Media Player -- with or without HDD ?

NeVeR

I want to get a HD media player so I can view all my Movies ( that are on the PC ) on my TV - I want to be able to view what movie's i have on the TV using a remote.. then select it and BOOM it plays

I've over 600 movies on the PC - Can i get a HD player I can hook up to a Router -- Then select a folder for the HD player to look at on the PC where my Movie's will be and on the other end a HDMI lead from the HD media player to the TV so i can see the movie.

Do i need a Media player with a HDD in it like a 1 TB HDD or something.

Or

Are there one's out there that will do what I want -- ( Connect to the PC via router or direct connect ) and find my content

If anyone could link me to a Media player that would work that would be great.

Thank you.

Eoin

Yep, you can get a media player that will view movies that are being streamed from your PC. One called Popcorn Hour is highly rated. I had one called "Pinnacle Show Center", which was quite good.

However, I had problems because my router either wasn't near enough my PC and media player, or wasn't good enough. Lots of freezing as the media player tried to buffer the file being watched.

Another solution could be a mix of the above - one that has a HDD, and also is network enabled. Then you can transfer files up to it over the network, and the media centre will display them from its local HDD.

I ended up going for a simple solution though - a WDTV media player with a portable HDD I connect to my computer every time I have files to transfer. Not the cleanest solution, but the least hassle.

coylemj

Eoin wrote: »

I ended up going for a simple solution though - a WDTV media player with a portable HDD I connect to my computer every time I have files to transfer. Not the cleanest solution, but the least hassle.

Which also has the benefit that when the HDD isn't big enough anymore you can buy a bigger HDD but don't have to buy a new media player.

JDxtra

I have a WDTV Live Hub (built in 1tb HD). It's great except for the fact that copying large files to it is dog slow (by USB storage or network).

Having a media player with a separate HD at least allows you to copy large volumes of content to it by connecting the drive to your PC.

NeVeR

I just remembered I've one of these
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digital-Gigabit-Ethernet-Storage/dp/B000MES2UE/ref=sr_1_38?ie=UTF8&qid=1321004430&sr=8-38

It's a 500GB one. I bought it and i've never used it. Not even once.

Could i do something with this ?

NeVeR

Just looking at it.. it wont work.. can't connect to the TV lol

NeVeR

Can you guys give me some Amazon links ( or any site ) to the products so I can have a good look.

Thank you.

Eoin

Popcorn hour:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=popcorn+hour&x=0&y=0

WDTV:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=popcorn+hour&x=0&y=0#/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=WDTV&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3AWDTV

NeVeR

cheers

Eoin

Check out this thread in bargain alerts:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056448111

NeVeR

Eoin wrote: »

Check out this thread in bargain alerts:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056448111

Thanks. Thats a little out of my budget. My go for one with out a HDD. I've 2 external HDD and 3 internal LOLz

Eoin

Yep, those ones are expensive. If you don't mind manually transferring files, then I don't think you can go too far wrong with the WDTV.

biggebruv

I have the WD TV LIVE and its never let me down NOT ONCE!! which Im shocked by LOL.
Its a great really easy player to use aswell every mkv,avi,mp4 file I ever had its played

The youtube feature is brillient aswell but searching on the actuall player on its own is a right bitch but if you have an iphone I just search on that and put whatever i wanna watch in the favorites then they show up on the WDTV.

I prefer having just the player that way I can attach however many HDs I want if you hack the player too you can use a USB hub to attach 3 HDs all at once which is pretty cool and the hacking I used didt have any cons at all one of the pros though is a feature called moviesheets which is neat and better than looking at the standard WDTV background

NeVeR

With the WD TV LIVE - Am i'm 100% able to stream the content from my PC to my HD TV ?.

I dont want to stream online content just from my PC.

vibe666

if you already have the hard drive, then you just need something to play it and the WDTV's can be expensive.

if you want something cheap (you did mention budget) that will play *almost* anything you throw at it, you might want to give serious consideration to the sumvision cyclone range of media players as they are a very good low budget alternative to the WDTV boxes.

no, they're not as good, but if you don't want to spend a heap of cash on the more expensive WDTV's, it's a solid option.

NeVeR

vibe666 wrote: »

if you already have the hard drive, then you just need something to play it and the WDTV's can be expensive.

if you want something cheap (you did mention budget) that will play *almost* anything you throw at it, you might want to give serious consideration to the sumvision cyclone range of media players as they are a very good low budget alternative to the WDTV boxes.

no, they're not as good, but if you don't want to spend a heap of cash on the more expensive WDTV's, it's a solid option.

They do look cool.. I was looking at this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cyclone-Micro-MultiMedia-Player-Adaptor/dp/B00534L3B8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1321530479&sr=8-3

I take it this doesn't connect via a Router ? and i'd have to connect the HDD to it.


It does look great and the reviews are really good.. but i don't want to keep moving the HDD to and from the PC when i'm adding content !!

However I could run a USB lead through the hole in the wall and connect it like that !! Umm that is an idea.

Thanks

vibe666

no, they're not networked, but you did say that your hard drive was, so you could connect that via a network cable to your router and use the USB connection to connect permanently to the cyclone which would stay connected to your TV.

having said that, some networked hard drives can't communicate over the network cable and usb at the same time, so you may want to check that first.

NeVeR

Ah i forgot the external HDD would need a 2 USB's to do what i wanted.. 1 to connect to the PC and one to connect to the media player !

umm I'm not sure what to do now. This looks really good and is cheap.

Voodu Child

NeVeR wrote: »

With the WD TV LIVE - Am i'm 100% able to stream the content from my PC to my HD TV ?.

I dont want to stream online content just from my PC.

Yes. Presumably you have Windows so you either share media via upnp (ie WMP) or else just a regular folder share (SMB). Either way will work with the WDTV Live or most networked media players for that matter. By default upnp sharing in Windows only picks up basic stuff like AVI or MP4 but you can hack it to share MKV also.

Note that there is a new WDTV Live and an old one with the same name. A bit confusing, but they look different and the new one has wireless built in. That's the one to go for, they will probably stop supporting the old one fairly soon. link

I would avoid any of those cheapy €30 media players unless you have very basic needs. I've lost count of the number of people who come onto boards complaining that various files won't play, are out of sync or cut out half way.