HD Media Player v/s DVD Player with USB

Can anyone please give me a comparison (benefits / limitations) between a HD Networked Media Player (like the NMT etc.) as against the new DVD players with USB2.0 support. My understanding is that both can play Movies from an external HDD, but not sure about the formats. Also, if there are any additional features.

thanks
Mahesh

The HD Media player can play latest high definition formats like .mkv which are more or less the default for HD Rips. This is not currently supported by DVD players.

I will put this way-

DVD player- Pros: A dedicated movie device with better upscaling technology
Certain DVDp are as good as CDp for stereo playback

Cons: It has limited codecs & difficult to upgrade.
As transports,lens wearout,life is 4to5 yrs.

Mediaplayer- Pros: All in one solution(supports newer codecs)
Codec support with upgrading facility,Net connection,
Wifi ready,Video recording,opt for PC

cons: Not so but as it is all in one,performance can be above
avarage

I have tried both solutions. The media player won hands down in terms of practicality, support for audio-video formats and sheer ease of use. In addition, I could easily store the files in FLAC format (music) and keep updating my songs on one PC HDD and play them from any room in the house, since each room has a media player connected via LAN.
The DVD USB menu was difficult to navigate, could not search for the songs I wanted quickly and response time was slower.

Coming to the most important point - Music quality... there are good standalone media players like Squeezebox and Popcorn Hour (Sonos is too costly in my opinion) that are as good or better than most DVD players in the 10-20K Rs bracket. If you still are not satisfied, you can always add, in the future an external DAC like Beresford or DACMagic, since all mediaplayers today have a digital output option.

Since you are looking for a DVD replacement, I suggest going for the Popcornhour, which costs $260 (direct from website) for shipping to India. Otherwise the TVix (marketed by La Kozy in Mumbai) is also a very good option for both movies and music. There is another thread on 'Networked Media Tank' or some such which has many more options and players compared.

-Jinx.

WD HD TV player will be in market soon for 8k.It has same chip (Sigma8635)

WD TV HD Media Player ( WDAVN00 )

new features & old prob solved-http://www.wdc.com/en/products/wdtv/releasenotes/WDTVreleasenotes101.pdf

On a related but slightly off-topic note -
Does anyone know how I can stream FLAC files using Windows Media Player 11. I have setup my networked media player to receive WMP wav/mp3 files which it does without a problem. However, I can't get WMP to stream FLAC files...
In other words, what do I need to do to play FLAC using WMP and my networked media player? Any help is greatly appreciated.

-Jinx.

Is it playing FLAC files or not even playing them? If not playing then you would need the codec from FLAC - download just get the corresponding Windows one.

spirovious - is the 8K price you are talking in India?? Where I can get that??
Is this available in Mumbai??

One more pro for Media PLayer is that the firmware update which helps us play newer formats which is currently not possible in a DVDp

Yes I think it is indian price.
On ebay india it is offered for 8 k!
International price starts from 100 $ approx