These are my initial impressions when i bough this player like 2 months ago. posted this in TE dealers thread itself.
Well... by review i know all are looking for the torrent support.
For that i need to get a 2.5" HDD inside it. dont have one. no money to get one actually any time soon. .
The firmware are loaded in internal memory, applications like Samba, BT are in internal HDD after format.
unless i get a laptop hdd of any size... dont think that can be done.
On the same note.. I do have few playback issues with this player. already conveyed to anuj. and he says
will inform HiMedia. Hope it comes through. I say this coz u guys have to see the support given to buyers
in playsmart forums. yea they are the singapore vendors. its like ASAP in ASAP. the vendor escalates the issue
to Hi-Media and right away they release a firmware is possible and necessary.
By playback support I do have few issues with certain 1080p files. cant exactly pin point yet.
I played few ~15 GB 1080p files, H.264 ones. after fast forwarding it gets stucks or the player hangs and screen goes blank
and all. And the player did turn off itself twice the day i got after using the remote. but yest on a longer run it was all fine so thats
not a issue
On the same note. my 50 GB BDMV Transformers 2 plays just fine. that was the only HD even my old PC used to stutter.
and my 20GB H.264 LOTR 1 rip is also working fine. i did saw it skip few times. I dunno if its a chip issue or a firmware issue.
so sticking with this player. atleast i can have my TV marathons. But people who know more please comment.
But any videos in any format upto 720p and the 1080p files, the x264 8GB ones are just knife through butter for this.
Yeah i do have lots of varieties of formats/sizes, so yea kinda going harsh on the player.
Enough with the bad things. let me say some good things.
1. Player looks fabulous. yeas it does, the surface is kinda brushed aluminum not some plastic that WD gives.
And for me this means a LOT. i hate fugly players. One of the reasons i am pestering anuj to resolve the
playback issues via Hi-Media.
2. Lots of connectivity options. yea they do matter for me.
a. Different Digital audio options
b. The Esata is a BOON. I can connect ANY HDD/DVDRW and just use it. ITS SO COOL to do that.
c. Connect a HDD and make it into a NAS. yea it can do that.
d. It supports USB hubs..
3. The remote is very feature rich. and it have the luminous glow in dark, the buttons. sort of makes up for no back lit.
But yea the navigation D Pads feedback, i am not fond of it. its wobbly.
4. The firmware is something i wish more.
Yea when i heard Chinese i did have my doubts. but it did surprise me. the menu is VERY UI friendly. its simple. its there. it works.
but yea the above playback issues, if they are firmware ones. then thats the only thing i gripe about.
5. The wireless N lan for me..
6. It supports a BT client natively. albeit with a Internal HDD installed. so havent yet tried it out. borrow me a internal HDD will do that.
Hey, i bought the player first.. help me out.
6. And yea for 6500, this player delivers a lot. i would say.
I do wish the playback/fast forward issues could be removed if its not chip level. then this player is a 9/10 for me.
Right now its 6.5/10 for me. just coz of the playback issues i had.
boy this is a preview.
Well this weekend i been using this player a lot. And i am satisfied 90%. Coming from me thats alot people. I do nitpick.
Well the playback issues.
I played about 100 HD files. 720p, 1080p (under 10GB ones, under 15GB ones, Under 20 GB ones, and few 50 GB BD copies.)
720p -> No issues at all
1080p( under 10GB ones ) -> Overall no issues.
i say this coz in 3 or 5 files when i fast forward it, the video may stuck, dunno if its the HDD seek or soemthing. but if i just fast forward it in the slowest speed to back or front, it will be fine. And some times video may play but no audio. another seek will make that right also.
1080p( under 15GB ones ) -> In this, I had a issue. I played about 10 files. in 2 files, Gladiator and 2012, i had the issue posted in previous post again.
1080p( under 20GB ones ) -> No issues at all
Played abt 5 files.. all ok.
1080p( over 30 GB ones ) -> No issues at all. .
And the turning off incident. It didnt at all till last night when i was about to turn off. the player was paused for abt 15 minutes. and i just clicked play. the player shutdown. I tried again and the player was fine. dunno why it happened. I used the player extensively for 2 days. didnt had that any time. with pause or anything.
Maybe next firmware update will have some updates. I do wish that anuj can tell this to himedia and get some explanation or updates. coz overall this is a great player to have in ur living room. it is classy. this is actually a poor mans playon HD. coz thats the only player i find appealing other than this. and yea i only used WD personally and this HD300A will wipe the floor with it. this is many times better than that anyway. but yea it didnt had the playback issues. and yea it doesnt have any of the features Hi Media has also.
So overall in a 6.5k package. I am satisfied with this. Untill next upgrade of a 40" i am sticking to this. coz it doesnt make sense to get a 10k player for a LCD that costs 8k now. . when that happens maybe a media player upgrade also.
Its 7.5/10 for me. and a great VFM player to have.
Right now i have updated it to a customized firmware released by another himedia user forum. The UI is more polished look. But still very buggy. Dunno if its coz of using the internal/esata/usb/network HDD's alltogether. Enabling Bittorrent/samba support in the new firmware is extremely easy. no install. just turn it on or off.
And havent yet tried the files with issues yet. didnt had time.
And yea after this i did used seagate and Ac Ryan also. So i have used WD, HiMedia, Seagate and AC Ryan in total.
My opinions:
WD - Well i hate the plastic and remote and bare basic features. avoid.
Seagate - I hate product promotion. They built it around their seagate HDD products. and look wise it fails.
HiMedia - Its very good. First off it looks good. brushed aluminium. and remote although wobbly in few but robust. Even the stock firmware is good. AC ryan owners cant complain, its kinda rip off. It supports quite a menu of formats and features.for the price
i would recommend it. for people that stretched their budget from 5k or 6k. not people who can spend 10k.
AC Ryan - Its very good. all the things i said for HiMedia applies here. but 9.5~10k. Not for me anyways. but Lacs spending HT makers should get this without thinking twice. or should they?
Hear me out in this. Use your PS3 and Your PC with PS3 Media Server. BEST THING EVER. Yea i do stress more on user friendliness and formats more than anything else. Features, formats, remote and a Kick ASS UI, the XMB. Cmon even AC Ryan cant match that in anyways.
