Slashdot Mirror
Networked DVD Players, Good or Bad?
ageoffri asks: "My 5 year old Pioneer DVD player is starting to act up so I need to replace it soon. A friend of mine mentioned he got a Go Video DVD player. This got me wondering how many more networked DVD players there were and some searches found a few, but almost no reviews on any of them.
I'm wondering if any Slashdot readers have used a networked DVD player and if so how well it worked? Is the picture quality the same for playing a DVD in the player or from a PC? I'm only looking for one that either comes with or can accept a wireless connection."
RTFA, please.
This is much like what people do with MythTV (an opensource PVR project). You can have a spearate back-end system (where you record and store TV shows) from the front-end systems (hooked up to TVs). [Actually, you can have several of each, but that's another discussion.]
Anyway, if you don't have a HTPC (home theater pc), but you want that functionallity, this may be a good approach. If you find a review, pay attention to heat and noise reports--one of the big advantages of moving functionallity to a remote PC is that you also keep the noise out of your living room.
I've got an integrated DVD-R/TiVo unit with a 300 GB harddrive (an easily performed hack, or you can get PTV Upgrade to do it). Works very well, uses the TiVo desktop software to gateway pictures from my Mac's iPhoto database and mp3s from my Mac's iTunes database. The network interface is attached through a USB port on the back of the DVD-R/TiVo unit, and a number of wired and wireless adapters are supported.
My one gripe is that the TiVo doesn't support AAC files yet. TiVo keeps promising that they are working on it, but do not provide a delivery date estimate. This has been the case for over a year.
Other than that gripe, it works great. My only real gripe is that if you transfer a show over the network to this TiVo from another TiVo using the Home Media Option, the TiVo won't burn it to a DVD-R... their notion of DRM.
Oh yeah... and of course, being a TiVo it runs Linux, so all sorts of hacks are available for it.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
Read the Slashdot review of the Oritron NPD3117 Networked DVD Player
YOU'RE WINNER !
Another lame blog
Linksys released or is releasing an 802.11g enabled networked DVD player. Its probably not out yet as i cant find it on their projects page, there are some press releases about it though. But it seems to be what you want, since its not out yet, obviously no reviews, but linksys makes a decent product. (typing this on a laptop connected by a linksys 802.11g card to my linksys 802.11g wireless router/4 port switch)
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
A modded XBox? They can do amazing things nowadays. Of course in some places in the world, modifying equipment that you have purchased and own yourself can be illegal (see DMCA).
Modded XBoxen can play DVD's, DivX and Xvid (and yes Ogg and Ogm), can connect to your network, and heaps of other stuff. And they're very cheap for what you get. Apparently you can also play games on them, but the games don't compare favourably to the PC equivalents.
Thankfully here in Australia, the trade agreement that is currently being forced on us by the USA hasn't taken place yet so we can still adjust and modify equipment that we own.
I am government man, come from the government. The government has sent me. -- G.I.R.
There are however some major advantages especially if you got a powerfull pc and you watch movies with subs.
VobSub allows you to polygnize the fonts. This turns the ugly standard DVD subs into beautifull high quality fonts. It costs a lot of cpu power but the results are a lot better.
Add a couple of other filters and you can dramatically improve your picture especially if you got a decent tv.
Wether this worth all the effort is up to you. A stand alone player is a lot lot simpler to work with.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.