[PatrickVogeli]

Hi there,

this is completely offtopic, but I'm sure quite a few of you, actual XBMC users, have first gone down the media player way, with or without HDD.

I'm looking for a media player for my parents, as a Christmas present. Their needs are extremely easy and my budget is tight, so ION is out of the question.

I was rather thinking of a media player. Yesterday I bought a Western Digital elements play 1TB. I like how it looks and I like its interface, but it has no 24 Hz! I find that completeley unacceptable, since nearly all of my HD mkv is 24 Hz...

So, I will return this one.. Do any of you know of any similar media player that supports 24 Hz? If you know any media players that don't support that, or you don't like, it's also helpful which units to avoid. I doesn't really matter if they have or don't have internal hard drive.

Right now, I think the WD Live TV and some Asus o'Play do 24 Hz, so they may be my next tries.

Thank you!

[ion_man]

Avoid the Popcorn Hour A-200, it's cooled by a very noisy fan.

The C-200 is great but probably too expensive for a gift (also the firmware still has many niggles).

I don't know if the WD-TV Live does 24Hz, but if yes then that's probably your best choice.

[topfs2]

ATV2 is a rather nice (and cheap) box. Depends on you only caring for 720p and have the possibility to use iTunes as backend.

[Starstream]

The newest WDTV Live Hub is worth checking out, seems to have a flash based animated GUI, built in 1TB HDD and does 24Hz. If thats too expensive the WDTV Live might be more appropriate. The elements line is the low end of WD media players.

For the Realtek players the Asus O!Play should be fine but has horrible GUI, they launched a O!Play 2 recently as well & some pics show it has a new UI but not too different from stock Realtek one.

[PatrickVogeli]

hi,

I didn't even think of Popcorn devices, too expensive, and it does too many things I wouldn't need.

Atv 2, no thanks. I have lots of 1080p and I want to stay away from server setups, I want to keep things as easy as possible.

The Live TV Hub...it is quite expensive. I paid 130€ por the Elements Play, the Hub costs more than 200. I have to think about it... I may jump in, it seems a rather fine machine, and compared to Diskless media player + external HDD it is in the same price range.

About the O!play 2, it is also quite expensive. If I think of an O!play 2 + some 2,5 Hd, I come up to 200€ easy, and I would prefer the Hub.

The WDTV Live seems fine... if I find somewhere where I can buy it in store in my area, I may bite.

Thanks to all!

Any more ideas?

[poofyhairguy]

I vote for the WDTV Live. It is my favorite set top box. It plus a full 1tb/2tb drive is a nice present....

[thethirdnut]

Avoid the Oplays like the plague.

I am a big Asus supporter otherwise, HOWEVER, since mkvmerge moved to the 'header compression' drama any new or newly created mkv's are a no-go on the Oplay.

http://vip.asus.com/forum/view.aspx?id=2...uage=en-us

Going on 4 months and this is still not fixed, no end in sight either.

I have an HDP-R1, worked fine while it lasted...has been a brick since mid-August.

[mr.sparkle]

+1 for a WDTV gen 2 or Live, paired with a 1-2TB green drive (and a year's membership to Astraweb, hehe).

[PatrickVogeli]

Hi,

Finally I got a WD TV and.. I can't be more dissapointed. I had read the WD TV was the same that the WD Live TV but without LAN and, since it was the one I could find in the stores, I was happy with that, since it was also a bit cheaper, which was fine.

Once I've came home, this damn thing just doesn't cut it. Files Muxed with mkv's header compression feature won't play, and not only that: after attempting to play one of those movies, no more movies will play until I do a unplug the unit from AC. Absolute and complete garbage, IMHO.

I think at the end I'll just look for another present, I find this situation is completely unnaceptable and WD, Asus and company are cheating their customers.

Thanks to all

[thethirdnut]

Or you could spend $5k for something worth approx $500? ;-)

http://bitstream.soundandvisionmag.com/b...news121010

[waldo22]

Hi,

Finally I got a WD TV and.. I can't be more dissapointed.
Thanks to all

You need the Live Plus - it's pretty good, and does a nice job with Netflix as well (I bought it just for Netflix)

[poofyhairguy]

Once I've came home, this damn thing just doesn't cut it.

Um, once you are used to a XBMC box with Nvidia decoding everything else really sucks in comparison.

[PatrickVogeli]

Or you could spend $5k for something worth approx $500? ;-)

http://bitstream.soundandvisionmag.com/b...news121010

Wow... How can it be so expensive!? Is that some sort of Bang & Olufsen or Bose where you pay a big plus because of its branding?

I think paying that amount of money for a Multimedia HDD is absolutely crazy, even if you have really lots of money. I suppose it works wonders, doesn't it?

[PatrickVogeli]

You need the Live Plus - it's pretty good, and does a nice job with Netflix as well (I bought it just for Netflix)

Thanks, but I'm done. No more Media Players. Now it has been, mostly, the optional header compression feature that screewed me. Tomorrow it may be another thing and it won't get fixed... it's a shame.

[PatrickVogeli]

Um, once you are used to a XBMC box with Nvidia decoding everything else really sucks in comparison.

Yeah.. after my experience I'll have to say you are completely right. However, I still find that if it doesn't get done properly, it's not because it isn't possible, but because the makers don't care at all about doing a great product or doing a not-so-good one.

Western Digital should better have done something very good and include it in all their players and give proper support instead of doing stuff from mediocre to it's-not-bad and doing I don't know how many different players with an equal number of different decoding solutions, all with different problems.