Network Media Player Buying Guide & FAQ

Add a new dimension to your HDTV or home theater.

You’ve got a countless movies, music and photos on your computer or network storage device and you have an incredible HDTV or home theater system in your living room. What if you could bring them both together and enjoy all of your digital entertainment without ever leaving the sofa? Now you can do all that and more, with any of our high definition Network Media Players.

•        Lets you watch, share and store your music, movies and photos from your TV

•        Delivers stunning 1080p HD image quality with rich Dolby audio (if supported in your digital media files)

•        Sets up in seconds via a single digital HDMI cable

A media player is a small hardware device that connects to your television or amplifier via HDMI (or component) and allows the playback of various digital files (video, audio & pictures). All this content can be played back from a variety of source such as a USB or internal hard drive available separately.

As it is a “network” media player it would be rude not to use the network side of things so you can also access content stored on network sources for example a home PC or NAS or even from the internet. Media Players give you an easy way to playback movies and music you have “ripped” yourself or downloaded from the Internet on that very nice HDTV in the front room. And because it works with just about every format available, you can enjoy all of your entertainment on your TV—from Flip videos to photos to DVDs—regardless of resolution.

Network Media Players have been around in one shape or another for a few years from Apple TV, the Kiss range of DVD players to D-Link’s Media Lounge and of course the popular XBMC running on a modified Xbox1 there is currently no shortage of ways of getting PC-held content onto a TV screen and Home Audio system and there’s clearly going to be plenty of competition in this field with developers trying to offer consumers the latest features for the best price. The first proper HD Media Players were released late 2007 at this time the Sigma 8635 chipset made a name for its self along with the Popcorn Hour Media player A100 and soon after the popular A110.

It was the Popcorn Hour that kicked it all off really – before it came along media players were rubbish (they must of been we didn’t sell them) the Popcorn Hour put home HD media playback on the map and now the Popcorn Hour is often used as a generic descriptor for a media player (is there a word when a brand becomes the generic term?) People often call us up and say “I want a Popcorn Hour” but what they really want is a media player.

The Popcorn Hour series is still going strong but there are a lot of other options out there these days so don’t necessary jump on that bandwagon or you may be missing out.

How often do you download a Xvid (or MKV) movie or TV show and sit and watch it on the computer monitor upstairs? Wouldn’t you prefer to watch it downstairs with the rest of the family? Or enjoy the latest Hollywood action film in its full 1080p HD glory after the kids have gone to sleep?

A lot of people rip their DVD’s to a hard drive (on a PC or NAS) and then they can easily access their entire DVD collection via a simple interface from any media player in the house. This is especially handy if you have kids, children have a way of destroying physical media with sticky fingers and toy cars so the sooner you can rip it and keep it safe on the network the better. Once all the kids movies are stored on the network you can free up space by keeping the DVD’s in storage as you no longer need the box J. Some media players even have gone so far as to offer jukebox type interfaces where you can view cover art / synopsis / reviews / cast lists of movies while browsing your collection. The cover art can be very handy for young kids who may not be the best readers but recognise the picture of the move they want to playback.

Some network media players allow you to access internet content for streaming such as Shoutcast and YouTube.*Expert Tip* Please don’t buy a media player just for YouTube playback or web browsing in truth it works but it’s nothing like using a computer with a proper internet browser, we would hate for you to be disappointed – hopefully it’s this honesty that we hope sets us apart from other retailers.

Why can’t I just use a dedicated Home Theater PC (HTPC)?
No reason at all, a HTPC will generally play every file format ever invented as its essentially a computer with a pretty media focused interface so you can install what you like on it. The only downsides would be the added expense (it’s a PC after all) that coupled with computer components that could fail and then you are also fighting against software developers and no doubt Microsoft. Dedicated media players will generally run quieter and generate less noise than a HTPC and who wants a noisy computer in the front room? For ease of use for family members and to save money a media player is the safest bet.

Why are some media players £100 and others £300?
The extra money is generally for media players that can also playback retail Blu-ray and DVD discs, the cost for the license for this playback adds to the retail price of the player. You can boo and hiss Sony for asking so much money for the license.

Do any players come with a gigabit network port?
One big question that always crops up during our time talking to customers is gigabit networking – 1 or 2 media players have this option currently (as of end of 2009) is it needed? Not really, full HD streaming will be more than happy over a 100Mb network, which is lucky as that is what the majority of the country has at home. 

I want a wireless media player are they any good?
A lot of media players can also work with Wi-Fi antennas attached *Expert Tip* While Wi-Fi is very useful, streaming HD content should really be done over a hard wired network (cat5e/6 cables) Or at the very least HD approved homeplugs a lot of factors can affect the Wi-Fi speeds and we don’t want anyone to be disappointed while streaming HD movies! It is the same advice for all networked media players, Wi-Fi just isn’t up to the task yet in our opinion so our advice as always is buy a NAS keep that content safe and stream it through a router/hub/switch to make up a home network. If running wires is inconvenient then use HomePlugs.

Can I watch BBC iPlayer or 4OD on my network media player?
This should be a VFAQ  the short answer is “YES” but as with a lot of things in life it’s not that simple. The BBC and other broadcasters encrypt the iPlayer files (which is fair enough) so playback isn’t that easy. The other drawback is the people who design media players tend to be based outside of the UK so they probably don’t know / care about the iPlayer and how popular it is in the UK. Now the BBC were planning to work together with the other broadcasters in the UK (ITV/Channel4/5) to create a joint project that will enable the playback via the internet of all the content they put out each week but that is currently on hold (as of end of 2009). The BBC have been busy and have allowed Virgin Media STB’s & games consoles access to iPlayer content so there are alternatives available to get iPlayer on the big screen.

Another option is to use a suitable PC / Home Server running Tversity Pro with a media player that supports it, or something like mediatomb and get_iplayer. Google is your best friend here but it isn’t a perfect solution. This will all change soon thanks to Project Canvas.

Will my Harmony Remote work with the media player?
Yes you should find the device in the Harmony database (but please double check)

What is USB slave and why is it so important?
A USB slave option allows you to connect the media player directly to a computer using the supplied USB cable. If the media player has an internal hard drive then once connected the media player will appear as a removable hard drive on the computer. This will then enable you to drag/drop files easily and speed up the process of adding media to your player. Of course this process can be a pain so use that network port and never move the player

How do I upgrade the firmware?
Most manufactures release new firmware updates to add new features or to support new codec’s. To update the firmware you can normally have to download the firmware files from the manufactures website and then copy the files to a USB flash drive plug the drive into the media player and browse to the USB drive and run the update. You can often update via the internet directly from the player as well.

How long does delivery take? 
Normally we keep most items in stock. Most orders received before 4:00 PM will be dispatched on the same day for next working day delivery. Feel free to call for latest stock queries

Can I pre order?
Certainly – if we are out of stock any orders taken are filled on a first come first served basis.

So… what player is for me?
Good question and we get a lot of emails in our support mailbox asking much the same question “Which is the best media player?”  tough one – admittedly there is no perfect all conquering media player if there was we would only sell that model.

They will all do what you want but some have different user interfaces, some have passive cooling others have fans. Nearly all the media players we sell have room internally for a hard drive but some only support 2.5” (laptop size) hard drives due to space physically in the unit. Of course we always recommend keeping content and playback separate, that way you can easily change media players or add new media players to the network while storing the content in a central location accessible from anywhere on the network.

The main difference is the inputs/outs puts but let’s face it all anyone wants is HDMI and they all have that facility.

So that all sounds fairly simple is that all?
It can be as complicated as you want to make it. You have to understand not all content (music movies etc) are the same there are many different codec’s and containers of files (avi, mp3, mkv, xvid the list goes on and on). Will any of our media players do what you want? The simple answer is yes they will play the majority of files you throw at them.

An example of how simple they are to use is we received an early sample of the Mede8er before we became official uk distributors. Someone took the Mede8er home,  connected the Mede8er to the TV via HDMI and his wife moaned as he was interrupting Eastenders (she also moaned about having yet another media player under the TV) and powered it up, his mobile rang  he went to the kitchen to answer came back in and his wife was watching Desperate House Wives in HD streaming from the NAS upstairs. If she figures out how to connect HDMI cables he will be redundant at home. Up and running within 15 seconds of powering up gets the vote from all the family.

The more complicated answer is there is a world of advanced playback options such as:

• DVD ISO playback (with menus)
• Blu-ray rips
• HD Audio
• DTS HD and Dolby HD downmixing
• BD ISO support
• Flac support
• Audio pass through
• + Many more…

There isn’t much our media players don’t play back, but if you are unsure after looking at our product pages then just get in touch..

 (all talk of downloading movies etc is obviously concerning the paid for subscription services available)