Need advice on DVD/Media Player

dartsfan

Hi,

I'm looking to buy a player that can at the very least play DivX movies from my 500GB External Hard Drive.
The Western Digital WD TV seems to fit the bill for this:
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/3602890/art/western-digital/wd-tv-mini-media-player.html

An optional extra that I would like to have is the ability to play DVDs. This player seems to play both DVDs and play off an External Hard Drive:
http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/2681316/art/philips/dvp3360-dvd-divx-usb-hdmi.html

Can anyone recommend a sleek enough player that can receive streamed content from my PC? I'm not too bothered if it can play DVD discs directly.

Thanks.

branners69

For me it would be the WD!

I have found with DVD players you will get more codec compatibility issues. The WD will pretty much play anything you throw at it. You might want to wait until the WD Mark 2 is released as it plays DTS audio!

Not sure of a release date or a price yet.

tubos

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=493316

dartsfan

Thanks for the replies. The WD TV Live Media Player looks like very good value although I'd like to wait until it's reviewed before I'd consider purchasing it.

Two others similar players to this that I found were the Popcorn Hour A-110 and Xtreamer. Xtreamer is the cheaper of the 2 and has only recently released. Reviews that I've read are quite favourable - however, one downside appears to be fan noise, although there are conflicting reports about this.

Popcorn Hour A-110 on the other hand has no such noise problems, and although it is a bit dearer it appears to be able to play virtually any type of media.
Thinking of leaning towards the Popcorn Hour....

RangeR

If you're thinking of stretching to the Popcorn, would you not stretch to a PS3 [slim]? Amazing home entertainment unit [not just a games console] It plays 99% of Avi's I throw at it.

dartsfan

I haven't really looked at the PS3 to be honest. Does it support wireless streaming from a PC? Can you plug in an external hard drive?

RangeR

dartsfan wrote: »

Does it support wireless streaming from a PC

Yes, via DNLA. Actually there is no difference between wired and wireless streaming other than speed and reliability. Wireless is slower and less reliable but this isn't the fault of the PS3.

dartsfan wrote: »

Can you plug in an external hard drive?

Yes. You can also easily upgrade it's internal hard drive to 500GB [s.5" laptop style HDD] or higher when they are cheap enough.


Yes, I love my playstations. I've been trying out different media streamers in the past but this is the dawgs AND does much more besides.

branners69

How does PS3 handle hd files such as mkv's?

I have a PS3 and it was a nightmare playing back mkv's.

I havent updated the firmware of my PS3 in over year, have firmware updates sorted the problems?

OP I didnt realise you had a larger budget, if you do then definitely look at dedicated media player such as this or this !

There was a guy on adverts.ie selling the Tvix 5100 which I have for a real bargain. It will play anything you throw at it and wont require any converting!

RangeR

branners69 wrote: »

How does PS3 handle hd files such as mkv's?

I have a PS3 and it was a nightmare playing back mkv's.

It doesn't It's still DIVX3.1 support, I think.

branners69

Well for me that would be no good, why pay €300 for a machine that doesnt play high definition material??

Unless you need a console then stay away from the PS3, the tvix, popcorn & WD player would be much better!

RangeR

branners69 wrote: »

Well for me that would be no good, why pay €300 for a machine that doesnt play high definition material??

Unless you need a console then stay away from the PS3, the tvix, popcorn & WD player would be much better!

To the naive, I call bull****. MKV is not high definition by ... definition... It's a wrapper to multi audio, subtitles etc. It's only a matter of time before the PS3 supports it [DIVX6+?]

Fair enough, if it doesn't suit your needs at the moment but don't spout spurious incorrect "facts" about a device.

branners69

RangeR wrote: »

To the naive, I call bull****. MKV is not high definition by ... definition... It's a wrapper to multi audio, subtitles etc. It's only a matter of time before the PS3 supports it [DIVX6+?]

Fair enough, if it doesn't suit your needs at the moment but don't spout spurious incorrect "facts" about a device.

Easy PS3 lover, the fact is PS3 does not support the most common container for HD material ie mkv!

For you to suggest a device which currently does not and may never support mkv shows your knowledge in this area is pretty limited.

And as for not suiting my needs if you were paying attention I mentioned above I own one already! Along with a WD media player and a Tvix 5100!!!

dartsfan

branners69 wrote: »

Easy PS3 lover, the fact is PS3 does not support the most common container for HD material ie mkv!

For you to suggest a device which currently does not and may never support mkv shows your knowledge in this area is pretty limited.

And as for not suiting my needs if you were paying attention I mentioned above I own one already! Along with a WD media player and a Tvix 5100!!!

Thanks for the replies.
Will look into the Tvix myself, but what do you see as its advantages over the Popcorn Hour for that money? Looks like a nicer design and presumably has a better user interface

branners69

I have never used a Popcorn Hour device, so unfortunately I cant compare both devices.

You might get more information here or here in regards to them both!

The reason I went with the tvix at the time was the popcorns were extremely hard to get and there was an over heating issue. The fact the tvix has a built in silent fan appealed to me as there is a lot of heat in my media centre.

I reckon you will be well happy with whatever you go for, just dont get a no name brand with no support online or a ps3!

MediaTank

The big advantage of the Popcorn Hour or other Networked Media Tank devices is the user community support. Check out www.networkedmediatank.com for samples of what I mean. I use an NMT called the iSTAR HD and it's very very good. I've also installed a bunch of extra software from the NMT community include a movie jukebox and a bunch of Unix like utilities. The TViX, although great media players, do not have this level of user community support.

MT

dartsfan

Yes, I can see the importance of that support community if there were troubleshooting problems etc.
Think I'm going to go for the Popcorn Hour. Have had my fill of reading up on these players now!