Video Buying A Media Player :Getting Started

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utkarsh86

Disciple
Hi, i'm a little new to this i want to buy a media player the box which plays all possible media formats when you plug in your external hdd.

1) I would appreciate if someone could post links about some of their features.

2) I also want buying advice my budget is 10k but i can stretch it if need be and the player should be able to play HD movies as my tv has hd compatibility upto 1080p.

3) Can you play orignal dvd's on a media player or you need a separate DVD player for that, does the same apply to a blue ray disk also because im thinking about buying a PS3 also if a media player doesnt play Blue Ray Disks.

All help is appreciated feel free to recommend some players.. Thanks
 
Xtreamer, WD live, ac ryan play on... Choose amongst these 3.

Xtreamer plays the most formats and codecs, wd live the least

All 3 play hd movies @ 1080p

Xtreamer can play blueray and dvd iso's. Ac im not sure. Wd plays dvd well but has issues with blue ray.
WD live has got the most connectivity options..

There is really no proper 1 place to check everything. All forums that i have searched have a different view about all 3.

I personally got myself the xtreamer and all i can say is that everything that i throw at it, works perfectly.. all formats, everything... just a word of caution though, D XTREAMER staff is d worst of its kind that i have seen... very unhelpful and not at all co-operative. If after sales service is a worrying factor, look beyond xtreamer....

if u have any questions abt xtreamer in particular, do feel free to ask. WD and ac ryan i dont own, so if a.c.ryan is better, pls dont blame me later ha ::::)))))
 
edge111hussain said:
Xtreamer, WD live, ac ryan play on... Choose amongst these 3.

Xtreamer plays the most formats and codecs, wd live the least

All 3 play hd movies @ 1080p

Xtreamer can play blueray and dvd iso's. Ac im not sure. Wd plays dvd well but has issues with blue ray.
WD live has got the most connectivity options..

There is really no proper 1 place to check everything. All forums that i have searched have a different view about all 3.

I personally got myself the xtreamer and all i can say is that everything that i throw at it, works perfectly.. all formats, everything... just a word of caution though, D XTREAMER staff is d worst of its kind that i have seen... very unhelpful and not at all co-operative. If after sales service is a worrying factor, look beyond xtreamer....

if u have any questions abt xtreamer in particular, do feel free to ask. WD and ac ryan i dont own, so if a.c.ryan is better, pls dont blame me later ha ::::)))))
Click to expand...
1)Yes i have a few questions of the reviews ive read almost all of them say the xstreamer has problems playing 1080p movies the pixel is a little bit of a problem...
2) Does it have memory and network access ?
3)Does it have a dvd player or something this is an issue im a little confused about do media players have built in DVD players or u have to buy them ??

Thanks for helping
 
no built in dvd players bro// you got to make iso and play em on internal or external hdd.. Hd media players play vob directly too, hence no probs on that front.

My 1080 p's have played fine till now. though most of my content is 720p and that plays perfectly.. still do double check. Also most reviews have been 2009 based and since then there have been quiet a few firmware updates.

All 3 players have lan as well as wireless access. There are additional features which i sugegst you check up yourself. xtreamer can play live channels as well as international radio. It has nas, wireless etc...

Anandtech reviewed the wd live couple of days back and slaughtered it vis a vis a HTPC. But what struck out is the lack of some audio and video codecs which the xtreamer easily supports. Anandtech reviews r generally quiet accurate. Do check that out too//////
 
utkarsh86 said:
1)Yes i have a few questions of the reviews ive read almost all of them say the xstreamer has problems playing 1080p movies the pixel is a little bit of a problem...

2) Does it have memory and network access ?

3)Does it have a dvd player or something this is an issue im a little confused about do media players have built in DVD players or u have to buy them ??

Thanks for helping
Click to expand...
Although i guess none of those media players have DVD drive but a USB based DVD drive can be connected in some of them and movies be played off the DVD. But it will be good if you can just make a DVD iso and store it on HDD as most of these will play the DVD ISO fine.
 
K a few more questions sorry for the trouble
1) What use is the network/ wifi except for the obvious firmware upgrades and streaming. I dont understand what streaming is. My guess is that u can watch tv and stuff online,im not quite sure.So if u could tell me what its useful for.
2)How can one make a DVD iso im a little technologically challenged so i would appreciate info on that.
3)How will i know which media players support an external USB DVD drive.. I have basically narrowed down my list to 3 WD TV HD player,AC Ryan and the Xtreamer..Having read the anand tech reviews im now more inclined towards the Xtreamer 1080p media player...
All help is appreciated
 
Streaming is when the media is in ur pc itself and through wifi you play it on xtreamer or any other player. Wifi as well as lan can be used for the same purpose. you simply got to put the folder on sharing on the pc and you are sorted.

dvd iso can be made by using softwares such as daemon or alcohol. There are plenty out there. But to play dvd's, you need not make an iso, since most media players support vob format which is the dvd extention.

The best way to know if d media player supports external and what type, is to write to the company itself to be 100% sure. BTW, y use external dvd player when u can use the hdd itself..

wdtv hd player is inferior to the wdtv live. It has an older chipset.
 
utkarsh86 said:
K a few more questions sorry for the trouble

1) What use is the network/ wifi except for the obvious firmware upgrades and streaming. I dont understand what streaming is. My guess is that u can watch tv and stuff online,im not quite sure.So if u could tell me what its useful for.

2)How can one make a DVD iso im a little technologically challenged so i would appreciate info on that.

3)How will i know which media players support an external USB DVD drive.. I have basically narrowed down my list to 3 WD TV HD player,AC Ryan and the Xtreamer..Having read the anand tech reviews im now more inclined towards the Xtreamer 1080p media player...

All help is appreciated
Click to expand...

1) You can stream files from your PC or a NAS directly . This was you dont have to attach external drives etc

2) Lots of software's for that . MagicISO , UltraISO are some of them .

3) AFAIK , Xstreamer has the best support for external dvd drives , I dont think the AC Ryan supports DataDVD's , no idea about WD
 
Thanks for the replies

1) the reason i want a player with External support is that i already have an external HDD which has most of my RIPS but im planning to put the media player with my Plasma TV and use Burnt Movies on a DVD player.

2) One thing what are the uses of the networking accessibility on the media players what is that feature useful for i am going to buy a router if it has any uses because my current internet is ethernet ppoe and do media players support LAN ethernet internet ?

3) if u had to pick a media player which would that be ?
 
1) Are the movies on the DVD's already on the hard drive ? In that case why do you want to connect the dvd drive , simply plugin the external hard drive itself , why get into the hassles of playing through DVD's

2) I assume you mean your internet is directly through an ethernet (RJ-45 cable) like those 5net types ? In that case you will need a router and then connect your PC and the media player to it . After that , your media player can directly browse and play media files from your PC's HDD AND if it supports internet services like youtube , picasa etc then connect to the internet and access those .

3) Depends entirely on your needs . Do you want .flv support ? Do you want .rmvb support ? Do you want services like youtube etc ? . I personally needed a player only for playing HD mkv rips and rmvb anime so i bought the Nationite HDVP-2 . Does all of this pretty well and cost me ~ 4.2k . It doesn't support any fancy features like torrent downloading etc which i anyways did not need .

Out of the three you mentioned , i guess the Xtreamer is the best bet
 
Would say 1 word - Go with WDTV Live

Apply the mod - You can connect external DVD drive & play any DVD

Apply the mod - You can download torrent using WDTV Live.
 
Whilst i was researching, i found reviews and forums which said that wd live supports only 65-70% of mkv files. Now that wa sa big prob for me cause i play 90% media in the mkv format.

The ac ryan and xtreamer both support 90%+ mkv. That made it easy for me to rule out the wd live. Also anandtechs reviews i guess strongly supports my view about the wd live. I guess u have read it yourself and seen the codecs which are not supported as per their last firmware. so so...................
 
I picked an iomega director recently

12K with 1.5K mail in rebate and comes with a 1 TB internal HDD which probably makes it the most VFM netmorked media player.

So far, it has been able to run every file I have thrown at it..

Just one word of caution though, I use an AVR for audio so I don't have an issue with DTS audio movies... But AFAIK, it cannot downconvert DTS into stereo

But I think xtreamer and AC Ryan also cannot handle DTS down conversion (correct me if i am wrong though)
 
U mean dts to pcm right??? Nah i don't think my xtreamer can do that. My trusted pioneer dvd player does it really well.

Bro, sony has come out with a blue ray player which is under 10k and plays mkv files. Why dont you check what codecs it can handle. The player is on the sony india site, 9900 official price, solves ur dvd drive prob too :)

but obviously it supports lesser formats than media players
 
MKV files are the least of my issues MKV 2 VOB is a very efficent way to convert to VOB formats and the quality is the same.. Most of my movies are VOB,AVI and MP4 i think they are common formats so i should be good...Hussain what dvd player would u reccomend as i have a small collection of DVD's which id like to enjoy watching once in a while..
 
no man, mkv to vob is not d same, trust me, im good with my a/v stuff.... even at 2500 bitrate and source mkv being say 1500, still mkv beats avi or vob after conversion. Nobody can convince me otherwise on the same...

When it comes to dvd players, id say go pioneer only... amazing picture clarity as compared to sony, philips or anything else. Think the DV-420V is the one selling in grey @ 4.5k. I got the 410v.
 
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