Spreadsheet comparing all media players - Page 5

jhue;
Thanks for sharing your spreadsheet. It is an excellent overview. I hope you keep updating it.
____
Axel

Here is another very thankful reader. Given that there are fanboys of all of these, this gives a chance for everyone to poke holes in the analysis, leading to a (hopefully) complete and unbiased assessment of the state of affairs.

I for one have been very confused with the variety of solutions and have already used this group's work as a method of getting it down to two solutions.


Bill

The spreadsheet/pdf is such a great resource I'd hate to see it fall off the end of the board.

Any updates since May 06?

Thanks for the good work!

I've created a google spreadsheet from this and made it public. I can't link it because this is my first post, but if you get in touch with me I can send you the link.
I don't know if it's editable there, but I thought it might be easier for people who wanted it posted as html.

I'd love to see added to this spreadsheet what software each of these players runs. For example, I know many of them run the software from Syabas, obviously some run custom (XBMC), etc. It's frustrating to buy a unit hoping for "something new" and discover it runs the same software as another unit with the same bugs...

helios x3000 & x5000 http://www.neodigits.com/

not news

He didn't say it was "news", he said "another" - thus he is referring to the incompleteness of the consolidated spreadsheet.


Bill

Thanks for the good work?
I guess you need to update the spreadsheet again.
I am using Eureka LX350HD and you don't have ZIO products.

I was curious about the Helios5000 myself.
Anyone have any news on this?

It seems at the moment that the better units would be
TVIX M-5000
PixelMagic MB 100/200
Helios 5000 (from what I have read on their website)

....well, right after I posted this I found a large thread on the Helios....can't imagine why it is not on the list.

Gonna be a tough decision.

I have just bought the D-Link DSM-520. It was easy to set up and the interface is simple. I am using the D-Link server software so far... It doesn't play a whole DVD. It will play VOB1... then stop... then you play VOB2 etc. Does anyone know a way to play all of them? Does it depend on the server software? I would hate to return it since it works great otherwise.

Also, I looked for the Mediagate, PixelMagic and TVIX players and can't seem to find one. Any ideas where to get one?

Hello, instead of choosing the .vob, choose the .ts, it will play the entire DVD.

Michel

What do you mean choose the .ts file? All I have is .vob s. Is it in the way it gets decrypted?

He probably meant the VIDEO_TS.IFO file.
_____
Axel

Sorry for all the questions but, I don't see the ifo file in the DLink server software nor on the DLink media player... any help? Should I use other server software? I can't seem to get WMP 11 to see my vob files.

jhue, an impressive and very helpful spreadsheet, many thanks.

You may like consider adding the Netgear Digitial Entertainer EVA700.
http://www.netgear.com/Products/Ente...Specifications

Have you decided on which one to buy yet?

Bf2k

I would like to get a media extender that plays the ReplayTV 5500 mpg files without any conversion. Do any of the ones on the spreadsheet do that?

I know Replay uses mpeg2 but it is an SVCD codec of some sort. Is Mpeg-2 MP@ML or Mpeg-2 MP@HL what Replay uses?

My plan is to get the Dlink DSM-520 and the HP Media Vault MV2010 to store and serve up the shows.


Kevin

I wanted to clarify some things about my question.

I want to use DVarchive to extract the shows from the ReplayTV and store just the .mpg on the HP Media Vault. I don't believe anything uses the .evt and .ndx except for the Replay.

I have read that the ReplayTV hardware uses the IIRC codec and writes mpeg2 files that have extra info in the header. Some Windows apps don't care and some do. I guess I could use womble or something like that to make the mpeg2 file compliant. However, I am hoping that one of the media players (Dlink 320 or Netgear Eva700, etc.) can just play them even though it is an odd codec and has extra header info in the file.

Does anyone know how the current media players handle ReplayTV files?

Ah, MythTV! Wondered when that would be a factor in choosing a media client.

You may want to add the:
Galaxy 3500 IPTV which can interface with mythtv's upnp interface out of the box! The audio upnp server on mythtv in broken and only fixed in the SVN version so those of us who just down load the mythtv binaries will have to wait a bit.

Happauge's (spelling?) MediaMVP is another low cost alternative. I don't know if the OEM software will work with MythTV. But the open source version will! Get the open source binaries and all the info you can handle at:
www.mvpmc.org
...actually, you might list the MediaMVP with it's own software and the MediaMVP running MVPMC as two entries. That's because the MVPMC.ORG code running on the MediaMVP will support:

MythTV (native, not the UPNP interface)
ReplayTV - yes, the SonicBlue PVR.
(For that matter, probably DVArchive as well (software version of ReplayTV))
Slimserver (see www.slimdevices.com)
NFS exports
...and more.

Note, I don't think MediaMVP has the necessary bandwidth to handle HD and doesn't have HD type output. Where as, the Galaxy can handle HD and probably can produce HD video output.

I think the real problem is that the ReplayTV units use the time of day to encode some of their communication. With out this, I don't think you can talk to the ReplayTV unit. If you want remote access to ReplayTV files I can only think of 3 alternatives. There is a commercial ReplayTV for your computer you can buy. I imagen that will work. You can install JAVA and download DVArchive (for free I believe) and run that on your computer. It will look like another ReplayTV box and you can either play from your box at your computer or the other way around if you like. Or, you can buy a MediaMVP box (<$300, probably) and get the software and know how at www.mvpmc.org to run the mvpmc application. This will get you a ReplayTV client in a box about the size of a paper back book. However, it does require a server to boot off of (no local disk!). So, each time you power cycle the MediaMVP box, you will need a computer on somewhere on your network to supply the necessary mvpmc software.

The MVPMC application will also support:
MythTV (mythtv.org)
SlimServer (slimserver.com)
and NFS exports

The spreadsheet shows the Buffalo Linktheater cannot play ISO files.

Could you change this as you can play ISO files on the Buffalo Linktheater with 3rd party server.

Thanks

Don't be upset, but isn't that pushing it? That is, you can just as easily say you can play any type of media on the MediaMVP (I bought my last one at RadioShack for $40 on clearance - i.e. the cheapest media client I can think of) if you set up the server to transcode anything that wasn't an mpeg2 video. And in the case of an ISO, loop mount it then transcode it if necessary.

If you or anyone else is looking for this kind of support, look at Video Lan Client. The server portion of this open source package should be able to transcode and stream to just about any format:
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/streaming.html

I don't understand your comment? I am not upset, I was just pointing out that the LInktheater can play ISO's, so the spreadsheet can be updated. I don't see what at all that has to do with your comment. It is not pushing it if that is what you mean, it simply works. Please no further comments are necessary. But one thing you possibly could help me with is the settings to use VideoLan with the Linktheater? Could you provide me with those?

I thought the chart only listed what the media clients them selves could manage.

If we open the possibilities by allowing the server's features to be included, then we could just as well say most if not all media clients on the chart can play just about anything.

Oh, I see, a linktheater is more like a DVD player than a media client. So you are saying you can place an ISO file on a DVD, stick the DVD into the linktheater and the linktheatore will figure it out. That is loop mount it and play what it finds?

I do not have a Buffalo Linktheater and I usually run a MythTV back end to serve up my media. So I do not know what settings are necessary on VLC to get the Linktheater running. Try google'ing for "linktheater" and "VLC". However, it would probably be best to read up on VLC at www.videolan.org/vlc and down load and install it.

Well, ok - but it should be noted that ISO play back is not native to the player it's self. Also, it should be noted what platform the additional software will run on. In the case of wizd this isn't much of a problem because I think it has been ported to several platforms.

Unrelated, but to make my point, recently I bought (and paid a premium) for a dlink ip camera that claimed it could take pictures if any movement was detected. I should have saved my money and bought an off brand which appears to have the same camera hardware right down to the web pages it serves up. Why? Because the advertised motion feature assumed you would install and use dlink's windows based software. The only computer I have running anywhere near 24/7 is a Linux based system.

I am trying to download the pdf and I am getting an error... unable to locate file and unable to download.. can someone check to see if it is still up and if not can someone please post it.

Thanks
R~

Try right clicking ther link and Save As. I ran into the same error. Once I saved the file on my computer I had no problems opening it.

Nate

Nate..

Didn't even think to do that.. worked like a charm thank you..