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The Best Streaming Media Player
DeviceGuru writes "It's looking like 2012 will be a watershed year for cord-cutters wanting to replace expensive cable TV services with low-cost gadgets that stream movies and TV shows from the Internet via free, subscription, and pay-per-view services. Accordingly, this DeviceGuru smackdown pits five popular streaming media player devices against each other. The smackdown compares Roku, Google TV, Apple TV, the Boxee Box, and Netgear's NeoTV, tabulating their key features, functions, specs, supported multimedia formats, and other characteristics, and listing the main advantages and disadvantages of each device. Then, it provides a summary chart that attempts to quantify the whole thing, so you (theoretically) can pick the best one based on what characteristics are most important to you. Of course, the market's evolving so quickly that the entire process will need to be redone in 6 months, but what else is new."
All fine and well if you don't want updates that the manufacturer won't give you. There's a lot of cases where this comparison review lists software deficiencies, but firmware lockdowns make things worse.
Never mind the content issues that come along with these devices.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Apps are written in Python. There are currently about 250 now.
I was shocked when I saw a friend's AppleTV... there was no web browser - stay in the garden children.
I've wondered if Raspberry Pi would be good for this or not- and had considered getting one for that exact purpose. Obviously no one has experience with R Pis as HTPCs yet- but does anyone with experience of HTPCs think the Pi would be good enough for that?
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I'm yet to see a review that takes under account the ability of the media player to re-negotiate HDMI mode to match the frame rate of the source material.
Most players are guilty of either a single frame rate (atv2, I'm looking at you) or having to manually change modes (great user experience, right?).
Of all players I know, only the Popcorn Hour ones have the ability to configure which modes you want it to auto-select. This results in silky-smooth playback.
Otherwise, try playing 24000/1001 fps on 25fps display or 25fps material on 30000/1001 fps display. It's always jerky and fugly.
But I guess it's more important that the thing plays protected content or that you can watch cats on youtube.
Pfft, get off my lawn.
(captcha: bashing)
On their blog, they do show a demo of 1080p and XBMC
GPU accellerated stuff should work fine I guess, but probably non GPU accellerated would be problematic
In most areas, the cable and internet come from the same provider who has a monopoly. If enough people cut cable, they will just raise internet prices to keep the same profits. Hell, they're going to raise internet prices for everyone regardless because we all use too much bandwidth in their opinion.
I want the same question asked worldwide, otherwise the Pirate Bay stays the only option for many.
Non-Linux Penguins ?
I got my WD Live for $80 about a year or so ago. Plays 1080p mkv flawlessly off of a samba share from a linux server. It just works.
Looks different and a little more expensive then mine, but probably still worth getting: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136997
Because reading a normal desktop's output from 15 feet away on the couch is hard. The nice thing about these is that the UI is designed for easy reading and navigation with a remote.
-dave
http://millionnumbers.com/ - own the number of your dreams
An Apple TV by itself is almost useless. It's a good Netflix box but other then that : meh. Where is shines is AirPlay, you can stream your stuff from pretty much any website or App on the iPad (or iPhone) and most of the time the quality is pretty great.
If you want to transform it into an amazing machine : jailbreak it and put XBMC on it, you'll have the best of both Apple and the Open Source world. The only remaining issue is that it doesn't do 1080p, but then what kind of streaming content can you get in 1080p?
Apps are written in Python. There are currently about 250 now. I was shocked when I saw a friend's AppleTV... there was no web browser - stay in the garden children.
True, if you use the simple -out-of-the-box- minimal remote that comes with the device.
But if you use your iPhone/iPad/iPad Touch as a WiFi remote (with the free Remote app from Apple), you have a really sweet remote that also does mirroring via Airplay. Anything visible on the screen of the i-Device shows up on the TV.
I'm always surprised at how many I-Device owners had no idea that they could use their device as a remote control and display content on their TVs.
At family gatherings we just turn on the TV, fire up the AppleTV and then everyone pulls out their iPhones and shares photos.
I like microcars
Here's what I want:
Someone to bundle an Acer Aspire Revo 3700 with an appropriate IR receiver and remote (ie: Noah Company MediaGate GP-IR02BK Windows Vista Home Premium and Windows Vista Ultimate MCE Remote Control).
Load it up with OpenElec and a couple of the standard repositories (bluecop, etc.).
And just sell that as a media center.
I did it myself, but it took some trial and error to get the right stuff together. But now that I have it's it's easy to duplicate for the family.
Help! I'm a slashdot refugee.
By far the best player I have come across is Seagate's GoFlex TV http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/home_entertainment/hd-media-player
It does everything. It has played everything that I tried. It does windows networking very well. It does YouTube, Netflix, MediaFly, Pandora and a number of others. It does 1080p has outputs for composite, RGB, and HDMI. It also has an optical output and will send out a raw optical stream that my audio receiver can process.
I have a DirecTv HD DVR with the whole house option and the GoFlex Player recognizes it as a media streaming device. I came across that feature by accident and contacted Seagate about it. They said that they had been working on it and it was only in the last release of the BIOS which if you have the box connected to the internet, it updates automatically.
If you can rip a dvd or bluray it will play it. I store all my audio CD's in FLAC and this media player plays very well through the optical port. It also runs on 5 volts so I bought a car cell phone charger and cut off the cord and attached the cord of the player to it and installed it in the SUV and plays movies for the kids off of 4 microSD cards connected via a USB hub all in the center console of the vehicle.
This Seagate also can do wireless networking via usb. When on the road we pull into a McDonald's, click on network and watch current news.
I have nothing to do with Seagate but I have done extensive testing and research and you won't find a better one for the price.
One thing the reviews leave out is scriptability/hackability.
Roku actually has a pretty easy and open-ish api.
Roku channels can be written in a scripting language called Brightscript (feels mostly like VBScript). The SDK also comes with C header files if you'd rather write something low level. I wrote a basic channel that takes reads an XML manifest file from my webserver and lets you pick from any of my home videos (or backups of my DVDs or infringed video) and streams it on the TV. I did this in about 15 minutes of coding on the roku side, including a "cover flow" style menu. (Of course, you aren't going to escape the need to transcode your video files, unless you are doing it hot on the webserver)
later when they upgraded the OS (without breaking any compatibility) I was able to write a page to run on my webserver that allows me to go to a browser from any of the computers on my network and select any movie (accessible by http) and directly launch it on the roku from the browser (which is very helpful for when I want to watch a horror/pr0n movie with the wife after the kids go to bed, but I don't want the kids to have access to it during the day)
I wrote an HTML/AJAX remote control app to run on our tablets/iphone/laptops to control the roku if we misplace the remote, which was also really simple, due to the easy/open API
I have tried many set top solutions, and THIS is the one my 3 year-old and my grandmother can use, but that I can still force it to do what I want.
They seemed to have missed a bittorrent client in the list of features. How about letting me load up what *I* want to watch from the device, instead of what *you* want me to watch. Plus, if they can't mount shares, how can you connect the one upstairs with the one downstairs? These things can't stream to each other?
On another note, it seems odd my old PCH A110 can still "out feature" some of these newer players on the market. It plays from samba, nfs, or upnp shares, includes a bittorrent client, and of course handles almost any format you can throw at it. Of course, it's also very long in the tooth by now.
If thou see a fair woman pay court to her, for thus thou wilt obtain love
will ALWAYS outperform any other player. people can continue to ignore it, but xbmc running on any device is better than anything else out there imo.
I have a PS3 and a Roku, I can tell you they both do netflix and hulu plus, and the PS3 even has a much better interface for netflix... we still use the roku more. The PS3 has to install an OS upgrade every week or so, the "controllers" or remote control system will use up the batteries completely in about 10 hours of idling, the device itself gets really hot even idling, etc. So for the roku, it is always on, the remote always works. For the PS3 we have to turn it on, wait for a firmware/OS upgrade, then remember to turn the controllers off while we watch TV. It does way too much to be an appliance. The PS3 is a game console with streaming, the Roku is an appliance, and there still is a big difference.
I agree that this is a very important feature, and very rare outside of full-on PC based media centers.
My current box (SageTV HD300 media extender) does this. It is very sad that SageTV was purchased by Google, and you can no longer purchase this hardware. This is the exact same Sigma tango3 hardware as the WDTV Live Plus (and probably a few others), so we know that low-end STB hardware is capable of it.
Hardware based mkv h264 decoding. Other than that most people say it wont have enough power to decode other codecs.
for the love of god, have you been living under a rock? xbmc not only has pvr specific builds, but you can just add mythtv source to any xbmc build, i have live tv thru xbmc on my win 7 laptop, ubuntu htpc, and apple tv 1 running xbmc on crystalbuntu http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=MythTV#Setup_in_XBMC
Exaggerate much? PS3 has upgrades semi-often(less than once a month these days) and they are NOT required to use anything other than the PlayStation Network. These upgrades add features anyways, like the native Netflix application. As far as the batteries and the heat, the original model did get hotter(not like the 360, though) than the current design that runs fairly cool, but many of those units have been phased out anyway(unless you've replaced the laser by now) and the batteries last plenty long and are rechargeable anyways. If you use the ps3 bluray remote, you can use rechargeable AAs or just turn the remote off during the shows(is it really that hard?).
From a standalone device perspective, the PS3 is hard to beat in functionality outside of a dedicated PC. As with all multifunction devices, it has it's shortcomings, but some of those that you mentioned aren't true or aren't really shortcomings(takes longer for my stereo to turn on and load an HD signal than it does for my PS3 to turn on)
Raspberry Pi is pretty limited at the moment in terms of things it will play. That's more or less a licensing issue for them. For instance it could decode MPEG2, but since that's a $5-10 license to unlock that functionality on the SoC, it's not presently doing it. I think people are going to be able to do some really neat things with the UI via XBMC with the Pi, but as far as the number of Codecs supported the Boxee is going to be king.
Glad to see I wasn't the only one wondering why they left out the WD line. WD has the best hybrid of local playback and online apps. I have yet to have a file format thrown at it that it can't handles. It also can play from SMB shares, uPnP media servers, and lots of online apps. How did the reviewer fail to add that to their queue? The newest model even has the builtin wifi. I tend to recommend the WD line to people over the Roku, Boxee, Apple TV, or Google TV.
Boxee and the Current crop of Google TVs have the same problem. They threw their lot in with Intel for the the System on Chip family (CE4X00 series). A ton of things are provided by Intel from Video, Flash, The problem is Intel has dropped this business line. It's basically has a skeleton crew of developers for upkeep, but it's pretty obvious from the bugs that have stuck around that Intel is phoning it in until their contractual obligations end.
Google has already announced a new hardware platform, it's not clear what boxee is going to do.
So what did that all cost? And how long did it take to set it all up?
Was it more than $99? And was it more than 15 minutes?
Not being a dick, but if it's all so easy to do what you say, you would be in business competing against Apple I would have bought your box instead.
If it IS that easy and you CAN give me a near $100 box and a near 15 minute setup time with hardware and SOFTWARE that beats these other devices then quit your day job and get cracking. I want to buy your system.
BUT: If it's more like $300 and as elegant as a volvo chassis with a Hemi engine and an airconditioner duct taped to the window, then I'll keep my Apple TV. Which I have not had to touch since installing a year ago.
So I don't see why you'd want one of these things when HTPCs have frankly never been cheaper.
Because people expect to walk into Best Buy and walk out with something. If you have to buy it as separate parts and install them all into a case, it's already a non-starter except for dedicated geeks.
But the same is true for all the devices in the article, they all rely on GPU based decoding. Non GPU accelerated stuff won't play on those shiny boxes as well. The hardware in there isn't all that different.
step 1: buy an apple tv
step 2: jailbreak
step 3: install plex
step 4: win!
Slashdot: come for the pedantry, stay for the condescension.
I wonder why Sigma-based network media tanks like the Popcorn Hour C-300 are not included. Is it because it supports [gasp!] "pirate-friendly" codecs and region-free coding? Or is it because these types of media players have far better picture and audio quality?
I use a Mac Mini for my media player. I get some content using Miro (http://www.getmiro.com/). I play video content with either Miro or XBMC (http://xbmc.org/). For audio, I use Music Player Daemon (http://mpd.wikia.com/wiki/Music_Player_Daemon_Wiki) and control it with my phone or a laptop. It just works.
Sadly, I live in Canada and this entire discussion might as well be written in Swahili. I've heard there are things like legal online TV south of the border but not here. Admittedly we've gotten Netflix in the last year or so, but it is a stripped-down version. Best Buy doesn't care things like this here. Fortunately, unlike all these US-only services, The Pirate Bay doesn't care where you live.
yes, he specifically was looking to watch huiu on the tv without paying for it, connecting a PC to your TV is the least geeky way to do that. I know set top boxes aren't for normal consumers, cheapskates on slashdot are not normal consumers.