Looking for new media players


voldak

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Hold off until later this month when the different ChromeBox models come out. More than likely, we will see OpenElec builds appear for it in no time. Granted its only a celeron CPU with a HD4000 GPU, it should be able to handle any video format along with any skins on it. I have a Foxconn AMD E-350 HTPC which by all means is slow as shit but it handles XBMC without any issues and any media format thrown at.

 

Sent from my LG-VS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

That little thing would be perfect for OpenELEC or even a full Ubuntu/XBMC install. The Celeron they use in it is better than the one in the NUC too.

 

I am going to pick one up and dual boot with OpenELEC and SteamOS if possible. That'll should last me until Nvidia decides to release a Shield Console then I will move to that.

 

Sent from my LG-VS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

Do you have a link to more info on this shield console? When I google it all I get is stuff about the handheld device.

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Hold off until later this month when the different ChromeBox models come out. More than likely, we will see OpenElec builds appear for it in no time. Granted its only a celeron CPU with a HD4000 GPU, it should be able to handle any video format along with any skins on it. I have a Foxconn AMD E-350 HTPC which by all means is slow as shit but it handles XBMC without any issues and any media format thrown at.

 

Sent from my LG-VS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

That little thing would be perfect for OpenELEC or even a full Ubuntu/XBMC install. The Celeron they use in it is better than the one in the NUC too.

 

I am going to pick one up and dual boot with OpenELEC and SteamOS if possible. That'll should last me until Nvidia decides to release a Shield Console then I will move to that.

 

Sent from my LG-VS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

Do you have a link to more info on this shield console? When I google it all I get is stuff about the handheld device.

 

Nothing concrete yet, it was hinted last year during a press conference that they may decide to build one but it's not looking too good as of late. I think I might end up doing one of those knockoff android TV box and use both XBMC and LimeLight from XDA.

 

Sent from my LG-VS980 using Tapatalk

 

 

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Only trouble with HTPC's is Netflix, Hulu Plus etc.

Kryspy

 

??  Why is this an issue?  They work perfectly on an HTPC -- and it can't be any easier to use.  Double-click the "Netflix" icon, then double-click what you want to stream.  Done  :)

 

... and I don't know any of the standalone boxes that can record 8 channels at once; play them on any TV or computer in the home; automatically skip the commercials; and archive them for years without running out of space  8)

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I have an HTPC on every TV in my house, running Windows 7 Media Center.  In my theater, I have an i5-based HTPC that I built and the rest are i3-based Intel NUCs (with Intel HD4000 video).  I haven't had any issues with playing anything, until recently.  All of my 1080p content plays perfectly, but 2160p content hiccups on the NUCs.

 

I'm running MediaBrowser3 and I absolutely love it!  I tried playing with XBMC, and it just seemed to need a LOT of tweaking to do what I wanted.

 

I use these HP remote receivers with Harmony 900 remotes:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-HP-USB-Microsoft-MCE-Media-Center-IR-Remote-Control-RC6-Kit-Certified-/221270374012

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I have an HTPC on every TV in my house, running Windows 7 Media Center.  In my theater, I have an i5-based HTPC that I built and the rest are i3-based Intel NUCs (with Intel HD4000 video).  I haven't had any issues with playing anything

Windows Media Center does not play bluray's. You need to install extra apps like powerdvd or tmt. They don't integrate.

You have to get your keyboard and mouse and close media center, open powerdvd etc. That ruins the movie watching experience.

I do NOT want to see any desktop or mouse pointers. I do not want to know there is a pc running underneath, it should be transparent.

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I have an HTPC on every TV in my house, running Windows 7 Media Center.  In my theater, I have an i5-based HTPC that I built and the rest are i3-based Intel NUCs (with Intel HD4000 video).  I haven't had any issues with playing anything

Windows Media Center does not play bluray's. You need to install extra apps like powerdvd or tmt. They don't integrate.

You have to get your keyboard and mouse and close media center, open powerdvd etc. That ruins the movie watching experience.

I do NOT want to see any desktop or mouse pointers. I do not want to know there is a pc running underneath, it should be transparent.

 

All of my media is in MKV or MP4 format.  EVERYTHING plays in WMC.  All I ever need is my remote and I rarely touch a keyboard.  When I do, I have these:

http://www.ohgizmo.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/lenovo-n5902-htpc-keyboard.jpg

 

MakeMKV can convert BluRays to uncompressed MKVs.  I couldn't care less about menus and extras. When I hit 'play', I expect the movie to just play...and it does.

 

As much as I like my Roku's, the interface sucks compared to Windows MCE or XBMC.

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Just tried a Intel NUC barebones.  Awesome performance.  Will be ordering another.  XBMC runs perfect on it. 

It all depends on your demands and material. If you don't know what to look at or what you are doing, every player is perfect.

Most people don't even know about framerates and bitrates and deinterlacing, pulldown etc... all they do is play everything downscaled at the wrong framerate on an ipad or iphone and they brag about how perfect it is :o

 

I'm sure xbmc can be tweaked to perfection, but out of the box it is just not.

 

Have been using xbmc since the original xbox, so I can set it up to do just about anything I want including just about any file format.

 

Myk

 

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

 

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First, if a player can handle a lot of different formats doesnt mean it plays it correctly. I think 90% of all people who claim their mediaplayer is 'perfect' are watching 24p mkv's at 50 or 60Hz or even interlaced. Ignorance is bliss i guess.

 

And yeah well if you convert blurays to mkv, they're not blurays anymore now are they... ::)

Again, i DO care about bluray menu's, i don't want to remux all blurays to mkv. 

Especially tv series bluray's... 0001.m2ts is episode 4, 0002.m2ts is episode 1 etc... so you NEED menu's otherwise the chronological order is gone.

 

But i've said it before, it all depends on how high you standards are... and mine are high.

Also said this before: xbmc can probably be tweaked to perfection and to my high standards if i spend the time and the money.. and it will need a lot of time and money. If my Dune breaks down i'll go that route because basically there is no alternative for MY list of demands.

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I am reading this thread with a lot of interest. I have been running Plex through a Roku3, and have been pretty happy with it. Now, I want to add the ability to play Blu-rays off the server. I want to maintain menus and extras while maintaining full visual and audio quality too. I am off to research Dunes, NUCs, and Openelec. But I would welcome any advice.

 

 

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First, if a player can handle a lot of different formats doesnt mean it plays it correctly. I think 90% of all people who claim their mediaplayer is 'perfect' are watching 24p mkv's at 50 or 60Hz or even interlaced. Ignorance is bliss i guess.

 

All true.  A lot of what people need from a player is down to personal choice - I think that's pretty widely acknowledged. 

 

I have to play my 23.976p  (and 24p) MKVs at 60Hz because my old plasma TV doesn't allow 23.976 or 24.  But that's another story.  I am then considering how when my player will manage the mis-match between the source file and the display.  My setup is Openelec based, on a PC platform (Asus AT5IONT-I) in a passively cooled setup (Impactics case, heat pipes, etc), so it's very quiet and it works well with HD audio passthrough etc - things that matter to me.  And the latest XBMC Gotham beta based Openelec build manages that frame-rate translation pretty well (not perfect, but as good as I can get with my TV).  DVD up-scaling, especially subtitle up-scaling, is far better than my Sony Blu-ray player can manage.

 

On another point - you asked to be corrected if needed...  So, in case it helps anyone else, but not to cause you any offence...

 

...I had to MANUALLY select deinterlacing for each video. Right...

 

This is not actually required, although the solution may not be obvious.  When you make the display setting choices while playing any video, you can at the same screen tell XBMC (and derivatives like Openelec) to apply those settings to all video playback.  That includes the de-interlace options, any scaling, etc.; similarly for any subtitle or audio options selected whilst playing.  Thus you choose the settings that you need for most video just once when playing a video, and after that only a few videos may need their settings to be modified by exception.

 

Hope this helps.

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This is not actually required, although the solution may not be obvious.  When you make the display setting choices while playing any video, you can at the same screen tell XBMC (and derivatives like Openelec) to apply those settings to all video playback.  That includes the de-interlace options, any scaling, etc.; similarly for any subtitle or audio options selected whilst playing.  Thus you choose the settings that you need for most video just once when playing a video, and after that only a few videos may need their settings to be modified by exception.

I've noticed. On some sources it is automatic (and ok) and on some you could manually override.

 

Still a big problem for me is auto framerate. For some reason, i can get it to work using xbmc on windows 7, but not using xbmc on osx. On osx, when i play a 24hz source using autoframerate (i've added a advancedsettings.xml file /w proper settings) it just outputs a black screen. If i disable autoframerate, even with the debug logging on, xbmx says it is outputting 24fps, but i can see on my Kuro plasma settings it is actually getting a 60Hz signal...

 

On my windows laptop it performs a lot better, but .m2ts files (direct copies from a bluray) that are 24hz, will output a black screen as well. The video is playing, i can hear sound, but no image. Other 24hz material, like tv shows (24hz 1080p web-dl's) play correctly. Also on win7 25/29,97/30 and 59,94hz files play correctly most of the time... 

 

Some more observations:

- xbmc on osx will not output DTS-HDMA and true-HD for some reason. Yikes. Works on Windows.

- Some bluray's can be started using menu's (by selecting the index.bdmv file) others don't.

- xbmc on osx recognizes my apple tv remote, nice!

 

So, afr is not working at all on osx, and just partially on win7. For me, this is a huge showstopper.

Again, do NOT trust the debug OSD, check the actual incoming signal on your telly...

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So, afr is not working at all on osx, and just partially on win7. For me, this is a huge showstopper.

Again, do NOT trust the debug OSD, check the actual incoming signal on your telly...

Thanks.  I never notced a problem with the debug OSD, but perhaps that is partly down to the underlying OS and drivers.  Since I run Openelec natively, rather than XBMC under another OS, as far as I can tell I have no unexpected frame-rate issues (the limitations of my TV probably not helping though). As for audio, I get DTS HD MA and Dolby True HD passed through correctly, which I am very pleased about.

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First, if a player can handle a lot of different formats doesnt mean it plays it correctly. I think 90% of all people who claim their mediaplayer is 'perfect' are watching 24p mkv's at 50 or 60Hz or even interlaced. Ignorance is bliss i guess.

 

And yeah well if you convert blurays to mkv, they're not blurays anymore now are they... ::)

Again, i DO care about bluray menu's, i don't want to remux all blurays to mkv. 

Especially tv series bluray's... 0001.m2ts is episode 4, 0002.m2ts is episode 1 etc... so you NEED menu's otherwise the chronological order is gone.

 

But i've said it before, it all depends on how high you standards are... and mine are high.

Also said this before: xbmc can probably be tweaked to perfection and to my high standards if i spend the time and the money.. and it will need a lot of time and money. If my Dune breaks down i'll go that route because basically there is no alternative for MY list of demands.

 

Would you be willing to post an idea of what standards you aim for, and how to test to confirm how close a solution comes? As you mentioned, most people don't know the difference between things running "okay" vs "perfect". I would likely sit in that category, but would be interested in expanding my horizons to better understand what to look for/aim for.

 

Personally, I don't care about Blu-ray as all my media is mkv (with the occasional exception), but I am always interested in improving the overall experience. I am sure others would benefit greatly from this as well.

 

People don't know what they are missing until it's presented to them. This is proving true with virtualization on these forums, but given the investment we've all made in this type of solution, largely with the intent of providing streamlined access to content, ensuring the best end user experience only makes sense.

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Anyone with experience with the Mede8er Med600X3D or other Mede8er models?

 

No response = no one has used?

 

My research indicated this was a very strong contender for the best media player (in the price range anyway). I am a 3D fan and this handles 3D movies. I am still worked to get the cover art and everything configured, but so far I am very impressed. Much better than WD Live that can't even properly FF and REW.

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Anyone with experience with the Mede8er Med600X3D or other Mede8er models?

 

No response = no one has used?

 

My research indicated this was a very strong contender for the best media player (in the price range anyway). I am a 3D fan and this handles 3D movies. I am still worked to get the cover art and everything configured, but so far I am very impressed. Much better than WD Live that can't even properly FF and REW.

 

I've never heard of them before. The skins look like XBMC, but I don't actually see XBMC mentioned anywhere. Are they using a custom interface?

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Roku hands down for good thin clients for Plex, Netflix, Pandora, Crackle, Amazon, etc.

 

I used to have a Boxee Box but it just became too problematic with reboots and lack of support.  My two RasPi's just never seemed to like any of the 720p scene releases running XBMC.  But i never tried RasPlex since I finally settled on using the Roku's which are able to play all scene releases without transcoding and most full-rate BD rips except for anything much about 35mbps at which point of course it handles transcodes just fine.

 

PS I also really like the wireless headset built into the remote.  Or should I say, the SO really appreciates it :o

 

+1 on the roku... I have a couple Roku 3's & they work perfectly!!

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Another vote here for the Dune SMART series. I've had it for about three years and it plays everything I've thrown at it. Important to me is the ability to play video folder rips and iso's, all with full menus. I have a bunch in this format and don't really want to bother with transcoding. I use emplexer to hook up to the Plex Media Sever I have installed in my UnRAID box and it's been working great. The one thing that's a bit of an annoyance is that there is a constant audio sync issue with mkv's. I (as well as some others) have to adjust the audio sync to -0.22 sec to get things lined up. I have a macro programmed on the Harmony One to do that with a button press, so no big deal

 

I also have a Pivos AIOS which is cheap and pretty good. I chose the AIOS for the folder rip/iso thing too. The other streamer from Pivos, the XIOS, is not as versatile. The AIOS does not have a PLEX client for me to use, but I don't mind so much.

 

I am about to purchase another Dune SMART unit and think it is one of the best around, it better be for the price!

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Anyone with experience with the Mede8er Med600X3D or other Mede8er models?

 

No response = no one has used?

 

My research indicated this was a very strong contender for the best media player (in the price range anyway). I am a 3D fan and this handles 3D movies. I am still worked to get the cover art and everything configured, but so far I am very impressed. Much better than WD Live that can't even properly FF and REW.

No experience of the 600, but I used to be a big fan of Mede8er, with their original 500.

 

My opinion of them went sour - nothing to do with the hardware - when an application I wrote (YAMJ To Mede8er), which they used to promote their products, ended up being reverse engineered and ripped off whilst I was out of contact for a while.

 

Since then I've gone down the HTPC route, first with an Acer Revo R3700 and now with an Intel Haswell i3 NUC.

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Would you be willing to post an idea of what standards you aim for, and how to test to confirm how close a solution comes? As you mentioned, most people don't know the difference between things running "okay" vs "perfect". I would likely sit in that category, but would be interested in expanding my horizons to better understand what to look for/aim for.

Basically, a good mediaplayer should play all common formats, luckily most of them do. Also it should play files over a network (this is called 'sharing' NOT streaming btw ;) ). Sounds logical but not all of them do (e.g. Oppo). For me, upnp or dlna is 'second best'. Streaming (!!!) material using transcoding *could* introduce all sorts of troubles. Basically it is on-the-fly re-encoding. If the server is not set up correctly, chances are it will narrow down the bitrate, even lowering resolution or framerate to get things streaming. That is not what you want. If you use upnp or dlna, make sure the material keeps it's original bitrate, resolution and framerate.

 

For me, a player should be able to play bluray iso's and folder structures, including the menu's. For movies menu's are less important, for tv series bluray's it is basically mandatory, since most tv show blurays have playlists that are not in the same chronological order as the episodes... 0001.m2ts is episode 5, 0002.m2ts is episode 3, etc.

 

But that is all functional specs... technically a player should also be able to use autoframerate, and even 'native resolution'. The latter i have never seen by the way... native resolution means it will output the material in the same resolution as the material is, thereby bypassing any software upscaling by the player itself (e.g. it will blow up a 1280x720 to 1920x1080 introducing scaling errors). A lot of cheap players offer bad upscaling. Some tv's do a better job upscaling material to the native panel resolution, others don't. Some people use separate scalers. You should be able to choose which device is responsible for upscaling.

 

Autoframerate is more important. As you know, bluray usually plays at 24Hz, (broadcast) material in the USA at 29.97, 30, 59.94 or 60Hz, in the EU you can find 25Hz and 50Hz material. You want to make sure the player outputs the material in it's native frequency. If not, you will get stutters. If your player outputs a fixed 1920x1080@60Hz, and you play bluray material at 24Hz, the player will try to 'match' those 24Hz into 60Hz. It won't fit. Panning won't be smooth, you will lose frames once in a while, motion is unnatural etc. Also, you have to make sure your tv follows this framerate as well... also your receiver if you use that as a hub. So, if your material is 24Hz, you want your player to output it as 24Hz, and make sure it will get to your tv at 24Hz, and your tv is actually showing it at 24Hz... if your material is 29.97Hz, you want to output it at 60Hz, etc. Google keywords like pulldown, reverse pulldown etc for more info on these exotic framerates.

 

The hardware (sound and graphics) should be good as well. Ok, it's all digital, 1 is 1 and 0 is 0... still there are subtle differences in image and sound quality. Oppo is known for it's superior hardware, it will result in more image depth, more definition, less 'noise'  in the image. Offcourse a mediaplayer should be able to output HD resolutions and HD sound formats.

 

After all that, crap in = crap out. If you play inferior material (usually x264, which are home-brew re-encodes) with low bitrates, it will show. Make sure your material is as original as possible. Play web-dl's in stead of x264. Don't use re-encoded stuff unless you did it yourself at high quality.

 

Last but not least, let a ISF certified technician calibrate your tv or projector. It makes a world of difference.

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No experience of the 600, but I used to be a big fan of Mede8er, with their original 500.

 

My opinion of them went sour - nothing to do with the hardware - when an application I wrote (YAMJ To Mede8er), which they used to promote their products, ended up being reverse engineered and ripped off whilst I was out of contact for a while.

 

Since then I've gone down the HTPC route, first with an Acer Revo R3700 and now with an Intel Haswell i3 NUC.

 

You are the author of Y2M or an earlier version of the same?

 

I have been using it. Very nice!

 

I have an HTPC but it is high maintenance, and the WAF is 0. Even the WD live is too techy and she hates it. I hope this hits the mark.

 

Sorry if they screwed you. That sucks.

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