Inexpensive Hardware HD Media Player

Bif

Member Location: San Angelo TX Joined: Aug 14, 2008 01:48 Messages: 147 Offline

Solved by

Dec 02, 2008 23:40

A new way for us to play and view our created HD content!

I've been watching the progress of hardware media players that connect to our HD TV sets for the appearance of some that support HD WMV files and other HD video formats. Up until now several players have been available but none actually supported high definition video.

We'll see many configurations but I wanted the simplest possible, something that would let me use my own USB external hard drive(s) and USB thumb drives. And that is just what Western Digital has brought out. Quietly introduced a few months ago, some of the retail outlets don't even realize they have them; Best Buy told me that they had nothing like that yet, but when I told them their web site said they had them in stock and they looked it up they had 5 on hand.

Two minutes later they had four (Took me that long to get checked out).

I hooked it up to my TV with an HDMI cable I had on hand, powered it and the TV up, plugged in a 4GB thumb drive to one of the two USB ports and in seconds was watching a 26 minute 1280x720p WMV file in clear, clean, crisp HD on my 42" LCD TV.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=572

I don't have a Blu-ray player, for now don't plan on buying a Blu-ray burner nor pay the price for BD media. I think Sony has blundered by keeping the price too high, Sony is disappointed in the sluggish market reaction in that folks have not purchased Blu-ray players in the numbers they had hoped and I think there is a very real chance that electronic distribution of HD content may overtake the optical disk marketing in the long run. I think we'll see more movies sold by download and on flash media.

And this WD media player may be a step in that direction. At least for me it is a way for me to show/view my produced content in my home.

vn800rider

Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Offline

Dec 03, 2008 03:08

Hi Bif,
Nice post, I too have been looking for something (saves carrying the laptop around) Didn't realise they'd released this.

Price is around £80 in the UK
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/7977460/Product.html?source=9593
for anyone interested.

Maybe after Christmas for me tho'

Cheers
Adrian

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Dec 03. 2008 03:08

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Dafydd B

Senior Contributor Joined: Aug 26, 2006 08:20 Messages: 11973 Offline

Dec 03, 2008 05:02

Bif,

Excellent post. I along with Adrian have been looking for an alternative to try out.

Good links from both...brill in fact.

Dafydd

Bif

Member Location: San Angelo TX Joined: Aug 14, 2008 01:48 Messages: 147 Offline

Dec 04, 2008 16:23

The price I paid for the little "box" was $129USD plus tax. Real simple, it has no internal storage, you have to supply USB hard drive or other USB device but it does what I want, shows my rendered HD content on a big screen HD TV.

Just thought I'd share...

lerxst01

Member Location: Maryland Joined: Nov 09, 2010 18:31 Messages: 71 Offline

Jan 27, 2011 15:28

Bif,

The link you posted is no longer valid, but is this the type of hardware device you are referring to?

http://www.amazon.com/Micca-Slim-Portable-Digital-2-5-Inch/dp/B002ABX29I/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1296159743&sr=1-3

Thanks,
~Tim

lerxst01

Member Location: Maryland Joined: Nov 09, 2010 18:31 Messages: 71 Offline

Jan 27, 2011 15:34

Here's a Western Digital one:

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-WDTV-Media-Player/dp/B003O85A96/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1296160405&sr=1-6

Bif

Member Location: San Angelo TX Joined: Aug 14, 2008 01:48 Messages: 147 Offline

Jan 27, 2011 19:41

Quote: Bif,

The link you posted is no longer valid, but is this the type of hardware device you are referring to?

http://www.amazon.com/Micca-Slim-Portable-Digital-2-5-Inch/dp/B002ABX29I/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1296159743&sr=1-3

Thanks,
~Tim

I guess it's similar. Reading a few reviews it seems like it has an internal hard drive. The one I have does not (and that's the way I prefer it) but you can connect any external USB hard drive to it. I tried that once but what I use it for is playing back my own edited HD content from ordinary "thumb" drives (USB flash memory device also called "jump" drive or "travel" drive.

No moving parts and it's as simple as can be.

Quote: Here's a Western Digital one:

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-WDTV-Media-Player/dp/B003O85A96/ref=sr_1_6?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1296160405&sr=1-6

This is what I have, two USB inputs one HDMI out and one composite out. This listing appears to be for refurbished items and the price is very good. I'd grab one at that price while they have them.

Later versions have added wireless but I like the original design for it's utter simplicity.

Bruce Foreman

CubbyHouseFilms

Senior Contributor Location: Melbourne, Australia Joined: Jul 14, 2009 04:23 Messages: 2208 Offline

Jan 29, 2011 20:21

Hi Bif

Thanks to your original post I purchased one and have never looked back.

The clarity with the HD video files (I produce as close to the camera settings as possible) is absolutely breath taking.

Thanks again. Happing editing

Best Regards

Neil
CubbyHouseFilms
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BarryTheCrab

Senior Contributor Location: USA Joined: Nov 06, 2008 22:18 Messages: 6240 Offline

Feb 02, 2011 06:04

I just bought a BlueRay player that also connects to the 'net for SD/HD content, and has a usb port for a thumb drive so I can play AVC and Mpeg variations. Best of all worlds. Now I can see my HD productions on my bigscreen...
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