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#1 2008-06-21 11:40:33
- ahors
- Member
- Registered: 2007-10-04
- Posts: 22
what is the best standalone Media Player ?
Hi,
now that I have two DNSes, I feel it is time for the next step - that is add the magic third box - stand alone media player that would work well with DNS-323.
What is important to me is that it is:
a) pure stand-alone (no need for PC to do some dirty-work processing)
b) would handle reasonably large resolution & datarate divx/xvid videos (lets say at bare minimum 2x the standard 350MB / 45 min play time)
c) handle text based subtitles
d) play .mkv (matroshka format) files (and ideally HD quality that is data rate of 1,1GB/45min)
Last year there were a lof of new product announcements like D-Link's DSM-520. or NetGear's EVA8000 I even looked at elusive Korean DViCO's TiVX products.
but none seemed quite right.
I don't even mind now spending a little bit more money ...
or perhaps somebody knows of any new device coming up this year that would be worth waiting for?
This year it seems, manufacturers are suspiciously low key.
Or maybe a better question to ask is which chipset is the best right now? And what products based of that chipset should I consider?
Thanks
p.s. and no, I'd rather not use XBox Media Center
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#2 2008-06-21 12:48:33
- toni
- Member
- Registered: 2007-08-26
- Posts: 41
Re: what is the best standalone Media Player ?
Hi,
today the most popular device in this segment is the Popcorn Hour A-100 (called PCH as well). Search for it on the net. I changed over from a Pinacle Showcenter to get mkv support and some more features (HDMI, etc). There is a line of products with the same chipset than PCH called NMT (Network Media Tank), produced by Syabas if I'm correct, but the PCH with it's 179 USD price is not to beat at the moment....
Cheers,
Tóni
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#3 2008-06-21 12:54:21
- vedeja
- Member
- Registered: 2008-02-21
- Posts: 161
Re: what is the best standalone Media Player ?
I have the TViX 5100. It has some flaws (DVD ISOs sometimes hang), but overall I am very happy with it. I have equipped it a wireless dongle for transferring media. Perhaps one of the newer models are even better.
¤ 2 x 500 GB Samsung Spinpoint ¤ FFP 0.5 ¤ Custom fanscript ¤
¤ Lighttpd 1.4.19 ¤ Transmission 1.50 ¤ FW 1.07 ¤
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#4 2008-06-21 14:25:47
- ahors
- Member
- Registered: 2007-10-04
- Posts: 22
Re: what is the best standalone Media Player ?
toni & vedeja
Thanks, it seems that I was out of date and TViX has v. recently upgraded the chipsets to Sigma's SMP8635 - the same A-100 is using.
both seem to be exactly what I've needed.
But I visited Popcorn's web site and they say they have back orders *is it thaaat popular!?* .... I guess at that price I want one too (-:
Anybody knows any good mail order place that would ship A-100 (or M-6500A) to Europe?
Thanks,
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#5 2008-06-21 14:55:53
- daermond
- Member
- Registered: 2008-02-05
- Posts: 7
Re: what is the best standalone Media Player ?
Try order from these resellers. I have buyed it in Hungary, and it has arrived in two days. 
http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/ … wheretobuy
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#6 2008-06-22 13:13:02
- KyleK
- Member
- From: Dresden, Germany
- Registered: 2007-12-05
- Posts: 1178
Re: what is the best standalone Media Player ?
Can the XBox (1) handle HDTV resolutions in a mkv container? I kinda doubt that.
ahors: The Popcorn Hour has been mentioned already, I also know of the Conceptronic CFULLHDMA which is about to be released shortly. I own the Conceptronic CH3SNAS (which is hardware-identical to the DNS-323) and I'm very happy with it.
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#7 2008-06-22 15:23:51
- moquilok
- Member
- Registered: 2008-03-17
- Posts: 28
Re: what is the best standalone Media Player ?
You can also try the istar mini (https://www.istarhd.com) which is one of the products that uses the same chipset/firmware based off Syabas (same as Popcornhour). I have one and haven't had any problems with it streaming HD movies from my dns-323. It's essentially the same price as PCH, and they have a pretty good support system at mpcclub.com (although not as good as PCH).
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#8 2008-06-22 19:06:56
- quekky
- Member
- Registered: 2008-03-30
- Posts: 20
Re: what is the best standalone Media Player ?
KyleK wrote:
Can the XBox (1) handle HDTV resolutions in a mkv container? I kinda doubt that.
it can handle mkv, but not HD. I tried 720 and 1080 is very laggy (even if i run the mkv from local within the xbox hdd)
it is only a celeron 700mhz and no HA
Last edited by quekky (2008-06-22 19:08:48)
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#9 2008-06-23 00:16:40
- knireis
- Member
- Registered: 2007-12-10
- Posts: 231
Re: what is the best standalone Media Player ?
there is also the new conceptronic CFULLHDMA.
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#10 2008-06-23 11:19:47
- toni
- Member
- Registered: 2007-08-26
- Posts: 41
Re: what is the best standalone Media Player ?
Ebay is just great :-) just be patient to pick the right offer (<20 USD extra for no waiting is OK I think :-)
Tóni
ahors wrote:
toni & vedeja
Thanks, it seems that I was out of date and TViX has v. recently upgraded the chipsets to Sigma's SMP8635 - the same A-100 is using.
both seem to be exactly what I've needed.
But I visited Popcorn's web site and they say they have back orders *is it thaaat popular!?* .... I guess at that price I want one too (-:
Anybody knows any good mail order place that would ship A-100 (or M-6500A) to Europe?
Thanks,
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#11 2008-06-24 10:26:52
- lotech
- Member
- Registered: 2007-12-24
- Posts: 19
Re: what is the best standalone Media Player ?
XBMC is easily the best media playback mechanism - everything in SD that is but HD is the biggest problem. Main reason the XBOX power is the lack of ram 64mb just isn't enough to buffer the video apparently.
I'm looking into and AppleTV modded to run the OSX version of XBMC port but I don't think it's evolved enough yet.
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#13 2008-06-25 18:36:54
- sbrundell
- Member
- Registered: 2008-04-13
- Posts: 13
Re: what is the best standalone Media Player ?
I have the istar - same essentially as popcorm hour and streaming didn't work with dns-323 via nfs until i changed the firmware to the conceptronic version. I also have the TVIX 6500 and this worked without any trouble seemed to stream better via nfs and smb and worked with an older LCD Tv that the istar couldn't.
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