Hard Drive Media Players

[DavidOxon]

Hi

Anyone know where I can find a selection of Hard Drive Media Players

to have a look at?

thanks

David

[Chicog]

On the Interwebnet.

For example:

http://home-media-servers-review.toptenreviews.com/

If you want to physically play around with them, I dunno.

[DavidOxon]

I'd like to see what i can get here, and then check the reviews....

little difficult the other way round

D

[worgeordie]

Hi David, I have a brand new,Cyclone Primus V2, never used no HDD but takes

up to 2 T HDD, Just check out reviews on Amazon UK. price bht 2,300.

regards Worgeordie

[TommoPhysicist]

Airport Plaza, floor with all the phones, booth opposite the lifts on the way to Cinema/car park.

[Greenside]

The Egreat range is stocked by the excellent video hardware store in Panthip Plaza. I have one and it's excellent, with a simple interface and will play virtually anything - I don't think we've even fired up the old DVD player in the couple of years since we got it. Go up the escalator to the 1st floor and it's behind you on the right, pretty much across from JIB. Incidentally, I found that simply loading a USB drive with an evening's viewing was less hassle than managing an internal drive on my Media Tank so you might want to try that before investing in another.

[MESmith]

If you're in need of a new tv, buy one that plays movies, tv programmes, shows photos direct from USB stick. Samsung tvs do all this. My WDTV player is gathering dust.....

[kaptainrob]

If you're in need of a new tv, buy one that plays movies, tv programmes, shows photos direct from USB stick. Samsung tvs do all this. My WDTV player is gathering dust.....

We love our Samsung smart TV for HD movies direct off HDD - no need for media player, bluray etc.

It can be hard keeping up the d/loads especially given the crap on TrueVisions ... which I think we'll give the flick, soon.

[narkeddiver]

I'm a bit out of touch with the facilities offered by new tvs - can the Samsungs play all video formats - divx, avi, mp4, mkv, etc?

[TommoPhysicist]

I'm a bit out of touch with the facilities offered by new tvs - can the Samsungs play all video formats - divx, avi, mp4, mkv, etc?

The SMART Tvs generally do everything badly.

Better to use a dedicated media player.

[MESmith]

I'm a bit out of touch with the facilities offered by new tvs - can the Samsungs play all video formats - divx, avi, mp4, mkv, etc?

Yet to find a file that wont play. Plays more than my wdtv did, tho' that probably needs firmware upgrade.

Take a usb stick along to the tv shop & try it out.

[weary]

If the highest possible quality with maximum number of supported features is a priority, buy a Dune player. They use Sigma chipsets which are generally recognized as top of the line in terms of picture quality, and they have very skilled firmware programmers.

If you are prepared to sacrifice some quality for a lower price, but still require maximum compatibility with formats, buy a Mede8er - they are built on the Realtek chipset platform, which is very capable, but not top of the line like Sigma's solutions. Mede8er, like Dune, have a very dedicated and capable firmware team.

[weary]

Both Dune and Mede8er players offer the possibility to present your media in a jukebox type menu with cover art, plot description and background pictures. To do this requires some tinkering on your part, and the regular menus work OK anyway, so it is not required to use the player.

[bobl]

I'm a bit out of touch with the facilities offered by new tvs - can the Samsungs play all video formats - divx, avi, mp4, mkv, etc?

Plays more than my wdtv did, tho' that probably needs firmware upgrade.

It's usually not as easy as that. These media players don't use software 'codecs' like PC's do, they use dedicated decoder chips. You're usually SOL when the codecs evolve beyond what the media player's chip can do.

Fwiw I migrated from a great player (Mvix) to another great player (Mede8er) for that very reason (when people switched from DivX/XviD AVI's to H.264 mp4's). For the OP I'd highly recommend the Mede8er as a solid all-rounder. I have the Med500X which is quite old now, but still works perfectly. The new model is great because it keeps the HD under a pop-up lid and makes it very easy to keep a 'library' of HD's you can pop in and out easily. Mede8er have a presence in Th but probably only in Bkk.

[Chicog]

I use the Brite-View Cinemago which plays anything and is fine with playing stuff from my NAS as well as local drives.

I bought a WD TV Live Plus on the basis of a post here and flashed it with WDXTV which is custom firmware and enables all manner of services, NFS, Samba, FTP, etc., and it's turning out to be excellent.

I simply download torrents directly to the appropriate drive on the WDTV and play whatever I like,

I've just bought a Samsung 8 Series and I'm still having too much fun with the XBox on it to worry about streaming video. The HD picture is unbelievable compared to the Plasma with which I replaced it.

[kaptainrob]

I'm a bit out of touch with the facilities offered by new tvs - can the Samsungs play all video formats - divx, avi, mp4, mkv, etc?

Yes all popular formats are supported except MKV and Real Media.

MKV files may be converted to avi/mp4/xvid etc quite easily. Not sure about RM as I haven't come across it.

Samsung's are an excellent choice for playing movies off HDD - I use a compact USB-powered 1TB Seagate which sits in back of TV, no additional wiring needed.

[MESmith]

I'm a bit out of touch with the facilities offered by new tvs - can the Samsungs play all video formats - divx, avi, mp4, mkv, etc?

Yes all popular formats are supported except MKV and Real Media.

MKV files may be converted to avi/mp4/xvid etc quite easily. Not sure about RM as I haven't come across it.

Samsung's are an excellent choice for playing movies off HDD - I use a compact USB-powered 1TB Seagate which sits in back of TV, no additional wiring needed.

My Samsung plays mkv files - nearly all the HD content I get is mkv. Series 5 Samsung.

[kaptainrob]

I'm a bit out of touch with the facilities offered by new tvs - can the Samsungs play all video formats - divx, avi, mp4, mkv, etc?

Yes all popular formats are supported except MKV and Real Media.

MKV files may be converted to avi/mp4/xvid etc quite easily. Not sure about RM as I haven't come across it.

Samsung's are an excellent choice for playing movies off HDD - I use a compact USB-powered 1TB Seagate which sits in back of TV, no additional wiring needed.

My Samsung plays mkv files - nearly all the HD content I get is mkv. Series 5 Samsung.

I only had one MKV download, perhaps it was corrupted. I'd better try another .... thanks MES.

[MESmith]

I'm a bit out of touch with the facilities offered by new tvs - can the Samsungs play all video formats - divx, avi, mp4, mkv, etc?

Yes all popular formats are supported except MKV and Real Media.

MKV files may be converted to avi/mp4/xvid etc quite easily. Not sure about RM as I haven't come across it.

Samsung's are an excellent choice for playing movies off HDD - I use a compact USB-powered 1TB Seagate which sits in back of TV, no additional wiring needed.

My Samsung plays mkv files - nearly all the HD content I get is mkv. Series 5 Samsung.

I only had one MKV download, perhaps it was corrupted. I'd better try another .... thanks MES.

As I said, handles everything so far, including 6GB files. Crystal clear.

Don't use it for music. Have a hi-fi.....