Howdy - new to forum and also Media Players\\Streamers in general. Only tried another player based upon RT1185 that just didn't fit our needs.
Hoping someone can help us with some very basic questions on this player's capabilities.
I'm a Professional Tennis Instructor and Martial Arts Instructor. Tired of lugging around set top dvd players to play video files and other content for our students.
The idea of a little box like the one we tried is much preferred. Here's what we need it to do. Please forgive me if the list gets longer than expected
First, what we don't need:
1. Don't care about BD (bluray?) period.
2. Don't care about wireless - we use all Ethernet
3. Library isn't important because I have no problem simply browsing to the content I need to play.
What we do need:
1. We have a lot of STANDARD DVDs ripped onto hdd BOTH on external USB hdds and in networked PCs. So it must play ripped dvds (we use DVD Decrypter). We rip dvds in two formats: DVD folder structure (VIDEO_TS\\VOB files) and also ISO. Nothing is copy protected. We need a device to play these with menu support. The other player we tried based on 1185 chip started to play this content but had problems later on during playback. It would revert to main title and\\or would not navigate via the chapter menus correctly. In other words, it would NEVER play the content\\movie all the way to the end. We were told that this is a flaw in the chip and that no firmware would fix so we returned it. We only tested on Single Layer DVD folder structure rips (none of them ever worked), and Dual Layer ISO rips. We didn't get to test single layer iso because if the dual layer iso's didn't work, it was no use to us.
2. We found out that frame by frame forward and reverse on these is not possible. This is tragic for us. But the one we tried had a nice slow motion (but only forward) controlled by buttons on the remote. We need this for instruction purposes. Perhaps we should be looking at a higher end player like Dune, but we are not even sure their capabilities are any better. If we could get a player that supports slow motion in both forward and reverse it would be a blessing to our work. I've heard of an "A-B" feature but don't have a clue what it is.
3. The ability to play basic audio-video files like mkv, mp4, avi, wmv (we know the limitations), flac, mp3, flv and with
subtitle support (for vid files) where possible.
4. For my own personal: Like to play photo slide show with music playing in background. Seems simple, but found out many players don't allow that.
5. Internet apps are not that important but it would be nice. More interested in ability to simply browse internet but again, not that important and I know a PC is much better for that.
6. The ability to be a STAND ALONE DVD PLAYER for NON Copy Protected Disks with menu support. The 1185 player did this perfectly. In fact that was the ONLY way it could play any DVD movie content given the glitches in playing ripped dvds. In case our ailing DVD player dies, it could be used with an external USB DVD player with full menu support. PCH claims most of their players will do this. The RT1185 player we used did it and Dune claims theirs will also.
7. The 1185 player we tried had a nice feature that allowed you to change screen size (16:9, 16:10 etc) via button on the remote. I haven't been able to confirm the buttons on this remote so i don't know what is available.
If all this is too much for this player, please let me know. Recommendations appreciated. (Dune? PCH? etc...??). We actually hated to give up the 1185 player we tested as it did so many things right. But it's inability to properly play ripped dvd content was a deal killer. We combined a lot of our video recordings into DVDs for our set top dvd players and we have TONs. I don't want to have to reconvert all those. I don't have a problem converting the DVDs that are still in original folder structure to ISO's if necessary, as long as it will play these iso's (dual and single layer) correctly.
Thanks for any help you can give on this!
