Media drives

MOH

Not sure if this is the correct forum, please move if not.

First off, I'm completely ignorant about Media Centre PCs. I have my PC which is mainly used for playing games on, and my 32" Samsung for watching TV. I'm happy with that.

However, I do have some downloaded TV which I want to watch. Up to now it's been download video -> transfer to USB key -> transfer to laptop -> plug laptop into TV and play on TV.

I've been looking for an external HDD for a while, and I've just come across drives I can plug directly into my TV and play video from.

So, my questions are:

- What are these actually called? I've been googling Media Player, Media Drive, Media HDD - what's the correct term for them?
- I presume there's a standard HDD built into the player, so I can use it for storing data other than media files?
- Do they generally give HD output? Either through DVI/HDMI, or the PC connection?
- Where's a good place to get more information, comparisons, etc.
- Any recommendations? I don't want to spend too much, only looking for about 200-300 GB, even 150GB would probably do. Hi-Def output would be nice, to get some use out of the TV (Samsung LE32R41BD), but if it's a massive extra cost I'll do without.

Any suggestions welcome. Thanks.

8T8

Does your notebook have VGA out ? As if so plug it into the VGA port on the Samsung HDTV and then use media centre software. Getting a remote control will make things even easier.

Download a free media centre software like Media Portal or GB-PVR (make sure you have .NET 1 & 2 installed get from Windows Update).

Add the folder containing the video to folder watch list in My Videos and the videos will appear in thumbnail form and can be played from this UI.

You will also need ffdshow installed as the decoder & you can follow my guide for masking artefacts (blocks) in low resolution videos on big screens.

The biggest advantage over media streamers/embedded players is that with ffdshow can do all sorts of things to the video to clean it up so the picture quality is far better than what a XviD player could do. You could make things even easier by creating a wireless network sharing the folder of your PC on the network then add the shared folder into the media centre software watch list and play the videos on the laptop through the TV over the network with no copying required!

To answer your questions;

- What are these actually called? I've been googling Media Player, Media Drive, Media HDD - what's the correct term for them?

They don't really have one, but PMP (Portable Media Player) is the one gaining the most traction.

- I presume there's a standard HDD built into the player, so I can use it for storing data other than media files?

Yes & yes most do (some PMP's take media only).

- Do they generally give HD output? Either through DVI/HDMI, or the PC connection?

No often they don't, some media streamers (no HD plays video over network) do support HD resolutions in the UI but not in the video. Many of the HD's ones are limited to SD resolutions and will often have an s-video or something along those lines output.

MOH

Thanks for the info, 8T8. Should have clarified, no longer have the laptop, so now it's either buy a DVD burner and burn to DVD, or go with the PMP. Thanks.

8T8

PMP or media streamer is probably best option if that's the case.

Media Streamer might be a safer choice as some of the chips in PMP's have trouble decoding certain XviD videos but look for reviews of anything your planning to buy to see how it fairs.