Which media player to buy?

[manish mundra]

Hi,

I am looking to buy a media player which is primarily to play movies and music that i have on my PC. I am not looking for streaming or playing anything online. Please suggest which would be the best option? Some of the ones i short listed are:

Western Digital WD TV Live Plus 1080p HD Media Player
HiMedia HD600B

WD Live Plus is coming for about $85 online(US Website) which is roughly Rs.4,000/- only while Himedia would come upto Rs.8,000/-.

Please suggest which would be the better option among the above 2. Or please suggest any other option that would suit my requirment.

I would be connecting it to my 32'LCD with audio from Logitech Z-5500.

Thanks.

 

[Kittu]

Firstly if your PC has a HDMI out , you do not need a media player.

Feature wise WD live is a no match for Himedia 600B, so the comparision is wrong. You can probably compare with with low ends of Himedia.

Both come with different chipsets , Sigma and Realtek. Some say sigma chipsets have slight edge when it comes to the picture quality, although my untrained eye was not able to notice the differnece.

Read some more threads here and online and decide .

 

[soundnovice]

hi manish,
whats ur target price?

regards,
shivap

 

[sanjay123]

I have Western digital live hub. I won't recommend this. bootup time is huge.
access of any stored content also takes lot of time. overall, i find this device very slow in response. but once it start playing any stored content, then no issue. you cant put internal drive in slave mode and transfer content directly from your PC. you need to make this as network drive and put it on your home network.

 

[manish mundra]

Thanks for the response.

Kittu:- Yes my laptop has HDMI out and am getting surround sound output via mini toslink cable. But I want a permanent setup for music and movies thats why am looking for a media player. I dont want to connect my laptop every time for playing movies or music on my tv. Do you mean WD is better or Himedia?

Shiva:- I am asking one of my friend from US to get it for me. So am looking to spend about $100 - $150 for the same. The lesser the better with good performance.

 

[Kittu]

I'd still recommend you to stretch your budget a big and get a popcorn hour A210. It has mkv3d features , comes with sigma chipset and can play all hd audio formats.

 

[manish mundra]

How much would that cost me?

I am actually looking to spend $150 max. Do I have a good option under that?

 

[hydra]

I have Western digital live hub. I won't recommend this. bootup time is huge.
access of any stored content also takes lot of time. overall, i find this device very slow in response. ...

By bootup, do you mean the time the player takes to scan the stored content when it starts?

Though it didn't take really long, my WDTV (1st Gen) also used to take about 20 secs to 30 secs) on start-up before I could use the controls. I switched off the "Media Library" function in the settings, and since then it has had no lag while starting up -- I could start using the controls instantly once it switched on.

A friend of mine tried this with his WDTV Live Plus and he had the same positive results.

 

[baijuxavior]

How much would that cost me?

I am actually looking to spend $150 max. Do I have a good option under that?

You can consider himedia d600a at that price. Popcorn hour is well above your budget.

 

[manish mundra]

Why is no one recommending WD Live Plus.... Isn't it worth buying?

 

[baijuxavior]

Why is no one recommending WD Live Plus.... Isn't it worth buying?

I think WD Live plus does not support 7.1 HD audio like DTS HD-MA, Dolby TruHD etc. If you don't need these features you can consider WD.

 

[BLASTO]

I have WDTV v2 which they released in 2008 and stopped firmware update in 2009.

Now it won't play new mkv files with header compression and no firmware cure for that.. I mean WTF?

I wont touch anything WDTV again!

Checkout this one..
X-6 Media and Internet on TV Player - Most Advanced | eBay


Someone posted in ebay deals thread and I found it great for the price. No usage opinion though.

 

[Kittu]

Why is no one recommending WD Live Plus.... Isn't it worth buying?

Cause, we only recommend what is best

 

[manish mundra]

How's Asus Oplay mini to play downloaded movies and music?

 

[sarge_in]

I like the Netgear NeoTV550 for local file playback. Pretty clean and intuitive interface, and plays BD menus too if you need that. I also have the WD Live + but use it for online content only. Netgear is much better for local playback. Slightly over your $150 mark, and shipping from US may be extra too.