Need help in choosing and setting up media player for tv

reddragon4775

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Hi all,

I first of all would like to thank and apprecite the efforts of all the admins and members who are doing a great job in the forum who are rookies to tech such as me :p

I recently read and other thread about media players and would like to also bring that entertainment to my house and I would want your help in buying and setting up. I kind of did some basic research and these are my options:

1) chromecast or the roku streaming stick?
2) what router to buy sepertely for the media player which would support a VPN Service?
3) a decent VPN Provider suggestions for using hulu, netflix and stuffs in your experience?

What/where i have:
1) location: chennai
2) ISP: airtel
3) speed: 8 mbps

Budget not a problem. Would be happy if economical.
Hopefully looking for a one time setup. Eg: after subscription and initial setup for the VPN. I hope i dont not have to run someting on my PC evertime before using my mediaplayer after TURN OFF/ON.

Thanks in advance.
 
hi reddragon4775

there are a lot of media players available and here is a link which suggest some of the best players for 2014

The best media player for performance 2014 | News | TechRadar

Also there would be posts / threads related to media players and its feedback posted by some of our HFV members...maybe you can go through those to get the first hand experience...

As per my experience, I did use a couple of media players in the past and yes the experience was good. Personally with the hectic work schedule I have in putting 10-12 hours at work and balancing the day with family / friends etc is challenging and hence got rid of the media player....today I use a Blu Ray player which is value for money in terms of performance, works well as a media player in terms of online streaming (Netflix/Pandora etc) and reads 1 TB hard disk external without any fuss.....advantage is that the player's software is upgradable through USB....plays all discs as well (region free)

End of the day it all depends on our own exclusive choices and desires...review and take a decision....hope this helps...
 
What sort of media player should I go for in case i need a HDD built in?

I don't want to stream content. I am happy to download all my digital content (movies songs photos) in the HDD of the media player and be bale to connect it with my LED and music system play from it like a digital library.

Kindly recommend some plug and play device..

Ash
 
Thank you all for your suggestion.

I have finally come down to the roku sick/roku 3 coz it has a good remote feature. As i I am looking to set things up for my dad I want it to be simple. If any alternates to these. I welcome your suggestions.

I also want help in choosing and setting up a VPN server for netflix and stuff.
 
hi reddragon4775

there are a lot of media players available and here is a link which suggest some of the best players for 2014

The best media player for performance 2014 | News | TechRadar

@efernand1 - I just hope you realize that the link you share is for the software media players used by the operating system e.g. VLC, WMP12, Realplayer, etc. The OP is asking about the hardware media players to be used for streaming content or playing media through a USB device.


Since you are looking for a media player, do you just want to play content through a USB HDD or would you also like to stream content from the internet and/or through your local DLNA. Do look at Roku/Asus Oplay mini/WDTV. If you can increase your budget and look for premium quality, explore Dune HD products.

I've been using WDTV Live SMP for playing HDD content and streaming through local DLNA and I'm quite satisfied with the product.
 
@Kneo,

Yes you are right... I am looking for a Media player with built in HDD.

I didn't hear a lot of good reviews about the WD Live. Else the formfactor and config is the simple and easy plug and play , the kind I am looking for.

Any better option that than the WD??

Please suggest
 
WDTV has different models. The one with the inbuilt HDD is called the Hub and the other versions are the Live SMP and the Play.

It's latest firmware is the one where a lot of people are facing problems. I am sure they'd come out with a new firmware soon. I am using the latest firmware but since I don't stream anything off the internet I am not facing any issues. The latest firmware enables passthrough of DTSHD-MA and Dolby TruHD signals too and hence i am not going back to the previous firmware.

I had explored the Hub but then opted for the Live SMP as it gave me more flexibility with the HDD. I am able to connect two USB HDDs and with the failure rate of HDDs, this sounded a bit more safer to me. I did not want to run the risk of the inbuilt HDD failing on my after a few years. I am sure one can change the internal HDD but external USB HDD is just more flexible IMHO.

What is you budget? Do look at Xtreamer too. They have quite a lot of products around the media player concept. Apple Airplay can also be a good option except for it's closed ecosystem.

Find out what exactly are you looking out for. A HTPC would be the best solution provided you are up for building one. I'd suggest fix up your budget and then take a call. Asus Omini is also good except that it does not passthrough HD audio signals
 
I was about to order the ROKU stick from shopyourworld.com, but stopped when I came across another thread claiming that website to be a scam. does anyone have any idea about this?

If true, Where else can I buy the roku stick online in India?
 
hi reddragon4775

there are a lot of media players available and here is a link which suggest some of the best players for 2014

The best media player for performance 2014 | News | TechRadar

Also there would be posts / threads related to media players and its feedback posted by some of our HFV members...maybe you can go through those to get the first hand experience...

As per my experience, I did use a couple of media players in the past and yes the experience was good. Personally with the hectic work schedule I have in putting 10-12 hours at work and balancing the day with family / friends etc is challenging and hence got rid of the media player....today I use a Blu Ray player which is value for money in terms of performance, works well as a media player in terms of online streaming (Netflix/Pandora etc) and reads 1 TB hard disk external without any fuss.....advantage is that the player's software is upgradable through USB....plays all discs as well (region free)

End of the day it all depends on our own exclusive choices and desires...review and take a decision....hope this helps...


Dear Sir,

Please please please read the question carefully and then READ WHAT YOU ARE POSTING!!

OP asked for HARDWARE and I can see in your article about all SOFTWARE players :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::cool::sad::mad::mad::mad:

Hardware is physical and Software is what you install on computers IMHO.

So all your older postings too had same QC??:rolleyes::rolleyes::mad::mad:
 
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There are two parallel threads running here.

1. Started by the OP, he was asking about streaming media players. Something that will play Hulu, Netflix etc. The best products for this are Roku, Apple TV, and WDTV Live, and a few others. WDTV Live, and WDTV Hub are superb players. If they have some firmware issues, they will be resolved. Regarding his question - will VPN work without a PC connection? - I am not sure. These players by themselves have no VPN resolving capabilities. So you have to look elsewhere for an answer. I reckon, you (may) have to find a way to trigger a VPN connecting before switching on the streamer.

An important point to understand and remember - products such as Roku and Chromecast are just streamers. They cannot be called media players in the true sense.

2. Started by Ash - 'media player' with HDD capability. Such products are called by different names - Networked Media Players, Networked Media Jukebox and so on. There are 100s of products in the market and the best could be listed as Dune, Popcorn Hour, WDTV, Xtreamer, etc. Most of these support internal and external hard drives, and have networking capabilities including UpnP SSDP, UPnP AV, Windows Media Connect, Windows Media Player NSS, Samba, NFS. They also support NAS access through SMB, NFS, FTP. Some of these can also download movies and music for you through P2P etc.

Cheers
 
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