Multimedia external hard disk...Dane-Elec...is this brand any good?

Bakharwaldog

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_5&products_id=104387

Am thinkin of buyin this, A friend of mine has a similar thing but a different brand and its unreal, plays most format easy to use etc.

This one looks pretty cool. jus wanna know does anyone have any experience with the brand Dane Elec?

Macker1

c_k_m wrote: »

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_5&products_id=104387

Am thinkin of buyin this, A friend of mine has a similar thing but a different brand and its unreal, plays most format easy to use etc.

This one looks pretty cool. jus wanna know does anyone have any experience with the brand Dane Elec?

I have used 2 USB memory sticks (4GB & 16GB) from Dane-Elec and have to say I've never had any issues whatsoever.

I would not hesitate in buying their products

Bakharwaldog

cool...good to know..thanks for the reply!

Eoin

Is that missing a HD video output?

Bakharwaldog

hmmm...looks like it. thats prob why its such good value....ara sure none of the videos i download are anywere near HD so i think ill still buy it

Eoin

Well, it's still a good buy I'd say.

One other option would be a unit that receives streaming media from your PC. I have the pinnacle show center 200. It's a small unit (about the size of an NTL digital box) that sits under the TV. It connects to my PC upstairs using WiFi and displays video (including HD), audio (including AC3 surround sound) and photos from my PC on the TV.

Probably the only main advantage though is that the files are all stored on the PC and you don't need to synch any media.

I'd say the one you linked to will probably be as handy though - just thought I'd mention it.
http://www.itreviews.co.uk/hardware/h765.htm

Bakharwaldog

cool...thats pretty handy alrite, kinda outside my price range...tho i like the way i can use this as a external hard drive aswel

Eoin

Then go for it - it looks pretty cool. Be sure to write a review here when it's up and running, I'd love to see how it works out.

Gadgetman496

I've used their external HDD's without any issues, found them to be sturdy, well manufactured & reliable.

I was going to purchase their Media Player with WiFi but was put off by a review I read which said that the menu interface onboard was really crap.

I wonder if the one you are looking at covers both NTFS & FAT or is it just FAT32?


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rosullivan

c_k_m wrote: »

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_5&products_id=104387

Am thinkin of buyin this, A friend of mine has a similar thing but a different brand and its unreal, plays most format easy to use etc.

This one looks pretty cool. jus wanna know does anyone have any experience with the brand Dane Elec?

Did you buy this in the end? Just wondering because I have just ordered one and want to know if they work! Very few reviews online...

Bakharwaldog

ya i got one its great i cant think of any problems with it. Works grand even as just an external hard drive. At first its in french but you can change the settings easily.

Its so handy to have all your videos on the tv. My friend has one as well with 300 gigs of videos which i copied over to mine. literally have 100s of movies as well as loads of series.

Pretty fast to load up most of the time, sometimes it can be slow but jus restarting it fixes it. Transferring videos takes a while tho.

I had one or two problems with certain videos not playing because it didnt support the codec. As far as i could tell it should have been able to play them. I just had to convert them to a supported format.

The player doesnt play mp4 of flv either.

Overall its an unreal player. prob impossible to get anything cheaper or better value than this. Video quality is as good as u would expect.

Cant think of anything else to say. I def recommend it anyway!

zod

iomega equivalent can be bought in peats for €150

rosullivan

c_k_m wrote: »

Cant think of anything else to say. I def recommend it anyway!

Nice one! looking forward to mine arriving now.:)

Tallon

It looks good, If it works out ok let me know and I'll get one!

Rick1984

Im thinking of buying DANE-ELEC 1TB HARD DRIVE HD MEDIA PLAYER RECORDER for £145 from Ebay. Please can anyone tell me if you can transfer recorded media from Dane Elec HDD to a PC, so that you can burn the media onto DVD? (Not streaming to watch) Or access media content on the Dane using a PC to record onto DVD?

Heres the item :-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DANE-ELEC-1TB-Hard-Drive-LAN-HD-Media-PLAYER-RECORDER_W0QQitemZ150339820193QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_HardDrives_RL?hash=item150339820193&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

Wcool

Hi Rick,

I bought one 3 months ago (it's a Sp Speaky PVR). http://www.danedigital.com/4-SO-Hard-Disk-Drives/6-so-speakyPVR.html

I have mixed feelings: it has everything you'll ever want: a network connection, HD, USB, card reader, TV recorder, HDMI output
Price is great too.

But there are problems with it. The biggest one is that it doesn't play x264 and cannot take .mkv files. Basically this means that any modern HD material cannot be played. Mind you, this might not be much of an issue for you.

Another issue I have is that sometimes playback stops in the middle. This is not happening all the time but frequent enough. My use of the device might be slightly different to yours though, I removed the HD and exclusively use the network to play my media files (so in answer to you specific question, yes it is utterly easy to move files to your PC and vice versa).
I placed the HD in my dedicated NAS computer that holds all my data.

A minor issue might be that the interface is rather basic and ugly. But it certainly is functional, only a minor quible.

Oh and the remote for NTL and/or TV actually sometimes confuses it and it boots up the system, when it was on standby. It doesn't interfere in the working but it makes it difficult to switch the device off.

So all in all, would I recommend the device? For 160 euro (that I paid for the 500Gb version), yes, as long as codec support is not high on your list.

Rick1984

Thanks for your reply. I decided to buy one. It came today and ive set it up in the last few hours. I have SKY+ HD and have recorded episodes and films on its hard drive i would like to record with the Dane, store there and to transfer to my PC to burn onto DVD. Inevitably to free up room on my SKY+ HD box and store on my Dane 1tb.

BUT ive come across a problem. Yes, very easy to transfer to PC. Its like any other HDD, Just copy right over using the USB. Yes my PC plays the recorded media (Movie Clip (.mpg) )... BUT when i use NERO 8 to burn it to DVD, it has the sound but no picture? Just a black screen and great sound. Not even the preview of the mpg shows in its preview window in NERO 8, Why is this.

Like i said, it plays fine on the PC as a file, but doesn’t like to be burnt onto DVD's :-(... Also, it records on 4:3 when copied to my pc when my SKY+ HD, Dane and TV are ALL set up to 16:9 !! MAD ... Im going mad :pac: ...

Any help would be great .. Again, thanks for your reply...

Also i paid £145 (about 160 EURO) for a 1TB (1000GB) So Speaky PVR.

Wcool

Not sure what the problem is but definetely it is not the So Speaky.

That only displays the file. The reason why your file may not be properly burned onto disk is because you need to transcode it to DVD format.

Nero should be able to do that I think but you will have to tell it. Also: why do you want to burn it to DVD, why not just copy the file to a DVD? most DVD players can cope with .mpg?

If you are used to play your file with VLC on the PC: VLC uses its own codecs, you will need to download codecs to play it on your computer via other programs, maybe look at http://www.free-codecs.com/

Wcool

oh one more thing: in Setup of the DaneElectric, you can set the Video ratio
Ensure you select the right format: 16-10 or 4-3 depending on your input file

And the website has the latest firmware, have a look (1.31)