Multi-media players

[jaynana]

non-car topic:)

has anyone got any experience with multi-media players, such as:

http://www.philips.co.uk/c/blu-ray-dvd/ ... 00_12/prd/

basically a devide that can play various media such as movies (mostly), music, photos, etc, from various storage devices such as hard disks, usb sticks, sd cards etc directly.

if anybody has experience, i'd like recommendations pls.

cheers

j

[pvr]

Ok, before X5Sport jumps in with a 6 page essay, let me get in quickly

I use a media server to store the blue ray disks (ripped), DVDs and my iTunes library.

For playing the content, I have an Apple TV for the iTunes playback and use an Xtreamer to stream the media content (from network / USB) to my plasma screen. Note that for HD streaming you need to have a hard wired ethernet connection to the media storage device.

[jaynana]

thx

http://www.xtreamer.net/2012/xtreamer-p ... ition.html?

why is this so big? what's inside?

so what's the difference between these devices, what should i be lookin out for in terms of features?

j

[jaynana]

guys any further advise on this please?

[X5Sport]

pvr.....it would have been short and sweet.......

These boxes are built around standard 3.5" PC hard drives and that limits the size. Sensibly buy one with at least two disks so you can have a backup copy in case of disaster! It takes ages to put this stuff on the NAS, and once is enough..

You can either buy a NAS (network attached storage) device as pvr suggests - wich you can hide in a cupboard somewhere as long as it's connected to your network. Or you can buy a full fledged media server (or build as I did) which will allow you to 'rip' all your media onto hard disks and (also back up your machines) and then 'stream' it to whatever you want to watch/listen to it on.

The other option to the Apple TV is something like a Western Digital Media Player - useful to connect your new digital library to non 'connected' TVs or audio systems etc. These have the necessary decoders to get the files from your library and play them. Newer models have things like BBC iPlayer, Netflix and the other online rental services included. As pvr suggests, a hair wired connection between the library and end device is best, and for HD you ought to be looking at Gigabit Ethernet. You can do it using data-over-the-mains systems, but you need the right electrics in the home. Doing HD over wireless is an artform sometimes!

If you're going down the ripping route (not legal in all countries) then you need something like MyMovies which is a software program that does all the transcoding for you - including 'protected' discs - and converts them to whatever you want.

And then of course you can go mad and build your own personal 'Data Centre' (which is what pvr is alluding to with me) based on Windows Home ServeR 2011, which holds everything, backs up every PC, holds multiple versions of and can play movies from any original format for TV, PC and Tablet and keeps my toes warm in winter. Smaller versions are available..

Do a web search for 'Media Server' or 'NAS Media Server' and 'Media player' to see the range of kit available, and the range of prices. It's a big field to suit all pockets out there..

[jaynana]

THANKS, i knew this question had TROUBLE written all over it

[X5Sport]

I think you need to decide what you want any machine to do, and then how much data you want it to hold - as in how many CDS/DVDs/BluRay Discs etc? Are you going to keep any personal video, or photo library on it too? Do you want something to back up your home PC and/or laptop (or more than 1 of each)? Also look at what you want to stream and even how many streams.? Then work out how much you want to spend.

As you will no doubt discover, there are a number of different ways to do things and then a large array of different hardware that you can use to let you do that, most of which can be mixed and matched. I probably have a 'BMW' end of the market solution, but there are other ways of doing it both cheaper and more costly.

I bought a pre-built solution which on the face of it was great and should have been able to do everything I needed but fairly quickly proved to have a fatal design flaw in its power supply system.

[jaynana]

tell me about it - the original requirement was very simple - to be able to connect audio/video with my av amp+tv setup with ease, incl usbs, hard disks, computers, ipods, etc. preferably wireless.

tbo i use other means for backups/archives, like occasionally backing up onto offline media.. so that's not a requirement

looking at the options out there, now i'm wondering where to draw the line!! its a minefield!

[jaynana]

bought the Xtreamer Full HD Mediastreamer.

too much choice, so i thought i'd first get my hands dirty on something cheap, then once i know enough, if i feel like it exchange for the real deal.

so picked up off ebay, used, £60 + 8 for shipping.

lets see how it goes..

thx for all the help. its a jungle out there.. thought the X5 was hard!

j

[jaynana]

update on this - pretty happy with the Xstreamer sidewinder. i've connected it to the tv with an HDMI cable and sound to my av amp with an optical cable.

found a new issue though - my first gen lcd tv has only 1 HDMI input! and the  amp does not support HDMI pass through either!! and i have 2 hdmi inputs goin into the tv now! damn!

so i've looked around and placed the order for an HDMI switch on amazon.

still discovering features of the device. looks like i need an internal hard disk to activate some of the features.

so i also placed an order for a SATA 2.5inc hard disk for teh xstreamer!

thanks guys for all the advise

[X5Sport]

There always seems to be a catch somewhere......like your hard disk.......in that the devices work fine, but only if you add Options - and that means more money!

I found I could have HDMI sound & video, but if I fed the surround audio optically then I lost the HDMI audio!  It's an 'either or' rather than 'and', unless happy to only have stereo rather than 7.1!

I have some Western Digital Media Players and WD won't put iPlayer on them!  Want that?  Buy this years model!  My Bro has gon to Oz so we use Skype.  TV is one of these connected type bought a couple of years back.  Want a Skype camera (web cam no good apparently) for a 2010 model?  No chance!  If sir wants one of them then sir will need this year's model TV as the functions have changed and the 2012 camera isn't backward compatible and won't work!  :rant: :rant: