Looking for recommendation on player...

[OverSpeed]

Hello,

I'm looking for a media player that will meet certain criteria. Here is what i'm looking for.

All of my videos are Xvid's, encoded using AutoGK 2.45 from my DVD collection. I'd like to find a player that has a built in hard drive (preferrably a player where I can put in my own drive of any size). My TV is a Sony 27" CRT (the last high end CRT Sony made before switching completely to flat widescreens) so I don't need a HiDef player. My TV however does have a feature called "Enhanced 16:9" which makes true 16:9 sources look really good. The ideal player would have at least component video out. It would support Xvid and/or DivX and AC3 audio. I have a few MKV files but I can convert them to Xvid. Might also be nice if it played WMV but not manditory.

Basically I'd like to have my entire collection of videos on a player for easy access on my TV. I already know how to convert all of my DVD's to high quality Xvids now just need a player. The player would also have a remote in a perfect world. If it had a network wireless even better (to simplify transferring files to it from the PC. I couldn't use a wired scenario as the PC is not close to the TV).

Does such a player exist that meets these specific requirements? Your thoughts very much appriciated.

Robert

[Shakey_Jake33]

Honestly sounds like a modded XBox running XBMC would suit your needs best tbh. You would need a network bridge for wireless though.

Failing that, the 360 can play XviD files from USB HDD or network, and the PS3 will soon.

I'm not sure there is a dedicated player that means those quite demanding needs tbh!

[OverSpeed]

Thanx for your suggestion.

I think I could simplify my "needs". Forgetting about all the bells and whistles, all i "really" need is an Xvid player with a hard drive built in that will play standard AutoGk encoded media files.

Does that open my options?

Robert

[744]

I recommend you reduce your needs even more.
A good player with USB2 support combined with an external USB hard drive. The drive can easy be moved to your computer for updating content.
A lot easier than modding a Xbox 360. (which has only a small hard drive)

I am a fan of the oppo 980 for a player. http://www.oppodigital.com/dv980h/default.asp

I have heard a few DVRs could also do what you want but doubt good Xvid play back.

[Shakey_Jake33]

^You don't need to mod a 360 to play DivX/XviD, it plays it officially.

[744]

I am not so sure about Xbox based on the support site. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/digitalmedia/videoplaybackfaq.htm
How do you get the videos onto the hard drive?

If you have the xbox360 already then try it, but I would not buy it only for playing video. No, not everyone plays games.

[744]

possibly Philips Hard Disk DVD Recorder

[blizard]

If money isn't a big issue you could build yourself a dedicated hardware player as both DDR2 RAM memory, motherboard with integrated video and CPU have become very cheap lately and for only play back you will not need that much power. Any low end CPU like Athlon X2 3800+ or Athlon X2 4000+ (both suggested are dual core, but even single core would work for simple play back) would be good as those can be found in three energy efficient (EE) and normal variant and would not produce that much heat. That would mean less noise from cooling and just a large passive heat sink might be enough. But in general you should have some nice low RPM fan keeping it cool as precaution. Hot summer time day or other exception where heat will build up would then not be of so great danger.

That would also reduce your need to use special setting for Xvid or H.264 encoding as software player are more flexible. With a wireless connection you could make a simple download from one point to another (PC-TV) and it would probably. There a good software for building such machine like GBPVR (Windows based) or even Myth (Linux) could be one solution.

For just a simple play back box you will only need CPU, MB with an integrated video, some branded DDR2 RAM (get at least 1 GB if you want to use Win XP), Hard disk (easy to connect by eSATA or USB/Firewire), case and a wireless PCI card which can work at the distance from you main computer to your TV room (there are different standard which have work at different range). Micro ATX motherboard are rather compact, have not much space, but will fit well into MicroATX sized case. You will need a small power supply unit which can power all those devices (remember that also USB, eSATA, all external devices draw power) so you will need to find a balance between how much you want to be able to connect and still have a silent PSU. Seasonic are little expensive, but well known to deliver what they say in power and keep their PSU silent. (Read about those at silentPCreview!)

Personally I would rather build a small and compact device if I where you as prices have gone down very much on low end part to build Personal Video Recorder. It is also possible to reduce the need of key board and use remote to control such device.
With more CPU power you could let this machine do some transcoding work during night and watch the show later.

There are different solution and option with this kind of build. Any hardware player will have some limitation for what type of Xvid or Divx encoding that will be accepted.

[Shakey_Jake33]

I am not so sure about Xbox based on the support site. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/systemuse/xbox360/digitalmedia/videoplaybackfaq.htm
How do you get the videos onto the hard drive?

If you have the xbox360 already then try it, but I would not buy it only for playing video. No, not everyone plays games.
You can play DivX and XviD files on the 360 over USB or network stream.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=132292

Of course, the best solution is to build a mini PC of sorts.

[OverSpeed]

I found this:

http://www.tvix.co.kr/Eng/products/M3100U.aspx

Has the HD slot, remote, component out, good format support. Any thoughts on this player?

Robert

[OverSpeed]

One thing in their forum I read is that the player had a hard time playing Xvids at 29fps and could only handle the 24fps which could be problematic.

Would value any thoughts on this machine. Thanx

R