HDD Based Player

While planning to buy a Full HD LCD, I realised that only content is available on torrents as BD players and movies on BD are a long way off. Can some1 suggest which is a good hard disk based player that can churn out HD upto 1080p and is available in India.

So far I think Cowon A3 is capable of playing mkv files but am not sure. Can someone please throw some more light on this?

Why dont you build a HTPC with ATI HD 2600 PRO/XT graphics card .

It is a good suggestion, but my idea is to have a small HDD based player without hiccups of streaming over WiFi. I have seen such players at TV showrooms and are used for demo of full HD TVs.

Checkout the below mentioned link. They are the authorised distributors of DiVico Products in India.

Jay Multimedia Inc. - TViX India


Divico Homepage

DViCO

Kapz, what you see in showrooms are, yes, HDD based players. These, though have limited capacity, and need the expertise of the company to make any change. Companies such as Samsung, Sony etc, use this to ensure that the best quality picture is used and that the dealer does not fool around with the system.

What you may be looking for are called Portable Media Players. These are made by companies such as Cowon, Archos, Creative (Zen), Apple (iPODs), iRiver, and others. These play MPEG-4, WMV, protected WMV, MPEG-2, VOB, H.264 formats. Capacities go up to 320GB or about 1300 hours of video.

There are two issues here. One; these players can, to the best of my knowledge, play up to 720p. They cannot store or play Full HD signals. Two; they are expensive. A 100 GD drive will cost around 20,000.

Cheers

Thanks Zoony. Was not aware of this at all. Any idea of prices?

Cheers

I seriously will not advise anybody to go for players which are not available in India unless you travel to the country of purchase often. For ex I have an Archos 80 gb which died on me recently. As I had no trips planned to USA , I could not even get it repaired under warranty. I paid 14k for it and now it is nothing more than a brick for me !!

Illusion, Thanks mate. This is a real deal.

@Venkat- Yes I was aware of players like cowon and archos, but like you said they support only 780p and cost a bomb.

@Illusion, thanks for links man. Although the site does not say much abt disk size, the specs do look very promising and are a right solution for me. Will update once i find out their true colors

Thanks

Hi Kapz!

As per my knowledge, right now only Tvix is available in India distributed through - HD Media Box. But dont know about the after service. But this is very expensive, recently I got quote from for model no. Tvix M6500A - Rs.26438/- (without harddisk). The other alternative is popcorn hour ($215 + shipping + duties extra) which is cheaper than Tvix but again you need someone to bring from abroad. Again, after sales service will be a problem if anything happens. In fact, my plan of buying popcorn hour is put on hold and right now thinking of going for high end DVD player that gives best upscaling results.

Can anyone suggest me some high end upscaling DVD players. I have shortlisted Oppo DV-981HD, your suggestions pls and if any one can give the details of their availability (dealers) in India and the cost.

Hi illusion,

Kindly give me a complete guide on building HTPC and the cost involved. Pls also give details of the software to be installed etc.