Players that can play 720p mkv/h264 files.

[alkalinelito]

Hello, im looking for a player, could be with hard disk or not that can play h264 720p movies, and of course output them at 720p or higher, it should be able to output to spdif dts/dd, read subtitles (srt) , and mkv files, better with network support.
Maybe a dvd player with usb, and a hard drive attached, but i dont know if the can handle mkv files with h264 at 720p

Someone told me about Linksys KiSS , but i have read some pretty bad things about it
Then www.mvixusa.com , but i dont know how good it is .

Any recommendations will help me a lot!

[jman98]

Both PopcornHour (http://www.popcornhour.com) and iStar (http://www.istarhd.com) make players that can play 720p H.264 files. MKV is OK for them. However, reviews say that any audio except AC3 may cause playback problems depending on the video bit rate. I think both support SRT. 720p is much easier to decode than 1080p for H.264, so I wouldn't be surprised if the players can play H.264 video with DTS audio with no problems, but the only reviews I could find tested 1080p H.264 video and DTS was definitely a problem with that.

I don't own either, but I am thinking about buying the iStar. They're basically the same, but the iStar is made and sold in the USA, so it's cheaper for me. Both use the same Sigma chip for decoding video and it's a good chip.

[jman98]

Here's a link to a review of the iStar player:
http://www.istarhd.com/downloads/reviewmpc.pdf
Note that the review says that the PopcornHour player uses the same Sigma chip, so any problems on the iStar should also be on the PopcornHour player. This review should help you to understand what the player can do.

[alkalinelito]

Thanks for the answers! , thats its exactly what im looking for! , and i can connect a hard drive to both! What this units run some kind of stripped linux/mythtv ?
The only drawback i see to the istar is that it doesn't have component output.
1080p is not a problem for me because i only plan to play 720p files.
Also These units are way cheaper than kiss and mvixusa! , which is good of course.

Any others suggestions?

[jman98]

Thanks for the answers! , thats its exactly what im looking for! , and i can connect a hard drive to both! What this units run some kind of stripped linux/mythtv ?
The only drawback i see to the istar is that it doesn't have component output.
1080p is not a problem for me because i only plan to play 720p files.
Also These units are way cheaper than kiss and mvixusa! , which is good of course.

Any others suggestions?

I'm not aware of any units that support/use mythtv.

There are HDMI to component converters. A websearch found several HDMI to component converter boxes, but they all cost at least $150 US.

Component output is becoming less and less common these days as all recent HDTVs can accept HDMI or at least DVI (HDMI to DVI conversion is trivial and fairly cheap).

[jagabo]

Component output is becoming less and less common these days as all recent HDTVs can accept HDMI or at least DVI (HDMI to DVI conversion is trivial and fairly cheap).

In fact, if you want to include HDMI in your device you must also implement HDCP. The HDCP licensing requirements have mandatory phased sunsetting of analog outputs. By 2013 all analog outputs will be removed. And you thought HDCP was about image quality!