Budget media players

I am writhing this post to help out new and existing media player addicts. I have been reading numerous questions regarding this issue, and I believe it would be best to set a sticky post so people can come and read this post rather than having the same question over and over again.

I am writing this post with what I feel are the most popular media player in the USA. If I miss something, or I am wrong about something please let me know. As I've said before I am writing this to help people out and try to reduce the same questions.

Budget Media Player at or less than $150.00 dollars:
1) AIOS $89.99  (You can find this at www.amazon.com or www.newegg.com)
2) WDTV2 / Live $89.99  (You can find this as www.amazon.com or www.newegg.com)
3) Netgear NeoTV550 $84.99 (You may be able to find these at www.amazon.com or www.newegg.com.  It is a discontinued model)
4) Micca EP600 G2 $119.95  (You can find this at www.amazon.com)
5) Micca EP950 G2 $150.00  (You can find this at www.amazon.com)
6) Roku 2 XS $89.00  (Numerous location.  I recommend www.amazon.com)

7) Popbox V8 $130.00 (You can find this at http://www.diamondhomedesign.com/ or www.popbox.com.  I recommend Diamond Home Design)

8) Dune HD TV 101 $130.00  (You can find this at http://www.diamondhomedesign.com/, www.duneplayer.com or www.ebay.com.  Diamond HD or duneplayer are excellent to buy from)

1) AIOS http://www.amazon.com/Pivos-AIOS-Net...7812263&sr=1-1

Specs:

Supported Video Codecs

- H. 264 BP@L3, MP@L4.1, HP@4.1 (720P/1080i/1080P)
- MPEG 1
- HD MPEG-2 (up to 1080p)
- HD MPEG 4 SP/ ASP (up to 1080p)
- WMV9 VC-1 (up to 1080p)
- RM/ RMVB 8/ 9/ 10 (up to 720p)

Supported File Types

- AVI/ MKV/ TS/ TP/ TRP/ M2TS/ MPG/ MP4/ MOV/ M4V/ VOB/ ISO/ IFO/ DAT/ WMV/ ASF/ RM/ RMVB/ FLV/ XVID/ DIVX 3,4,5 for up to 1080p resolution.
- MP3/ OGG/ WMA/ WAV/ AAC/ FLAC
- HD JPEG/ BMP/ GIF/ TIF/ PNG

Supported Audio Codecs

- MP2/ 3, OGG Vorbis, WMA (DRM, and Advance Profile not supported), PCM LPCM, MS-ADPCM, LC-AAC, HE-AAC, COOK, RA-Lossless

Supported Audio Output

- Stereo
- Dolby Digital AC3 .1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)
- Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 (passthrough)
- Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)
- DTS Digital Surround 5.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)
- DTS-HD MA (passthrough & downmix to stereo)
- AAC 7.1 (passthrough & downmix to stereo)
- FLAC

Supported Connections

- 1 x Card Reader (MMC/ SDHC/ MS Pro)
- 3 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0 Data Port
- 1 x 3.5" SATA I/ II Hot Plug HDD Drive Bay
- 1 x HDMI 1.3 out
- 1 x Components Video Out
- 1 x Composite A/V Out
- 1 x S/PDIF Digital Audio Out
- 1 x Coaxial Digital Audio Out
- 1 x 100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
- 1 x DC-IN 12V Power

Supported Languges

- English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Italian, German, Russian, Thai, Hebrew, Arabic, Japanese, Simplified and Traditioanl Chinese

Supported Subtitle Types

- SRT, SMI, SSA, ASS, IDX/SUB, SUB

My Experience With This Player:

1) It is a very simple media player. The UI is very simple, and nothing out of this world.
2) It plays every M2TS, MKV and every SD ISO file I've got.
3) It supports HD audio.
4) It supports force subs,better than my Dune D1 does.
5) NFS shares are possible via a Linux code hack, which Aasoror can help you out doing.
6) It is possible to install a jukebox by using ThumbGen and TVix, but to me it was too time consuming, and I decided to not continue doing it.

The BAD:
1) The remote is not very responsive. A lot of people use a Harmony remote, which solves the issue.
2) It does not support BD java menu.

AIOS Thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1387436

2)Western Digital WD TV Live Streaming Media Player http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...7812922&sr=8-1

File Formats Supported
Video - AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9, FLV (h.264)
Photo - JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG
Audio - MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS
Playlist - PLS, M3U, WPL
Subtitle - SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

Note:
MPEG2 MP@HL up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
MPEG4.2 ASP@L5 up to 1280x720p30 resolution and no support for global motion compensation.
WMV9/VC-1 MP@HL up to 1280x720p60 or 1920x1080p24 resolution. VC-1 AP@L3 up to 1920x1080i30, 1920x1080p24 or 1280x720p60 resolution.
H.264 BP@L3 up to 720x480p30 or 720x576p25 resolution.
H.264 MP@L4.1 and HP@4.1 up to 1920x1080p24, 1920x1080i30, or 1280x720p60 resolution.
An audio receiver is required for multi-channel surround sound digital output.
Compressed RGB JPEG formats only and progressive JPEG up to 2048x2048.
Single layer TIFF files only.
Uncompressed BMP only.
For details, please refer to the user manual.
File Formats Not Supported
Does not support protected premium content such as movies or music from the iTunes Store, Movielink, Amazon Unbox, and Vongo
Languages Supported

User Interface:

English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese , Portuguese (Brazil), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Turkish, Hebrew, Arabic, Polish, Czech, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian,Hungarian

Subtitle:
English, Dutch, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Arabic, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Greek, Hebrew, Turkish, Czech, Slovakian, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Thai, Hindi (India), Malay/Bahasa (Indonesia), Central European language

Multilingual Input:
English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Dutch, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Hungarian

My Experience with WDTV2
1) It played all of my M2TS, MKV and SD ISO's files without any issues.
2) It supports internet apps such as Netflix, Hulu, VUDU, Pandora etc.
3) The UI is pretty nice. Nicer than the AIOS.
4) Remote is responsive, but needs clear line of sight.
5) Jukebox is possible via ThumgGen, which is my opinion is pretty slow if you have a large movie collection like I do.

Per LVS

The BAD:
1) No HD AUDIO.

I bought this player for my parents, and they did not care about HD audio, but they wanted an all in one box, and the WDTV2 was perfect for them. They love Pandora.

WDTV Live Thread
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1364999


3) Netgear NEOTV550 http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-NTV550...7813384&sr=8-1

Media Sources

USB Storage devices
eSATA storage devices
SD memory card
CIFS/Samba, NFS
UPnP AV and DLNA Servers
Windows Media Player 11 Media Sharing
Video and Audio Output

HDMI 1.3a, 36bpp deep color, 12 bit xvYCC processing and HDCP 1.2 compliant
Component video
Composite video
Stereo analog audio
S/PDIF optical digital audio
Digital Media File Formats

Video:
Codec format:

H.264 HP@L4.1 up to 1080p
VC1 MP@HL, AP@L3
WMV 9
MPEG-2 MP@HL up to 1080p
MPEG-4 Part 2 ASP@L5 to 10 Mbps (Xvid)
MPEG1/2/4 SD
H.263

Container format:
AVI, Xvid, MOV, MP4, MPEG2 PS, MPEG2-TS, DVD ISO/VOB/IFO, MKV, ASF, AVCHD, DivX, WMV, M4A, M2TS, MTS, MP1, MP2, MPG, DVR-MS, BDMV
Blu-ray (external USB Blu-ray player not supported)

Audio:
Dolby® Digital (AC3), Dolby® Digital Plus, Dolby® TrueHD
DTS 2.0+, DTS HD and DTS HD MA (passthru)
MP3 up to 320 Kbps or variable bit rate (VBR)
Gapless playback MP3, FLAC, M4A, M2TS
WMA8 and WMA9 up to 192 Kbps or variable bit rate (VBR)
WMAPro, AAC, FLAC (to 5.1, 192Khz), PCM LPCM/WAV (to 5.1, 192Khz)

Internet radio (streaming MP3)
MKA

Photo
JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF

Subtitle:
SRT, SMI, SSA, SUB, TXT, DVD, PGS, VOBSUB, SUB/IDX

What I know about his media player:
I do not have any experience with this player, but I've heard a lot of good things about it, and I've heard bad things about it as well. I was considering buying this player just for the fact that it support SD and BD full menu.

It should be noted Netgear has discontinued this player. It is not longer supported. However, the price alone makes it a good buy. I am still thinking about buying one.

No jukebox support though.

Netgear NeoTV550 Thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1270549


4) Micca EP600 G2 http://www.amazon.com/Micca-EP600-G2...7813685&sr=8-1

and

5) Micca EP950 G2http://content.miccastore.com/node/233

What I know about these media players:
I do not have any experience with either of these players. They are both the same. The only difference is that the EP950 has room for a hard drive.

I've heard and read many good things about this player. However, I've heard and read bad things about it.

You can read someone else's review of the EP600 G2 here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1411212

You can read the EP950 thread here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1380932


6) Roku 2 XS

Networking
802.11n Wi-Fi (b/g/n compatible) with WEP, WPA and WPA2 support
10/100 Base-T Ethernet
Bluetooth version 3.0 (currently enabled for use with Roku game remote only)

Video Outputs
480i (over composite video)
480p (over HDMI)
720p (over HDMI)
1080p (over HDMI)

Video Modes
1080p High Definition (HD)
720p High Definition (HD)
16:9 anamorphic / 4:3 standard

Audio Output
Analog stereo (mini-jack to left/right/composite video RCA)
Digital over HDMI (5.1 surround sound pass-through)

Storage Expansion
microSD card slot for additional game and channel storage

Remote Control
Roku Bluetooth game remote (with motion sensing for playing games)
Streaming player includes IR. Compatible with various universal remotes

Power Consumption
Less than 2W (typical) when streaming HD video

Power Input
5.2V – 1.5A power adapter

USB Media Formats
Video: MP4 (H.264) MKV (H.264)
Audio: AAC, MP3
Image: JPG, PNG
Size
3.3 x 3.3 x 0.9 inches
Weight
3 ounces


What I know about this player:
1) It is an excellent online media streamer with a large online channel selections.
2) It has wireless and ethernet port connection.
3) The UI is pretty simple and easy to use. I've seen them in used at my friend's house, and I wouldn't mind owning one of these.
4) You can use Plex to stream you media content!

My Experience using Plex:
GOOD
1) It is pretty simple to set up and run.
2) The UI is nice, and it was 100% correct when it scrapped all of my media content.
3) It will transcode your media if your device does not support the format. So, if you own a Roku box, I would suggest trying out Plex to stream your stored/ripped media. You might end up liking it!

BAD
1) It was pretty slow are scrapping all of my media. However, I've got a large media collection. Furthermore, it was faster than ThumgGen, and it was 100% correct with all of my media. However, it was much faster after completing the initial scan.
2) You will have to pay $5.00 dollars for that Android Plex app. I am not sure if you have to pay for Apple devices.
3) I was unable to test the streaming capabilities to an IPad, IPhone, Droid phone and my TV. I tried installing the Linux Plex server in my unraid server, and i was unsuccessful. I stopped testing thereafter. If I have time, I will try to run Plex in my W7 PC, and try streaming BD and SD movies to my android phone.

Roku Thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1348657

 

7) PopBox v8 at $130.

 

Per: Brajesh

Plusses: HD audio, plays almost anything like its pricier sibling PCH A-300, supports YAMJ/Eversion jukebox, and some (non-premium) Internet apps.

Minusses: Won't play 1080p/60 and 1080p/30 camcorder/iPhone4S videos, and limited native jukebox.

 

This review was done by Damian / dbone1026.

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2011/10/05/review-popbox-v8/

 

8) Dune TV HD 101 at $130.00

I do not have any experience with this media player.  However, you can find this player on ebay for approximately $100.00 dollars, but Dune will not cover warranty on these products if you buy if from ebay sellers.

 

 

Key Features

• The newest Sigma Designs 8670 media processor: enjoy excellent playback and performance of interactive features. This unit DOES NOT support Blu-Ray ISO or Blu-Ray Menus.  It will support Lite BD Menus according to Dune HD TV 101 owners/users.
• HDD player: connect an HDD to the player and play content directly from the HDD.
• Network player: connect the player to a local network and play content directly from PC or NAS (UPnP, SMB, NFS).
• MKV player: play HD and SD video in a popular MKV format and other modern video file formats, including top quality HD video with very high bitrate.
• USB port: conveniently connect HDDs, USB flash drives, USB card readers and other USB storage devices.
• HDMI 1.3: ensure the best possible quality of HD video and audio.
• Video output flexibility: output video in any resolution and format (from SD to 1080p, 24p/PAL/NTSC).
• Upscaling: high quality upscaling of DVD and any other SD video content to Full HD (1080p) or other HD resolution.
• File browser: convenient file browser with powerful file management (copy, move, delete, rename, organize, sort).

Extra Functions

• High-quality music playback: play very high-quality (up to 192 Khz / 24-bit) music files in various formats (FLAC, Monkey’s Audio APE, WAV/PCM, etc).
• Playlists: build playlists from your folders, use your own playlists, use repeat and shuffle functions.
• NAS function: access files on storage devices (HDD, optical drive, etc) attached to the player from the local network (using SMB or FTP).
• **********: use built-in ********** client to download files from P2P networks.
• Customizable user interface: work with media collections using cover art and icon browsing (with Full HD graphics).
• Internet radio: playback and record various Internet radio stations (HTTP/MP3 and other formats).
• IPTV: playback and record IPTV streams (multicast UDP/RTP) from your Internet provider (check availability of multicast UDP/RTP streams with your Internet provider).
• Digital TV option: playback and record Digital TV channels using an optional Digital TV USB dongle (Digital TV USB dongle is not included; this option can be purchased separately).

Specification

• Processor: Sigma Designs 8670/8671
• RAM: 256 MB
• Flash memory: 128 MB, expandable with a HDD partition, USB flash drive (2GB recommended)
• Media sources: external HDD (USB), external optical drive (USB), USB devices (USB flash drive, USB card reader, etc), PC and NAS in local network (SMB, NFS, UPnP, HTTP), other Internet and local network media sources (HTTP, multicast UDP/RTP), premium streaming video services are fully supported
• Web Browser: NetFront (ACCESS) or WebKit
• Widgets support: when using NetFront browser
• HbbTV and iPlayer support: when using NetFront browser
• DLNA: Full DLNA (1.5 or 2.0) standard support
• Adobe Flash: 3.1 (Lite, standalone)
• DRM options: Microsoft DRM10 and PlayReady, Verimatrix, Secure Media, Flash Access (Support coming soon). Additional DRM’s available by request
• Video codecs: MPEG2, MPEG4, XVID, WMV9, VC1, H.264; support for very high bitrate video (up to 50 MBit/s and higher)
• Video file formats: MKV, MPEG-TS, MPEG-PS, M2TS, VOB, AVI, MOV, MP4, QT, ASF, WMV, DVD-ISO, VIDEO_TS
• Video output modes: wide range of supported output resolutions (up to 1080p) and framerates (including 23.976p, 24p, PAL, NTSC)
• Video output framerate: automatic (according to the played content) and manual
• Audio codecs: AC3 (Dolby Digital), MPEG, AAC, LPCM, WMA, WMAPro, FLAC, multichannel FLAC, Ogg/Vorbis; support for very high quality audio (up to 192 kHz / 24- bit)
• Audio file formats: MP3, MPA, M4A, WMA, FLAC, APE (Monkey’s Audio), Ogg/Vorbis, WAV, AC3, AAC
• Subtitle formats: SRT (external), SUB (MicroDVD) (external), text (MKV), SSA/ASS (MKV, external), VobSub (MP4, MKV, external SUB/IDX), PGS (TS, MKV)
• Picture file formats: JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF
• Playlist file formats: M3U, PLS
• Photo viewer functions: slideshow, transition effects, picture rotation, zoom, browse playlist, repeat, shuffle
• Audio playback functions: browse playlist, repeat, shuffle, ID3 tags, plasma TV burn-in prevention
• Filesystems: FAT16/FAT32 (read-write), EXT2/EXT3 (read-write), NTFS (read-write)
• Ethernet: 10/100 Mbit/s
• WiFi: (optional) may be included inside (802.11n) with external antenna or added via USB dongle (not included, Dune HD Air recommended)
• Dune Network Playback Accelerator: special optimizations ensuring best-in-class network playback performance for the Sigma Designs 864x/865x/867x platform and enabling smooth playback of any supported kind of media content via any network protocol (including NFS and SMB) even in 100 Mbit/s Ethernet networks.

Edited by GusGus748s - 7/15/12 at 4:38pm

No problem. I will be adding a couple of more media players, but right now that was what I could remember.

Done!

Bump!

Thanks. I added the link for the Popbox V8 done by Damian.

bump

I'm sorry for not replaying on time about these question. I'll go over to the other thread and try to answer those question as best as I can.

1. On the Plus unit, unless you're using the MUSIC mode to listen to music or the VIDEO mode to watch
video clips, even if they are music clips, you miss out on many features.
This always irritated me and I always wished for a simple mode, kinda like the file management or like
on a regular computer. You find the file/directory you want to play and just play it and if there IS video, it
shows up and if not, you just get the sound.
Also, if I play through the music option, I can back out of the song into the list while it continues to play,
I can't do that if I do the video mode.
Is this doable on the Streaming unit?

I don't know how music works with this player. The only thing I've tested on it were video files.

2. I have lots of files and I tend to organize them well with lots of sub directories and folders.
This means that often, it can take quite some time to dig down to where I want to be, ESPECIALLY
if I'm watching a video file but want to go into music mode and into the music folder.
Is there an option to have certain folders and/or MODES set up as shortcuts or something?

I did the testing via USB external hard drive and network connection. I didn't try to create a favorite shortcut since the unit was going to be for my parents. However, it did played everything just fine via USB and network

3. How about bookmarking a spot where you left off and I dont' mean IN the file itself, but the location?
I didn't test this with the WDTV2 so I am not sure if it is possible.

4. Is the streaming unit as stable and bulletproof as the plus unit?
I've never tested the plus unit so I am not sure

5. Can you go to the MENU/HOME and make changes and then go right back to where you were
rather than having to go through the whole process of finding the file you were playing?
No. I had to go back and locate the movie I was watching, and thereafter it continued to played the movie were it left off. It actually gave me the option to start over or continue playing. This was with the older FW, I am not sure if this has changed with the current FW.

6. When you pause or fast forward or anything, you see the progress bar at the bottom which covers
a big part of the screen. Is there a way to get it to go away faster than the 5 seconds (or whatever)
it takes now before it disappears?
I am not sure if this is possible.

7. Any way to go back just a few seconds with one click like you can do on a dish DVR?
I didn't test this either. I can probably try it out when I go to my parents house later.

8. Why is it so flaky REWINDING compared to FAST FORWARDING?
I don't know

9. If the WD doesn't do all this, is there another player that does that offers the same simple UI,
reads same amount of file types and is as bulletproof as the WD and yes, I do think it is a very well
made unit and I've had very few problems with it.
I don't know. Every player is different, and they come with different options / features. Other player I'd recommend would be Dune, PCH, and the Mede8er. The AIOS is a nice media player, but it requires a little more work to set it up.

I don't know why, but I got lucky and bought a PCH-A210 for $120 , and I am loving it.

I though it only played DVD ISO's, but it is also another option.

I've added the Dune HD TV 101, which cost $129.99 to my list. I've stated that people can buy this player from ebay at $100.00, but Dune will not warrant the warranty. I copy and pasted the Specs from Duneplayer.com, and I couldn't figure out how to make the background white. So, I left it blue.

Also, I wanted to ask any of the moderator if they would make this a sticky if possible. Thank you.

Bump