Media Players......Got the Boxee Box

[jizzlobber]

I want something that'll do more, and I also want a sexy UI like XBMC.

I had a much around with my sisters WD thingo and it was pretty shit to use, couldn't figure out how to use folders so there was a huge list of different TV shows mixed with movies, real pain and the search function was also pretty slow and ugly.

we'll be building a new home soon and i'll have a theatre room, I want everything to be realy slick... XBMC with movies, PVR, music, etc

[guttermouth]

The Boxee is basically a WDTV with XBMC built in. I pretty sure its menu system is built from the XBMC.
I upgraded from the WDTV and havent looked back, the XBMC type menus, the cataloguing of all your media makes everything so organized, tidy and easy to find...

[jizzlobber]

you know what I went and did?

I was reading up on it a bit last night and found out the cheapest way to get XBMC on my TV is to buy an Apple TV2 and jailbreak it... which I have done but i'll need to wait 'till I get control of the TV again to install XBMC.

not perfect, 720p max but I don't think any of the HD shit I download looks 1080p anyway.
no drive inside, everything streamed so hopefully my HD stuff will be right, will find out soon.

$115 means i'm not in trouble from the wife.
impressions later

[Ben]

That's what we use here, works ace.

[Vzzzbx]

Taking Stilnix takin Stilnix,mwoeks Stilnix q
It you to sleep camsh

[selfish]

Taking Stilnix takin Stilnix,mwoeks Stilnix q
It you to sleep camsh

What the fuck?

[Vzzzbx]

Fuck. Apparently Stilnox + not going to sleep + using ipad = unmitigated disaster

[selfish]

Hahah shit. Stilnox = Ambien yeah? Messed up.

[GreyWizzard]

A guy at my work is looking to buy a htpc and asked me about it. I told him I don't know a lot about it as it's not something I've ever looked into before. Most of the things he is concerned about is price as neither of us know what is a reasonable price.

He wants to play 1080p content, have hdmi out and optical out. The ability to use a remote is a must.

Any info on price and specs would be appreciated.

[GreyWizzard]

I was looking at a WD unit on dicksmiths and was wondering if anyome had experience with those media players. I was womdering if anyone knew if you could connect external hdd's to it, and does the network see it as something you can transfer data to. Like copying files straight to it rather than just streaming.

If that's the case I might show the dude at work that and see what he thinks.

The less work he has to do of unpluggimg and replugging cables or streamimt data the better. It just needs to be as simple as possible. I mention streaming because his network seems to have issues with 1080p files.

[guttermouth]

The WD is a simple as it gets, plug ya external into it and go. 1080p via HDMI looks great and plays damn well, one of the best players going around. There is a WD TV with a built in hard drive, best to keep away from that model.

I have a WDTV and just upgraded to the boxee box. I have found the boxee has better picture and sound quality and have yet to find a file format it can't play yet. 2 other mates also grabbed a boxee they are hardcore audio/videophiles and have yet to fault it. I prefer the boxee over the WD just on quality along with the menu system where it will find cover art and discription to all your movie/TV programs when connected online along with marking off what you have watched.

If you want something quick and easy the WD is a work horse, you couldn't go wrong with it. If you want heaps of features along with Internet TV and stuff the boxee is the go, but is 100 bucks more expensive.

[GreyWizzard]

Yeah the WD sounds pretty good. I showed it to him and it does most of what he wants. He has a launch ps3 which he says sounds like a jet plane taking off whenever he plays a bluray. So he would like something that has a br drive in it. The more he talks the more it sounds like a standard pc heh.

So for the pc building people, what sort of price might he be looking for if it has optical out, hdmi out, a br drive, 2tb hdd. Will that require a large case considering it has no gaming needs, so no high end 3D video card. Also how much ram does one require? He looked at one on ebay and it had 8gb in it. But you really only need that much if you were recording tv yeah? Oh and what sort of OS do you use? I mean you are only loading a player and not much else...

If I was all about hd rips I'd consider getting the WD myself.

[jizzlobber]

I have only had limited experience with the WD, the main problem I had with it was the menu... not only does it look fugly, but all my stuff was slapped together in the one list, my folders were ignored so I had a giant list with all my different TV eps, movies etc together.
And searching wasn't that easy either.

[jizzlobber]

I rarely played the pokies, but I did the other night before seeing kevin bloody wilson and I turned $5 into $130.
so I decided to buy some kind of network solution for my media.

I had been using the ATV2/xbmc combo but it end up being a bit too slow to navigate and some movies wouldn't play properly.
recently i've been using the air video app combined with the atv2, works awesome but I need my lappy open and I don't have the storage space.

so with my winnings I just bought this-
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Bluetimes-35 ... 1c31b4c202" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

this thing could be a heap of shit for all I know, it's coming from china, I can't find any reviews, I can't really find anything at all about it... but i've heard decent impressions from other bluetimes devices at avforums.
i'm hoping the NAS aspect will work ok, it'll be good if our devices can access the HDD over the network, hopefully I can transfer downloaded movies to the device wirelessly.

anyway $95, hopefully I don't get what I pay for and get something better.
will post impressions later

btw- they have other devices which run XBMC for well under $100, cheap as

[jizzlobber]

don't know if anyone gives a shit, but I have had the player for a few days now... my impressions.

the good-

this thing plays anything I throw at it regardless of file type,resolution etc
in recent times I was using air video on the ipad to convert and stream video files from my laptop to my apple TV2, it worked well but sometimes struggled with high quality movies... no worries at all now.

having the ability to send files to my external HDD (via the media player) wirelessly really suits my lazy lifestyle.

the bad- xbmc isn't available unlike a lot of other media players, the default user interface doesn't hold a candle to xbmc which is a shame, it gets the job done without the pretty.

i'm yet to try it as a music player which I intend on doing, hoping the audio quality is there
I would like to use it as a NAS but I don't know how to set that up... NO MANUAL!!!

pretty happy all in all... $95 is fuck all for something like this.