Media Player

[drgt]

I am thinking to get one to put all my dvd's and downloaded videos.

I am looking at:

ASUS O!PLAY HD2
http://www.trustedreviews.com/multimedia/review/2010/09/29/Asus-O-Play-HD2/p3

With a Western Digital WD20EVDS 2TB AV-GP SATA2 disk.

A bit bulky and ugly, but I think its features are good.

What do you think?

[jagabo]

I don't know much about the O!Play. I have a WDTV Live which is very similar and I generally like it. I would go to AvForums and look at the O!Play forums there. For example:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1186715&highlight=asus

[drgt]

I 'll take a look there, thanks.

Since you have one do you see any features this one might lack? It looks like it plays anything!

The disk is extra. I could not find anything negative about it on the net.


---------------------------
I think I changed my mind after reading that thread!!!Although I think it is regarding the old model (not the HD2). Here is one regarding the HD2: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1248485&highlight=asus+play+hd2

I am not going to stream from PC, I will just "fill it" and play from there. However, extra features are always welcome, you never know when are needed.

Is there anything you feel your WD is missing?

[jagabo]

The WDTV Live isn't perfect but it's pretty good. Here are some of the problems:

The original firmware did not support DVD ISO/VIDEO_TS menus, it just played the longest video. Recent firmware updates support menus for DVD, not for Blu-ray ISO/folders.

It has problems with some (not all) MP4 files with h.264 video. The video doesn't play smoothly, or at the wrong speed. From what I've seen the problematic files are all made on a Mac and it's something about the h.264 encoding. Remuxing to MKV doesn't fix the problem.

It doesn't have a DV decoder (few players do). It doesn't have an MJPEG decoder. It doesn't play FLV files (except when streamed from YouTube).

Upscaling is decent (bicubic?). Deinterlacing is fair (simple bob as far as I can tell).

It can have problems with very high bitrate 1080p files over a wired 100TX network connection (no 1000TX support). The problems start around 40 Mb/s (jerky playback, stuttering audio). Obviously, low speed wireless connections will have issues, but I can get up to about 17 Mb/s over my 802.11G network.

It doesn't natively support NetFlix streaming (the WDTV Live Plus does) and never will. But a PC running PlayOn can act as a DLNA server for NetFlix streaming. That also gives you access to Hulu, Comedy Central, and many other video sources. A recent firmware update broke PlayOn compatibility. No word on when a fix might arrive.

It can have problems connecting with Windows 7 shares. It can take a lot of fiddling in Win7's network settings to get them working.

It has no internal storage. If you connect an external USB drive to the WDTV Live it can be accessed as a share by other computers on the network (you can disable this if you want). Both FAT32 and NTFS are supported.

[drgt]

Thanks a lot.

I just remembered, what does "upscaling" player mean?

[jagabo]

The player upscales (resizes) standard def (or lower) to high def.

[drgt]

You mean more than 720x576? Give me en example and how to tell if my dvd player is.

Does the WDTV do that?

Basically all I wanna do is throw everything in there (so it must have HD) and not worry about the format whether that is a dvd proper, xvid / divx, mkv, mp4 etc. At 200 Euros, HD included I will spend less than buying DVD's to write on, not to mention the time saved.

As long as it plays all formats it says from its disk, I am happy. Not interested in streaming etc.

Can you set this to do what is needed to fill the screen (just like you can with VLC on PC) regardless the resolution?

Apparently, the HD2 is a lot different that its predecessor http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=19481353&postcount=12

[jagabo]

You mean more than 720x576? Give me en example and how to tell if my dvd player is.

Any player that outputs HD resolution upscales or downscales any source that doen't match that resolution. For example, if you set the player to output 1280x720, a 640x360 Xvid file will be upscaled to that resolution, a 1920x1080 Blu-ray rip will be downscaled.

Does the WDTV do that?

Yes.

Can you set this to do what is needed to fill the screen (just like you can with VLC on PC) regardless the resolution?

No. It maintains aspect ratio when it scales.

[drgt]

Basically all I wanna do is throw everything in there (so it must have HD) and not worry about the format whether that is a dvd proper, xvid / divx, mkv, mp4 etc. At 200 Euros, HD included I will spend less than buying DVD's to write on, not to mention the time saved.

As long as it plays all formats it says from its disk, I am happy. Not interested in streaming etc.

I downloaded the manual but there is no word about how you "fill" this thing. Only via usb or through LAN too?

As far as you know, is the drive of these units in general mapable? i.e. Can you assign a drive letter to that drive and set it as destination for a file download, for example?

Or, can you burn a data cd/dvd using that drive as the source?

[jagabo]

The WDTV, WDTV Live, and WDTV Live Plus do not have any internal storage. They can connect to an external USB drive or network shares. A USB drive connected to a WDTV can be accessed from other computers on the network via Windows sharing. Or you can disconnect the drive from the WDTV and connect it directly to a computer's USB port and access it like any other external USB drive on that computer (mapped to a drive letter). File access is the same as any network share or external hard drive. So yes, you can burn a DVD from the share or the drive, or download files directly to the share or drive.

The WDTV Live Hub has an internal hard drive. You can access the drive via windows sharing. I don't know if you can treat it like an external USB drive in Windows. But it appears to have a USB type B port so I suspect you can.

[drgt]

The WDTV Live Hub has an internal hard drive.

I am looking at that as a candidate as well. It is at the same price as the O!Play HD2 except that in that price I can put a 2 TB disk in the O!Play while the WD has 1 TB disk. If the reviews lean towards the WD, I 'll take the less space...

You can access the drive via windows sharing. I don't know if you can treat it like an external USB drive in Windows. But it appears to have a USB type B port so I suspect you can.

Yes, same like the O!play which has USB 3.0 and e-Sata. These are fine for the initial "filling" but after you connect them to TV, all data transfers should be done via LAN with drive mapping.

That is what I am unsure about.
I have a Dreambox with dual sat tuners and internal drive, but although it is connected to LAN, I can only access its drive via ftp. Attempts to map the drive are unstable and may corrupt the drive during a download where you set the drive as destination and you attempt to create a new directory to put the download.

I want to avoid similar situation...

[jman98]

That is what I am unsure about.
I have a Dreambox with dual sat tuners and internal drive, but although it is connected to LAN, I can only access its drive via ftp. Attempts to map the drive are unstable and may corrupt the drive during a download where you set the drive as destination and you attempt to create a new directory to put the download.

I want to avoid similar situation...

I have no personal experience with Dreambox but there are alternate firmwares available with more features. Perhaps one of them could fix your issues. There's a big list of them towards the bottom of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreambox

I would expect "mapping" to be problematic as "mapping" is actually a Windows term and Windows does not natively support Linux file systems.

[deadmeow]

I have the Asus O!play Air HDP-R3, and it plays everything, including DVD ISO's complete with menus, mp4/mkv/h264 , with internal or external subs, flv, rmvb (real media files), and every other file that I have thrown at it. It has an E-SATA port for external hard drives (or you could simply use USB).

I have an external hard drive connected via E-SATA, and I have an external DVD drive connected to it via USB, and it plays regular DVD's, or DVD's full of video files. There is really no use for a separate DVD player now.

[drgt]

I have no personal experience with Dreambox but there are alternate firmwares available with more features. Perhaps one of them could fix your issues. There's a big list of them towards the bottom of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreambox

The truth is it has been a while since I installed new firmware in it. Thanks for the link.

I would expect "mapping" to be problematic as "mapping" is actually a Windows term and Windows does not natively support Linux file systems.

You are right. Once you map the drive, windows wants to take direct control over it while it should talk to Linux to carry out the command. In the Dreambox case, the drive was formatted by the unit.
In these units, I read that they support NTFS. So, I take it, you could format the drive in your pc and then place it in the unit. So mapping might work. I do not know.

All these media players are Linux.

[drgt]

I have the Asus O!play Air HDP-R3, and it plays everything, including DVD ISO's complete with menus, mp4/mkv/h264 , with internal or external subs, flv, rmvb (real media files), and every other file that I have thrown at it. It has an E-SATA port for external hard drives (or you could simply use USB).

I have an external hard drive connected via E-SATA, and I have an external DVD drive connected to it via USB, and it plays regular DVD's, or DVD's full of video files. There is really no use for a separate DVD player now.

I am looking at the HD2 because I want the unit to have an internal drive.

Have you tried to map the drive connected to your unit and then see if you can set it as target location for a file download, trying to create a new directory to put the download in?

[TBoneit]

jagabo, I have the Live Hub. I load it from the PC via Ethernet, when it is on I can transfer files from the computer to it and the two USB drives it has connected to it via ethernet.

Currently I have two WD NAS attached, the internal 1Tb, a 1Tb USB drive and a 1/2Tb USB drive all accessible from the Live Hub and the computer.

I believe it also handles DVD rips better then the older Live Plus and the Netflix seems quicker too. That could also be due to the recent upgrade I did to my internet speed however.

I got the NAS's when they were on sale so I could use them to backup the computer or hold content for the Live Hub. The first NAs was also working with the Live Plus to give three drives worth of storage on it.

[jagabo]

jagabo, I have the Live Hub. I load it from the PC via Ethernet, when it is on I can transfer files from the computer to it and the two USB drives it has connected to it via ethernet.

Yes, I had no doubt about that. What I was wondering about is, in the absence of ethernet, can you plug the Live Hub into a computer via USB and access the drive. If you can, I would expect that would deactivate the Live Hub as a media player (you can't have two operating systems accessing a drive at the block level).

[drgt]

Transferring I am sure is done one way or the other (ftp etc). But is mapping done correctly?

If you can, I would expect that would deactivate the Live Hub as a media player.

Apparently, that is the case. Something like running W5Storage on a PPC before using it as a thumb drive.

[jagabo]

If you're talking about mapping a network share as a drive letter in Windows -- that works fine with the WDTV Live. So I would assume it works with the rest of the WDTV series too.

That's not the same as attaching a USB drive and having it show up as a drive letter. A network share mapped as a drive letter is a logical mapping on the client computer, The server remains in control of the drive and its files. The client computer simply makes high (file) level requests to the server. When you attach an external drive via USB the local computer takes over the drive and controls low level block access to the drive.

[drgt]

Jagabo, see end of post 11 to see what I am worried about mapping.

Yours does not have an internal drive though...

[jagabo]

Jagabo, see end of post 11 to see what I am worried about mapping.

How many times do I have to say this? Any drive attached to a WDTV can be accessed by any computer on the network. Either directly via share name:

\\WdtvName\VolumeLabel\Folder\SubFolder\FileName.e xt

Any network share can be mapped as a drive letter in Windows. On the WDTV series the volume label is the share name. So if the WDTV's name is WdtvName and the volume label is VolumeLabel, and you map \\WdtvName\VolumeLabel as drive Z: on the client, then the above file can be accessed by:

Z:\Folder\SubFolder\FileName.ext

Any Windows program, including Explorer, can access files by either of those methods.

Yours does not have an internal drive though...

The Live Hub runs the same Linux OS as the Live.

Oh, you should know that the Live Hub uses a 2.5" laptop drive, not a 3.5" desktop drive. So you can't replace it with a 2 GB drive at this point -- there are no 2 GB laptop drives yet.

[drgt]

Ok. Dreambox is run by Linux too and I described its problem above. That is why I was skeptical.
Dreambox has no problem with explorer either. It is when you attempt to target its drive during a download that has the problem.

[drgt]

Come to think of it, wouldn't I be better off if I bought a laptop and used it exclusively for this purpose?

Getting one with HDMI and Coax / Optical out covers me?

[jagabo]

Sure. If you want to spend three times as much, consume twice as much power, and put up with long boot times. You'll probably want a remote control too.

[drgt]

Sure. If you want to spend three times as much, consume twice as much power, and put up with long boot times. You'll probably want a remote control too.

The remote is not the problem, I got a logitech air mouse and a media remote. But the other issues you mentioned you got a point. Plus less storage space. For boot time I could put it on standby instead of shutting down.
Moneywise, yes I will spend more on a laptop but it will be a pc (and since I do not have one now) I could take this one on vacation!

So HDMI and optical out is all I need?
Picture quality will be just as good as the media player?

[jagabo]

So HDMI and optical out is all I need?
Picture quality will be just as good as the media player?

Yes. Make sure the laptop has the horsepower for the material you plan to play. Some videos may be encoded with settings that DXVA can't handle so you may need to use the CPU at times.

[drgt]

Make sure the laptop has the horsepower for the material you plan to play. Some videos may be encoded with settings that DXVA can't handle so you may need to use the CPU at times.

What is DXVA?
Make some suggestions (like I7, min memory, recommended graphics e.t.c)

Thanks

P.S. Will I use a different interface or VLC that I am using now will be fine?

[jagabo]

DXVA is Windows' interface for video decompression by the graphics chip (GPU). Look for laptops based on the latest GPUs. They will have better support for GPU decoding. They will do better on video compressed with the more intensive h.264 settings.

VLC won't work for HD h.264 video. It's h.264 decoder is single threaded and it takes modern CPUs more than one core to decode 1920x1080 h.264. It does support GPU decoding but it requires Win7 or Vista (not XP). And, as mentioned, the GPU will not play all possible h.264 settings so sometimes you need to fall back on the CPU.

The faster dual core CPUs are fast enough for 1080p24 h.264 decoding. If you are going to get a camcorder that shoots 1080p60 or 1080p50 you will need more.

[budwzr]

I have a Seagate Theater+ 1080p media player. It has Netflix, but you only get to see your queue, not search or anything else. The GUI is kind of lame too, but it DOES have tremendous format support.

Playon sucks, when you see that, RUN.

[jagabo]

PlayOn's not so bad. It's better than nothing if you want Netflix on a device that doesn't natively support it. It transcodes SD Netflix to MPEG 2 at 4000 kbps CBR.