best MEDIA PLAYER

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 4:01 pm

Hi Folks,

i'm planing to buy a Media Player, please give me ur opinion to help me in choosing the best value for money.

i need min 500gb HDD and needs to be available in Oz mkt Smile

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Regards
AJ

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:12 pm

I would probably buy a Play station 3 and upgrade the hard drive to preferable size. But that's just me.

400$ for a ps3 slim with 120 gb HDD and another 100$ for a 500 gb harddrive to upgrade with

That gives you a bluray player with 500 gb storage which you can play games on and did i mention internet, did i mention that it was stylish, did i mention hd picture and sound?!?!?! I feel like a salesman but seriously 500$ for all that. Razz

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 5:17 pm

charluk wrote:

I would probably buy a Play station 3 and upgrade the hard drive to preferable size. But that's just me.

400$ for a ps3 slim with 120 gb HDD and another 100$ for a 500 gb harddrive to upgrade with

That gives you a bluray player with 500 gb storage which you can play games on and did i mention internet, did i mention that it was stylish, did i mention hd picture and sound?!?!?! I feel like a salesman but seriously 500$ for all that. Razz

Well he could build a PC with much better specs than a PS3 for around $500:

Mobo $80
processor: $70
Memory $50
dvd drive $30
1TB HD $100
Case $80
Video card $80
Ubuntu Linux OS: FREE
=a box miles above a PS3 with a fully functional OS that will rib/burn/play any format around.

Get a board with Nvidia/Intel onboard graphics and you can skip the video card, buy a mini case(i only recommend this if you dont have vid card as it will produce extra heat, heat is an issue in the mini-cases)

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 8:24 pm

i built a media centre pc a few days ago this the basics of mine

Intel DG41MJ G41 LGA775 miniITX Motherboard -- around £55

Compucase Mini ITX Case - With 120W PSU and Front panel USB2.0 HD Audio £45 --- link http://www.ebuyer.com/product/156186

cpu
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6GHz - got for £35 on clearence

4gb ddr 2 ram = £60 aprox

samsung sata notebook dvd +-rw £25

500gb sata hard drive £35 oem

then slap ubuntu on it with moonvida perfect little media station

u may want to upgrade to a bigger hard drive and \ or better cpu but to be fair thats a entire media centre system there in a case that looks like a dvd player using on board graphics (can be upgraded if u wish) for around £250 perfect for a media centre got 5.1 surrond sound aswell ok admitly it does not do blu ray how ever who buys dvds or blu ray disks any way Smile

if you got it on a network with other pc's and internet u may want to not even bother putting a dvd drive init at all and use the extra money to upgrade to a 1tgb hard drive since u can just ftp all your media over and install ubuntu of mem stick im pretty sure you can not actually tried to see if that bios allows usb boot but should do

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 8:41 pm

michael.bourke wrote:

If you got it on a network with other pc's and internet u may want to not even bother putting a dvd drive init at all and use the extra money to upgrade to a 1tgb hard drive since u can just ftp all your media over and install ubuntu of mem stick im pretty sure you can not actually tried to see if that bios allows usb boot but should do

.

most mobos for the last few years have the necessary options to boot from usb devices (floppies, ZIP drives and pen drives) but dont try doing it with windows. It wont like. I tried it with a 2004-issue gigabyte board and ran mandriva off of it fine. As always do your research before and you'll be fine.

Posted: Mon Feb 08, 2010 9:26 pm

michael.bourke wrote:

then slap ubuntu on it with moonvida perfect little media station

I had never heard of this prog, just tried it out and its quite nice indeed Smile

Thanks

[edit] it's actually Moovida Though

Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 1:22 am

cbilljones wrote:

michael.bourke wrote:

then slap ubuntu on it with moonvida perfect little media station

I had never heard of this prog, just tried it out and its quite nice indeed Smile

Thanks

[edit] it's actually Moovida Though

quite correct my spellings never been that great lol Very Happy

Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 8:49 am

for me all media player are the same,but they have defferent featured inside..just buy good soundsystem

Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:23 pm

Hi all,

michael.bourke wrote:

i built a media centre pc a few days ago this the basics of mine

Intel DG41MJ G41 LGA775 miniITX Motherboard -- around £55

Compucase Mini ITX Case - With 120W PSU and Front panel USB2.0 HD Audio £45 --- link http://www.ebuyer.com/product/156186

cpu
Intel Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6GHz - got for £35 on clearence

4gb ddr 2 ram = £60 aprox

samsung sata notebook dvd +-rw £25

500gb sata hard drive £35 oem

...

Now, suggest me if the following is more appealing than ving a PC (considering portability, suitable looks for a living room etc etc...) also its priced at $139 AUD, features :

Product name : Astone Media Gear AP-300
HDD Support: 3.5" SATA hard drive up to 2.0TB
Disc format : FAT16/FAT32/NTFS/UDF/EXT3
Subtitle: Chinese Traditional/Chinese Simplified/UTF8/Korean/Japanese
Resolution : 1080p
Aspect ratio : Pan Scan 4:3 / Letterbox 4:3 /16:9
Interface: Video: CVBS YPbPr HDMI 1.3
Audio: AUDIO L/R S/PDIF, TOSLINK
USB: USB 2.0, 5V-1000mA
USB DVD-ROM: DVD Disc playback
USB Wireless dongle : Astone AW-N290 802.11n dongle, SAMBA client, UPnP
MOVIE Video: MPEG-1 (DAT / MPG / MPEG); MPEG-2 (MPG / MPEG / VOB / ISO / IFO / TS / TP) MPEG-4 (MP4 / AVI / MOV); DivX 3/4/5/6, Xvid (AVI / MKV) H.264 AVC (TS / AVI / MKV / MOV) VC-1 (TS / AVI / MKV / WMV); WMV 9 (WMV); Real Video HD 8/9/10 (RM / RMVB); FLV (FLV)
MOVIE Audio : Dolby Digital AC3, DTS, DTS-HD Downmix, MPEG-I Layer 1/2/3, MPEG-II Layer 1/2 multichannel, Real Audio, MPEG-4 HE AACv2, LPCM; Support 7.1 audio channels
MOVIE Subtitle : srt, sub, smi, idx+sub**, ssa, DVD subtitle, DivX subtitle
MUSIC : MP3, WMA, WAV, ASF, AAC, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, iTune, M4A(AAC), M3U(Playlist)
PHOTO: JPG(40-mega pixel without limitation of resolution, Baseline), BMP, PNG, GIF, TIF, TIFF
Power rating : 12V 2A
Size: 206 x 142.5 x 48.1 mm (L x W x H)
Operation temperature: 40 Celsius

HDD is not provided but its OK as i wud ve bought for the suggested PC Smile

No dis-respect or offence meant to anyone... just exploring and weighing options!

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Thnx n regards

Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:31 pm

HI all,

dice32v wrote:

for me all media player are the same,but they have defferent featured inside..just buy good soundsystem

I agree...

if one has a PC already, i wud go for a media player and invest the difference (building a new Media centre - buying a media player) in a good amp/sound system! ...thas just me

oops!!! i forgot tht i already ve a decent sound system Wink

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Thnx n regards

Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 2:51 am

I prefer the KM player...Though VLC is great, the user interface and the controls are not that easy to use and the fast forward really gives me a pain, with the video occasionally stopping or showing funny colours...and the Real player is horrible!!!! no proper controls and an even more stupid GUI.KM player has a really cool interface and absurdly simple keyboard controls and it can play almost all formats, except the real media files....I would suggest trying it out.....

Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 2:57 am

arretthal wrote:

I prefer the KM player...Though VLC is great, the user interface and the controls are not that easy to use and the fast forward really gives me a pain, with the video occasionally stopping or showing funny colours...and the Real player is horrible!!!! no proper controls and an even more stupid GUI.KM player has a really cool interface and absurdly simple keyboard controls and it can play almost all formats, except the real media files....I would suggest trying it out.....

i would suggest reading what the thread was about...not about software Wink