[Fjodor2000]

Hi,

I've been researching the major media players/extender. But I've not been able to find a single one that support the basic requirements. Here's what they are missing:

* Apple TV: Does not support a lot of audio/video formats.
* WD TV Live Media Player: Has problems streaming from a Windows Share. Keeps loosing the connections, and then both the Windows PC server and Media player has to be restarded.
* Little Black Box V2: Does not support 23.976 Hz.
* MiniX Neo players: Does not support DTS HD MA & Dolby True HD.

So it seems all of them are ok, but miss at least one show stopper feature.

Have I missed any alternative? Or is there still no player supporting the basic requirements out there yet?

 

[Ph8te]

You need to list YOUR basic requirements. There are no generic basic requirements as everyone has a slightly different need/want. Once you give us your needs (requirements) it will be easier for us to give you devices that may fit their requirements. Often however you will need to make sacrifices somewhere as there is no perfect player.


Sent from nowhere

 

[Fjodor2000]

You need to list YOUR basic requirements. There are no generic basic requirements as everyone has a slightly different need/want. Once you give us your needs (requirements) it will be easier for us to give you devices that may fit their requirements. Often however you will need to make sacrifices somewhere as there is no perfect player.


Sent from nowhere

Sure, here's my list:

Video formats:
AVC/H.264
AVCHD
AVI
FLV
Matroska (MKV)
MOV
MPEG1
MPEG2
MPEG4
TS
VOB
WMV
WMV9 HD (VC-1)
Xvid

Audio formats:
AAC
AIFF
FLAC
Matroska (MKA)
MP3
Ogg Vorbis
WAV (PCM)
WMA

Subtitles:
SMI, SRT, SUB

Video output:
All that most modern Blu ray players and TVs support, including 1080p(23.976/24/50/60 Hz).

Server shares:
CIFS/SMB, HTTP, NFS

 

[Fjodor2000]

Also, to clarify, most of the media players I listed support 95% of the requirements, but fail on only one or a few of them.

Why make a media player that fulfills almost all requirements, but fail to support 1080p @ 23.976Hz which is extremely common. Or fail only to support DTS HD MA & Dobly True HD. So close, but still...

 

[Brian Hampton]

I think the chromebox running OpenElec will do it all with style.

To double check though, you could run it on a spare PC or Mac and try it out... Kodi is free.

I wouldn't use anything that wasn't running Kodi. ATV and WDTV suck to me. (I've had both). Roku 3 is ok for some types of stuff but not the way you seem to want to go.

 

[Haywood Jablomi]

I don't see why a media player needs to support that many formats to be useful. The overwhelming majority of what is out there is H264, AAC and MP3. I understand wanting FLAC, DTS HD MA and Dobly True HD, but a lot of the rest is just obscure. If you are ripping your media, it makes more sense to use well supported formats.

 

[Kelson]

I would imagine that if you are pulling stuff off the Internet, torrents and other P2P sites, etc. that you could get just about anything. And a lot of it probably isn't encoded to spec. One of the plus points about the WDTV Live series has always been that it plays just about anything you throw at it from the Internet.

 

[Haywood Jablomi]

I would imagine that if you are pulling stuff off the Internet, torrents and other P2P sites, etc. that you could get just about anything. And a lot of it probably isn't encoded to spec. One of the plus points about the WDTV Live series has always been that it plays just about anything you throw at it from the Internet.

With the exception of some .avi still kicking around, most of it is H264 .mkv or .mp4 with AAC, DD or DTS audio.

 

[crussader]

Have you looked at Mede8er?

 

[Fjodor2000]

Have you looked at Mede8er?

No, I was not aware of it before you mentioned it. I've checked it out now, and it looks quite nice. Do you have some experience with it yourself, and do you know if there are any known major issues?

I know for example WD TV Live looks perfect on paper in many ways, but in reality it is e.g. having serious problems with Windows Shares being disconnected so the mediaplayer has to be restarted.

 

[ZmHD69PigQ]

My setup is plex to a roku and a fireTV and plex handles everything.

My old setup was a WDTV and it handled everything but I got tired of its slow interface. I never had any disconnection issues with it.

 

[Kelson]

I know for example WD TV Live looks perfect on paper in many ways, but in reality it is e.g. having serious problems with Windows Shares being disconnected so the mediaplayer has to be restarted.

Win-XP never had an issue. With Win-7 I have the problem where half the time Win-7 won't let me connect without asking for credentials. That requires a reboot of the Win-7 server to clear the Bill Gate's cobwebs. But once connected I've never had it drop or disconnect from a connection.

 

[fmedrano1977]

I have 2 WDTVs and have no disconnect issues with NFS shares using HanesWIN on a Win7 PC.

HTC One m8

 

[Fjodor2000]

Win-XP never had an issue. With Win-7 I have the problem where half the time Win-7 won't let me connect without asking for credentials. That requires a reboot of the Win-7 server to clear the Bill Gate's cobwebs. But once connected I've never had it drop or disconnect from a connection.

Yep, same problem that I've had with my WD TV Gen 3 media player when using it with Win 7 network shares. It often drops the connection, and says that the server has been removed, or ask for credentials again, and similar. To be able to connect again I have to restart the Win 7 server, and the WD TV media player. It does not drop the connection while playing a movie though. But it's still very annoying.

 

[crussader]

Do you have some experience with it yourself, and do you know if there are any known major issues?

I have been using one for the past two years with great results. And, the development team is constantly making improvements.

The only issue is one that applies to all media players regarding Blu Rays with forced subtitles, but there are workarounds.

 

[Kelson]

Yep, same problem that I've had with my WD TV Gen 3 media player when using it with Win 7 network shares. It often drops the connection, and says that the server has been removed, or ask for credentials again, and similar. To be able to connect again I have to restart the Win 7 server, and the WD TV media player. It does not drop the connection while playing a movie though. But it's still very annoying.

This is one of the reasons I run a DLNA server (Mezzmo) on my Media-PC. Never a connection problem with it.

 

[smitbret]

This is one of the reasons I run a DLNA server (Mezzmo) on my Media-PC. Never a connection problem with it.

I had the same disconnection issues with my WHS 2011 and Win 7 Pro servers and intermittent disconnections with my WDTV Live Hub. Never happened while watching anything, just that you'd turn it on and sometimes it just wouldn't find the SMB shares anymore. That's a reason I kept my DLNA server up as well, for a backup when the WDTV would drop the SMB connection.

I would tell OP to get a Chromebox with Kodi as well. He didn't mention it, but it lacks the audio optical out. Otherwise it would fulfill pretty much anything on his wish list.