Spreadsheet comparing all media players - Page 2

I can't, as I'm the one who put the '?' there in the first place.

But from what I can tell, the Buffalo Linktheater can utilize the wizd server, so by using a third-party server, you can get chapter navigation. That is, no DVD menus, but you can use the remote to jump forwards and backwards a chapter at a time.

So perhaps with the Buffalo-supplied server you can't get chapter navigation, but you can with a third-party server.

In the USB row in the spreadsheet, "Slave" means "Device" in USB parlance, and "Master" means the same thing as "Host".

The MG-35 is listed as "Slave" in the USB row. That means it appears as a storage device to a master, but it cannot act as a master and see other devices as storage devices. So it won't see any drives you plug into the USB connector.

Ah, I made the mistake of thinking the Momitsu V880N used the Sigma Designs EM8620L and just gave it the same capabilities as every other player based on that media processor.

I checked and it's based on the EM8550, so you're right, it can't do WMV or any kind of HD. My spreadsheet doesn't actually say anything about transport streams, the MPEG formats were program streams.

Thanks for pointing this out. I'll post a completed spreadsheet with corrections shortly.

MediaGate MG-350 should have similar capabilities when released also:

http://www.mediagate.co.kr/english/prod_mg350.htm

I too have been searching for a cheap, quiet, low-power, cool-running media server for serving up content to various standalone clients. I've decided that the best configuration for me is MAID, massive array of inactive disks.

Originally I was hoping to do this with a Kuro-Box, which is sort of an open-source Buffalo LinkStation. The one I have is equipped with a 266MHz PowerPC, 128MB of RAM, and Gigabit Ethernet. It runs an embedded Linux (Montavista) and I installed a 400GB IDE drive inside the enclosure. It's slightly larger than a paperback book and consumes around 12 watts of electricity at idle. Storage expansion is through a couple of USB 2.0 ports.

The problem I ran into was when trying to expand my storage. The USB-SATA bridges I was using don't support passing of power management commands (I don't believe any do). Even worse, the USB-SATA bridge was preventing the SATA drives from spinning down on their own. So in order to achieve my goal of a low-power system, I am going to have to go with an x86-based Linux system, using an 8-port SATA controller for expansion. I've already confirmed that Suse 9.3 supports power management of SATA drives; I can spin them down and set the stand-by time, and it all works.

My plan now is to go with an ultra low-power VIA mini-ITX board with VIA C3 processor, and run Suse 9.3 Linux. I really wanted to avoid building a system, but I don't see any other solution to the hard drive power management problem. I already considered, and then rejected an underclocked mobile Athlon-based micro-ATX solution. Right now I'm leaning towards an Antec Aria case. I'm hoping this will hold me over until my storage requirements exceed 6TB.

Not for a while I hope. I'd say my data is growing about 100GB/month currently. It's mostly HD, split between OTA and movies, at about 5GB per hour. I'm also archiving a lot of Sci-Fi and Formula One auto races in standard def.