ot:
although there is no "real" data to really say which chip is better, but by browsing over topics here in the nmt section and what i have seen during the cinematube eb (realtek). i can say imho, that realtek chips on the get go is really fast in booting and recognizing hard disk while the sigma chips even with the new one employed by the c-200 will be no match by the speed of the realtek chips (i can be wrong, but based on what i have seen 5 secs for boot-up and less than 10 secs for 1 tb hdd recognition, thats tough to beat). and another thing, realtek based players seems to be more affordable than sigma based players (this is based on same feature sets players) but of course there will be exceptions to this.
but one thing going for sigma chips is a lot of the multiple owners of both nmt/media player made comments here like that wdtv (sigma) and even egreats seems to give a better pq than the hd pros out there, even during the eb, the egreat (sigma) did show a slight edge in the pq department as against cinematube (realtek).
but i guess and hope some professional will soon make a review of said products and have "real" data to finally show which is better.
Thanks for sharing brader Aynz
So, to sum up your observation:
Sigma = better PQ
Realtek = faster boot time
I do have the WD first version and I cant complain on its speed when booting up my 2 1tb HDD connected to it. Well, the WD is the first thing I power-on before I power other components & roll down my pj screen - so by the time I get settled comfortably, the WD player is ready to go.
I could only assume that the newer WD Live hopefully be faster than the first version due to a more advance Sigma chip.
I am also guessing that when watching movies via 32"-42" LCD or plasma, either a Sigma or Realtek based player would basically have the same PQ.........but from other members' feedback, it seems Realteks is still a bit behind in the PQ department.
This could be a concern most specially to those who have non-1080p projectors - as you know, a better PQ helps a lot