Hd Media Player Non Sigma Designs Based

[ht1]

I am wondering if there are any media players out there or soon to be released that are based on a different chipset than the sigma designs series. All the ones I have researched so far are sigma design based with the usual inherent Sigma SDK bugs.

I was interested in the DViCO DViX M-4000 with its inbuilt HD DVB-T tuner to be released Mid March but reading on the AVS forum it has the usual problems that other Sigma Designs players have.

The TEAC HDRM7250 seemed like it was going to fit the bill but once again it is based on Sigma Designs and is full of bugs.

DigitalNow have a Network Media player coming with twin tuners in March all though that date seems unlikely to be met as no technical details have been released and it is now Mid Feb but once again from what I can find out it is Sigma Design based.

Maybe it is just too early in the development cycle for network media players and until either Sigma designs put in more effort in debugging their SDK's or other major chip companies such as Zoran or ATI start releasing chipsets the network media players will never be mainstream.

[Foggy]

I hear ya ht1.

I've been researching NMP's for the last couple of months and have also been disheartened by the level of compromise and mediocrity that we're forced to accept, mainly brought about by the use of the Sigma chipsets and Syabas middleware.

The Snazio HD Netcenter (with the new "non-public" firmware) was probably the best, but it still had some limitations for photo viewing that I wasn't prepared to live with. The video side of things was almost perfect though!

In the end I gave up, and last night I ordered a Macbook instead. Now I've been a DOS/Windows guy for more than 20 years, but the Mac just seemed to offer everything I needed.... and it's tax deductible for me.

WRT to your question, I didn't find any non-Sigma players either... except for PC/Mac based solutions.

[dogsrus]

DigitalNow have a Network Media player coming with twin tuners in March all though that date seems unlikely to be met as no technical details have been released and it is now Mid Feb but once again from what I can find out it is Sigma Design based.

Any more info on the DigitalNow product, there's no reference to it on the web page???

[Mcrackn]

I'm looking forward to knowing more about the DigitalNow stb too. I reckon I'll be quite tempted to buy one, depending on price of course. Even though I guess I don't need one with all the PC cards I've got lying around and in multiple PC's, lol.

[evil_josh]

In the end I gave up, and last night I ordered a Macbook instead. Now I've been a DOS/Windows guy for more than 20 years, but the Mac just seemed to offer everything I needed.... and it's tax deductible for me.

Gotta love salary sacrifice - I did the same and my place even paid the GST for me! with student discount (I was enrolled at TAFE at the time) I paid around $1100 out of my pocket for the 2.0GHz white model

You'll be happy with the macbook. I am using one with EyeTV for PVR, toast to burn to DVD (rarely used) and front row for media playing (photos, music, stored videos). I still use a PC for day-to-day computing, the mac is used as an an appliance, not so much as a computer.

I have started using Handbrake to rip DVDs to the hard drive in mpeg-4 so they are available via the video player. Currently I am just doing the kids ones as on the rare occasion that I watch a DVD I am still happy to use a disc, but the kids DVDs get scratched pretty quickly.

Eye TV isn't perfect (check for rants from me on this) but it's pretty darn good. It also integrates and interacts well with front row. It is possible to control everything from the apple remote if you choose (I do!) as the button usage by eyetv is very clever. Even so the lack of buttons means that the lesser used functions need to be accessed via a menu, but your usb tuner remote will also work if you choose and cover more functions with direct button presses.

Good luck!

Josh.

[LoadStar]

I've also being doing a bit of research into NMP's. Netgear showed a new player at this years CES. It's based on a new Sigma chip but the firmware is done by Netgear. It outputs to 1080p via HDMI. It looks like it's still a couple of months from release, they are are saying May for Europe.

[Foggy]

Gotta love salary sacrifice - I did the same and my place even paid the GST for me! with student discount (I was enrolled at TAFE at the time) I paid around $1100 out of my pocket for the 2.0GHz white model

You'll be happy with the macbook. I am using one with EyeTV for PVR, toast to burn to DVD (rarely used) and front row for media playing (photos, music, stored videos). I still use a PC for day-to-day computing, the mac is used as an an appliance, not so much as a computer.

I have started using Handbrake to rip DVDs to the hard drive in mpeg-4 so they are available via the video player. Currently I am just doing the kids ones as on the rare occasion that I watch a DVD I am still happy to use a disc, but the kids DVDs get scratched pretty quickly.

Eye TV isn't perfect (check for rants from me on this) but it's pretty darn good. It also integrates and interacts well with front row. It is possible to control everything from the apple remote if you choose (I do!) as the button usage by eyetv is very clever. Even so the lack of buttons means that the lesser used functions need to be accessed via a menu, but your usb tuner remote will also work if you choose and cover more functions with direct button presses.

Good luck!

Josh.

Thanks for the tips Josh. I'm particularly interested in ensuring that the Apple Remote controls everything. I remember you posting the names of a couple of different pieces of software that will allow you to do this, so I'll be searching for that soon.

The handbrake software looks very simple to use, I think that my wife could probably use it to rip & encode the children's DVD's to the NAS. Like yourself, scratched DVD's are a significant factor towards my purchase of a NAS and a streaming media player.

I already have a TinyUSB2 tuner from DigitalNow, which I believe has Mac drivers. Now I just need to buy the EyeTV software.

[evil_josh]

Thanks for the tips Josh. I'm particularly interested in ensuring that the Apple Remote controls everything. I remember you posting the names of a couple of different pieces of software that will allow you to do this, so I'll be searching for that soon.

The handbrake software looks very simple to use, I think that my wife could probably use it to rip & encode the children's DVD's to the NAS. Like yourself, scratched DVD's are a significant factor towards my purchase of a NAS and a streaming media player.

I already have a TinyUSB2 tuner from DigitalNow, which I believe has Mac drivers. Now I just need to buy the EyeTV software.

I recall trying some packages for the PC but I haven't used any particular remote software for the mac. The twinhan remote (which is the same as the tiny2) can control all of the eyetv functions through the twinhan IR port, and the mac remote can control all functions (albeit with more keypresses) throug the mac IR port.

It's a pity the eyeTV / Twinhan remote cannot be made to work through the mac IR port as one critisism of the Twinhan and tiny2 IR rx's is that it will receive just about any remote signal and decode it into some type of command meaning your hi-fi remotes may interfere with it. This is why I switched to the mac remote.

I too started with the tiny2 on the PC then I bought the Twinhan from Renura for $180-ish for the mac and it came with eyeTV.

The tiny2 won't work with eyetv out-of-the-box, but this thread contains a workaround which I use and which works really well. Thus once you have the twinhan and eteTV you can reuse the tiny2 and have a twin tuner setup.

Have fun!