Multi Media Players

[Ronniebootwest]

There has been a lot of talk about the Western Digital media player recently and it certainly looks like a good piece of kit but, it does not have a hard drive built in.

I have been searching for a player that will play PTE shows directly on my LCD HD TV and have found one made by Lacie (a very well respected manufacturer: HERE

Does anyone have any experience of using this player this player? if so I would like to hear what you think about it. The spec says that it will play mpeg4 created with H264HD so it seem to be compatible.

Ron West

[stonemason]

Hi Ron I have a Western Digital media player and have nothing but praise for it. I use a Western Digital mybook 500gb usb external drive plugged into the player which in turn is connected to my TV using HDMI. The playback quality of .mp4 high definition files created by PTE is excellent, plus of course my entire music collection is now available by a couple of button presses. The Western Digital media player has two usb ports so it is easy to put a few slideshows onto a usb stick and play them should you not need them to be always available. I think personally that there are advantages in having the hard drive and the player seperate in that there can be more choice available in how you set up various forms of media ie. possibly 1 drive for music, and one for video should that suit your needs. Sorry can't help with the Lacie but I hope the above is of some use.

Regards

Geoff

[goddi]

Ronnie..

I looked on Amazon (USA) and found the Lacie LaCinema 1TB for $US175.99. I have not seen one in person but there are several user reviews available. It is kinda split. You might want to look there for some feedback. I have been trying to find a way to play video files created from PTE straight from a memory stick, such as into a DVD or Blu-ray player. I have found that this is not possible, so far. I like the idea of the Lacie where you have to carry around only one unit, as opposed to the WD, you'd need the WD unit and the HD. But I have not convinced myself which I would buy, at this point. And I'd like to stick with PTE's the mpeg 4 H.264 format output, since my experience in converting the PTE show to an AVI creates a way-to-big file.

Gary

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There has been a lot of talk about the Western Digital media player recently and it certainly looks like a good piece of kit but, it does not have a hard drive built in.

I have been searching for a player that will play PTE shows directly on my LCD HD TV and have found one made by Lacie (a very well respected manufacturer: HERE

Does anyone have any experience of using this player this player? if so I would like to hear what you think about it. The spec says that it will play mpeg4 created with H264HD so it seem to be compatible.

Ron West

[Ronniebootwest]

Thanks for the responses so far, I appreciate them.

Geoff,

I think that the WD will win the day! After reading your comments it seems to be the way to go.

Would you please let me know what settings you use in 'Video Builder' or do you just use the defaults?

Gary,

I agree with you that it seems to be a good idea to have everything in one unit but, after reading the comments made by Geoff, there is also merit in having separate units.

I was not aware that the WD unit can play directly from a USB Pen Drive. That being the case, an 8gb would be large enough for me I think.

Ron

[goddi]

Ronnie... Ah...the WD will play from a memory stick?! Now that brings it down in size as far as transporting the WD around and worrying about protecting the LaCinema's hard drive from being knocked around. I'm feeling you have a good point towards the WD media player.

Thanks for the info.

Gary

P.S. I am not sure which model Geoff has, but there is a Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN model that has network capabilities.

"Access files anywhere on your home network - Play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on your home network. The Ethernet port connects this player to your home network through a wired connection or via popular, supported WiFi adapters (sold separately). Ideal for use with WD's My Book World." Cool, if it works.

=======================

Thanks for the responses so far, I appreciate them.

Geoff,

I think that the WD will win the day! After reading your comments it seems to be the way to go.

Would you please let me know what settings you use in 'Video Builder' or do you just use the defaults?

Gary,

I agree with you that it seems to be a good idea to have everything in one unit but, after reading the comments made by Geoff, there is also merit in having separate units.

I was not aware that the WD unit can play directly from a USB Pen Drive. That being the case, an 8gb would be large enough for me I think.

Ron

[goddi]

Ronnie...

I just found this link to a Seagate Media Player. Looks like it is the competition to the WD version. Take a look at it. There is a 10% discount going on. I haven't seen them in the stores yet. Wonder if its 'mp4' format means it will play PTE's mp4 output.

"FreeAgent Theater+™ HD Media Player

Play your movies, music and photos on your TV in full HD"

http://www.seagate.com/advisor/theaterplus/?cmpid=sac-theaterplus-122009

Formats:

* Video: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (VOB/ISO), MPEG-4 (DivX/Xvid), DivX HD, Xvid HD, AVI, MOV, MKV, RMVB Real Media, AVC HD, H.264, WMV9, VC-1, M2TS, TS/TP/M2T

o Video Resolutions: NTSC 480i/480p, PAL 576i/576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p

o Subtitles: SAMI (smi), SRT, SUB

* Audio: AAC, MP3, Dolby® Digital, DTS, ASF, FLAC, WMA, LPCM, ADPCM, WAV, OGG

o Playlist: M3U, PLS

* Photo: JPEG files (up to 20 megapixels), BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF

Gary

Added Later: I just found that the Seagate does not play some formats, such as H.264. That seems to me that it will not play PTE's output. Here is what the said:

"As part of our tests for these products, we throw a few hard-to-read file formats at these players, and of the four files we loaded, the Seagate wasn't able to recognize any of them. Most notably, there's no support for H.264 and AVC, which have become increasingly popular. Nor does it support AAC audio, which is what you'll get from any iTunes purchase. And note that the "container" doesn't always imply support for the underlying format--for instance, one MKV file we had didn't play, because the underlying file used H.264 encoding. True, you can use a converter to make most video formats compatible with the FreeAgent Theater, but we're comparing native support to native support."...

"A more significant problem: The Seagate simply doesn't decode as many file formats as the Western Digital does."

============================

There has been a lot of talk about the Western Digital media player recently and it certainly looks like a good piece of kit but, it does not have a hard drive built in.

I have been searching for a player that will play PTE shows directly on my LCD HD TV and have found one made by Lacie (a very well respected manufacturer: HERE

Does anyone have any experience of using this player this player? if so I would like to hear what you think about it. The spec says that it will play mpeg4 created with H264HD so it seem to be compatible.

Ron West

[davegee]

There's also this:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/iomega-screenplay-director-hd-multimedia-hard-drive-1tb-04136958-pdt.html

1TB HDD in a MM package.

"With input and output connections for a multitude of audiovisual devices too, the Iomega 1TB ScreenPlay Director HD Multimedia Hard Drive guarantees you total immersion in your media.

You'll be able to store music and video files onto its generous 1-terabyte hard disk drive, plus it offers Full High Definition 1080p playback at 24 fps. How about rigging up your television via HDMI, composite, component, or SCART for a more mesmerising media experience? As for sound, that's dealt with via its high quality digital optical audio connector. You've also got the option to transfer videos and photos from your computer to your drive over your home network via Ethernet, or directly via USB 2.0.

Its versatility doesn't stop there. The Iomega ScreenPlay Director HD Multimedia Hard Drive supports a gigantic array of file formats including MPEG-1, MPEG-2 (AVI and VOB), MPEG-4 (AVI, DivX, XviD), H.264, AVCHD, and VC-1 for video; mp3, AC3 (Dolby Digital Encoding), WAV, OGG, WMA, AAC and FLAC for audio; and JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG and TIFF for still images."

[thedom]

I'm not sure it will present an interest for most of the members of this forum, but personnaly, I have a Sony Playstation 3.

With the free software PS3 Media Server (http://ps3mediaserver.blogspot.com/), I can play music, videos and watch pictures stored on the HD of my PC.

I find this is the best solution for my need because I do not have to transfer/copy files.

I can access them directly and immediately from the PS3.

The playback on my TV of the MP4 generated with PTE in HD format is just perfect.

As the software is supported by the MPlayer and FFmpeg packages, almost all the known audio/video/image formats are supported.