Recommend a media player?

[Rawns]

OK, some starter info.

 

I have just ordered a few bits of kit to pimp out my home network. First off is a new Netgear router with N Range Wireless and four 1Gbps Ethernet ports.

 

The second bit of kit is a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo (along with 2 x 1Tb drives to put in it). This will be storage for music, movies, pics, documents, backups etc. It features a 1Gbps Ethernet port so will be plugged into the router.

 

I'm looking to find a good quality and affordable media player now for my TV. I've found 2 possibilities (Both Netgear - no they are not paying me comission )

 

The first is the more affordable EVA2000 Digital Media Player - Digital Media Player EVA2000

 

The 2nd is the higher priced EVA9150 - Digital Media Player EVA9150

 

Both look good but the price is playing a big part. I don't need one with extra storage as I think 1Tb is enough, and worse case, I have my old 300Gb USB hard drive to connect up. As longs as it can stream from the NAS, it's fine. It will be mainly used for videos, a bit of music and pics and thats it.

 

Does anyone have any of the above players or seen them in use? Or can you recommend one?

[RabbieBurns]

Why not comprimise between the two and get the Eva8000?

 

Ive got 3 of them back in Scotland and they are great.

 

NETGEAR - Digital Entertainer HD

[RabbieBurns]

Theyre going pretty cheap on ebay:

 

eva8000, Consumer Electronics, Computing, eva9150 items at low prices on eBay.co.uk

[Flakes]

may i offer an alternative:

 

Acer Aspire Revo Desktop PC - Desktops at Ebuyer < mount on the back of the TV, plays HD Content.

 

or if you fancy a Bluray player asrock ion 330 - Google Product Search

 

coupled with:

 

Downloads | XBMC

Edited April 6, 2010 by Flakes

[Guest theeldergeek]

The mede8er is supposed to be the doggies danglies. This is the vendor that sells them in the UK - Mede8er MED500X Network Media Player

 

This is a useful forum Streamers & Network Media Players - AVForums.com

 

I'm thinking of getting a Mede8er myself as it happens. Currently have an EVA8000 which is nothing but a bug ridden pile of plastic under my TV. It works, but it crashes frequently, locks up, loses wireless and is generally not so good as what is on the market these days. Not to mention the menus....

[Rawns]

Tanks for the comments guys. It's appreciated.

 

I also came accross this: Play.com (UK) : Western Digital WD TV Live HD Internet Media Streamer : Computing - Free Delivery

 

It's meant to be rather good for the cost, and also plays @ 1080p.

Edited April 6, 2010 by Rawns

[Rawns]

may i offer an alternative:

 

Acer Aspire Revo Desktop PC - Desktops at Ebuyer < mount on the back of the TV, plays HD Content.

 

Very nice. I was not looking for a media PC as such but this is way too tempting. This would also mean access to the BBC iPlayer!

 

I've never used Linux however. Would it be possible to put Windows on here?

 

EDIT: Just found for an extra 50 quid, you can get one with an extra GB of memory and Windows on it.

Edited April 6, 2010 by Rawns

[Flakes]

Very nice. I was not looking for a media PC as such but this is way too tempting. This would also mean access to the BBC iPlayer!

 

I've never used Linux however. Would it be possible to put Windows on here?

 

there are a few different models depending on what you want to spend good selection on ebuyer:

Cheap Laptop, Hard Drives, LCD Monitors, TVs, Televisions, Netbooks and more at Ebuyer.com < some models come with windows 7

[RabbieBurns]

Tanks for the comments guys. It's appreciated.

 

I also came accross this: Play.com (UK) : Western Digital WD TV Live HD Internet Media Streamer : Computing - Free Delivery

 

It's meant to be rather good for the cost, and also plays @ 1080p.

 

This is what I use over here. Its tiny, the size of an external HD. Its got 2 USB ports, ethernet, HDMI and its played everytihng Ive thrown at it. The menu and UI is a bit crappy, but theres a whole bunch of custom firmware for it that Ive yet to try. The good thing about it as well, is you can access the USB drives plugged into it over the network. So I use my PC to download straight to the usb drives (2x320gb mini wd passport drives). For the price, its great.

[Trapper]

I've been using an Acer Aspire Revo which is a dual core Atom with a 1gig of RAM and an nVidia Ion GPU. This runs Windows 7 smoothly.

 

On top I use Xbox Media Centre, and have a 1.5TB external drive plugged into it.

 

It runs HD wonderfully, the only downside is no internal DVD drive. I either stream across the network from my desktop, or I've got one of those cheap HDMI DVD upscalers which also play Xvid.

 

The Acer box, with external drive and the little media box for DVDs cost in total around £250. I'd highly recommend a remote control or failing that one of those clickers to control the box if you're changing media.

[Trapper]

Photo of how it looks.

 

 

The Acer Revo is here at eBuyer

The Sumvision HDMI DVD/DivX/XVid player is here at eBuyer

 

Both are connected using HDMI. I use the same cable and swap, I never thought I'd run out of HDMI sockets. Ubuntu works a treat, with some tweaking, however Flash playback, namely iPlayer and 4OD was very jerky.

This is due to Flash relying on the CPU to process. The latest beta allows you to pass this processing onto the GPU, however there is not Unix or Mac OS support for this. On Windows with the latest Flash beta HD BBC streams are smooth.

 

The external HDD is on the bottom shelf. The drive I bought seperately for around £60 and the caddy was £15. I only use USB on it, so if I don't get the unit with eSata it's even cheaper. As a side note I have major issues with eSata - machines tend to crash when it's used, so I stick to USB.

 

I hate taking photos of high gloss shiney black surfaces, it just attracts dust!

[Flakes]

Photo of how it looks.

 

[ATTACH]6729[/ATTACH]

 

The Acer Revo is here at eBuyer

The Sumvision HDMI DVD/DivX/XVid player is here at eBuyer

 

Both are connected using HDMI. I use the same cable and swap, I never thought I'd run out of HDMI sockets. Ubuntu works a treat, with some tweaking, however Flash playback, namely iPlayer and 4OD was very jerky.

This is due to Flash relying on the CPU to process. The latest beta allows you to pass this processing onto the GPU, however there is not Unix or Mac OS support for this. On Windows with the latest Flash beta HD BBC streams are smooth.

 

The external HDD is on the bottom shelf. The drive I bought seperately for around £60 and the caddy was £15. I only use USB on it, so if I don't get the unit with eSata it's even cheaper. As a side note I have major issues with eSata - machines tend to crash when it's used, so I stick to USB.

 

I hate taking photos of high gloss shiney black surfaces, it just attracts dust!

 

if you want a DVD drive i would highly recommend spending the extra on the Eclipse Computers - Product Details (~£300) same ION system as the Revo however with Blu-Ray Drive, now i fear that i may have taken this topic slightly off course, so ill leave it here

[Rawns]

Thanks Flakes.

 

I already have a BluRay player so I'm not fussed about a drive as such.