Mini 1080P Media Player

[FLiPMaRC]

I just got my Mini Media Player. $32.27 from eBay. It took 4 days to arrive from a US seller.

Comes with everything below.

Features

• USB HOST: can drive external USB storage devices such as USB pen drive, and play or manage files on them.
• Build-in USB 2.0 storage, with 10MB capacities.
• SD/SDHC reader: directly read SD/SDHC card, and play or manage files on TV, can read SD/SDHC card also on computer.
• Support HDMI, CVBS, and YPbPr video output.
• Support AV audio output.
• Video decoding formats: MKV/AVI/TS/TP/MP4/M4V/MOV/V0B/PMP/MPG/M2TS/FLV/WMV/RM/RMVB/MPEG1 2 4/DIVX(HD 1080P)/WMV9 VC-1/H.264 SP MP HP/H.263 BP
• Video definition: 1920x1080P Bit rates up to 80Mbps
• Support audio types: MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, FLAC, APE, AC3, DTS, ATRA.
• Photo: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP.
• Support Repeat, Zoom, FF, BF, Rotate functions.
• Resume play function: auto play from the break point.
• File management: can manage the files in devices connected to, manage delete or copy between each others.
• Support external subtitles: SRT/ASS(UTF8, GBK, BIG5, etc.)
• For convenience, a remote control is provided.
• OSD Language: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese.

I just tested a few of my .avi, .mp4, and .mkv movie files on my Panasonic 50" plasma tv with an HDMI cable. They all look great and plays smooth. I used a WD Passport 2.5" portable HDD, which is 4x bigger than this device I haven't tested using an SD card or a USB thumb drive yet. I'm sure it works, I hope

You can forward the movie from 1.4x up to 32x and it has play from last stop feature. So if you stop a movie in the middle, it will ask if you want to resume play.

The subtitles also works, and you have the option of changing the text size and color.

The UI is straight forward and simple. It took me 15secs to figure out how to play a movie. Then a few more minutes to go through all the menus on how to changes settings.


I have a WD TV Live media player that I use at home on my home theater system. It has WiFi and I stream all my movies from my PC in my upstairs bedroom. I wanted this primarily for my cabin in the Poconos, so I didn't need WiFi. I just wanted a cheap media player that can play most video formats and this fit the bill. I have a 32" LED tv there and I've been bringing my 17" laptop with HDMI output to play my movies. With this little device, I can just throw it in my bag or even just leave it there.

This is just my first impressions. We'll see how long this little device will last. It's so tiny It measures 2.5" x 2.25". As you can see, the remote is longer that it. I will give it two weeks before I give the eBay seller any Feedback.

[scoliosis]

Nice. I have one of these - Playon!HD Mini 2 :: AC Ryan | Defining Digital Entertainment

Works well especially over the network. I don't use Wifi as the Verizon router that came with FiOS sucks ass for throughput over WIfi (that and there's so many Wifi routers in my building there's not enough channels to go around). Main reason why I got this one over the rest is support for NFS. While my NAS appliance supports both NFS and CIFS/SMB, NFS tends to have higher throughput so I can actually stream full bit-rate Bluray quality video if I wanted to. Works really well.

[FLiPMaRC]

That's nice. The GUI looks awesome too.

I bought a separate N router just for my WD TV Live at home. I connected that to my FiOS router as a separate AP. Even on a 2.4Ghz band, and set to only 150Mbps, I can still stream a 1080P 12GB movie file without any problems. <-- I only have one of those movie files. I was just curious if my setup can handle it. Most of my movies are 720P at 700mb-1.5gb each.

As you can see from my thread in the IT section above ^ post #31 ... I use a utility called inSSIDer and found 30 other AP/routers in my neighborhood I look for the best available channel and set my routers accordingly. My FiOS is on Channel 1 and my N router is on Channel 11

I would love to drop a Cat5e line from my upstairs bedroom down to my living room though. I just haven't had the time, and so far my setup is holding up fine. If I had the FiOS Triple Play bundle, I might just go the same route as Damian with the MoCa adapters. But I have DirectTV.


Damn, I just realized from looking at that thread that I've had that refurbished Netgear router for two years now.

[scoliosis]

LOL! Yeah I didn't want to double NAT and have to stick yet another device out there even though I've got a wireless-N router already. I tried to do the Bridge mode workaround deal so the STB can still get On-Demand data, but so far no luck. Pain in the ass they didn't just give me a Ethernet drop and are refusing to do so when I asked 3 times.

[FLiPMaRC]

Your FiOS router is N?? Mine is only G

[scoliosis]

Originally Posted by FLiPMaRC

Your FiOS router is N?? Mine is only G

Yeah, it's rev F Actiontec MI424WR. You can call them and ask for a newer router, they'll ship one out. Just say the wireless keeps cutting in and out of all your wireless devices and you've already reset the router multiple times.

[FLiPMaRC]

Originally Posted by scoliosis

Yeah, it's rev F Actiontec MI424WR. You can call them and ask for a newer router, they'll ship one out. Just say the wireless keeps cutting in and out of all your wireless devices and you've already reset the router multiple times.

I'll try it. Thanks!!! What service do you have? I have the 15/5Mbps service.

[scoliosis]

Originally Posted by FLiPMaRC

I'll try it. Thanks!!! What service do you have? I have the 15/5Mbps service.

I have the legacy 25/25Mbps service. They tried to get me to upgrade to the new triple play Quantum service but I'll end up paying the same amount for less bandwidth. I'm like fuck no!

[FLiPMaRC]

Less bandwidth for the Quantum service??? How?

[scoliosis]

Originally Posted by FLiPMaRC

Less bandwidth for the Quantum service??? How?

They cancelled the 25/25 offering, no more symmetrical speeds.

$89.99 is the 50/25 plan ammortized over 2 years. If you look at the broken down monthly payment, it looks like this -
Verizon Triple Play
$89.99 /mo with 2-year agreement

Price Months 1 - 4 = $109.99
Discounts Included
$20 Bundle Credit
$5 Online Credit for 24 Months
$5 24-Month Contract Discount
Price Months 5 = $129.99
Discounts Included
$5 Online Credit for 24 Months
$5 24-Month Contract Discount
Price Months 6-24 = $134.99
Discounts Included
$5 24-Month Contract Discount

All that plus tax.

Right now, I'm getting 25/25 with the same TV and Voice for $105 including taxes -


So yeah, they want me to pay more for slower speeds.

[FLiPMaRC]

According to their website, FiOS Quantum is at least 50/25 --> FiOS Quantum Internet - Fastest Internet | Internet Speed Test | Verizon

But yeah you're right, they did get rid of the 25/25 plan. I'm paying $60/mo for my FiOS internet + phone

[Bri01Spyder]

How is the player working Marc? I have used the Asus O!play mostly, but they like to quit support, and I got my parents a WDTV live Plus which seems to work pretty well. They don't have it hooked up to the Home theater system so I can't really tell everything about it. This looks like a nifty portable device for bringing stuff to show to friends at their houses, etc. How has the stress test worked out?

[FLiPMaRC]

Everything was good. I was playing movies with it all weekend. I mostly have .avi, .mp4, & .mkv files. One thing I did notice was the picture was a little dark, but other than that all the movies played fine. I adjusted the brightness and contrast on my TV and all was good again.

Two of my friends liked it, so I ordered two more for them It should be coming in today.

[Bri01Spyder]

Marc -- have you tried any movie with subtitles, for instance using SRT? I use them a lot and I was curious about the options it has, like moving the subs, or making them bigger, or increasing the size of the outlining. One of my media players has the subtitle lines quite far apart which takes up more screen space which I don't like. The other one doesn't, but it doesn't play the subs automatically or have that feature set so I have to turn em on for every episode.

This player looks great for something to bring to friends' houses with a hard drive if I want to show them something or whatnot, like the latest korean drama or maybe a movie that I've ripped that they haven't seen.

[FLiPMaRC]

Also check out James' thread about the Android miniPC: Android MiniPC


From the feature list:

Subtitle: support SRT

I've briefly tested one foreign movie with subtitle file and it worked. I didn't play around with it, sorry And I don't have it at home to try it out for you. I left it at my cabin in the Poconos.

One thing that I'm going to advise you against this unit is the remote. I have ordered three of these units (two for my friends). The remotes suck. You need to be around 3-4ft away And if you notice, there's no way you can control or play anything without the remote. One of the remotes that I got for my friend wasn't working. So I contacted the eBay vendor and he's sending me replacement remotes.

I've found other media players on eBay that I'm thinking about getting. It looks to have better remotes and they have buttons on the main unit itself so you can play your media without the remote.


1080P HD USB HDMI SD/MMC Multi TV Media Player RMVB MKV US Seller free shipment | eBay




Multi Media TV Player 1080P HD USB HDMI SD/MMC RMVB MP3 AVI MPEG Divx MKV | eBay



But other than the remote issue, it's been solid so far



Aaaaaaannnnddd .... if you DON'T NEED HDMI connectivity, they have a unit that's only $20


TV HD 720P Multi Media Player SD USB MKV RM RMVB AVI MPEG4 Center Remote | eBay

[FLiPMaRC]

I just received a message from the eBay vendor about the remotes.

Dear Marc,

Thanks for your message?
I have arrange the order for you,when i get the tracking no,i will tell you,is that ok?
Thanks for your kindly waiting.
Any questions will be welcomed to touch me any time.
I will try my best to help you.
Have a nice day.

Regards,
tvs-store

[Bri01Spyder]

Originally Posted by FLiPMaRC

I just received a message from the eBay vendor about the remotes.

Damn, now that's real customer service! Makes me want to order from them.

However, on closer inspection, you're right, your second choice players seem to have buttons that can toggle the UI on the actual box, which could definitely come in handy. I took mine on vacation just a few weeks ago and forgot the remote, meaning it was just a worthless hunk of plastic. Now, of course if i had a laptop the hard drive would have sufficed. Still, it might be worth it to try one of these "throw away" media players.

Maybe they'll welcome me to touch them anytime too!

[FLiPMaRC]

I'm still waiting on the replacement remotes.

I ended up ordering these last Friday for $31.59

Multi TV Media Player HDMI 1080P HD USB SD MMC RMVB MP3 AVI MPEG Divx MKV (US) | eBay

If I like it, I'll sell my other one to my friend for around $20 The only thing about this new unit is I don't see any subtitle support. Not really a deal breaker. I like that it has button controls on the unit itself, and it looks to have a better remote.

[FLiPMaRC]

^Received it today. Much better remote, and the controls on the unit works well too. But there's a lot of controls on the remote too, like 'Setup', Zoom, Aspect Ratio, On/Off Subtitles, OSD, etc. I also like the fact there's a physical on/off button switch in the back of the unit.

It plays all my files ... avi, mkv, mp4.

OSD = is basically for the subtitles. So far only .srt files work. The .sub files are not read by the media player You can change the subtitle color from white to black, red, blue, cyan, magneta, and yellow. You can also change the subtitle outline color and text size

Very happy with this unit. I will sell the other one to my friend

[Bri01Spyder]

Hey Marc -- thanks for the review. Not all of my items are sub/idx, so maybe this is something for me to get. Most of the subs I have on my various dramas are srt -- a few Asian movies use the sub/idx format. I suppose if i was dedicated enough i could convert from sub/idx to srt -- although the sub/idx format is actually using graphics of the subs which is why they can't be manipulated. When you convert them you have to go through an ocr part of it where you can teach it to write the correct words -- tedious but possible.

I always prefer the remotes that are bigger and have keys instead of those membrane buttons. My current Asus' remote is big enough but for some reason has horrible range, even compared to the other Asus remote I have. Still,what you just bought looks good for keeping in the car when you want to share stuff with friends and you're not worried about Dolby Digital or DTS. They have higher end media players that either have passthrough or decoding of the 5.1 or even 7.1 audio but they cost a lot more.

Be careful of some that allow you to install an HDD into the media player as they very often have poor ventilation, causing the HDD to overheat. Which is interesting in that if you have a very slow 5400 rpm HDD these are a better choice than the nice raptor or 10k rpm HDD.

[FLiPMaRC]

Good to know about the ones with the HDD. Thanks