pick the Western Digital and I will be buying a second for my master bedroom. Each will have a network connection and it's own external drive.

http://gizmodo.com/5415699/asus-oplay-review-best+priced-hd-video-player-is-the-new-champ
http://gizmodo.com/5397986/hd-media-player-battlemodo-apple-tv-killers

Moving from a HTPC to a media device my requirements were simple but firm:

• It must play FLAC files (lossless audio) flawlessly
• It must play DVD rips at full quality
• It must play Blu-Ray rips in full 1080P
• It must have a seamless remote control, the remote must turn it on and off, and there must be no need what so ever for a bulky keyboard
• It must have an interface optimized for English speakers
• It must be simple to update and be backed by a company that will keep updating with new features
• It must have low energy use
• It must be quiet/silent
• It must be networked and play music across the network
• If it uses a local drive (in addition to the network) there must be a way to sync with my media files on the server.

The WD meets all of those requirements. For the last I mapped the WD's external drive as a network drive on my main PC and schedule GoodSync to run a one-way sync weekly.

Are you using this to stream videos and programming from the internet, using Hulu or any other service like that?

What are you using to rip BluRay- a BD for computer with a housing or in another computer?

What I'm lookng for doesn't need to be less than $200 but it has to work well. For that price, I don't think it's reasonable to expect it to be flawless but I know some of these are getting really good.

 

[sholling]

Are you using this to stream videos and programming from the internet, using Hulu or any other service like that?

I've played with it with youtube and it's the only choice (and 2 for Internet audio) currently offered. But it's not something that I bought the WD for. I didn't use my HTP for that either because I hated dealing with a keyboard.

What are you using to rip BluRay- a BD for computer with a housing or in another computer?

A PC.

What I'm lookng for doesn't need to be less than $200 but it has to work well. For that price, I don't think it's reasonable to expect it to be flawless but I know some of these are getting really good.

The WD is a basic media player for files stored locally on an external drive or a network share and does those as well as possible within the limitations of your LAN's bandwidth. It's not as full featured as a Popcorn hour, and not a HTPC - but I don't need to to be.

I'll be adding another network attached storage device soon but honestly I'm just as happy if not happier using the WD with an external drive and just keeping it synchronized over my too slow for HD video wireless connection. In fact I just ordered a pair of 1.5TB external drives - one for the family room and one for my future bedroom WDTV Live.

 

[krzywica]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856173001&cm_re=zotac-_-56-173-001-_-Product

Just get this and use xbmc/boxee.
The rest just dont measure up to this config.

While Boxee or XBMC are nice to use in conjunction with an HTPC, its still an HTPC, so you have the drawbacks of any other HTPC and the benefits as well. I think Highfigh is looking for strictly a hardware streamer that is out of the box configured and supported by an actual company.

Highfigh you can come over to my place if you want and checkout my setup and see what you think. I have been doing this a long time and can help give you advice as well as let you see first hand how a streamer performs and exactly what it can do. Just shoot me a PM.

 

[krzywica]

I'll be adding another network attached storage device soon but honestly I'm just as happy if not happier using the WD with an external drive and just keeping it synchronized over my too slow for HD video wireless connection. In fact I just ordered a pair of 1.5TB external drives - one for the family room and one for my future bedroom WDTV Live.

If you can wait a few months I would pick up one of these man.

http://www.popbox.com/

 

[Ben_in_COSpring]

If you can wait a few months I would pick up one of these man.

http://www.popbox.com/

Based on my experience with the last Popcorn Hour model, I would rather get kicked in the testicles then give them any more of my money and deal with their buggy pre-alpha crapware.

 

[krzywica]

Based on my experience with the last Popcorn Hour model, I would rather get kicked in the testicles then give them any more of my money and deal with their buggy pre-alpha crapware.

What model did you have?

 

[Ben_in_COSpring]

I had a C-200 and got rid of it in disgust.

I have an older A-110 which works fine. It doesn't do everything I would like it to, but it does work as advertised.

 

[krzywica]

I had a C-200 and got rid of it in disgust.

I have an older A-110 which works fine. It doesn't do everything I would like it to, but it does work as advertised.

I would have to agree with you that the C-200 has some issues. Some people are affected by those issues and some are not. I'm in the middle where there is 1 more thing I am waiting for PCH to fix, as they just came out with a FW update Friday to fix a HUGE amount of bugs.

The A110's are excellent devices, but are starting to be a little dated. I am looking forward to the Popbox and hoping it will be much more bug free than the C-200 upon launch.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

As I said, nothing right now on market measures up to XBMC/Boxee and I'm not saying it lightly.
I had experience with Popcorn hour, Dvico TViX and Dlink clients. All of them had awkward menus, audio/video Codec limitations, networks streaming issues, Limited HD support etc...
Is Boxee is perfect? Not right now is not, and its still a beta product, but it is the solo platform moving amazingly fast in the right direction. With introduction of ION support I decided not to wait anymore and jump on board, and boy - I'm glad I did.
Boxee Box will be based on Nvidia Tegra 2 platform which should have more raw muscle then any of above mentioned devices.
Sorry its getting late here... i'll write some more tommorow

 

[Ben_in_COSpring]

My issue with Popcorn Hour is the fact that they continue to advertise capabilities that they don't have. If they put an * next to them and said, "Coming soon," then I would be cool with it, but the way it is right now they are flat out not telling the truth. Prior to the C-200 I was a big advocate for them and ended up winning them a couple of A-110 customers. Now I have nothing but contempt for them and their dishonest marketing.

The thing I like in general about the NMT devices are that they are basically 0 maintenance. The interfaces are a little clunky, but they're logical and consistent enough for other members of my family to use them. XBMC on Linux does have a super-cool interface, but it seems like little problems always crop up. I can deal with them in my HT where I am usually the one putting media on, but I wouldn't put one in my living room where other family members would use them.

When somebody puts an XBMC-like interface on a NMT device and gets all the bugs out, then we will have a real winner for the living room. Until then it's Linux+XBMC in the HT, and an A-110 in the living room for me.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I strongly [STRIKE]think[/STRIKE] wish that Boxee Box will be able to be ultimate living room, wife friendly media client

 

[krzywica]

When somebody puts an XBMC-like interface on a NMT device and gets all the bugs out, then we will have a real winner for the living room. Until then it's Linux+XBMC in the HT, and an A-110 in the living room for me.

Its been there for a long time on NMT, you just have to look for it. YAMJ has been out for a long time and I have been using the combination of YAMJ and NMTServer with my NMT's for about 6 months. Its truly an amazing interface.

*See Sig*

 

[Ben_in_COSpring]

I agree that it looks nice, but it's nowhere near as smooth as XBMC.