Opinion about Astone 360 and Mvix Ultio Pro

[neogen]

Hi All,

I am seeking feedback on following two media players (HD 1080p):

Astone 360T
Astone Media Gear AP-360T 1080p Media Player with PVR & HDTV Tuner - Astone - Design for Life!

Mvix Ultio Pro
Personal Video Recording (PVR), HD Media Player | Mvix Ultio Pro

Both are realtek 1283 based. Other features are almost similar..like NAS, recording, HDMI..

Looking for opinion on which one seems to be better..

 

[thevortex]

The MVix is a slightly bigger brand also manufacturing compact HTPCs among other things. I would feel slightly safer with MVix with respect to regular firmware updates and other things.

In general though, there are not too many reviews on these two.

 

[neogen]

The MVix is a slightly bigger brand also manufacturing compact HTPCs among other things. I would feel slightly safer with MVix with respect to regular firmware updates and other things.

In general though, there are not too many reviews on these two.

Hi TheVortex...

Thanks for your feedback.

Technically which one would be better..

 

[thevortex]

Technically as in chipset-wise there is zero difference as far as I recall. It will all boil down to which manufacturer supports it better with regular and ongoing firmware updates.

It will also be important to see which one of these offers the PVR features which dont crash or have other bugs. Recently Playon!DVR has had a lot of negative feedback on their forums.

 

[neogen]

Technically as in chipset-wise there is zero difference as far as I recall. It will all boil down to which manufacturer supports it better with regular and ongoing firmware updates.

It will also be important to see which one of these offers the PVR features which dont crash or have other bugs. Recently Playon!DVR has had a lot of negative feedback on their forums.

Exactly..... initially I was planning to buy playon!dvr.. but after these reports I decided to look for alternatives...

Of the two Astone has been quite active in releasing the firmware and they also have active forum as well... other one is clone/copy of noontec and they also keep on releasing firmware update quite often...

I think, I might toss between the two..

 

[neogen]

Finally I settled for Astone 360T with 1.5 TB HDD....

 

[marsilians]

Hi TheVortex...

Thanks for your feedback.

Technically which one would be better..

unless there is significant difference in the board and chipsets then the difference wont be very noticeable. BTW why are you looking at these brands? Any reason you are not looking at more popular ones?/

 

[thevortex]

unless there is significant difference in the board and chipsets then the difference wont be very noticeable. BTW why are you looking at these brands? Any reason you are not looking at more popular ones?/

Which ones did you have in mind? The only really popular DVR solution out there is the TVix. Far more costly than these ones. And the PlayON! DVR needs to mature.

 

[captrajesh]

Are these different from Xtreamier or WDTV? Is the difference because they are termed DVR which means that they do realtime recording of video being stteamed 1080 quality?

 

[thevortex]

Are these different from Xtreamier or WDTV? Is the difference because they are termed DVR which means that they do realtime recording of video being stteamed 1080 quality?

These machines do the job of players such as Xtreamer/WDTV as well as take care of the TV recording aspect. Value for money. Downside they are not as specialized as the above mentioned media players.

 

[neogen]

unless there is significant difference in the board and chipsets then the difference wont be very noticeable. BTW why are you looking at these brands? Any reason you are not looking at more popular ones?/

Astone is quite popular in Australia.. its actually a prominent australian one. I wanted to widen my choice in a cost effective fashion..

Which ones did you have in mind? The only really popular DVR solution out there is the TVix. Far more costly than these ones. And the PlayON! DVR needs to mature.

Well, I was not exactly looking at DVR. I have Tata Sky+. I wanted 1080 HDMI, HD media player with internal HDD, having NAS and capable to record.. hence this shortlist... I scanned all kind... Sigma based were a bit expensive..

Are these different from Xtreamier or WDTV? Is the difference because they are termed DVR which means that they do realtime recording of video being stteamed 1080 quality?

Yup, they can record too.. something similar to playon DVR.. only the tuner is HD one..

BTW: I got Astone 360T with 1.5TB HDD (WD-Green) for ~11K

 

[thevortex]

Well, neogen, if you did not need to record, I really think you could have done better with the media player choice.

Never mind now that you have already decided.

 

[neogen]

Well, neogen, if you did not need to record, I really think you could have done better with the media player choice.

Never mind now that you have already decided.

No, I need to record, but occasionally.. and am not able understand your second point... what I considered are media players... some input for my research came from here:

Which brand is the best HD Media Player in the market? - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

Yes, I could have considered sigma based player instead of realtek ones.. but the price difference was quite a bit..

 

[neogen]

...Downside they are not as specialized as the above mentioned media players.

Care to explain "not as specialized"... what specialization...

 

[thevortex]

No, I need to record, but occasionally.. and am not able understand your second point... what I considered are media players... some input for my research came from here:

Which brand is the best HD Media Player in the market? - www.hardwarezone.com.sg

Yes, I could have considered sigma based player instead of realtek ones.. but the price difference was quite a bit..

There are the usual suspects, neogen. PlayON, Xtreamer, WDTV etc. The one that I am excited about is the Mede8er. It shares the chipset with PlayON but has got a vibrant forum and good community support. Moreover I see it having a clean agenda in front of it with limited but definite features for rolling out in the future.

The Sigma chipset based Popcorn Hour C200 is pretty cheap. Less than $200. But you have got to be prepared to wait. And its an NMT to boot.

There are also Dragontech and other similar brands if you are not too particular about popular names. They are also NMTs.

The TVix's are in my opinion overpriced.

Care to explain "not as specialized"... what specialization...

Well, with the DVR options, I would surmise that they would not be able to afford as much time to spend improving the user interface of the movie display (read YAMJ or other such services' support). They would have to split their time between the Recording facility's interface as well as the player. That is what I meant by 'not as specialized'.

 

[neogen]

The one that I am excited about is the Mede8er.

And what I am eagerly waiting for is Yuixx

 

[thevortex]

And what I am eagerly waiting for is Yuixx

I would definite wait to see how the product goes during its introduction (which in itself nobody is sure when) and watch it mature with a couple of firmware updates before even thinking of it.

Moreoever it focuses on web media streaming which is not a great thrust area for me.