Re: Hard drive, recorder and media player
- From: Ian Warren <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:19:35 +0100
On Tue, 27 Mar 2007 16:55:27 +0100, Edster <me@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"b8pu" <b8pu@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
On 25 Mar, 16:36, Dave Farrance
<DaveFarra...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"b8pu" <b...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I am looking for something that will allow me to watch avi's and
listen to MP3s on tv, store files (as I'm running out of disk space on
my laptop) and record programmes from the television (eg Freeview).
So far I have found things that do two of the above (a media player
harddrive likehttp://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=99078) but
I would have to buy a recorder separately like a PVR.
Is there something that can do all three of the above?
If you only want to watch AVIs that you've created yourself, that media
player would be fine. And even with a separate PVR like the Sagem,
you'd still save on the typical cost of a super-capable single unit.
But bear in mind that AVIs that you might download from the Internet are
increasingly (mostly?) using processor-intensive codecs like H.264. Even
when DIVX is used, then processor-intensive options like GMC are often
used. That's because the people that make the AVIs seem to assume that
you'll be playing them on a powerful PC with a 2 GHz processor or
faster. And low-price media players like the above can't hack it.
--
Dave Farrance
Thanks for the info. How would I find out what codecs are being used
on the AVIs that I have? Does that mean the media player hard drive
wouldn't be able to play most of my AVIs? If this is the case, would
there be a way to convert the AVIs into a format that would be
readable by the media player hard drive?
I mostly download episodes of Lost, 24, Desperate Housewives etc. They
are about 350MB in size each.
I don't have one of those drives, I use an old Xcard for TV output.
Its supposed to play DIVX, but doesn't do a very good job with most of
them, probably due to options chosen when they are made. It doesn't
play the HR ones at all.
So I just convert them to 25fps with Virtualdub and Besweet, then make
DVD compliant files from them with TMPGEnc. It makes them a lot bigger
of course, but you don't really notice any drop in quality. Especially
if you use the HR ones as your source.
I finally got a D-Link DSM-520. It's a bit expensive (and a new
version iscoming to the market).
It's got wifi and ethernet connectivity, which allows it to connect to
either a pc or a networked hard drive, and plays back most formats,
including XVid, DiVx, wmv and mp3. I can download from the internet,
legally and illegally (it supports DRM via WMP), and playback direct
to tv. Cost is about £150+, but there are other versions about; I've
found it quite indispensable, and have gone for the more expensive
option of the GSM-600 HD enclosure. This allows me to stream movies
and dl'd progs via my router, and copes pretty well, even with hi-res
content. Unfortunately the wireless trips up on vobs, but what the
heck.
Regards,
Ian W
.
- References:
- Hard drive, recorder and media player
- From: b8pu
- Re: Hard drive, recorder and media player
- From: Dave Farrance
- Re: Hard drive, recorder and media player
- From: b8pu
- Hard drive, recorder and media player
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