View Full Version : I need a little help picking a media player


Adam anto
10-16-09, 04:18 PM
Hi all,

First post and I'm picking the brains already. Have read through a lot about media streamers and am getting well confused. I think the more I read the worse it's getting :-(
I was really close with the WD TV Live but for one missing feature. What would do it for me would be the ability to browse or add to a few key site streams.

Example:
RTE, Ireland's national broadcaster who use Flash 10. (Might be geolocked to Ireland)
KCRW, Radio station, Flash 10 again.

There seem to be more of these players popping up by the minute e.g Patriot Box HD so I'm really getting lost. A lot of them seem to have certain site preselected but no ability to add more??

Many thanks in advance....

Anto

candre23
10-16-09, 07:25 PM
Your options are to either use a transcoding program like Playon (which should work with any web video), or to use a straight-up HTPC. None of the currently available media players can handle all (or even most) web video natively.

J3ff
10-16-09, 07:29 PM
I have the same problem.

I dont wana use a HTPC because of power use, and all the other crap that comes with using it........but I want my **** to work!

Adam anto
10-16-09, 08:00 PM
I'm about the same situation as j3ff. Want to keep it simple as i can. Looks like i'll go with WDTV live and forget about the internet access. Some genius might come up with a 3rd party firmware.

Would you guys suggest a different box?

candre23
10-16-09, 11:11 PM
They're all roughly the same. All will handle most formats (including the important ones: h.264, Xvid, etc), none will handle them all. If you have any special requirements beyond the usual stuff, I suggest you check compatibility on those first. Other than that, there isn't a lot of difference between the different models.