Alternative to WDTV?

Is there an alternative to the Western Digital HD TV? Just want to compare for features, price, etc. I found something once but can't recall what it was called and any searches come up nil.

 

I've seen a couple, although I don't remember them off the top of my head. Seagate makes something similar that I've seen in-store for the same price as the WDTV.

 

Thanks. Looking for something that plays Amazon Unbox videos, but so far nothing. Unfortunately I bought a lot of shows for my kids to watch and use an old Shuttle in their room for that stuff, but for my big screen, want to be able to stream them without need for a PC. Plus would be nice to put all their DVD's on a single unit to take with me if I wanted to.

 

Lots of people make self-contained 'media players' that include dvr-like capabilities.

Sling, Boxee, AverMedia, Apple, Cirago are just a few names to research.

 

AC Ryan makes media players, and i guess you are looking for the models that supports internal HDDs.

You could look into AC Ryan Playon!HD2 or AC Ryan Fluxx.

Boxee Box can also be a viable choice but it does not support internal HDD.

My setup is a Ion powered Atom 330 running Ubuntu and XBMC.
Works great, and can decode 1080p with VDPAU accelleration at ease.
CPU decoding kills it. D:

Hope this helps,
DEagleson

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks guys. The Roku player is what I remember seeing.

Roku Streaming Player | Watch Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and MLB.TV on Roku Player

Plays the amazon video and other subscription services too.

I think I might go ahead and get the XD|S

edit: grr, seems it won't stream local network media content. The WDTV does everything except stream Amazon Unbox and a few other services, and the Roku does everything except stream media stored on a local network (but it will from a USB hard drive). However with a brief online chat (Saturday night before Easter? wow) they said that they are working on streaming media over a local network but couldn't confirm availability.

 

I don't have one yet, but WDTV is hard to beat because of third party firmware available for it.

 

I like the WDTV but the one thing it won't do is play Amazon Unbox video. I know that may seem trivial, but it isn't for me because I bought a ton of content for my kids with it. Have been using an old Shuttle SFF PC so far, but want to use that for something else. If WDTV would play Amazon Unbox video with some sort of firmware update, I'd be sold in a heartbeat.

 

+1 to roku.... best hd player on the market!

 

Except no local network media streaming.

 

I've been using the "chinese engrish knock off version"


..or uh a Brite-View Cinema Tube Mini: Amazon.com: New Arrival! brite-View "CinemaTube Mini (BV-5005HD Mini CT)" 3-in-1 1080p Full HD Networking Multimedia Player/Streamer/Torrent Downloader, Black (HDMI cable INCLUDED): Electronics

It works well enough for any sort of avi or mkv or dvd iso I've thrown at it assuming the mkv wasn't built incorrectly (broken headers, takes a minute or two to fix, all/most wdtv like things will break if the mkv isn't packaged correctly).


edit: IF you want local network streaming yeah...pass on this. It can do SMB Shares but apparently the setup is the biggest pain in the rear (like none other. As in even if you know how to do that, apparently it doesn't wanna work right).

Can handle a 1 TB USB 2.0/3.0 NTFS formatted HDD like a champ though.

 

How about the Sony SMP-N100. This is the other one I was looking at. Says it supports Amazon Instant video. Is that Unbox? Also has built-in 802.11n and supports local streaming.

Amazon.com: Sony SMP-N100 Streaming Player with Wi-Fi: Electronics

 

Hmm, that Sony does look interesting. Good find! +1

But now I've started to see if there are any Blu-Ray players that will stream local network content and Amazon. Would be nice to still have an optical drive too. Dangit, why can't I ever find what I want? Just throw everything in a box and sell it for $100. Done deal!

This is all really annoying to be honest with you.

 

ya either have to make sacrifices or just setup a small computer instead (or something).

It's annoying. I wouldn't mind streaming with the thing I have but yeah..not happening anytime soon (no documentation whatsoever)

 

Looks like pretty much all Sony devices that have internet streaming ( Bravia Internet Video) support Amazon VOD. I really do like Sony for all-in-one devices like these. They just work well. There are probably non-3D predecessors to what's below that are cheaper. What video formats do you want to stream locally?

Blu-ray Disc™ Players | Sony | Sony Style USA

You should post this in the dvd player forum on avsforum to really get the best recommendations.

 

Btw, why do you want a blu-ray player when there are so many hd streaming options?

 

well. he could have some blu-rays discs.

 

Blu-rays and tons of DVD's. No time to rip everything...

 

Try to find time to rip them. It's nice not having to deal with storing a lot of discs. And high-capacity hdd's are so cheap these days.

 

Well I know, I've got a 15TB WHS set up right now. That's my ultimate plan to go 100% digital but not as easy as it seems. I'll admit a lot of times I don't rip, I download the movies I've got (actually own >90% that I've dloaded) because it's quicker and usually a fraction of the size of a straight rip. Ripping a Blu-Ray disc will take up 20-30GB of space easily. Try going through the 100+ DVD's and 25-30 Blu-Rays I haven't tried ripping yet (or even dloading). Forget it. No time. Over half of those are probably for the kids too. Right now I have a small form factor Shuttle PC I'm using for it, but would rather put that to work for something else if I can get a Blu-ray + media player for < $200. If I could get it in a single device, it would be better.

 

well, the ps3 can do some of what you want (with the help of ps3 media server)

but 1080p mkvs and it don't mix.

sometimes ps3 media server messes up (audio and video get out of sync) and in the end I got a cinema tube to replace it for stuff on the hdd.

Still, does a good job with dvds (best dvd upscaler ever) and blu-ray.

There ARE blu-ray players that can do MKV streaming over network. I don't believe you will find something that can do MKV blu-ray/dvd, AND amazon unbox videos.

BluRay Players capable of streaming MKV container over network? - AVS Forum

 

I think you should consider buying some old PC hardware and transform it into HTPC. Nothing can actually beat real OS.
All you need for smooth 1080p playback is something similar to my GF 8400 - old, cheap and passive cooled. Perfect.
And with real PC you can build RAID storage for your digital media. Big plus for me. Also, real OS doesn't have any problems with any website..

 

As mentioned already, I have a 15TB Windows Home Server. I have a Shuttle PC that I'm currently using to play the video content. Problem is that I want portability of the device somewhat. I use an Xbox 360 in my living room, Shuttle PC in my kids room, and PS3 in my "family" room with my big screen TV.

The PS3 is very limited in what it can stream. The Xbox 360 is pretty decent except a lot of video needs to be recoded to play properly half the time (and I don't quite have the proper tools, time, or knowhow). Plus there's power consumption. A media streaming box only consumes max 8W, probably not much more for a Blu-Ray player. My "HTPC" that I use now consumes about 40W just idle, and X360 and PS3 consume 70W+ just idling, maybe 80W when streaming. In all honesty I wouldn't mind adding a $100 media streaming device to all my TV's if it would save on power consumption as well. But it will have to stream local video content and play netflix and amazon.

Guess I'll just have to wait on Roku to add local network streaming, since WDTV won't be adding support for a number of the online video streaming services.

 

There are a dozen alternatives to the WDTV almost every brand out there makes one, problem is that I trust none of them as much as the WDTV since I know it has all the formats I like and has the user created firmware that expands its functionality tons.

Since I know of no other unit with this kind of support I would not even consider anything else.

 

Does it support netflix and amazon on-demand?

Recommend a good forum for info on the different firmware options? Thanks Vicious.

edit: Hmm, found PlayOn, seems to work with WDTV and on WHS. Apparently you can stream pretty much anything using it, including Amazon. Problem is that Unbox won't allow you to save to a network share, even if it's a mapped network drive, and you're required to save to the network share on WHS in order for the videos to be saved as part of the "pool". I guess I'll try creating a symlink to the network share and see if Amazon is smart enough to figure that one out. Grr. I think the Amazon stuff is my biggest undoing. If I can find a way to rip that stuff, only way I've found is a $30 questionable product, and didn't have a whole lot of success with the demo either.

 

The one and only..

forum.wdlxtv.com &bull; Homebrew forum for WDTV devices

 

Netflix is supported with the WDTV+ even without modding, Amazon is a new thing so I guess its not supported but maybe it could be down the road.