Media Player with DVD drive or DVD player with USB slot

[warresg]

Guys, wish to hear your expert advice to find out which is a better setup?
1. Media Player with USB or Blu Ray drive
or
2. DVD/Blu Ray Player with support for USB ext hdd

Main usage is to play avi/mp4/mpg in my ext hdd & watch dvd movie

[MOVIEGEEK]

I have both but I use the Blu-ray player more because I have a large disc collection, the Blu-ray player cost more though. I don't know of any media player that will support an optical drive via USB, your best bet would be an Blu-ray player with USB.

[dragonkeeper]

To answer your question a dedicated HTPC would be best. But looks like you wish to know the better of the two options you listed. If you will be primarily viewing movies from hard drive then would I would say the media player would be the better option they tend to have better support for the various file types. But if you primarily watch movie from disk the BD player would be a better option. Just be sure to when to use supported file types when storing movies on hard drive.

[yoda313]

I have both and I use the Blu-ray player more because I have a large disc collection, the Blu-ray player cost more though.

Yeah I would agree that a disc player (edit - with harddrive support) would be best if you have a large installed base of physical discs. That way you just pop em in and go no need to convert. (edit - but make sure that the settop hardware player supports the formats and harddrive type you need - ie fat32 vs ntfs - though it is my understanding more and more bluray players that do usb playback are now supporting ntfs and even mkv - but again check the manuals before buying).

1. Media Player with USB or Blu Ray drive
or

I don't think they make them like that. Usually its a small little black box that hooks up to your tv and you plug a harddrive into it.

There were hacks available for the wdtv to let it read usb dvd drives. However that voids your warranty as far as I know. Plus I believe that was inteded for file playback only - not traditional dvd viewing off the disc as you would with a real dvd player. Plus I don't think any were made to work with a bluray usb drive - not sure how many usb bluray rom drives are available in the first place - probably more than I thought but not as common as dvd of course and usb disc drives are more expensive than internal ones.

[handyguy]

Connect your TV to your computer, you can do anything.

[jman98]

The WDTV hacks were a crap shoot on USB DVD drive support. I never got it to work on mine. It was not well tested and even the site warned that it didn't work with all DVD drives. WD devices do not understand BluRay per se. It might be possible to get them to play the M2TS files but I feel that such is also a bit of a crapshoot. And the WD devices do not officially support HD audio formats so that could pose some challenges unless they can bitstream it (I have not tested this).

The original poster needs to be careful about BluRay players with USB connectors. Some only allow using this for firmware updates and do not play any media through it. As always, a USB enclosure with its own power source is a lot more likely to be successful than trying to use an unpowered enclosure. Finally, note too that BluRay players tend to support fewer formats for file playback than dedicated media players do.

[Moontrash]

Media player for file format stuff and for retail stuff you'll have to get a BR or dvd player to play the copy protected content. There's a media player called the Micca ep350 that can play a usb dvd player. I think all their models can. AVSforum thread shows great success with it.

[warresg]

I have both and I use the Blu-ray player more because I have a large disc collection, the Blu-ray player cost more though.

Yeah I would agree that a disc player (edit - with harddrive support) would be best if you have a large installed base of physical discs. That way you just pop em in and go no need to convert. (edit - but make sure that the settop hardware player supports the formats and harddrive type you need - ie fat32 vs ntfs - though it is my understanding more and more bluray players that do usb playback are now supporting ntfs and even mkv - but again check the manuals before buying).

1. Media Player with USB or Blu Ray drive
or

I don't think they make them like that. Usually its a small little black box that hooks up to your tv and you plug a harddrive into it.

There were hacks available for the wdtv to let it read usb dvd drives. However that voids your warranty as far as I know. Plus I believe that was inteded for file playback only - not traditional dvd viewing off the disc as you would with a real dvd player. Plus I don't think any were made to work with a bluray usb drive - not sure how many usb bluray rom drives are available in the first place - probably more than I thought but not as common as dvd of course and usb disc drives are more expensive than internal ones.

That means a usb dvd drive on a media player would not play features such as menu on the dvd and i must choose the vob files to play right. This is sum thing new i did not aware off. Must take note of that. thanks.

[warresg]

Found dune hd smart B1 player that comes with a blu ray drive. Not sure whether its any good. As for blu-ray player, am considering between samsung es5900 vs LG BD670.

[KBeee]

Yeah, Dunes CAN do BD and media all in one, but you really pay for the privilege

[fritzi93]

Found dune hd smart B1 player that comes with a blu ray drive. Not sure whether its any good. As for blu-ray player, am considering between samsung es5900 vs LG BD670.

I have an LG BD670 and it will (supposedly) play a variety of file types from external powered hard drive via USB. I've only tried MKVs I made from Blu-Ray, uncropped and with AC3 audio, so I can't be sure about other file types. It's pretty slow to navigate hard drive directories though, compared to connecting hard drive via USB to my LG TV.

Of course, an HTPC would be most flexible (I have that too). Dunno about media players.

Good luck.