Author Topic: NMT / Media Player Comparisons (Read 144079 times)

disturbed · « **Reply #240 on:** Oct 28, 2009 at 07:56 PM »

I think sir to narrow it down..what is your priority in a media player? gui? functions? playability? networking? streaming etc etc..then after you listed your priorities and needs..then others can chime in to help you sir

vinlovski · « **Reply #241 on:** Oct 29, 2009 at 08:43 AM »

hey guys,

just wondering if which among these two NMTs is better..any reviews or feedbacks regarding this one?

ive read some reviews here that the Astone AP-100 can play 1080p movies with 15gb to 17gb sizes smoothly..while the WDTV has some issues playing large files..

hope to hear from you guys..cant decide what to buy..

thanks!!

Bitstream · « **Reply #242 on:** Nov 03, 2009 at 10:03 PM »

Work in progress...

until I figure out how to create a table, I'm going to be hitting the space bar a lot

   WD TV Live Xtreamer Xtreamer Notes
Internal Hard Drive Bay    No    Yes    Accepts 2.5" internal drive. Current max. is 640GB as of 11/03/09
Remote Control    17-key    35-key

Connectivity
   USB 2.0 Host 2 2
   USB 2.0 Slave * 0 1 For direct connection to PC. Xtreamer appears as an external USB drive
   HDMI 1 1
   Ethernet 10/100 1 1
   Wi-fi ** Yes Yes
   S/PDIF Optical Digital Audio Yes Yes
   Composite A/V Yes Yes
   Component Video (Y Pb Pr) Yes No

Network Attached Storage (NAS)
   Personal network attached server ? Yes Store and share documents and media content. Read/Write/Delete access from your PC
   Dynamic DNS (DDnS) Service No Yes Access your files from anywhere in the world

Features
   Ultra-portable No Yes   With an internal hard disk, Xtreamer is the perfect companion for your trips and holidays

   Dolby TrueHD & DTS MA Downmix ? Yes   100% lossless audio that's identical to the studio master.
   & Pass Through Takes full advantage of Blu-ray disc quality with even 7.1 channels

   High-quality streaming music, talk Yes*** Yes   Numerous music genres and topics, produced by thousands of
   and audio broadcasters

   Blu-ray ISO Support No Yes   Decodes Blu-ray images packed in ISO format (FW 2.0)

   DVD ISO Support No Yes DVD Menus are recognized and are accessible by the Xtreamer

   Password Folder Lock No Yes   Allows you to have password-protected folders

   Wide Banner Icons (XBMC style) No Yes   Place customized banners (wide icons) in each folder (FW 2.0)

   iPhone Remote Control No Yes    Xtreamer can be controlled from iPhone, iPod Touch or any other device with a web browser (FW 2.0)
   High-Def Graphical User Interface ? Yes Crisp and clear icons in all TV settings. Variable user preferences at the click of a button (FW 2.0)

   Live Internet Content No Yes   Watch live FLV streaming content from hundreds of web publishers like CNN, ABC, BBC, ESPN and more

   Flash Video (FLV) Support No Yes   Aside from live streaming FLV, you can also watch FLV files saved from YouTube, etc.

   Music JukeBox No Yes   Supports live internet radio streams and Shoutcast-based streams (FW Dec. 2009)

   Movie JukeBox ? Yes   Automatically generates a jukebox so you can see pictures and info on your movies (Coming)

   eTRAYz Optimization No Yes   Automatic handshake and optimized NFS 1080p streaming with the eTRAYz (optional) NAS

   Windows 7 Compatible No Yes   Automatically start sharing your music, pictures, video and documents across your LAN

   UPnP Web Gateway No Yes   Control and access your device from anywhere in the world

   Tversity and TwonkyMedia ? Yes   Create a personalized lineup of live videos, live TV channels and thousands of videocasts in HD and SD

   NFS Client No Yes   Stream content from high-performance NFS servers. Scalable parallel access to files distributed among multiple servers

   Subtitle Control ? Yes Select color and position of subtitles, define size and outline color. Select external subtitles in MKV and FLAC files

   Playback Advanced Trickplay ? Yes Define Hue and Saturation. Zoom movies and photos to desired ratio, on x-axis and y-axis

   Easy DDnS Support No Yes Provides easy access to your files from anywhere in the world

   FTP Server No Yes Built-in FTP service that allows you to access the device for file transfers from any PC in your LAN

ONLINE SERVICES - Following is a partial listing of available online content:

Video
   YouTube Yes Yes
   Picasa Yes Yes
   Yahoo Video Yes Yes
   CNN No Yes
   NBC Today No Yes
   CBS Face the Nation No Yes
   CNET No Yes
   BBC No Yes
   Apple - Movie Trailers No Yes
   Beyond the Trailer (Reviews) No Yes

Audio
   Pandora Yes No <--Pandora is limited to U.S.A. access
   Live365.com Yes Yes
   iPodcast No Yes
   Radiobox No Yes
   ABC News No Yes
   BBC Podcast No Yes
   CNN News No Yes
   Indiefeed No Yes
   Jamendo No Yes

Photo
   flickr Yes Yes
   Picasaweb No Yes

RSS Feed
   Yahoo! Weather No Yes
   Yahoo! News No Yes
   Yahoo! Xchange No Yes
   MSNBC News No Yes

Click on the link to see "New Channels in Xtreamer Internet Service"
http://forum.xtreamer.net/viewtopic.php?f=69&t=1546

* Full Read/Write/Delete access... just like any external hard disk
** With optional USB Wireless-N Antenna/Dongle
*** Requires third-party service such as Live365 and Pandora

gaol · « **Reply #243 on:** Nov 03, 2009 at 10:34 PM »

Here's an interesting read from iboum.com, re their best budget player for November:

"For the month of November, iboum.com's Best Current Media Player award goes to the WDTV Live. It has both the most powerful hardware and the better user interface backing it up. We are also going to award second place to the Xtreamer because of the impressive ongoing development of their device. If the fan problem gets sorted and we get the promised movie library then the WDTV Live had better watch out.."

Last month, their best budget player was the cinematube for being the cheapest realtek based player.

Here's the link: http://www.iboum.com/blog/nov-09/best-media-player-november-2009.php

Bitstream · « **Reply #244 on:** Nov 03, 2009 at 10:40 PM »

Quote from: gaol on Nov 03, 2009 at 10:34 PM

Here's an interesting read from iboum.com, re their best budget player for November:

"For the month of November, iboum.com's Best Current Media Player award goes to the WDTV Live. It has both the most powerful hardware and the better user interface backing it up. We are also going to award second place to the Xtreamer because of the impressive ongoing development of their device. If the fan problem gets sorted and we get the promised movie library then the WDTV Live had better watch out.."

Last month, their best budget player was the cinematube for being the cheapest realtek based player.

Here's the link: http://www.iboum.com/blog/nov-09/best-media-player-november-2009.php

I guess everybody's entitled to their opinion - iboum.com included. Take note though, that they are a hardware vendor who sell WDTV, CinemaTube, Xtreamer and Popcorn Hour media players. Have you noticed: they've given CinemaTube a "Best" award in October, followed by WD TV Live in November... I wouldn't be surprised if it's Xtreamer's turn in December.

That being said, I think the review should have covered more ground. Notably absent is any mention of the unique capabilities of each player (especially the Xtreamer, which, for the record, I have a personal interest in). Just take a look at the first post in this message thread and you'll get what I'm driving at.

Software is where the battleground is today. When many of the major media player vendors are capable of putting out products that generate a good picture, features and functions that add capabilities and value to your media player are major turning points.

"Content is king", so they say... and being able to feed the widest selection of content to your media player is just as important as being able to access your content from wherever you may be. The Xtreamer excels in both.

In choosing which media player to invest your money in, one can't go wrong by looking beyond a "nice user interface". The superior features and capabilities of the Xtreamer are worth considering... especially since its price vis-a-vis that of other popular media players are not far off from each other.

Note: There is no Xtreamer 'fan' problem to speak of today, except for the noisy fans in production Batch #1 (Philippines received Xtreamers from Batch #3 onwards).

Bitstream · « **Reply #245 on:** Nov 04, 2009 at 01:35 AM »

I kinda get it. Still can't figure out how to reduce text size so everything will fit in neatly. And I still can't figure out how to adjust column width.

Now using this message as a 'scratchpad' to build a neater table, after which I will replace the first message.

Feature/Spec	WD TV Live	Xtreamer	Xtreamer Comments
Internal Hard Drive Bay	No	Yes	Accepts a 2.5" internal hard drive. Max. capacity is 640GB as of 11/03/09[/size]
Remote Control	17-key	35-key

Connectivity
USB 2.0 Host	2	2
USB 2.0 Slave	0	1	For direct connection to a PC. Xtreamer appears as an external USB drive
HDMI	1	1
Ethernet 10/100	1	1
Wi-fi	Yes	Yes
Optical Digital Audio	1	1
Composite A/V	Yes	Yes
Component Video (Y Pb Pr)	Yes	No

Network Attached Storage	(NAS)
Personal network attached server	No	Yes	Store and share documents and media content. Read/ Write/ Delete access from your PC
Dynamic DNS (DDnS) Service	Yes	No	Access your files from anywhere in the world

Nov 4 Update: I give up! It takes WAY too much time and effort to format a table.

31gna · « **Reply #246 on:** Nov 04, 2009 at 10:43 AM »

Can the "No's" under WDTV Live be fixed by a firmware update (or whatever) eventually? Which are hard "No", meaning to matter what firmware update is done it is still a No?

Sorry, very new to this and in fact in the market for my very first nmt

Hope I was able to convey my question clearly.

shainoy · « **Reply #247 on:** Nov 04, 2009 at 01:05 PM »

Quote from: vinlovski on Oct 29, 2009 at 08:43 AM

hey guys,

hope to hear from you guys..cant decide what to buy..

thanks!!

Have the same problem as yours, i got the Xtreamer, a little more expenseive pero sulit naman.

Bogsle · « **Reply #248 on:** Nov 04, 2009 at 09:02 PM »

Quote from: Bitstream on Nov 03, 2009 at 10:40 PM

Note: There is no Xtreamer 'fan' problem to speak of today, except for the noisy fans in production Batch #1 (Philippines received Xtreamers from Batch #3 onwards).

Agree. I experienced using the Xtreamer for a few days with the fan set to run at the highest settings.

I had to check by turning over the Xtreamer and put my hands in the fan port just to be sure it was running, because it was very, very quiet.

Obviously the review was on the first batch of Xtreamers. The current products being sold today are the fixed and best running ones.

jeanette · « **Reply #249 on:** Nov 17, 2009 at 05:46 PM »

Where can I buy HD-Pro?

JaD · « **Reply #250 on:** Nov 25, 2009 at 12:29 AM »

is the xtreamer better than the cinematube? xtreamer cant download torrents with the latest FW..
i cant decide which among the two to get.

TRIPLE H-D · « **Reply #251 on:** Nov 26, 2009 at 04:33 PM »

here are some reviews of the Cinematube Worldwide

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/2957/brite_view_cinematube_1080p_hd_media_player_video_review/index.html
http://www.dvhardware.net/review/49864
http://www.viddler.com/explore/TweakTown/videos/82/
http://www.htguys.com/podcasts/2009/10/16/podcast-395-brite-view-cinematube-and-philips-prestigo-sru80.html
http://www.kojakfull.com/brite-view-cinematube-review.html
http://tgsreviews.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/brite-view-cinematube-review/
http://www.jeff-sawyer.com/2009/11/12/brite-view-cinematube-1080p-hd-review/

From the Philippines
http://www.techie.com.ph/reviews/667
http://www.yugatech.com/blog/tv/cinematube-1080p-hd-media-player/
http://www.yugatech.com/blog/tv/cinematube-hd-media-player-review/
and also the Novermber issue of Gadgets Magazine

joeyrodil · « **Reply #252 on:** Dec 02, 2009 at 11:54 AM »

i had use MediaGate, WDTV, popCornHour, eGreat, Astone, HD Pro and Xtreamer

for me, the NMT that suited for my needs is Xtreamer

jeffsawyer · « **Reply #253 on:** Dec 03, 2009 at 09:25 AM »

Thanks for linking to my review of the CinemaTube here.

I've been using it for a while now and it's been great for me, but there has seemed to be some slow down with the remote. It could just be in my head though. For the price, it seems well worth it. If it were more expensive though, I would really want some additional features. Let me know if you guys have any feedback or questions based on my review. I'd love to hear it.

-Jeff Sawyer
http://www.jeff-sawyer.com
http://twitter.com/jeffsawyer

jt68255 · « **Reply #254 on:** Dec 03, 2009 at 10:33 PM »

Hi Guys, Im just wondering which of the three is the best. It will be my first time to buy a media player so I am a bit cautious which one to buy, given they aint cheap! So after hours of reading reviews and studying their website features and overviews...I'm now closer to getting Xtreamer first.. WD TV Live.. And last Cinematube.. each one with a hair line lead over the other though. But before I start purchasing the xtreamer, I would like to get the input from fellow pinoydvd users, given you have more experince on this, especially those who have tried these 3 media players already..

All your suggestions and opinions are highly appreciated! Thanks!

manholed · « **Reply #255 on:** Dec 07, 2009 at 06:04 AM »

Im new to this world, currently have Samsung 32 series 4 with HT220 as HT. watching with DVD movies for 6 months now. And I want to try this HD stuff. Just to give me an idea, I bought a 500gig HDD and watch it in my LCD using my laptop thru HDMI. Well it is superb indeed, and my next step is to purchase an NMT player. Please help me decide.

Thanks

DYC · « **Reply #256 on:** Dec 07, 2009 at 08:55 AM »

I would go for Xtreamer.

gaol · « **Reply #257 on:** Dec 07, 2009 at 09:48 AM »

You won''t go wrong with either one.

The WD TV Live is primarily designed as a plug and play video player, with added networking, music and photo viewing, features to access your media. This simplicity is reflected in its design and user interface.

The Xtreamer is designed to be an affordable yet all-around networked media player, and its robust feature set reflects that philosophy. Plus it's more agressively priced and Bitstream is very much hands-on as a dealer/distributor.

As far as PQ and audio quality is concerned, I have not noticed any glaring difference: both are equally good.

wijo · « **Reply #258 on:** Dec 08, 2009 at 02:20 AM »

Count me in as well...
About to venture into my first media player...

Thanks for all the help...

manholed · « **Reply #259 on:** Dec 08, 2009 at 03:52 PM »

Thanks...Took the xtreamer...now on waiting mode..

raptor · « **Reply #260 on:** Dec 08, 2009 at 05:06 PM »

Quote from: manholed on Dec 08, 2009 at 03:52 PM

Thanks...Took the xtreamer...now on waiting mode..

that was fast

good choice anyway

gaol · « **Reply #261 on:** Dec 08, 2009 at 06:03 PM »

Quote from: manholed on Dec 08, 2009 at 03:52 PM

Thanks...Took the xtreamer...now on waiting mode..

Congratulations!

Clondalkin · « **Reply #262 on:** Dec 08, 2009 at 06:21 PM »

Recommending the Xtreamer to my relatives who are new to these HDD media players, but choosing the WDTV Live for myself. Cant live without high def component video out.

cnn · « **Reply #263 on:** Dec 10, 2009 at 11:01 PM »

Me too... About to get a NMT for my folks this christmas...

Still deciding if the Egreat EG-R1 (selling around 6k... plus a special HD service from seller)

or the Xtremer also at 6k

Appreciate the help guys...

MaCMeL · « **Reply #264 on:** Dec 16, 2009 at 02:20 PM »

Quote from: manholed on Dec 08, 2009 at 03:52 PM

Thanks...Took the xtreamer...now on waiting mode..

Now that a week had past, how do find your experience with Xtreamer? Or are you still in waiting mode

Bitstream · « **Reply #265 on:** Dec 24, 2009 at 05:28 AM »

Posted by MediaMan
Beta-Testers and Developers Team Leader
in the Xtreamer Official Forum

I have found good comparison for users who not sure if they should go for xtreamer or acryan and medi8ter.
This is example why the xtreamer chip is much better than the 1073 Realtek player chips.

Xtreamer uses the newer 1283DD chip where as the competition uses the 1073 by realtek.

Link to differences:

http://www.mpcclub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22163

Full respect to the original author.

As you can see the xtreamer chip is much more powerful and would allow more functions and abilities.

Do not be fooled by biased reviews on net of Acryan and Medi8ter.

Full explanation here also about differences in the sigma chips and realtek.

Also as you can see Tvix was fan of sigma but have moved to the Realtek chips

http://translate.google.com/translate?j ... h-CN&tl=en

Last line says:

"In general, SMP8635 and RTD1283 suitable for demanding users and enthusiasts, and have the home theater-level space. RTD1073 for general users and the family, for more free space!"

Maybe we will see a xtreamer 2 with full recording capabilities.

Arnel E. · « **Reply #266 on:** Jan 04, 2010 at 06:50 PM »

Although the thread starter has already decided, some of you may have the same question of "WDTV Live vs. Xtreamer" in your mind. I had the opportunity to compare both in my home setup, so here's a comparative summary (in no way comprehensive, but I hope it might help):

WD TV Live Advantages over Xtreamer:

- Faster bootup (seriously, this boots up like >10x faster than the Xtreamer)
- More powerful hardware
- Component video output
- More compact unit
- No fan, ultra-quiet (lack of fan has a disadvantage too, though)
- GUI is easier to use, Xtreamer can seem too techie
- Media search-by-filename feature
- Able to browse media by date and other criteria, while Xtreamer is only by folder
- Media browser is safer, Xtreamer allows delete and rename right into the media list (instead of just in File Manager)
- Matte finish, so less fingerprints (but also less elegance)
- Support for HDMI Deep Color

Xtreamer Advantages over WDTV Live:

- Comes with Wi-Fi bundle, so no need to make sure you buy a compatible Wi-Fi dongle if you need wireless.
- Has internal HDD, a better solution as the main media server at home
- Smaller footprint, designed for vertical orientation (with included base/stand)
- Fan with adjustable speed; Xtreamer's fan can be turned off but it's still there when needed
- Has internal volume control
- Uses plain old RCA which is easier to replace than WDTV Live's 3-in-1 AV connector
- Can browse entire library at once (no need to choose between Video, Photo, Music first)
- Remote is not as overly simplistic as the Live, less clicks needed to access many of the functions
- Favorites feature (I think WDTV Live doesn't have this, does it?)
- Displays codec info on the Info Bar (this may not be important to many of you, though)
- Much more internet content (although some are outdated such as News channels)
- Has advanced server features such as NAS, Web Server, FTP Server, DDNS.etc.
- Looks. The Live is cute, but the Xtreamer looks more expensive.
- Price. Xtreamer is packed with more features per buck. (Better hardware can save the Live though, with future firmware updates)

Wishlist:

- I hope the WDTV Live, in future firmware updates, would have an Advanced Mode for more tech-savvy users, to enable many missing features. Coz otherwise, its superior hardware wouldn't be fully utilized unless you play purely 1080p files encoded at very high bitrates all the time.

joeyrodil · « **Reply #267 on:** Jan 07, 2010 at 07:55 PM »

Does WD TV Live has DTS downmix?

Bitstream · « **Reply #268 on:** Jan 10, 2010 at 11:20 AM »

If you want to speed up the boot-up process of the Xtreamer,
turn off all applications (e.g. NAS functions, etc.)

joeyrodil · « **Reply #269 on:** Jan 10, 2010 at 10:45 PM »

Best buy pa rin ang xtreamer guys, ang ganda na ng product, matindi pa ang support and R&D. And always improving ang firmware updates

in my own experience sa Xtreamer you can even used your Web enabled phone like iPhone to control the Xtreamer basic functions, actually plus factor lang ito

i don't know if any NMT had done that before, if ever Xtreamer is the 1st to do so

Cheers