Xtreamer vs WD Live

[cmsajith]

As per some recent reviews b/n these two media players, they seem to be somewhat same, but WD Live w/ better processor/memory and cheaper compared to Xtreamer.
I am not considering ACRyan coz' it is more expensive than these models and couldnt find any other feature than these.

Please compare the Xtreamer and WD Live.

eg:
Pros
-------
Xtreamer : xxxxx
WD Live : xxxxx

Cons
-------
Xtreamer : xxxxx
WD Live : xxxxx

Final Verdit: xxx

 

[madbullram]

I think both of them from a functionality perspective balance out with no clear winner. With WDTV having a marginally better chipset, a reputed company, and lower price along with warranty in India (once launched here), would be my vote.

 

[Dushie]

I have a different view i feel xtreamer is a better product as of now as WD live still has issues which are getting sorted out with firmware updates. While xtreamer has been pretty stable.

Also i just saw in the xtreamer thread that for Christmas offer it is available for. Rs 7990 + Shipping which is an awesome deal...

 

[madbullram]

At that price XT is best!!! Good to see WDTV Live bringing the prices down

 

[ajaybiz]

WD is yet to come with network interface, no news about wifi which is standard in Xtreamer.

 

[nitinbose]

How are the DACs used in WD or Xtreamer?

How do you compare hardware players such as blu-ray or dvd players or HTPC and an HDD player? I mean wrt picture & sound quality?

regards,

Nitin.

 

[mahiruha]

Hello,
my interest is briniging youtube to television. how wd tv live compares to xstreamer in this aspect. I would also like to know which of them is capable of playing a dvd iso image file. I came to know that any wifi dongle can be attached to wd tv live to connect it wirelessly has anybody tried it.
Thanks.

 

[ashishkesarwani]

Hello,
my interest is briniging youtube to television. how wd tv live compares to xstreamer in this aspect. I would also like to know which of them is capable of playing a dvd iso image file. I came to know that any wifi dongle can be attached to wd tv live to connect it wirelessly has anybody tried it.
Thanks.

Xtreamer plays youtube video very well over your television but it also depends on the contents played and sometimes when the video is highly compressed then the picture quality is crap when the screen size is increased. Xtreamer is capable of playing any DVD image file and I don't know much about WDTV live on that front

 

[mahiruha]

hi Ashish,
thanks for the info. I am not that much worried about the picture quality since in a big screen the youtube sd videos doesn't have much resolution to offer. Actually youtube is the only source of professional snooker for me so as long the I can watch the game and understand what is going on the picture quality isn't much of a problem.
Thanks.

 

[idlebrain]

Hello,
how wd tv live compares to xstreamer in this aspect. I would also like to know which of them is capable of playing a dvd iso image file.
Thanks.

WD TV Live Doesn't plays dvd iso image file. It even won't show this file in file list.

 

[srikarkav]

How are the DACs used in WD or Xtreamer?

How do you compare hardware players such as blu-ray or dvd players or HTPC and an HDD player? I mean wrt picture & sound quality?

regards,

Nitin.

Hi guys,

I have the same question as nitin has. Any ideas?

cheers,
sri

 

[aneelr]

Hi guys,

I have the same question as nitin has. Any ideas?

cheers,
sri

When you are using a Standalone Bluray Player/Drive you would generally use a original BD/DVD disc's as opposed to a HD Media Player where you would generally be using ripped versions from the original BD/DVD. And the PQ/SQ of an original BD/DVD will be definitely better than the ripped ones. So I think this comparison is not a fair one IMO.

Even if you want to play ripped versions on the stand alone BD/DVD players, you will have very limited options in terms of choosing a player. Cause factors like NTFS support, no. of file format support etc. etc ... will not be consistent.

There is one gadget in the market called DUNE BD prime 3.0. This is a HD media player with built in Bluray player. This company previously had a separate HD media player and a separate BDp which is now clubbed together.

Dune BD Prime 3.0 HDI Dune


But a HD media player like Xtreamer/WDTV/Playon/TvIX etc etc...... are definitely good in terms of PQ/SQ. Just yesterday I played Black Hawk Down 1080p rip/DTS 5.1 through my Playon->Denon AVR->LED TV at 75% vol. and trust me, the was earthquake of value 1 in my House.hyeahok, that's too exaggerated, but the entire building did shiver, and I do not have a dedicated HT room, so that may also add to the effect.) But overall these media players are good in terms of PQ/SQ.



cheers.

 

[srinisundar]

I can say the SQ in ripped items will be lacking in detail but PQ will be as good as BD if the the Bluray ripped is of 1080P .

Can say for sure myself compared with original BD and ripped version of same film in 1080P never lacked any SQ quality( indeed in some scenes it is good than BD because of the intentional grains in BD were smoothened in ripped due to software compression).. For the shootout i used my PS3 only( ripped transfered to my ps3 harddisk) not any media player...

 

[nitinbose]

Hi,

What if you're playing a blu-ray image or a file that's equal to a blu-ray in quality? Would the quality differ? The reason I'm asking is because I understand the quality of DACs affect the quality of Audio & Video, the reason why certain AVRs are priced high, owing to the superior DACs.

regads,

Nitin.

 

[aneelr]

Hi,

What if you're playing a blu-ray image or a file that's equal to a blu-ray in quality? Would the quality differ? The reason I'm asking is because I understand the quality of DACs affect the quality of Audio & Video, the reason why certain AVRs are priced high, owing to the superior DACs.

regads,

Nitin.

Once the content is out of the BD, it's quality is degraded, but very negligible in most of the cases. But these HD media players are really good in outputting 5.1 surround sound.


cheers.

 

[dolfin]

Hi,

What if you're playing a blu-ray image or a file that's equal to a blu-ray in quality? Would the quality differ? The reason I'm asking is because I understand the quality of DACs affect the quality of Audio & Video, the reason why certain AVRs are priced high, owing to the superior DACs.

regads,

Nitin.

Most of these media players can not match a high end AV gear. Having said that it does not mean they are useless. There are lot of factors affecting the PQ/SQ. People usually select their main equipment (such as AVR, Display etc) of the highest quality but don't care about quality of wires used, calibration of room, media sources used etc. Its true that DACs affect the PQ/SQ but you won't even notice if other factors mentioned above are ignored. Therefore, the simplest answer to your question is if all components in your Home Theater are of highest quality, you would notice a difference between a media player and the high-end Blu Ray player but for e.g. if you use a poor quality HDMI cable, you would still get a bad picture from the same high-end Blu Ray player.

Most of these players use a processor generically termed as "System On Chip" or SoC for short. This single processor is capable of decoding variety of video and audio formats and also support additional features such as networking. This is unlike an AVR which uses DACs for converting video and audio streams. SoC is the heart of the media player (just like Cell BE is the heart of PS3). Players capability is determined by the SoC used.

Unlike in case of high-end AV equipments where people care for the quality of components, in case of media players people care for how many formats it can support. They want their equipment to be more versatile than doing a specific job of highest quality.

Also as aneel has pointed out most of these players are used to play ripped / re-encoded media where the quality is already downgraded. There is no comparison between these categories. If you are purist and believe that PQ/SQ is above anything else, just ignore media player category.

 

[ashishkesarwani]

Once the content is out of the BD, it's quality is degraded, but very negligible in most of the cases. But these HD media players are really good in outputting 5.1 surround sound.


cheers.

If we rip the DVD image as it is then there is no degradation of the image quality and its look identical to the actual BD.
It doesn't matter to the sound quality from a Media Player as thats the part which is taked care by the AVR, since most media player in the market do not do the decoding inside the player but send the output to a connected AVR for conversion so there is no difference in the SQ of any media player avaliable and they all sound the same. These players do the sound decoding only in those cases where we connect these equipment through the composite output directly to the TV and force the media player to do the decoding but there sound quality doesn't matter as the output is relayed onto just 2 channels of the TV speakers.

 

[cmsajith]

Atlast, pulled the trigger for WD Live for 125$ including shipping (missed the 109$ offer and am also paying 7$ for shipping to reach the US address asap). My cousin will be bringing it and will be receiving Jan last week.

 

[cmsajith]

Hurray, received my WD Live (6022/- INR) along with other orders (Terk IR Remote extender and 25ft Flat HDMI cable) from Amazon (my cousin brought it to India).

Q: My TV shows 720P as the resolution by default. Any idea how to change it to 1080 in WD? (TV is connected through HDMI).

Initial impressions are impressive; very nice GUI and a cute and small book sized player. Need to test the music playback through the Caiman DAC.

Now I need some good HD content to play with..

 

[aneelr]

Hurray, received my WD Live (6022/- INR) along with other orders (Terk IR Remote extender and 25ft Flat HDMI cable) from Amazon (my cousin brought it to India).

Q: My TV shows 720P as the resolution by default. Any idea how to change it to 1080 in WD? (TV is connected through HDMI).

Initial impressions are impressive; very nice GUI and a cute and small book sized player. Need to test the music playback through the Caiman DAC.

Now I need some good HD content to play with..

:clapping::clapping::clapping:

The WDTV LIVE is a very good upgrade from the older version. And 6K is an awesome deal:clapping:. And for the resolution, check in the setting's->video options, you can set the video O/P to 1080p over there.

ENJOY!!!!!
cheers