[spongebob]

Don't shoot me! I hate "Best One" threads too but I'm dizzy from reading WD, xtreamer. ryan, dune, popcorn, etc etc. threads!


What current or soon (pC 200?) player has the most features, has the latest chipset, plays the most files, etc?


I don't want to say price is no issue but I'd rather sped $300 or so instead of $99, or $170 and be happy and have future proofness built in, at least for now. I don't really need a BD drive built in unless it will rip my BD collection for me directly to a built in HD!


thx


bob


(ducking for cover

 

[sadsac]

Ah, if only life were that simple.


There is an answer to your question though. The answer is: none.


I have a markus-800 in the bedroom which I like a lot but it has limitations. In the living room I have a htpc. I'm also going through these threads hoping to discover that some device has cracked this chestnut, but it doesn't seem that any have. Since I'm not getting any younger I will stick with a htpc until some device is comparable to a htpc.

 

[dbone1026]

Haha, ask 1,000 people and I am sure each one will have a different answer. The problem is best (what features are needed) are different for everyone. I have the PCH A110, SageTV HD200, AppleTV, PS3, and Xbox360, but was unhappy in some way with each, so now I primarily use 2 HTPCs. There is a lot of promise now that the Ion Platform has come out, and it is very tempting to try out something like the AsRock for under $400 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=ASRock%20Ion ).

 

[spongebob]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sadsac /forum/post/16932236


Ah, if only life were that simple.


There is an answer to your question though. The answer is: none.


I have a markus-800 in the bedroom which I like a lot but it has limitations. In the living room I have a htpc. I'm also going through these threads hoping to discover that some device has cracked this chestnut, but it doesn't seem that any have. Since I'm not getting any younger I will stick with a htpc until some device is comparable to a htpc.

That's what I thought, but I do welcome any suggestions. Wasn't there an expensive unit that ripped and networked all in one with thumbnails and menus to boot? $$$$$



bob

 

[spongebob]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sadsac /forum/post/16932236


Ah, if only life were that simple.


There is an answer to your question though. The answer is: none.


I have a markus-800 in the bedroom which I like a lot but it has limitations. In the living room I have a htpc. I'm also going through these threads hoping to discover that some device has cracked this chestnut, but it doesn't seem that any have. Since I'm not getting any younger I will stick with a htpc until some device is comparable to a htpc.

The Markus looks interesting. Couldn't find much info here? can you tell more or pm me good&bad?


thx


bob

 

[candre23]



Quote:
Originally Posted by spongebob /forum/post/16932288


Wasn't there an expensive unit that ripped and networked all in one with thumbnails and menus to boot? $$$$$

You're probably thinking of the Kaleidescape . Compared to the latest batch of streamers, it isn't even all that impressive any more. It's certainly not worth the more-than-$10k they charge for it.

 

[spongebob]



Quote:
Originally Posted by candre23 /forum/post/16932508


You're probably thinking of the Kaleidescape . Compared to the latest batch of streamers, it isn't even all that impressive any more. It's certainly not worth the more-than-$10k they charge for it.

more-than-$10k

 

[Raistlin_HT]

From what I've seen, the PH C-200 looks to be the most promising.


Most features and most powerful chipset.

 

[Phantom Gremlin]

This topic has been rehashed 1000 times before, but it's still relevant.


I want a media player that just f***ing works!!!


I want it to not crash and hang up and require power cycling. I want it to play many kinds of media. I want it to be easy to use; not everyone in my household is a techno-nerd.


I'm willing to pay up to $1000 for a good player. The problem is that too many people want a player for $100 and so there's a "race to the bottom" to see how cheaply these things can be made.


Too bad that Apple considers this field a "hobby". If they wanted to, they could produce a "killer" product.

 

[whiteboy714]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantom Gremlin /forum/post/16932925


This topic has been rehashed 1000 times before, but it's still relevant.


I want a media player that just f***ing works!!!


I want it to not crash and hang up and require power cycling. I want it to play many kinds of media. I want it to be easy to use; not everyone in my household is a techno-nerd.


I'm willing to pay up to $1000 for a good player. The problem is that too many people want a player for $100 and so there's a "race to the bottom" to see how cheaply these things can be made.


Too bad that Apple considers this field a "hobby". If they wanted to, they could produce a "killer" product.

If your willing to spend that much why not just build a sweet HTPC. I no its not as simple as a media player. But once its setup its just a couple extra clicks to get to a screen where all you gotta do is select a movie.

 

[Raistlin_HT]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantom Gremlin /forum/post/16932925


Too bad that Apple considers this field a "hobby". If they wanted to, they could produce a "killer" product.

Apple has always been high on UI, low on features ... and that includes codec support. Even if they took AppleTV as serious as the iPOD, it would be like all things Apple ... on their terms. It would never have wide media support, etc.

Quote:
Originally Posted by whiteboy714 /forum/post/16932959


If your willing to spend that much why not just build a sweet HTPC. I no its not as simple as a media player. But once its setup its just a couple extra clicks to get to a screen where all you gotta do is select a movie.

Yeah, but unfortunately, HTPC's seem to have a habit of not 'just f***ing working' for very long

 

[candre23]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlin_HT /forum/post/16932915


From what I've seen, the PH C-200 looks to be the most promising.

Promising yes, but I wouldn't dare call it the best thing going until it's actually out getting independent reviews from actual users.

 

[Qooop]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Raistlin_HT /forum/post/16933152


Apple has always been high on UI, low on features ... and that includes codec support. Even if they took AppleTV as serious as the iPOD, it would be like all things Apple ... on their terms. It would never have wide media support, etc.





Yeah, but unfortunately, HTPC's seem to have a habit of not 'just f***ing working' for very long

They have a problem working for long periods because people tend to mess with them. I have an HTPC running for 6 mos (was using Xbox w XBMC prior to that since '04) and I set it up as minimal as possible. Uninstalled all non essential programs and I do not use it for anything other than watching streaming video/music. However, as soon as I was comfortable with its set up I cloned the c: drive to a d: partition and used d: to run games and anything else. So I dual boot to the default c: drive (kept pristine and "unfooled around with") which pops right into XBMC for Windows at start up. I was using a Universal Remote MX-850 to control but now I am using an iPod touch (best HTPC remote IMHO) with a dedicated XBMC app along w Zemote (another iPod Touch app), for running the HTPC when not in XBMC , which is seldom.


It works quite well and looks great and is has been rock stable.

 

[mvallevand]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 /forum/post/16932285


Haha, ask 1,000 people and I am sure each one will have a different answer. The problem is best (what features are needed) are different for everyone. I have the PCH A110, SageTV HD200, AppleTV, PS3, and Xbox360, but was unhappy in some way with each, so now I primarily use 2 HTPCs. There is a lot of promise now that the Ion Platform has come out, and it is very tempting to try out something like the AsRock for under $400 ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...k=ASRock%20Ion ).

I have the ASrock 330 (DVD not BR) and in general it performs best with XBMC on linux except it is far from being a silent box. It seems to be about equal to my PCH A110.


However for BluRay and the most online content like it or not Windows is the better solution. In Win 7 RC it performs reasonably well, but it is not a cheap solution when a remote, BluRay software is added with OEM Win 7, I figure about $600. With the ION 2 announced already I'd skip it, I do notice the performance on Win 7 is not as good as with linux. Although I have to wait for the reviews a PCH C-200 with BluRay will cost about $375 and seems like a bargain in comparison.


Unrelated, Win 7 isn't the HTPC saviour I thought it would be either, WMC is much improved but it's AC3 decoder isn't even available to non-MS apps. So you still have to install codecs, splitters etc and I still need mpc hc from time to time.


Martin

 

[dbone1026]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mvallevand /forum/post/16933709


I have the ASrock 330 (DVD not BR) and in general it performs best with XBMC on linux except it is far from being a silent box. It seems to be about equal to my PCH A110.


However for BluRay and the most online content like it or not Windows is the better solution. In Win 7 RC it performs reasonably well, but it is not a cheap solution when a remote, BluRay software is added with OEM Win 7, I figure about $600. With the ION 2 announced already I'd skip it, I do notice the performance on Win 7 is not as good as with linux. Although I have to wait for the reviews a PCH C-200 with BluRay will cost about $375 and seems like a bargain in comparison.


Unrelated, Win 7 isn't the HTPC saviour I thought it would be either, WMC is much improved but it's AC3 decoder isn't even available to non-MS apps. So you still have to install codecs, splitters etc and I still need mpc hc from time to time.


Martin

Is it the stock fans that are loud on the ASRock? I think I figured around $500-$600 as well once you factor in W7 and an IR Receiver/Remote, which honestly isn't much cheaper then what I spent building my HTPCs which are a lot more robust. For W7 I am using Sharks Codec pack which has performed well without the bloat. Only issue I encountered so far is that W7 does not like playing ts/m2ts files with VC-1 (get audio, no video). For these I throw into mkv instead and they play fine. Wish we could have gotten away from codec packs for W7 but oh well...


I definitely have my eyes peeled for reviews on the C-200.


Martin, I think you mentioned you have the EGreat EG-M34A, are you happy with it? The A-110 NIC is dead on mine, so kinda renders it useless. It was being used for my son's playroom to stream movies from my Server. I would want to get an NMT that has an internal HDD (for traveling, family trips, etc...) which rules out the EG-M34A, but I know Egreat has other products that support an internal HDD. From pictures the C-200 is probably going to be too big to consider traveling with.

 

[mvallevand]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 /forum/post/16934002


Is it the stock fans that are loud on the ASRock?

I only am using the stock fans and it sounds like a quiet but no silent PC. It's advantage is size http://forums.gbpvr.com/attachment.p...1&d=1245445976 linking that picture reminds me that I miss the front USB port too.

Quote:
Martin, I think you mentioned you have the EGreat EG-M34A, are you happy with it?

I don't but a GBPVR user confirms my belief that it is the best value for an NMT, except maybe the $100 refurbed A100's.

Quote:
I would want to get an NMT that has an internal HDD (for traveling, family trips, etc...) which rules out the EG-M34A, but I know Egreat has other products that support an internal HDD.

Being a NAS user I find internal drives overrated. When I travel my prime media player is a laptop anyway so I could network, but honestly just hooking up an external SATA 2.5" drive to the EGreat would be trivial and filling the drive from an eSATA dock would be much easier. On top of this from Windows it can be NTFS.


Martin

 

[ghislain]



Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 /forum/post/16934002


...I think I figured around $500-$600 as well once you factor in W7 and an IR Receiver/Remote, which honestly isn't much cheaper then what I spent building my HTPCs which are a lot more robust. ....

Mini ITX systems by any chance?

Quote:
Originally Posted by dbone1026 /forum/post/16934002


I definitely have my eyes peeled for reviews on the C-200.

You are not the only one

however I find it an ugly device (I would definitely put this in another case which then again adds to the cost).

 

[dbone1026]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ghislain /forum/post/16935351


Mini ITX systems by any chance?


You are not the only one

however I find it an ugly device (I would definitely put this in another case which then again adds to the cost).

My 2 HTPCs are MicroATX systems (AMD/AMD with 4670 Radeon). I am tempted to take a crack at something smaller more along the lines of a mini itx.


My issue with PCH (aside from the fact that I had hardware failure with mine after owning for under a year and it not even being my primary player) is the horrible stock UI. Yes you can add YAMJ, etc... but why do I have to make the extra effort (part of the reason why something like the Xtreamer is appealing). Functionality is most important don't get me wrong, but seriously they couldn't do anything better then a basic HTML UI?

 

[hitechluddite]

A hardware based player is the way to go, the problem is accomodating all the codecs and variables of encoding. Once somebody sees enough $ to make it worthwhile it will be done.....

 

[jamerican]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantom Gremlin /forum/post/16932925


This topic has been rehashed 1000 times before, but it's still relevant.


I want a media player that just f***ing works!!!


I want it to not crash and hang up and require power cycling. I want it to play many kinds of media. I want it to be easy to use; not everyone in my household is a techno-nerd.


I'm willing to pay up to $1000 for a good player. The problem is that too many people want a player for $100 and so there's a "race to the bottom" to see how cheaply these things can be made.


Too bad that Apple considers this field a "hobby". If they wanted to, they could produce a "killer" product.

Have you ever thought of using a Mac Mini as a Video / music player? You can get a refurbished Mini from Apple with the same warranty as a new one. I have a Core Duo mini ( 1.8 GHZ, 1GB Ram) connected to my Sharp 46" LCD tv and use the free software - PLEX - to play all my archived videos ( VTS folders, MPG4, .iso, MKV etc) all housed on external USB HDDS without any problems. It also uses Boxee (free) and Apple's own Front Row (comes with Mac OSX) and they all work with the included remote which ships with the Mini.