Which Multimedia Player - Part II

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greggpb

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Hi guys I saw the thread about all the media players and I didn't want to hi jack.

which media player would you guys recommend.. I would like to to be as small as possible & Diskless

Movies, pics, music would be stored on my home NAS.

The Media players would then be at my tvs ? anyone know of a systems like this.. I would prefer an appliance to building a my own ... can I can do it
 
dude, the other thread is still going strong... :D I dont mind hijack!! :D

I still havent made up my mind... its annoying!!

:(
 
ya good luck with that....

personally, I think you gonna have more luck posting in the DSTV section

?
 
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VonPickle said:
Maybe it would help if owners of the media players could list any gripes they have?
Click to expand...
Brilliant Idea. Maybe someone else can post a fix/workaround to your specific gripe.
I have a WD TV media player and have one gripe ( which I posted on the other thread , but no one "listened" :( ) and that is you do not have the luxury of watching video and picks at the same time. You have to select either video or pics from the main menu and it only picks up what you selected ( video or pics ) I for one like to take pics and video clips form digi camera and put it in one folder based on date and occasion. I always miss the videos for obvious reasons. and oh ya in reverse, never see movie covers :whistle:
 
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VonPickle said:
Maybe it would help if owners of the media players could list any gripes they have?
Click to expand...

Not sure if I'll have enough time to find any 'gripes' but I'll be playing with my new AC Ryan Essential this weekend and will post my findings next week.
 
Faults I have with the Mede8er so far:

The interface could be a lot prettier, hope the next FW update will fix this.
You have to point the remote at the EXACT right area for it to work, very annoying.
File manager feels buggy, you can't, for instance, copy pictures inside a directory on a USB device to the HDD, only full directories.
No ID3 tags in the music player, or none that I could find with my limited use of it.

Other than that, it's one of the coolest things I've bought in a while.
 
VonPickle said:
You have to point the remote at the EXACT right area for it to work, very annoying.
Click to expand...
Had the same gripe.
If you have a HD PVR remote program the commands from media player remote to PVR remote ( A B C or D). Its the smartest thing I did since :erm: .. anyway. I replaced 4 remotes ( TV , MPlayer , Receiver and DVD player ) with my PVR remote and forced everyone in the house to learn to use it. No more remotes and batteries lying under pillows , couches , units etc. Even if you dont have a HD PVR remote I think its a smart investment. Put your media player remote away in a safe place cause when thats gone you have a nice little shiny paperweight.
But for u ... it will sort out the " You have to point the remote at the EXACT right area for it to work "
problem .
 
Its called IR learning if memory serves. You turn the dial on PVR remote to A B C D then press a series of buttons to program it. Basically you put the remotes "face" to "face" and whicever button you press on the "other" remote you can program your PVr remote to store the IR frequency.Its in the little booklet you get with the remote or you can download instructions from DSTV forums . sounds a little tedioous at first but you soon get used to it and its worthit.
 
greggpb said:
Hi guys I saw the thread about all the media players and I didn't want to hi jack.

which media player would you guys recommend.. I would like to to be as small as possible & Diskless

Movies, pics, music would be stored on my home NAS.

The Media players would then be at my tvs ? anyone know of a systems like this.. I would prefer an appliance to building a my own ... can I can do it
Click to expand...

The WD TV live.
 
VonPickle said:
Faults I have with the Mede8er so far:

The interface could be a lot prettier, hope the next FW update will fix this.
You have to point the remote at the EXACT right area for it to work, very annoying.
File manager feels buggy, you can't, for instance, copy pictures inside a directory on a USB device to the HDD, only full directories.
No ID3 tags in the music player, or none that I could find with my limited use of it.

Other than that, it's one of the coolest things I've bought in a while.
Click to expand...

I don't have any such problem with mine. Mede8er is about 0.5m from the right-most edge of the TV. I sit about 5m from the TV. I can point the mede8er remote at the TV and it responds *shrug*
 
MartyMarts said:
Not sure if I'll have enough time to find any 'gripes' but I'll be playing with my new AC Ryan Essential this weekend and will post my findings next week.
Click to expand...

So far:

It played everything I threw at it flawlessly. The UI is simple and easy to use.

...but:

The fan gets rather noisy - initially when you switch on the device it's silent but definitely gets louder after a while :wtf:
Seems like you need to point the remote directly at the device for it to work.
It doesn't group your collection in their respective folders, it just pics up all movies on your HDD and lists them (or via thumbnail view) which makes going through 100s of movies a bit tedious imo.

Bear in mind I've only used a 2.5" HDD via usb so far and haven't tested an internal HDD. So far from what I've experienced I'm happy. I'll give more feedback as and when I have any to give :)

Oh and btw, Esquire initially quoted me R699 excl. VAT but I told my friend to ask for a discount when she picked it up - they gave her one and she paid R599 excl. VAT ...so big thumbs up to Esquire.
 
MartyMarts said:
So far:

It played everything I threw at it flawlessly. The UI is simple and easy to use.

...but:

The fan gets rather noisy - initially when you switch on the device it's silent but definitely gets louder after a while :wtf:
Seems like you need to point the remote directly at the device for it to work.
It doesn't group your collection in their respective folders, it just pics up all movies on your HDD and lists them (or via thumbnail view) which makes going through 100s of movies a bit tedious imo.

Bear in mind I've only used a 2.5" HDD via usb so far and haven't tested an internal HDD. So far from what I've experienced I'm happy. I'll give more feedback as and when I have any to give :)

Oh and btw, Esquire initially quoted me R699 excl. VAT but I told my friend to ask for a discount when she picked it up - they gave her one and she paid R599 excl. VAT ...so big thumbs up to Esquire.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, the Mede8er is known to have a better fan.

Glad you're enjoying the AC Ryan though. Much of a muchness. Just keep the fugly thing hidden away. :D:D Jokes!
 
MartyMarts said:
The fan gets rather noisy - initially when you switch on the device it's silent but definitely gets louder after a while :wtf:
Click to expand...
Is there space for a bigger fan?
Seems like you need to point the remote directly at the device for it to work.
Click to expand...
:(
It doesn't group your collection in their respective folders, it just pics up all movies on your HDD and lists them (or via thumbnail view) which makes going through 100s of movies a bit tedious imo.
Click to expand...
I hope thats only with the external USB device.
Oh and btw, Esquire initially quoted me R699 excl. VAT but I told my friend to ask for a discount when she picked it up - they gave her one and she paid R599 excl. VAT ...so big thumbs up to Esquire.
Click to expand...
If thats the normal price then I will register and get one. While the Mede8er looks good, it's difficult to justify the price difference especially because you can put a hard drive in this one and you can't with the small Mede8er's. I am not sure if you can add wireless to the baby Mede8er either.
 
Mede8er = AC Ryan

Had them side by side and the remote operated both i.e. if you press a button, it executed the same instruction on both. Had to remove power cable from Mede8er to get only AC RYAN to work.

IMO, the only difference is the firmware and to date I think the Mede8er one is better, at least if you read the forums here, that is the impression.
 
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