HD Media Player?

[legenderycity]

I'm looking for a HD Media Player which plays most video files including mkv in 1080p resolution and also with subtitles support. The Western Digital's player which costs $130 is just way too expansive. Any other cheaper ones around $40-$80?

[cal_tony]

Seagate has one. It is much better than the WD but it is around the same price. However, Seagate does have an older version still for sale with 1080i and without HDMI support. These sell for around $60.

Tony

[bmo]

The Asus O!Play is supposedly very good. Check out a review for it here: http://gizmodo.com/5415699/asus-oplay-review-best+priced-hd-video-player-is-the-new-champ

Also, it may still be on sale at Fry's. $70 after $15 MIR. http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/30081/ASUS-O!Play-HDP-R1-Media-Player-77-after-15-MIR

My only gripe is it apparently doesn't fully decode dts audio. It only downmixes it to 2-channel over hdmi in addition to passing it through if you have a receiver that supports dts from what I understand.

[bbanderic]

I'd be interested in opinions on the best HD media player out there as well, I'd like to get one eventually.

In addition to the ones mentioned already (Asus, WD and Seagate, I've looked at these two as well:

Sage TV HD Theater - http://www.sagetv.com/hd_theater.html

Popcorn Hour C-200 - http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=catalog

Anyone used either of these and can comment on how good they are?

I'm looking to play my Blu-ray/DVD's in perfect quality (no compression) from external hard drive to my TV in either file format (video_ts for DVD and BDMV for Blu-ray) or DVD/Blu-ray ISO format, whichever is more compatable.

Thanks


EDIT:

It looks like the makers of the Popcorn Hour C-200 box arde coming out with a new, cheaper box:

http://gizmodo.com/5439293/syabas-popbox-get-ready-for-the-new-media-streamer-champ

[johns0]

Thread moved to Media Center PC / MediaCenters,not blank media related.

[lowellriggsiam]

I vote for the Seagate Freeagent Theater +, it plays dvdiso's menu and all.

[sconaway1]

I got my WD TV Mini for $85 on Ebay

[T-Fish]

i'd love to get a c-200, but i wont shell out 440 smackeroos for it :/
even the wdtv live is a 160 bucks here ($) and the asus o play is 200.- bah lol

i'd prefer the c-200 because of the dvd drive you can install. i know you can
hook up an external usb drive to the wdtv, but i dont want to have a bunch
of components under my tv (media player, hdds, drive)

[legenderycity]

The Asus O!Play is supposedly very good. Check out a review for it here: http://gizmodo.com/5415699/asus-oplay-review-best+priced-hd-video-player-is-the-new-champ

Also, it may still be on sale at Fry's. $70 after $15 MIR. http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/30081/ASUS-O!Play-HDP-R1-Media-Player-77-after-15-MIR

My only gripe is it apparently doesn't fully decode dts audio. It only downmixes it to 2-channel over hdmi in addition to passing it through if you have a receiver that supports dts from what I understand.

Are you sure it is only $70? Because I heard that some people says it's $200!

Also, does it support subtitles like the WD HD Media Player?

[bbanderic]

Expensive...but the Dune 3.0 products are probably the best on the market for features and compatability..plays Blu-ray/DVD files and ISO's complete menus and all. In fact, the Dune 3.0 and Popcorn Hour C-200 are the only devices capable of doing so.

http://dune-hd.com/news/112-hdi-press-release-on-the-3.0-products.html

[MJA]

I got my WD TV Mini for $85 on Ebay

you think you got you self a good deal? newegg.com is selling it for $49


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136416&cm_re=WD_TV_Mini-_-22-...-416-_-Product

does it even play HD?

[MJA]

The Asus O!Play is supposedly very good. Check out a review for it here: http://gizmodo.com/5415699/asus-oplay-review-best+priced-hd-video-player-is-the-new-champ

Also, it may still be on sale at Fry's. $70 after $15 MIR. http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/30081/ASUS-O!Play-HDP-R1-Media-Player-77-after-15-MIR

My only gripe is it apparently doesn't fully decode dts audio. It only downmixes it to 2-channel over hdmi in addition to passing it through if you have a receiver that supports dts from what I understand.

Are you sure it is only $70? Because I heard that some people says it's $200!

Also, does it support subtitles like the WD HD Media Player?

I never seen ASUS O!Play selling for $200 .most online/B&M are selling it for $109 and under.

I own the the WDTV Live .it got a better and faster CPU than the Asus +a huge support forums+ it supports wireless network adopters

http://wdtvforum.com/main/

$70 for the Asus is a good deal still

by the way. most of the negative feedback about the WD LIVE TV due to the bad firmware WD released few months ago .that update killed tones of player.

[dun4cheap]

I just recently purchased 2 of the Asus O!Play's with the intention of retiring my 3 Buffalo Link Players which have still continue to serve their purpose but they don't hand mkv or 1080P without Tversity.

In any event I purchase the O!Plays from frys for $94 - 15Instant off and $15 MIR. The player has worked great so far and has hangdle mkv files with subtitles, AC3, DTS with lpcm raw, lpcm multi channel and lpcm 2 channel. I have one plugged in to my Sony Amp via HDMI which handles the AC3/DTS decoding from the LPCM Raw (Very Nice). The box comes with an RJ45 jack which I prefer over wireless any day. You can telnet into the box as well and do some great hacks. I have mounted my windows media shares this way so they show up as attached storage however, the O!Play supports windows shares from its main menu and UPNP as well.

There are quite a few forums talking about the O!Play box because it basically is a wide open linux box with a simple password of root to get in to it and hack a way with scripps, file system galore etc. The source for the box is also GPL and is available for download. So I suspect that we will be seeing some great homebrew stuff for this box.

[dun4cheap]

I forgot to add, the Asus plays BD ISO and (DVD ISO files with full functioning Menus tested). While I am not a huge collector of Full DVDs I do have some.

I also will add that I am not a huge fan of the WD player but really because of its lack of default features. In particular the lack of LAN support.

[legenderycity]

I just recently purchased 2 of the Asus O!Play's with the intention of retiring my 3 Buffalo Link Players which have still continue to serve their purpose but they don't hand mkv or 1080P without Tversity.

In any event I purchase the O!Plays from frys for $94 - 15Instant off and $15 MIR. The player has worked great so far and has hangdle mkv files with subtitles, AC3, DTS with lpcm raw, lpcm multi channel and lpcm 2 channel. I have one plugged in to my Sony Amp via HDMI which handles the AC3/DTS decoding from the LPCM Raw (Very Nice). The box comes with an RJ45 jack which I prefer over wireless any day. You can telnet into the box as well and do some great hacks. I have mounted my windows media shares this way so they show up as attached storage however, the O!Play supports windows shares from its main menu and UPNP as well.

There are quite a few forums talking about the O!Play box because it basically is a wide open linux box with a simple password of root to get in to it and hack a way with scripps, file system galore etc. The source for the box is also GPL and is available for download. So I suspect that we will be seeing some great homebrew stuff for this box.

Since you bought it, does it support most of the mkv files you play on it and is the subtitles support good?

Also, how to play the video with subtitles? Do you have to convert it into the video first or is there any other ways?

[dun4cheap]

legenderycity,

No conversion is needed. It will play the the mkv file natively. The captions do not have to be hardcoded in to the video. It will play the subtitles with a press of the button. You can change the subtitle font, color, size and location on the fly. The remote has a subtitle button and an audio button to change audio channels and subs on the fly. It has played all of my mkv files without any problems.

It will also play subtitles from srt and txt files.

It is a pretty neat little box.
l

[T-Fish]

good info @dun4cheap, thx!

if you power the asus down, do the connected harddrives power down as well ?

[dun4cheap]

T-Fish, I don't know, I don't have any drives hooked up to it. My drives are all samba/window drives off the lan.

[ddawson24]

good info @dun4cheap, thx!

if you power the asus down, do the connected harddrives power down as well ?

This was one of the features I was looking for since my WDTV did not do this. My new Asus O!Play does shut down the hard drive.

[nic2k4]

Here's a nice one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ZIO-MARKUS-800-HDD-HIGH-DEFINITION-MP4-MEDIA-CENTER-NEW-/280484789...item414e323cfc

The HDD is inside.

If you want cheap:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ZIO-MARKUS-300-3-5-HDD-MP4-MEDIA-CENTER-W-REMOTE-NEW-/280335645352...item41454e7aa8

I have this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-ZIO-3-5-IDE-HARD-DRIVE-1080P-MEDIA-CENTER-LX350HDN-/2904409159...item439fa0abda

[Techpav]

I vote for the Seagate Freeagent Theater +, it plays dvdiso's menu and all.

+ Seagate FreeAgent Theater HD Media Player

[jet757f]

The Asus O!Play has been real good for me so far. Plays ISO files off 1TB hard drive without any problems.