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Gear / Technical Help => Playback Forum => Topic started by: thejamgrasspimp on December 29, 2009, 10:00:16 AM
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So, I'm looking for some advice from you folks on how you go about playing your downloaded video files through an HD TV. Like alot of you I have a stockpile of amazing concert videos (mostly TS files) on multiple external hard drives. I can play these on my PC with no problem but I'd like to be able to play these through my new LCD to fully enjoy the experience. Recently there have been a plethora of devices entering the marketplace that claim to have the ability to play video files from external hard drives through LCD and plasma TV sets. Here is a link at amazon to some of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1262097250/ref=sr_kk_1?ie=UTF8&search-alias=aps&field-keywords=hd%20media%20player
Reading the reviews for these devices is maddening and it seems like they all have their faults. The most popular one right now seems to be the WD TV Live model. A big issue with this item that I read in the reviews is that it cannot access video menus and you can only rewind and fast forward. There is no option to skip ahead chapters. It also seems that some folks had the audio and video out of synch after fast forwarding or rewinding.
Have any of you had success with playing your TS video files from an external hard drive through any of these devices on HDTV? I mostly use Toshiba hard drives which are powered by the device that they're plugged into. Basically for this to work the HD media player would have to feed enough power to the external hard drive for it to work.
I'm open to any advice or other suggestions that ya'll may have. Basically, the goal here is to avoid having to constantly burn new DVDR's and to play my videos from an external hard drive (with no external power adapter) on an HDTV. I'm trying to avoid just buying a new CPU tower for my living room to accomplish this but I may have to. How are ya'll deaing with playing your TS video files on HDTV?
Thanks in advance for any and all advice from this kind community.
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I just got a WD TV Live box, and overall I think it is a good option for what you're looking for.
That said, I've barely gotten it hooked up and tested at this point. I haven't yet upgraded the firmware (which is an older version as shipped) since I want to do some reading up on it to be sure others find the latest stable. I've also barely tested its functionality.
It plays ts video files, but I can't remember if it has audio/video sync issues when fast forwarded or if I even tested it. I played .m4v files on it by just changing the extension to .mp4. Those files played fine, but did have audio/video sync problems after fast forwarding.
I'll try to get some more testing soon, but not until at least this weekend as I've got a string of shows coming up.
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A similar question was asked on another board I read and some one suggested the Popcorn Hour Media Tank. The name rang a distant bell and a quick search here reveals that it's been mentioned here before. It was highly recommended on the other board. I don't own one and have not seen one in person but it may be worth looking at as I didn't see it in the Amazon results you linked.
http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php
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Todd - Thanks for the response. I'd really appreciate any testing info you can provide when you have time. Also, are you running an external hard drive powered by the WD Live or what type of drive is it?
Flipp - I also looked into the Popcorn device you mentioned but a combination of high price and mixed reviews have kept me at bay so far.
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I've got two drives hooked up to it, one externally powered and one powered by the WD TV.
The main drive is an old 200gb internal (IDE?) drive I put in a cheapo external enclosure. The other drive is a 20gb 1.8" drive taken from a dead iRiver h120 and put into a pocket-size enclosure from ebay. It runs off USB powering from the WD TV.
Both work fine. The WD TV box lets you transfer files from one drive to the other, so the 200gb drive will be my main drive, and I'm currently using the 20gb pocket drive to transfer files from my mac to the WD TV. I haven't gotten the networking capabilities of the WD TV figured out yet.
I'll let you know what I find once I get a chance to do more testing.
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I have a Dvico Tvix M-4100sh which does pretty much what you're looking for. It is not without its quirks, but if you learn what those are, you have a pretty sweet media player. It has a slot for an internal SATA drive, and you can connect externals (which I haven't yet tried), but they show up as greyed out on the menu so it is at least available.
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Check out the ASUS O Play. Very similar to the wdtv but with menu support.
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Some HD media player is suited in that kind of application. The latest classic media player is one of the most beautiful players that I've experienced.
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I'm using one of these: http://www.mvixusa.com/ultio/1080p-high-definition-home-theater-pc.html I used it to test 80Mbps 1080p video streams via UPNP-AV and it rendered the content flawlessly.
I works great but it's not really an HTPC. It runs a scaled down install of embedded linux. The UI is klunky - basically just file navigation - but I don't really need fancy menus while video is playing.
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I hook my external up to my roommates PS3, which is connected to his HDTV via HDMI. Video TS, AVI, MPEG, WMV, etc. They all play. The only issue I've had has been a few videos I've downloaded with very low audio bitrates. The audio just didn't play. It's only been on a couple of videos though. Other than that the PS3 works as an excellent media station.