Hi all,
First of all thanks to all of you for all the great help you guys are providing. It's awesome to see the knowledge and experience of forum members. Its even more wonderful when I see people like you share that wealth so freely with newbies and people like me.
I need your help on choosing a media player and bluray player solution for me.
But before that here is little bit of background information which may be helpful in understanding my needs.
I'm presently trying to simplify and integrate the digital media content in my home w.r.t storage and delivery. I've started putting contents on the Synology DS209 NAS (which is really working great for my expectations). I've also laid out a gigabit ethernet network throughout my house.
Now only thing missing is a decent media player and a bluray player.
(BTW I don't have any blu ray collection as of now but intend to start buying BluRays once infrastructure is in place).
Expectations from Digital Media Player
------------------------------------------
1. Extensive support for media type/codecs/containers.
2. Playback 1080p media (captured by my camcorder) sitting on the NAS.
3. Playback bluray media rips from NAS.
4. Has better internet content availability (e.g. YouTube,Netflix...etc.) I know, I can't desire it to have everything, but looking for whatsoever best is available.
5. Want stutter free experience. Wish that streaming from NAS to TV is as smooth as possible.
6. Ease of use (Better GUI) (Better organization and display of contents).
Expectations from BluRay Player
-----------------------------------
1. Wish that the BluRay player has capability to play any or all bluray media.
2. Faster load times, lesser noise.
Now here is my dilemma.
1. Initially I started looking for blu-ray player. Found that Oppo has best reputation in the industry. But then I had no idea about which media player to go for.
2. Then came across BDI Dune Prime 3.0. This seems to be very good reputable media player and has a BluRay player too.
3. So it made sense to me to go with Dune Prime, rather than separate mediaplayer/bluray player combination.
4. Now I'm not sure how good is DunePrime's BluRay player feature w.r.t Oppo or any other standalone bluray player.
5. Also found that Dune Prime has gigabit ethernet port but sigma chip inside doesn't support gigabit. That leaves me confused
I've enough money to be able to purchase Prime 3.0 right now. Or any other standalone media player + good quality BD player. But I don't have enough money to be able to continuously upgrade my setup.
I thought of putting it all out here and ask for the help from the Gurus of this forum.
What do you think will be best solution to my requirements.
Dune Prime 3.0 or some BD player + popbox/PlayOnHD/PCH-A200/C-200/.....and so on?
I'm quite a bit novice in this. I know tons of information is spread across various threads in this forum. But the more I read, the more I'm getting confused.
I really appreciate all your help in narrowing down my choices.
Thanks
Abhi
============================================================ ===============================
Denon AVR-1910, Definitive Tech ProCinema 800. Synology DS209 NAS, Gigabit LAN network. Panasonic 54G10
First of all thanks to all of you for all the great help you guys are providing. It's awesome to see the knowledge and experience of forum members. Its even more wonderful when I see people like you share that wealth so freely with newbies and people like me.
I need your help on choosing a media player and bluray player solution for me.
But before that here is little bit of background information which may be helpful in understanding my needs.
I'm presently trying to simplify and integrate the digital media content in my home w.r.t storage and delivery. I've started putting contents on the Synology DS209 NAS (which is really working great for my expectations). I've also laid out a gigabit ethernet network throughout my house.
Now only thing missing is a decent media player and a bluray player.
(BTW I don't have any blu ray collection as of now but intend to start buying BluRays once infrastructure is in place).
Expectations from Digital Media Player
------------------------------------------
1. Extensive support for media type/codecs/containers.
2. Playback 1080p media (captured by my camcorder) sitting on the NAS.
3. Playback bluray media rips from NAS.
4. Has better internet content availability (e.g. YouTube,Netflix...etc.) I know, I can't desire it to have everything, but looking for whatsoever best is available.
5. Want stutter free experience. Wish that streaming from NAS to TV is as smooth as possible.
6. Ease of use (Better GUI) (Better organization and display of contents).
Expectations from BluRay Player
-----------------------------------
1. Wish that the BluRay player has capability to play any or all bluray media.
2. Faster load times, lesser noise.
Now here is my dilemma.
1. Initially I started looking for blu-ray player. Found that Oppo has best reputation in the industry. But then I had no idea about which media player to go for.
2. Then came across BDI Dune Prime 3.0. This seems to be very good reputable media player and has a BluRay player too.
3. So it made sense to me to go with Dune Prime, rather than separate mediaplayer/bluray player combination.
4. Now I'm not sure how good is DunePrime's BluRay player feature w.r.t Oppo or any other standalone bluray player.
5. Also found that Dune Prime has gigabit ethernet port but sigma chip inside doesn't support gigabit. That leaves me confused

I've enough money to be able to purchase Prime 3.0 right now. Or any other standalone media player + good quality BD player. But I don't have enough money to be able to continuously upgrade my setup.
I thought of putting it all out here and ask for the help from the Gurus of this forum.
What do you think will be best solution to my requirements.
Dune Prime 3.0 or some BD player + popbox/PlayOnHD/PCH-A200/C-200/.....and so on?
I'm quite a bit novice in this. I know tons of information is spread across various threads in this forum. But the more I read, the more I'm getting confused.
I really appreciate all your help in narrowing down my choices.
Thanks
Abhi
============================================================ ===============================
Denon AVR-1910, Definitive Tech ProCinema 800. Synology DS209 NAS, Gigabit LAN network. Panasonic 54G10