Media Player Advice

warrenaldo

I currently have a Media Player with HD included that is great for storing and playing movies.

However, it has an awful GUI, that I have to scroll through filenames, I dont know what the film is about, whos in it etc etc.

I run XBMC on my laptop for this which is great.

What I want is a media drive with storage that I can plug into my TV and it has the ability to

1. Access IMDB to get ratings,reviews, pics etc or something similar
2. Storage on the box, I don't want to stream stuff as laptop not always on.

Is popcorn hour with a hard-drive a good solution? Or is there a solution at all.

I just want to have a nice GUI with pics,reviews etc of film.

I would just build a HTPC and put OpenElec or XBMCBuntu on it.

There are out-of-box solutions that will give you a scraper and GUI. Boxee Box, current WDTV, Pochorn hour with YAMJ. We're starting to see cheap ARM boxes running Android so im sure there will be some interesting things happening there. Some people will recommend a hacked Apple TV2 running XBMC.

Check Iboum for some current media players:
http://www.iboum.com/net-media-players.php

But suffice to say personally I would just build a HTPC or get a cheap nettop.

warrenaldo

I'm not keen on building my own HTPC.

I want an out of the box solution. Just plug and play really.

So a Boxee Box and the current WDTV and Popcorn Hour with YAMJ are the best options for me? But do these have a hard drive included - as I am not planning on streaming stuff from my laptop.

Thanks for the help

sonic.trip

warrenaldo wrote: »

I'm not keen on building my own HTPC.

I want an out of the box solution. Just plug and play really.

So a Boxee Box and the current WDTV and Popcorn Hour with YAMJ are the best options for me? But do these have a hard drive included - as I am not planning on streaming stuff from my laptop.

Thanks for the help

I'm in the same boat as you, I want to upgrade my iTab for a newer player with a nice GUI. I've been looking into the apple tv but don't know anything about jailbreaking it or what XBMC is.

What I have been looking into which looks great but is a little on the pricey side is a popcorn hour C-300 for $349. There is lower players available for cheaper also. The YAMJ automatically updates covers for any films in the HD or on a connected HD and uses IMDB I think. I'm considering getting one but want to read more reviews first. It comes with no drive but you could just buy one cheap online. I have a 2TB seagate I'm going to take out of my iTab, must look into the WD and boxer box as well but the GUI ob the popcorn looks slick

warrenaldo

The A300 looks quite a bit cheaper than the C300 and seems quite good. I havent looked at the C300 as its out of my price range.

It catalouges via IMDB and can do this via WI-FI. You then simply download the YAMJ plugin to do this - sounds nice and easy.

It allows you to encase a hard-drive too - which means only one power supply also. A big plus for me.

I'm in the same boat - want to spend a while looking at some more reviews and see if there is anything else out there that can do this better.

Let us know how you get on.