Legit Reviews

Hello and thanks for reading this post.

Does anyone have experience of the newish media players now available. These are an alternative to playing back movies on pc's and support most codecs such as avi, mkv, xvid etc

How does the picture and sound quality compare with playback on a pc. Are they a sales gimmick or are they any good. Are they comparable with a standalone dvd player at all.

I have a decent pc, cost me about £700 to build, gigabyte mobo (£90), phenom x 4 3ghz cpu, soundblaster elite pro soundcard (£250), it produces roughly dvd picture and audio quality. Would the new media players be able to match this level of performance.

What puzzles me is that some people are raving about them such as the westen digital models which retail for about £100 and claim hi-def video and very good quality audio, yet you cannot buy a decent pc or dvd player for £100.

Is it all sales hype.

Many thanks. John.

Wish I knew, I've been eye balling the Patriot Box Office for a while. I think it would be great for my brother in law/sister and my mom and dad.

Hi. Many thanks for the email. Yes like you can see the advantages in it, my sister would love one if it was any good difficult to tell from just looking at pictures on the web.

I have a Boxee Box and it plays everything in the highest quality it can. I have never had any problems playing a file from it but I really think the online stuff is lacking, at least here in the States.

Most all of the players will play whatever you throw at them and it will always go by, what quality your source file is and what quality your output is. So, if you have a 720p file that you are playing on an old analog tv, it will look decent but nothing compared to playing it on a nice 50+ inch plasma (plasma still rules, bite me)

So any box will play the media at the level of the media and the tv.

I hope you understand that.

Hi. Many thanks. i do understand.

So are you saying if i were to play a dvd file the audio and video would be identical to using an actual dvd player, if so would it be

like using a budget, quality or true audiophile type dvd player as there is a quality difference between the three.

Many thanks. John.

I just ran across this and I'm really interested. The price is right and it does what I want a player to do.
http://www.amazon.com/Micca-MPLAY-HD-Fu ... =pd_cp_e_1

goodguy wrote:Hi. Many thanks. i do understand.

So are you saying if i were to play a dvd file the audio and video would be identical to using an actual dvd player, if so would it be

like using a budget, quality or true audiophile type dvd player as there is a quality difference between the three.

Many thanks. John.

Now you are getting too technical. If you are worried about having the best picture possible from a dvd (really? blu-ray should be your choice) then buy an outrageously expensive upconverting dvd player that only does dvd's. If you think about how much one of the high end dvd players costs, do you really think a <$200 device will compete in quality? You should get about the same quality as playing the same file on a computer, maybe that will help.

Computers are more expensive because they will do a billion times more things than a dvd player or a media player. Dvd players can be had for under $50.

I just think you are getting WAY too technical and picky for a device that will cost you under $200 US. If you want the "best" then you might have to spend $1000+ for a dvd/blu-ray player that will not do anything for your files you want to play.

Just buy one and try it - make sure it is HD and make sure it will play the file types you want it to.

Aren't there certain Blu Ray players out there that can handle DivX, H.264 and MKV files on the market?

EDIT
Should've looked before I posted.
http://www.amazon.com/BD-C5900-100~240V ... B0042PCCM8