Media Player

[Dareos]

I found out last night that my PS3 doesn't play a fair few of my media files, so was considering a Media Player for the living room, preferrably something that plays all formats (i know this impossible hehe) and updates firmware online for new formats.

Looking for HD 1080p, 500Gb or higher hard drive or the capability to take 3.5" drives, and an n class wireless adaptor as the router is in a different room and cable connection is not possible.

I don't care about a digital TV tuner, TV has it and I have TiVo into the bargain, all the other TV's in the house have a digital tuner inbuilt.


I had intended just to link my laptop up but for some reason when i plug in the HDMI cable the picture only takes up 2/3rds of the screen and I can't find a way to fill it.

Any help appreciated, going through some major digital changes in the home atm, thinking of a 5.1 cinema system for the spare room and building a new pc in the next few months, not to mention possibly upgrading the current one .

[Skinleech]

I guess the first question should be regarding budget?

I bought a Popcorn Hour A-210 a couple months back, and whilst it doesn't get regular use as it's a secondary machine for the bedroom, it's played anything I've tried to throw at it except for a couple of Blu-ray disks ripped to HDD - no big deal as I'd just watch the disks on the HTPC anyway. You can slot a 3.5" drive in without issue, it's all but silent (bar the noise of your HDD). Doesn't have wireless built in, but you can get a separate USB dongle for it.

Retails about £220 + £20ish for the wireless dongle.

[Dareos]

I'm willing to go up to around £200 or so, would be nice if it had the 5.1 capability for that tho, not the speakers, just the capability

[Dareos]

Any opinions on the Boxee? its a D-Link device which doesn't impress me tbh, and its 200$ in the states and £185 here which also annoys me..... but the reviews seem ok.

[jim]

AC Ryan Playon is another option, UI isn't as customisable as the Popcorn alternatives as I understand it but it's a cheap, effective option.

[DannyM]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-Re...#ht_500wt_1156

Best media center you will ever own. Will play anything you throw at it. Customize it as much as you like XBMC has a solid community.

[Skinleech]

The Popcorn Hours will do 5.1 over HDMI, analogue, digital coax or SP/Dif, but is maybe a little more expensive than you want to pay. You might be able to get an A-200 a bit chepaer than the A-210, but it's not as pretty as it has a cheap plastic case rather than a nice aluminium one, and it's for a fan on the CPU whereas the A-210 doesn't need one.

I've read good things about the Boxee on a different forum, and Hexus also posted a good review of the AC Ryan. The Acer Revo I know nothing about, though I do still use XBMC on my Xbox 1 which has always done me proud.

[jimborae]

I found out last night that my PS3 doesn't play a fair few of my media files, .......

.

I think the first question here is how are attemping to play the files??.......i.e. directly off the PS3 or via your pc. I suppose my question really is have you tried using PS3 Media Server, that's what I use in conjunction with my pc I find that there's very few files it won't play and my PS3 is now my main media player for video. It's a simple to use and free, couldn't ask for more really.

[Dareos]

its .mkv files it wont play. currently trying a converter, taking 5+ hours per file, not good

[jim]

Even with PS3MS and a quad core you still can't watch MKVs on a PS3

[Dareos]

After mulling over this a fair bit, i've decided to go for the Popcorn Hour, as long as i can find one, hens teeth these things lol

[jimborae]

Even with PS3MS and a quad core you still can't watch MKVs on a PS3

My PS3MS and C2duo Win home sever plays/transcodes MKV's just fine thank you very much

[jim]

My PS3MS and C2duo Win home sever plays/transcodes MKV's just fine thank you very much

Maybe yours are just low bitrate? Some worked, I'll give you that.

But on others, I had image degradation, files simply refusing to play, and of course any attempt to pause for an extended period of time or skip forward made the whole thing fall to its knees.

Got an AC Ryan Playon now which natively plays mkv with no transcoding required and it's fine. Transcoding high bitrate files is asking for trouble - at best it's a half-baked solution.

[jimborae]

Maybe yours are just low bitrate? Some worked, I'll give you that.

But on others, I had image degradation, files simply refusing to play, and of course any attempt to pause for an extended period of time or skip forward made the whole thing fall to its knees.

Got an AC Ryan Playon now which natively plays mkv with no transcoding required and it's fine. Transcoding high bitrate files is asking for trouble - at best it's a half-baked solution.

Most are 720p torrent tv downloads so yes fairly low bit rate, but I do have a couple of blu-ray rips that are about 15-20Gb in size and Avatar peaks at about 80Mb/s and that plays fine too with no stuttering or freezes and really very good picture quality (on a gigabit wired network). Granted fast forward & rewind don't work well at anything above 10x but that doesn't bother me. The latest clients do really seem to work quite well.

[Biscuit]

... no transcoding required and it's fine. Transcoding high bitrate files is asking for trouble - at best it's a half-baked solution.

Utter garbage, its not ideal granted but near enough every bit of television you watch on freeview is transcoded.

[abaxas]

http://www.mkv2vob.com/

If it will work on a ps3 it doesnt transcode, if it doesnt, it does!