Video HD Media Player cum NAS + Downloads

madnav

madnav

Skilled
Alright! Like other so many things, i have been bitten by an urge to setup an HD Media Player and Home NAS while at it.

under my consideration rightnow is Iomega® ScreenPlay™ Director HD Media Player; which satisfies all the criteria.

My current config which will associate with this setup would be:

Asus WL-520GU wireless router (will be wired, or wireless if MediaPlayer supports any wifi adapter)

2x 2TB Seagate LP 5900RPM internal drives

Sony Bravia 46EX400

To sum it up:

Requirement:

HD Media Player

NAS

BT/HTTP Downloader

Budget:

10k inclusive of extras (can be extended if need be)

Not Bothered But good to have:

Wireless HD Streaming
Click to expand...

What extras will i have to invest in? usb Dock etc?

I have to invest in audio setup but that is pushed further in upgrade path.
 
Wireless HD streaming - a far-fetched possibility. Even the 720p rips stutter if streamed over 802.11n.
 
Gannu said:
Wireless HD streaming - a far-fetched possibility. Even the 720p rips stutter if streamed over 802.11n.
Click to expand...
yup thats why it is under 'Not Bothered but..' :p

1st concern was HD Media player which i can use with LCD. Then saw Iomega ScreenPlay HD Director with NAS and BT support and was like.. "why not!!"

want to know if there any better alternative currently/soon on the horizon for the same since the concerned product was launched more than a year ago if im not mistaken.
 
If BT support is not a concern, I'd suggest the Xtreamer Sidewinder - unlike the previous model which was reported to be noisier with the fan onboard, Xtreamer has replaced the fan entirely with a passive heatsink. It plays a whole lot of formats and supports HD audio passthrough as well. The Xtreamer lineup enjoys a good support from the community and the company otherwise. Falls well within your 10k budget. Do take a look. Not sure if there is a community mod which lets you run a BT client though.

I am planning to pick one up soon. Despite the TV playing most of the hd-rips' formats, it cannot decode the Dolby-D/DTS signals when playing the content off the ethernet via NAS/USB ports. Kind of a bummer IYAM. Helps to have clients from The Netherlands. Will ask them to pick one unit for me. :D
 
@OP..

I used ACRyan, HiMedia, WD/WD Live, EGreat, Xtreamer (Non Sidewinder i think) etc...

So take a look at AC Ryan. The new UI should be released soon i think. Extremely good that is
 
m-jeri said:
@OP..

I used ACRyan, HiMedia, WD/WD Live, EGreat, Xtreamer (Non Sidewinder i think) etc...

So take a look at AC Ryan. The new UI should be released soon i think. Extremely good that is
Click to expand...
which product exactly?

available in india with warranty?

only thing i could find is playon HD at ebay india
 
^^^

Yeas. AC Ryan Playon HD.

HD Media Player, AC Ryan India, Play on HD India, True HD media players

Very very good in my books.

ACRyan - Extremely good, nice features, good looks, good remote. But IMO expensive at 10k. (I always beleive 10k is too much for a media player)

HiMedia - Very good, nice features, extremely good looking, Remote buttons could provide more feedback, HAd few issues with few files. But after a custom firmware that also was gone, I think. but UI is very monolithic.

WD/WD Live - They are like Maruthi 800. They get the job done. Sucky remote though.

EGreat - Very good features, didnt like the remote somehow, and UI was average. Quintessential chinese player.

Xtreamer - They get the job done.Ok remote. UI is ok also. but design wise.. looks like a fat router. :S. (For me looks are very impt)

Have seen a colleague ordered a seagate and a Iomega thing in my old company. but didnt had a chance to borrow those.

Moved to mysore then. Perhaps next time i am going home.. :)
 
xtreamer sidewinder does not support BT but there is a model in Magic Pro Media Player the product can be found in the Ebay .. this has all the features which you are looking for also to add the product has support in India..
 
m-jeri said:
^^^

Yeas. AC Ryan Playon HD.

HD Media Player, AC Ryan India, Play on HD India, True HD media players

Very very good in my books.

ACRyan - Extremely good, nice features, good looks, good remote. But IMO expensive at 10k. (I always beleive 10k is too much for a media player)
HiMedia - Very good, nice features, extremely good looking, Remote buttons could provide more feedback, HAd few issues with few files. But after a custom firmware that also was gone, I think. but UI is very monolithic.
WD/WD Live - They are like Maruthi 800. They get the job done. Sucky remote though.
EGreat - Very good features, didnt like the remote somehow, and UI was average. Quintessential chinese player.
Xtreamer - They get the job done.Ok remote. UI is ok also. but design wise.. looks like a fat router. :S. (For me looks are very impt)

Have seen a colleague ordered a seagate and a Iomega thing in my old company. but didnt had a chance to borrow those.
Moved to mysore then. Perhaps next time i am going home.. :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for insight; really appreciate :)

im currently battling between Iomega and ACRyan

ScreenPlayâ„¢ Director HD | Playon!HD
Much Cheaper (as includes 1TB)| Good UI
3yrs Warranty| Aesthetically Applealing :)P)

Question being: Can PlayOn HD do NAS ?

apart from good UI and Asthetics, does it have anything else to offer above Iomega ScreenPlay HD

screenplay HD costs ~8.8k or so which comes with 1TB. To be fair, i would remove 1TB from equation by placing it at 6k against PlayON HD at 10k.. Is the difference worth it?

Alternatively,

at 10k

or so..
I can consider Fusion based setup along with Lenovo wireless remove for Multimedia. will overshoot my budget by a good margin and may render bulky otherwise..But something I would consider if Fusion combo was around 6k

Fusion - 6k
RAM- 1-2k
Casing: 2k
already have a gigabyte superb 460w lying around.

form factor will deviate though.. makes me think..
 
^^

Exactly my point. :)

A 10k for a "media player" is too much. I could never buy it simply coz i will never allot that much budget.

Yeas AC Ryan does do NAS. But dunno if it supports via sub hub. Tried with my HiMedia couldnt make it work proper.

And also when u connect the USB wifi dongle, i remember it being a pain to connect a usb cable.

ACRyan gives 2 year warranty i guess. :S. And the folks are very prompt at Aqutronics. Atleat both my experience was.

And abt iomega

+Price

-Bland looks

-Sucky remote

Doesnt iomega support NTFS? why they giving a FAT32 tools. :S

Consider it like this.

If u "have" 10k to spend, get the AC Ryan eyes closed.

If u "upto" 10k, get the IOmega. But again i would suggest Xtreamer over a Iomega.

Popcorn>ACRyan>Himedia+Xtreamer>WD> Any others for me.

And also ACRyan/Popcorn/HiMedia/Xtreamer are dedicated media player folks. others are storage people.

And also, I do understand a HTPC != Media player. But there are ways that u can make a HTPC behave just like a media player.

SFF+Nice cabby+XBMC(Or sorts)+A nice Keyboard/Trackpad combo. Only the boot time is bummer.
 
the FAT32 tools is there incase you want to format internal drive to fat32. Default FS is NTFS, otherwise HD would have lost its meaning :lol:

i wouldn't really care of the aesthetics i guess.

Moreover, superczar is selling Screenplay HD that he purchased last July.

am anticipating a good price as it was at 8k in september in his thread with a free wifi dongle :p

awaiting his response and we have a winner :p lol

10k seems a little high for just a media player as you said and it will render my budget for audio to a lower point.

HTPC setup based on Fusion would be good in terms of expansion but i am dropping it since it will end up costing me more than twice at the end.
 
Navin, with that sort of budget, I'd advise you to get yourself a cheap HTPC with the guide vinayaga has posted. If space is not a constraint i.e. Makes a lot of sense with the updated XBMC v10.0 Dharma. Beats any stand-alone player hands down with the flexibility of more storage space, better processing power, bitstreaming True-HD/DTS-HD signals etc. AMD's Fusion oriented mainboards might take its time to hit Indian shores (not sure of this though).

Shove everything behind the AV desk for now and splurge on a sleek enclosure later. 2 cents.
 
madnav said:
the FAT32 tools is there incase you want to format internal drive to fat32. Default FS is NTFS, otherwise HD would have lost its meaning :lol:

i wouldn't really care of the aesthetics i guess.

Moreover, superczar is selling Screenplay HD that he purchased last July.

am anticipating a good price as it was at 8k in september in his thread with a free wifi dongle :p

awaiting his response and we have a winner :p lol

10k seems a little high for just a media player as you said and it will render my budget for audio to a lower point.

HTPC setup based on Fusion would be good in terms of expansion but i am dropping it since it will end up costing me more than twice at the end.
Click to expand...
But u know I do strongly suggest AGAINST Iomega media players. simply not much of a active community around it.

If u need a player, get a popular one. lots of support. Pick one between ACRyan or Xtreamer.
 
m-jeri said:
But u know I do strongly suggest AGAINST Iomega media players. simply not much of a active community around it.

If u need a player, get a popular one. lots of support. Pick one between ACRyan or Xtreamer.
Click to expand...
Back to square one now if thats the case.

Gannu said:
Navin, with that sort of budget, I'd advise you to get yourself a cheap HTPC with the guide vinayaga has posted. If space is not a constraint i.e. Makes a lot of sense with the updated XBMC v10.0 Dharma. Beats any stand-alone player hands down with the flexibility of more storage space, better processing power, bitstreaming True-HD/DTS-HD signals etc. AMD's Fusion oriented mainboards might take its time to hit Indian shores (not sure of this though).

Shove everything behind the AV desk for now and splurge on a sleek enclosure later. 2 cents.
Click to expand...
The budget is there but would really love to save if possible :p

So far, budget has been a failed constraint while purchasing for me. :ashamed:

will start doing a rough estimate of both setups now.

and will cut it down to factors i would likely want in my setup.
 
Put 2 in ur list.

AC Ryan, Xtreamer(Not Pro, that is simply expensive)

Check the Price(around 1~1.5k difference), features(Both are same-ish), ASS(Very impt but i think both are very prompt distri). and Pick one.

---

Avoid Asus

ASS, Sucky remote(HD2 is better), Really bad looks. :S. The front looks like rear for me. UI is nothing to write about. Just vanilla

--------
 
@Gannu

Think again buddy, I dropped Xtreamer Sidewinder from my list as I found too many complaints of heating just after playing 2 hours of movie.

They removed fan but it seems heat sink is not good enough to kool.

@OP

I have huge thread running for this media player. I had WDTV Live & my main requirement was similar to yours (I wanted BT also)

As of now checking out reviews of Iomega Screen Play Director 1TB Media Player & mostly considering it.

Many reviews confirms its good enough & comes with 1 TB HDD for 8,799 Rs which is good deal, No heating issues.

Most of all, Torrent works super smooth as per this review & even allows to change port & cap the speed of torrents.

Hands-On: Iomega Screenplay Director HD | We Got Served
 
hehe

Already bought WDTV Live few months back, tried my best to install BRAD to run torrents & it never worked. Sold WDV Live to friend last month

Back to search again :)
 
@Praks: My friend, your search for the perfect media player would possibly never end. Besides, the heating issue was never a concern. Heatsinks are meant to get heated up which indicates that the fins are dissipating the heat absorbed from the heat spreader of the chip. Try touching the passive heatsinks of the power ICs/amps inside a power-amp or an AVR or the ice-pack of a Velociraptor during operation and you'd know the magnitude of heat we are referring to here. This is exactly how it is meant to operate with the natural draught of air within the room.

If the heating issues were affecting the playback causing frequent shutdowns or restarts, I'd understand. The only drawback I can think of is when a 2.5" hard drive is within the casing - this may result in the overheating of the drive.
 
If you are looking for a device without storage, then the Seagate FAT+ at ~5K would be a good choice..

If you r looking for a device with an internal drive as well, then the iomega one is pretty good VFM if bought new as well (not saying this coz I want to sell mine :p)

Although the BT client on it is quite vanilla and has very limited feature support (e.g. no selective file download)
 
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