Which HD Multimedia Player

Why is everyone being so damn cheap?! Do you really want to own something called "AC Ryan", for godsake? I love my Mede8er. Buy one and I assure you, you will find yourself praising it on this thread afterwards.
 
paddy_za said:
Why is everyone being so damn cheap?! Do you really want to own something called "AC Ryan", for godsake? I love my Mede8er. Buy one and I assure you, you will find yourself praising it on this thread afterwards.
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Really? You'd rather own something that uses SMS speak in it's title than something called AC Ryan? I don't mind titles but, really to me the 8 in Mede8er is about as bad as it gets. Still wouldn't mind tho, it's just a player.

Just a general question to everyone, why are you Mede8er owners so defensive, let the guy make up his own damned mind. If you are a fan boy keep it to yourself or at least make a valid argument. You spent money on a Mede8er but that doesn't mean the whole world MUST buy Mede8er or they are wrong.
 
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Gnome said:
Really? You'd rather own something that uses SMS speak in it's title than something called AC Ryan? I don't mind titles but, really to me the 8 in Mede8er is about as bad as it gets.
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I suppose I was subconciously hoping that someone would comment on that. Anyways, all jokes aside, its a rad device. Let me know what you think if you get one?
 
Gnome said:
Really? You'd rather own something that uses SMS speak in it's title than something called AC Ryan? I don't mind titles but, really to me the 8 in Mede8er is about as bad as it gets.

Just a general question to everyone, why are you Mede8er owners so defensive, let the guy make up his own damned mind. If you are a fan boy keep it to yourself or at least make a valid argument. You spent money on a Mede8er but that doesn't mean the whole world MUST buy Mede8er or they are wrong.
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Of course it does, everyone must buy the same stuff I buy otherwise it means I may have made a mistake! T3h h0rr0r!!one1!! (That last bit was just for you Gnome :p)
 
dualmeister said:
I'm surprised no ever mentions the Compro Network Media Center 950.

http://www.comprousa.com/en/product/nmc950/nmc950.html

Sells for less than a grand
Takes 2.5" and 3.5" HDD's
1080p HDMI
Plays over the network
Plays everything
Even has a BitTorrent client

Bought 3 of them already for friends and they all happy with it :)
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I have one and it rocks....

Does anyone know what the chipset is in the Compro 950?

PS, a certain wholesaler has them on special with 1TB Seagate drive for R1227 all inclusive.
 
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Popcorn C-200 - have been using it since January and probably the best gadget I ever bought (hooked up via Gigabit to a Synology DS1010+ with 4,5TB of storage).
 
Gnome said:
Really? You'd rather own something that uses SMS speak in it's title than something called AC Ryan? I don't mind titles but, really to me the 8 in Mede8er is about as bad as it gets. Still wouldn't mind tho, it's just a player.

Just a general question to everyone, why are you Mede8er owners so defensive, let the guy make up his own damned mind. If you are a fan boy keep it to yourself or at least make a valid argument. You spent money on a Mede8er but that doesn't mean the whole world MUST buy Mede8er or they are wrong.
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Well I must say I haven't seen anybody being defensive about the mede8er.... maybe you are referring to me :). What I do understand is that if a person talks with passion about a device that does work it doesn't make them a fanboy. It is the only one that they own, it does work and they can recommend it to someone. So what if they are skeptical about whether another device with the same chip (ac ryan) is as good as the mede8er because with these players the use of the SDK is often the defining quality (the Mvix 780HD versus Dvico Tvix that I owned had same chipset but they where leagues apart). So why must the recommend anything else.

Also just based on spec, chipset, etc there is no valid reason to recommend the one over the other but I own both and therefore I would recommend the mede8er over the ac ryan. If price is though an issue then yeah there is no reason not to go for the ac ryan. I currently own the mede8er, ac ryan and are getting another mede8er this week. The two devices are just not the same with regards to quality (visual, sound, experience, etc). Hopefully the ac ryan experience will improve a bit with the new firmware (can you still please post the link of beta based on SDK4 as I can't find it) but when I recommend to my friends I always go mede8er --> ac ryan --> wd --> compro. They can then pick what price they want to spend. I must say if the mede8er 400 is anything like the 500 I'll probably change it to mede8er 500 --> mede8er 400 --> ac ryan --> wd --> compro but at least I would only recommend something once I owned it.
 
ara said:
What I do understand is that if a person talks with passion about a device that does work it doesn't make them a fanboy
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I've seen fanboyism before, I can spot it a mile away. Although I won't say everyone who posted and said they had a mede8er is a fan boy, there are definitely some here ;)

ara said:
The two devices are just not the same with regards to quality (visual, sound, experience, etc)
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Not entirely sure how that is possible. The software doesn't actually change the decoding done by the chip itself. As I said before, things like reading a MKV file is done with a general purpose processor (eg. CPU) and therefore the code is changeable VIA software. But as I understand it the video/audio decoding (of the actual streams) are done in hardware. How would you decrease quality anyway? Let's take an example. H.264, the stream is decoded by X and Y. Both decode it the exact same way, forgetting that they are the same chips internally, the specification for decoding of those formats haven't changed they were released. There is no way any spec complaint decoder is better or worse than any other, the difference comes in during post processing and efficiency. The only way X & Y could possible be different is if post processing was done. As far as I'm aware currently no post processing (apart from perhaps colour changes) are done. Deblocking/deringing/etc. of 1080p is incredibly processor intensive.

ara said:
can you still please post the link of beta based on SDK4 as I can't find it
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I know I saw it but I honestly didn't make a bookmark. I already told you I don't own the player. Have you tried downloading the latest firmwares? If it isn't there than I assume I misread or the guy who posted it made a typo.

I don't care either way, I don't own the device, as I've said before. I'm not some kind of knight in shining armor for AC Ryan, I knew of an issue (MKV Header compression problem), pointed it out, then got drawn into this whole argument of Mede8er = god of media players debate. If you are interested search for yourself.

As I said I decided not to buy either, I don't like Mede8er and I don't like AC Ryan at this point. If I HAD to buy now I'd probably still take the WD TV Live but I'd rather wait for the next wave of media players.
 
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xrapidx said:
I have a mede8er :) And I'm not a fanboy..... it just works for me .
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I didn't say you were, hence the lack of names :) So as not to get drawn into another argument. Just because someone recommends or likes the Mede8er doesn't mean they are a fanboy IMHO.
 
Gnome said:
Not entirely sure how that is possible. The software doesn't actually change the decoding done by the chip itself. As I said before, things like reading a MKV file is done with a general purpose processor (eg. CPU) and therefore the code is changeable VIA software. But as I understand it the video/audio decoding (of the actual streams) are done in hardware. How would you decrease quality anyway? Let's take an example. H.264, the stream is decoded by X and Y. Both decode it the exact same way, forgetting that they are the same chips internally, the specification for decoding of those formats haven't changed they were released. There is no way any spec complaint decoder is better or worse than any other, the difference comes in during post processing and efficiency. The only way X & Y could possible be different is if post processing was done. As far as I'm aware currently no post processing (apart from perhaps colour changes) are done. Deblocking/deringing/etc. of 1080p is incredibly processor intensive.
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It is not at the chip level that their is a difference. It is the quality of the all the other components, the PCB design, quality of binding posts, etc can play a role. The fine tuning of the firmware, whether the firmware people actually use all the functionality that the chip uses (Go look at the Anchor Bay video processing chips and you will see the amount of functionality they provide but not all manufactures use all that functionality). In fact Anchor Bay sell the same chip to different manufactures and 1 manufacturer is not allowed to use all the functionality because they are paying a lower license for it although they have all the functionality available. Go look at so many different Blu-Ray players that are based on the Oppo design. You get the basic design and then other manufacturers enhance them with better components that create less "noise". Look at the Mvix 780HD compared to some other players that used the same Sigma chip, etc. There is so many documented scenarios of this that it is to tiresome to name.

Gnome said:
I know I saw it but I honestly didn't make a bookmark. I already told you I don't own the player. Have you tried downloading the latest firmwares? If it isn't there than I assume I misread or the guy who posted it made a typo.
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Thanks I'll look again but let me know if you see it again.

Gnome said:
I don't care either way, I don't own the device, as I've said before. I'm not some kind of knight in shining armor for AC Ryan, I knew of an issue (MKV Header compression problem), pointed it out, then got drawn into this whole argument of Mede8er = god of media players debate. If you are interested search for yourself.
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I know off all of this but I think it is more the manner that you have done this plus then generalising about fanboyism :). You basically/almost put HTC_guy of from buying a mede8er because of an almost non-existent problem and then when people that have the device try to illustrate that although it is a theoretical problem very few of them are experiencing it in real life. So in essence you came thru as very negative about the mede8er and that the AC Ryan is so much better. I haven't seen anybody that you could describe as a fanboy in this post. I think the only one you could probably call one is me :D but then again I'm a fanboy although I at least own/owned a lot of other players but I'm a fan of the mede8er because it does work brilliantly.
 
will be testing with a hdd, but strangely when using a USB stick, I can't view any of the 8 MKV test files on the WDTV Live.

gonna test with the hdd and then gonna update the firmware and see what happens.

maybe it is cause I have custom firmware on it :(
 
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