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Egreat EG-M34A - Tell me your opinion and experience !

post #1 of 415
5/8/09 at 8:15am
Thread Starter 
Hey folks, hello...so, i have finally actually decided to get a hd media player...and am currently almost certain to buy the new eGreat M34A. I was thinking about a WDTV HD Media Player at first, but after I read through all the pages regarding it on the forum (many many pages lol), I changed my mind. It seems that it has alot of bugs despite its low price and paying a bit more to get the M34A in my eyes seems like a better choice, even for having some "add-ons" (like hdmi 1.3a, network features, better playback compatiblity) compared to the WDTV...(no offense WDTV users)

Here is what i want to use the NMT M34A for:

I have a 42" Panasonic plasma, 1080p, 100Hz, 24p cinema ; and a 1TB SATA II external USB 2.0 HDD in NTFS.

I want to play mainly:

- divx/xvid .avi files in SD and HD 720p with one or two audio tracks
- .mkv files mostly 720p, but 1080p aswell
the mkv's are h264 or x264 with audio AC3 5.1 or AAC or DTS
- quicktime .mov files 1080p (trailers from apple)
- .wmv 720p
- .mp4
- .mpg (mpeg2 recorded from dvb-t)

Can anyone tell me if the eGreat will play them fine ? I read its specifications, but I want to make sure (eventhough nothing is 100% flawless)...

Also, if the mkv files have 23.976 fps, is that ok (i heard that the WDTV has problems) ? The eGreat has some kind of auto function right?

I would play the files via USB from my SATAII drive...I am also considering to stream the files from the PC, but i am not sure how that works. If you need some kind of USB Wifi-key card or something? And is there a way to install the NMT apps (enabling the player to use them), having the drive both NTFS and both EXT3 ? Like some partition ?

Another thing, I read from few people they had problems starting up the M34A (not seeing the NTFS drive) until they upgraded to February fw via USB stick (FAT formatted). I heared there will be a new fw released around June enabling DTS...

So yeah, overall, if anyone could answer some of those questions and throw in some own experience from having the M34A (if someone already has it), I would be really pleased...

Thanks alot !

P.S. I assume someone may suggest another player, but i got just $196 to spend :-) So no Twix for me lol
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post #2 of 415
5/8/09 at 8:41am
we are receiving feedback of Egreat M34A here in Portugal...

The bootup is slower than WD TV

Image quality in Egreat with Divx and DVD is worst than WD TV

Recognition of external disks is faster than WD TV (for the record... my 1Tb almost filled external disk takes 10 -15 seconds to be recognized)

Menus are slower and uglier

Egreat seems to load all the ISOs ok with DVD menus

If you have 720p movies, you will not have problems with WD TV

If you have demanding 1080p movies, you can have problems with WD TV but probably not with Egreat.

With 23,976fps movies you will have a framedrop in 40 to 40 seconds period in WD TV... but you will only notice this in motion images..
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post #3 of 415
5/8/09 at 2:56pm
I already bought a Egreat EG-M34A from online and it should be arriving tomorrow or next week. When I get a chance to test it, I will leave you with a short review on this NMT player. I can compare it to WD player because I already own the WDTV player. Also I found this Egreat EG-M34A Video Review from another thread. It is in czech though.
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post #4 of 415
5/8/09 at 3:02pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonecrusher52 View Post

I already bought a Egreat EG-M34A from online and it should be arriving tomorrow or next week. When I get a chance to test it, I will leave you with a short review on this NMT player. I can compare it to WD player because I already own the WDTV player.

thanks, that will be great =))
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post #5 of 415
5/8/09 at 3:39pm
well, Jack, you are the only one on this thread who knows Czech, so please check the movie and tells us what is says

does it says anything about quality of video or how it compares to the popcorn ?

as for compatibilty, i think you should be fine.

as for slow boot, i think that only is about a "cold" boot, so from no power to powered up. i think from standby it should be faster.

as for slow and ugly menu's -> check the video. for an NMT player it doesnt look slow to me! and it looks ok in design....like the WD menu's are so nice too look at
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post #6 of 415
5/8/09 at 5:24pm
More info:

30 seconds for bootup.
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post #7 of 415
5/8/09 at 7:03pm
Streams my Blu-Ray backup's on network just fine w/ HD audio.

Takes about 5 secs to start a movie from the time you press enter.

DVD Menus and ISO's work fine. Have not tried BR iso yet.

Chapters do not work on BR.

Has 30 sec skip (seek)

Make sure the first thing you do is update to the latest firmware.

more later....
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post #8 of 415
5/8/09 at 11:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Afrsa View Post

More info:

30 seconds for bootup.

which is from power off to powered on, i assume ? hwo fast is it from standby ?
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post #9 of 415
5/8/09 at 11:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by toohip View Post

Streams my Blu-Ray backup's on network just fine w/ HD audio.

Takes about 5 secs to start a movie from the time you press enter.

DVD Menus and ISO's work fine. Have not tried BR iso yet.

Chapters do not work on BR.

Has 30 sec skip (seek)

Make sure the first thing you do is update to the latest firmware.

more later....

damn, so even the latest NMT players have that slowishness crap, like youre trying to run vista on a pentiumI 66mhz really, that should be better anno 2009 ! whats the big deal, put in a faster processor so the rendering of html goes faster. im sure most would pay a little extra for it. 5 sec for a moive start ? pfff with my wd, it takes 5 secs to boot and start a movie...!
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post #10 of 415
5/9/09 at 5:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by toolman2k10 View Post

damn, so even the latest NMT players have that slowishness crap, like youre trying to run vista on a pentiumI 66mhz really, that should be better anno 2009 ! whats the big deal, put in a faster processor so the rendering of html goes faster. im sure most would pay a little extra for it. 5 sec for a moive start ? pfff with my wd, it takes 5 secs to boot and start a movie...!


All I have tested so far is playing files from network. It may be faster with a drive connected. I'll see if i can get around to testing that today.

The main reason i purchased this unit was for streaming my BR's and supporting HD audio.

I'll keep my XBMC connected for SD and Music. Nothing beats that for speed.
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post #11 of 415
5/9/09 at 6:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by toohip View Post

All I have tested so far is playing files from network. It may be faster with a drive connected. I'll see if i can get around to testing that today.

The main reason i purchased this unit was for streaming my BR's and supporting HD audio.

I'll keep my XBMC connected for SD and Music. Nothing beats that for speed.

oww ok. that makes kinda sense yes please do test it with a local drive. Im very curious to the results! the menus seem to respond ok, dont they ? hows going to next/prev page with listing of movies or thumbs ? Ive seen that on PCH, man that was like 4-5 secs loading !

and how fast does it wakeup from standby ?

thanks in advance!
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post #12 of 415
5/9/09 at 3:55pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by toohip View Post

Streams my Blu-Ray backup's on network just fine w/ HD audio.

Takes about 5 secs to start a movie from the time you press enter.

DVD Menus and ISO's work fine. Have not tried BR iso yet.

Chapters do not work on BR.

Has 30 sec skip (seek)

Make sure the first thing you do is update to the latest firmware.

more later....

thx 4 info... whats the latest fw i should update to? and how did you do it, will a 2GB FAT USB stick do? And can you test some 1080p mov apple quicktime trailer ? thanks!
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post #13 of 415
5/9/09 at 4:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by toolman2k10 View Post

which is from power off to powered on, i assume ? hwo fast is it from standby ?

News update:

Bootup from power off : 1 minute and 14 seconds.

From Stand By: 6-10 seconds.

Changing between pages: around 2 seconds.
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post #14 of 415
5/9/09 at 6:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Afrsa View Post

News update:

Bootup from power off : 1 minute and 14 seconds.

From Stand By: 6-10 seconds.

Changing between pages: around 2 seconds.


How to you put it in standby? I don't see that option on the remote???
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post #15 of 415
5/9/09 at 6:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by toolman2k10 View Post

oww ok. that makes kinda sense yes please do test it with a local drive. Im very curious to the results! the menus seem to respond ok, dont they ? hows going to next/prev page with listing of movies or thumbs ? Ive seen that on PCH, man that was like 4-5 secs loading !

and how fast does it wakeup from standby ?

thanks in advance!

No faster with external drive.

I successfully installed YAMJ and NMT apps.

Menus seem fast enough.

BD iso's do not work.
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post #16 of 415
5/10/09 at 2:10pm
Thread Starter 
ok guys, i just ordered the M34A...will let you know in detail when it arrives how its like
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post #17 of 415
5/11/09 at 4:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Afrsa View Post

News update:

Bootup from power off : 1 minute and 14 seconds.

From Stand By: 6-10 seconds.

Changing between pages: around 2 seconds.

10secs from standby ? pfew thats slow, my WD starts in like 1,5 secs

more than 1 minute for a cold boot ? man...my old pentium I boots faster.

why is that these NMT's are so slow ? i dont get it.....and what i dont get even more is all of the users putting up with it. dont they demand faster ? everybody is impatient nowadays....and im not sure if i could put up with such slowness...its so not userfriendly i think id be annoyed by it within the first day.

how de you guys feel about this ? are there even fast NMTs available? to my understanding not...but i dont know everything about NMTs. [maybe the more expensive NMTs have faster processors?]
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post #18 of 415
5/11/09 at 5:09am
Quote:
Originally Posted by toolman2k10 View Post

10secs from standby ? pfew thats slow, my WD starts in like 1,5 secs

more than 1 minute for a cold boot ? man...my old pentium I boots faster.

why is that these NMT's are so slow ? i dont get it.....and what i dont get even more is all of the users putting up with it. dont they demand faster ? everybody is impatient nowadays....and im not sure if i could put up with such slowness...its so not userfriendly i think id be annoyed by it within the first day.

how de you guys feel about this ? are there even fast NMTs available? to my understanding not...but i dont know everything about NMTs. [maybe the more expensive NMTs have faster processors?]

No... all NMT are the same... only the firmware changes and some hardware changes (usb, vga, etc)...

Only tivx and others have diferent firmware... but popcorn, istar, egreat, elektron, etc etc, are all the same.
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post #19 of 415
5/11/09 at 5:56am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by toolman2k10 View Post

10secs from standby ? pfew thats slow, my WD starts in like 1,5 secs

more than 1 minute for a cold boot ? man...my old pentium I boots faster.

why is that these NMT's are so slow ? i dont get it.....and what i dont get even more is all of the users putting up with it. dont they demand faster ? everybody is impatient nowadays....and im not sure if i could put up with such slowness...its so not userfriendly i think id be annoyed by it within the first day.

how de you guys feel about this ? are there even fast NMTs available? to my understanding not...but i dont know everything about NMTs. [maybe the more expensive NMTs have faster processors?]

i guess your the only one having a problem... i dont mind that loading time at all...when i know it will play literally anything unlike the wdtv and it has network features aswell... those features perhaps are the thing that takes to load, but neverthless, i do not care.. one minute or those 10seconds is nothing..i am patient with everything...
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post #20 of 415
5/11/09 at 12:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack_6428 View Post

i guess your the only one having a problem... i dont mind that loading time at all...when i know it will play literally anything unlike the wdtv and it has network features aswell... those features perhaps are the thing that takes to load, but neverthless, i do not care.. one minute or those 10seconds is nothing..i am patient with everything...

to be honest, i agree with you. compatibilty is key and most important. the egreat or any other nmt player is way ahead of the WD in that area. So yes, that might be the push for me to order a m34a as well. I was just wondering why it is so slow, why they dont put in a faster chip. I think i read somewhere this is the case with more expensive NMT, the money has to go somewhere they do have fast menus and interaction. but as far as compatibility goes, they're all quite the same i think.

weird thing is, i dont see the slow menus on the videos (like the czech one i posted). also starting a movie is not that slow. sure it says buffering, but thats fine...if you count the buffering into the total of starting a movie then yes it could be 5 sec. but youre right, whats 5 secs really ? its nothing and worth it if you know it will play correctly, without hiccups, stutters and sync problems.
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post #21 of 415
5/11/09 at 2:15pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by toolman2k10 View Post

to be honest, i agree with you. compatibilty is key and most important. the egreat or any other nmt player is way ahead of the WD in that area. So yes, that might be the push for me to order a m34a as well. I was just wondering why it is so slow, why they dont put in a faster chip. I think i read somewhere this is the case with more expensive NMT, the money has to go somewhere they do have fast menus and interaction. but as far as compatibility goes, they're all quite the same i think.

weird thing is, i dont see the slow menus on the videos (like the czech one i posted). also starting a movie is not that slow. sure it says buffering, but thats fine...if you count the buffering into the total of starting a movie then yes it could be 5 sec. but youre right, whats 5 secs really ? its nothing and worth it if you know it will play correctly, without hiccups, stutters and sync problems.

thanks for the reply and for the same opinion i fully agree.. my M34A should arrive tomorrow or on Wednesday. I will test plenty of material, which Ill document, so ill keep in touch
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post #22 of 415
5/11/09 at 2:36pm
Hey everybody, I finally got my new Egreat M34B player. I did not have the chance to test it out yet. I am curious if anybody know if there is any different between M34A and M34B player? I notice it said M34B on my box but the player look same to M34A. Anyway I will test it out tonight then I will post a review on the player. I did take a closer look on the box and saw EG-M34A on the top but the bottom said EG-M34B. I don't know it might be a misprint.
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post #23 of 415
5/11/09 at 2:45pm
Yes, please share us your test results
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post #24 of 415
5/11/09 at 3:27pm
I finally got the chance to test the player out for a bit. Right now I am watching 1080P video and it is running smooth. You can rewind the video only with seek function which work great. Most impressive feature I tested so far is the subtitle. For example, you can move subtitle in any position, change any color, change size and sync the subtitle to any time want you want (Amazing feature for subtitle that is out of sync). Right now I think yellow font with black outline look the best. The subtitle look more larger than WDTV but WDTV subtitle look more pretty. So far this player is way better than I expected. Also I just tested few MKV video that won't play on WDTV but they all did play on the M34A player without any stutter. I will leave you with more update on the player later.
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post #25 of 415
5/11/09 at 3:38pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonecrusher52 View Post

I finally got the chance to test the player out for a bit. Right now I am watching 1080P video and it is running smooth. You can rewind the video only with seek function which work great. Most impressive feature I tested so far is the subtitle. For example, you can move subtitle in any position, change any color, change size and sync the subtitle to any time want you want (Amazing feature for subtitle that is out of sync). Right now I think yellow font with black outline look the best. The subtitle look more larger than WDTV but WDTV subtitle look more pretty. So far this player is way better than I expected. Also I just tested few MKV video that won't play on WDTV but they all did play on the M34A player without any stutter. I will leave you with more update on the player later.


thats great to hear, really..thanks...i am looking forward to getting mine..can you test some 1080p .mov trailer ? And also, did you update the firmware when you got it or not ? Some people told me i should when i get mine...and if so, how did you do it?
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post #26 of 415
5/11/09 at 4:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bonecrusher52 View Post

I finally got the chance to test the player out for a bit. Right now I am watching 1080P video and it is running smooth. You can rewind the video only with seek function which work great. Most impressive feature I tested so far is the subtitle. For example, you can move subtitle in any position, change any color, change size and sync the subtitle to any time want you want (Amazing feature for subtitle that is out of sync). Right now I think yellow font with black outline look the best. The subtitle look more larger than WDTV but WDTV subtitle look more pretty. So far this player is way better than I expected. Also I just tested few MKV video that won't play on WDTV but they all did play on the M34A player without any stutter. I will leave you with more update on the player later.

Good to hear the subtitle feature is far more mature than the WD at this moment. It is the Syabas software like popcorn hour has. Can you navigate fast through the menus? Can some one compare the xvid movies from egreat with WD? WD seem to be better with upscaling xvid.

This is what I read in a forum from egreat:

Topic: we have got DTS contract
Posted: 21 Apr 2009 at 11:12am

hi,Dear all,schedule of DTS is like this:

We have got the contract from DTS company already,then balance job is signback by us and DTS together,
and we need apply code from sigmadesign,then make new FW which will support dts downmix function.

for our estimate,time will be more one month~pls note!

any further information ,I will announce later.
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post #27 of 415
5/11/09 at 5:55pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack_6428 View Post

thats great to hear, really..thanks...i am looking forward to getting mine..can you test some 1080p .mov trailer ?

Sorry, I do not have any .mov file to test. But I'm sure the player will play the .mov file just fine.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack_6428 View Post

And also, did you update the firmware when you got it or not ? Some people told me i should when i get mine...and if so, how did you do it?

Yes, I did download the latest firmware and just browse to usbupdate.html on your USB Drive to update.
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post #28 of 415
5/11/09 at 6:17pm
Does anyone know how to place it in standby mode? Still haven't figured that out.
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post #29 of 415
5/11/09 at 6:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alcatel View Post

Good to hear the subtitle feature is far more mature than the WD at this moment. It is the Syabas software like popcorn hour has. Can you navigate fast through the menus? Can some one compare the xvid movies from egreat with WD? WD seem to be better with upscaling xvid.

Yes, browsing through menus is pretty quick enough for me. I don't think it is that slow. The picture and subtitle quality on WDTV is prettier than M34A player but not by that much. I would said WDTV player does render the picture and subtitle at 1% to 2% better (much more noticeable on xvid file compare to mkv files). However M34A run the video much more smoother than WDTV. In my option, M34A is much more sophisticated player than WDTV because M34A player have more option for zoom, subtitle, sound, and many other setting. I already decided to sell my WDTV to keep this brilliant player.
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post #30 of 415
5/11/09 at 6:40pm
does anyone know with this player, can you use the NMT apps like transmission bt client or NZBget? If so, I understand it would have to be on an external drive (a 16gb thumb drive formatted in NTFS for example) since it doesn't look like this little guy allows for an internal hard drive (it might be able to accept a small SSD, so correct me if I am wrong).

Thanks!
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