about 6 months ago - 3 comments
Altaz HD Network Media Player 1080P AZNMP101 Supports Divx/AVI/RMVB/MPEG Video from SD/MS Card, USB Flash Drive, or External Hard Drive Rating: List Price: $ 81.99 best Price :$ 35.00 this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up) HDMI output with the full 1080p high-definition video Support most popular video formats…
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rooCASE (Med EVA Black) Hard Shell Case with Memory Foam for iomega 128GB External SSD Flash Drive Superspeed USB 3.0 35142 Black Rating: List Price: $ 28.00 best Price :$ 13.82 this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up) Non-OEM Case for iomega 128GB External SSD Flash Drive Superspeed USB…
about 7 months ago - 3 comments
Verbatim Acclaim 750 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive 97385 (Piano Black) Rating: List Price: $ 101.99 best Price :$ 82.90 this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up) One of the industries smallest hard drives Available in sleek piano-black, fire-engine red or electric blue finishes Windows and Mac…
about 7 months ago - Comments Off
CaseCrown Hard Case Mobile External Hard Drive Case (Black) For Western Digital My Passport for Mac 500 GB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive WDMEA5000AN (Black/Silver) Rating: List Price: $ 24.99 best Price :$ 7.21 this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up) Fits the Western Digital My Passport for…
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CaseCrown Brushed Granite (Black) Hard Cover Case for Seagate GoFlex Slim 320 GB USB 3.0 Performance External Hard Drive Rating: List Price: $ 24.99 best Price :$ 7.21 this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up) Padded with shock absorbing double foam Interior features two elastic bands to hold hard…
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CaseCrown Hard Case Mobile External Hard Drive Case (Black) for Garmin nuvi 1450 5-Inch Portable GPS nuvigator Rating: List Price: $ 24.99 best Price :$ 7.21 this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up) Great to protect your GPS! Padded with shock absorbing double foam. Interior features two elastic bands…
about 7 months ago - 2 comments
Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 750 GB USB 3.0/2.0 Ultra Portable External Hard Drive (Black) Rating: List Price: $ 119.99 best Price :$ 69.99 this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up) Dual USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 compatibility Connectivity today; speed for tomorrow Up to 3x faster transfer…
about 7 months ago - Comments Off
Transcend StoreJet 25D2 500 GB External Hard Drive – Black TS500GSJ25D2 Rating: List Price: $ 77.99 best Price :$ 77.99 this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up) Sleek, elegant design plus shock -resistant, perfect match for your MAC or PC Driver-free Plug and Play with 500GB capacity, allow you…
about 8 months ago - Comments Off
NBOX Digital Media Player – Support USB driver – plays DivX/ AVI/ RMVB/ RM/ Xvid/ MPG/ MPEG/ VOB/ DAT/ MOV on TV, White Rating: List Price: $ 102.87 best Price :$ 53.00 this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up) Drives: RM/RMVB/DivX/AVI/MPEG/MPG; JPEG/BMP/GIF/PNG; MP3/WMA/WAV. Support: SD/MMC, USB Drive/USB External Hard…
about 8 months ago - 2 comments
Vantec EZ Swap 4 3.5-Inch Aluminum Removable Trayless SATA Hard Drive Rack with LCD and Fan MRK-401ST-BK (Black) Rating: List Price: $ 47.00 best Price :$ 27.99 this best price old post please check price update(price will lower or up) Fits In Any Standard 5.25″ Drive Bay Easy Installation with Tool-Free Design Front Ventilation with…
about 10 months ago
Really disappointing . . .,
This falls short of expectations for several reasons. Too bad, since I’ve always been a SONY fan. I received my unit last night (paid $59) and hooked it up to our main media center and attached an external 1 TB drive containing a large library of movies and video clips to test it out. For comparison, I have the WD TV HD Media on one HDTV, Mac Mini (OS X 10.6) setup on another running Boxee, and a quad-core PC running Windows 7 Windows Media Center and Boxee (PC) for comparison. Here are my observations:
1. Looks – not bad (typical SONY styling), small footprint, muted blue LED which isn’t too bright which is a common problem with a lot of new gadgets, a bit flimsy and light such that when you hook up either an HDMI or component cable the unit will lift off the surface because of cord bend (I had to make sure the cables were not twisted and even had to add a weight on top of the media player to keep it stable)
2. USB design – lousy, there’s only one USB port and it’s located on the front which looks terrible on my media center by having a cord or thumbdrive sticking straight out. This is where the WD TV HD wins out since it has 2 USB ports (one in the back and one on the side which hides your connections). You can attach any USB device up to both ports and access both at the same time.
3. Ugly menu interface – I was really disappointed that the software team for this unit did not make a more user-friendly and visually appealing menu. The menus are all in a bland VCR-menu font and if you have a folder with a lot of files, it only shows a few at a time and the scrolling is very slow. It would have been nicer if they had designed a faster scrolling intuitive menu like on the PSP rather than the current large font menus that aren’t even in HD resolution and have no ability to sort your files. Again, the WD TV HD stands out with a superior menu system that also includes generating thumbnail pictures. Truthfully, the SONY menu system reminds me of an old VCR or digital camera menu. My Mac Mini setup with Boxee is the nicest by far using wireless streaming from a HP Home MediaSmart server, but it’s more complicated to setup and obviously much more expensive.
4. Video formats – this is where the unit really falls short. I used a 1 TB WD Prestige external drive and loaded a library of various formats including DVD iso’s, DIVX, avi, mov, mp4, H.264, etc. I’m not a video tech expert, but suffice to say that > 95% of my video files were recognized and played perfectly on the WD TV HD player, while only ~ 50% of these files would play on the SONY media player and you frequently get an error or unrecognized file message. The SONY player is unable to read H.264 formatted video files while the WD TV HD has no problem.
***(5.) Netflix/Pandora streaming content – obviously this unit is not network-ready, but I thought it would be worth mentioning that using either a small-form Mac or PC with proper specs and HDMI output that you can run free apps like Boxee of just use the Windows Media Center (Windows 7 version is very stable and quite nice) to get internet HD streaming content in a nice packaged interface which is far better than all of the specialized media players. The other option is getting a network player like WD TV HD Live, Asus O’Play, or Roku. Another advantage of using a computer media center is that you can take advantage of a wireless network to avoid cable clutter and be able to run applications and games.
Conclusion – I’m moving this player to the bedroom flat screen and using the WD TV HD on our main media center. Disappointing since our our primary media center includes mostly SONY components. My overall impression is that this unit was rushed out too fast for the holiday season and deserved more refinement. Take a look at my review on the WD TV HD Media player for comparison.
*** Have been using this for a few days now and can confirm that H.264 files are incompatible with this player which is a major flaw considering this is the most common format for HD streaming and HD camcorders. On the other hand, no problem playing Divx formats. Unlike other media players, this one only plays in “near HD quality” (read specs) and does not play 1080p. ***
Update 2/2010 – this player is virtually useless since it handles only limited file formats and has been moved to the guest room. The standard video settings that I typically use for HandBrake conversions are not compatible with this player. The price has ranged on Amazon from ~ $30 – $60 and for those lucky to get it at $30, it’s not a bad deal recognizing that you may have to spend some time converting your video files. On the other hand, at the current price of $50 I’d still recommend spending just a bit more to get either the WD HD or Asus O’Play models which can be purchased at other sites ~ $70 and will handle virtually all file…
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|about 10 months ago
Disappointing,
Bought this over the WDTV mini for a Christmas present. It will do the job, as it plays Divx files and such. Menu load time was slow off the ext. HDD. It has no MKV support. It looks pretty cool and the remote is well-built. Just seems like it was not very well thought out when released.
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|about 10 months ago
Not bad at all,
I had purchased this item from Amazon for $35 (lightning deal plus cc promo), with the expectations of being able to watch some of my downloaded movies (.avi), shows (.vob), and home videos (.avi) on it. I finally just got around to setting it up, and surprisingly, the initial setup was much easier than expected. I truly didn’t expect that to go so well, with the TV, Cable Box, and VCR/DVD players hooked up. I took the easy route first, using an HDMI cable, hooking it to the Sony unit and my Proscan TV (HDMI-1 port was available). I put a .vob and an .avi onto my 4gb PNY flash drive. While I too was unimpressed with the look of the menu, I was able to figure out right away how to manuever it and play. For my current needs, it works fine. Reading the other reviews tells me that some of my movie formats won’t be able to be viewed (.mkv, I believe), but at the moment, that doesn’t matter to me. I can always try to convert it if need be. I have no regrets for the time being. If any issues do arise, I’ll modify this review as needed.
EDIT 01/25/10: Had issues on the PNY flash drive. 1/2 hour into the .vob file, which btw, is readable in a DVD player, bombed out due to a DATA ERROR. It also wouldn’t read .avi files created on my Creative Vado HD cam. I will try again using an external hard drive. I was able to watch an .avi movie using the external hard drive, a Western Digital Passport, without any errors or problems.
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