Western Digital Media Player half price at £35

buglawton

A small box that accepts usb stick or usb connected hard drive, and plays many file formats thru your telly. Includes a remote.

In store and online

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=352847

goodfella789

Genuine question here: what are the advantages of this western digital priced at £35, over the Sumvision cyclone priced at £20?

amazon.co.uk/Sumvision-Cyclone-Micro-Media-Player/dp/B0030DL3SC

funnelm

Ive been looking for a decent way to play my digital content on a TV for a while, as Im frequently staying in hotel rooms during the week.

The WD Mini is available from PC World for £29.99 online (£34.99 in store, although can always do Collect From Store to get the cheaper price)

From the reviews Ive read, the downsides of the Sumvision player are as follows:
-Its a bit hit and miss on support for some External HDD and movie encoding (E.g. no MP4 support apparently?)
-The interface on the player is no frills
-The only USB port is on the front, so it wont look pretty sitting under the TV in the front room
-The remote control is one of those 'credit card' style ones

That said, the Sumvision has a lot going for it, such as:
-HDMI with 1080p support
-Flash memory card support
-Price!

I personally went for the Iomega ScreenPlay HD Media Player, which I do NOT recommend (Im trying to sell it on ebay!). Its very slow and codec support is patchy at best.

Interested in other peoples opinions of the WD Players...

quoia

funnelm wrote: »

.............

Interested in other peoples opinions of the WD Players...

Have you read the Maplin reviews ?

Click on the link, scroll down and click on VIEW MORE

6 altogether

VERY positive except guy with CRT over 10 years old

amszephyr

I have one of each and use them for playing straightforward medium-resolution AVIs on a 32" Sony flatscreen as well as a smaller TV in my cottage. The only noticeable difference for me is I find the WD remote control nicer: it has 'proper' buttons, whereas the Cyclone remote is small and has those funny flat little buttons that aren't as responsive. Picture quality for me is no different and each plays all the AVIs I have perfectly.

pulliptears

These were on offer a few months back, possibly £29. Anyway, best £29 I've ever spent as I can now watch all my movies on USB in bed! Brilliant bit of kit.

buglawton

Anyway I posted this after walking past a Maplin branch and wondering also if it was any good at the (half) price.

Think I'll hang on until I can get an all-in-one media box with remote and Wi-Fi for BBC iPlayer and Youtube and ideally ITV Player. Guess it does not exist yet but ought to. Got to keep the box count and cables down.

pulliptears

buglawton wrote: »

Anyway I posted this after walking past a Maplin branch and wondering also if it was any good at the (half) price.

Think I'll hang on until I can get an all-in-one media box with remote and Wi-Fi for BBC iPlayer and Youtube and ideally ITV Player. Guess it does not exist yet but ought to. Got to keep the box count and cables down.

Size wise the images are quite misleading, the box is tiny, I was amazed when I opened it! No bigger than a CD and about 2 inches thick.

claire2007

buglawton wrote: »

Anyway I posted this after walking past a Maplin branch and wondering also if it was any good at the (half) price.

Think I'll hang on until I can get an all-in-one media box with remote and Wi-Fi for BBC iPlayer and Youtube and ideally ITV Player. Guess it does not exist yet but ought to. Got to keep the box count and cables down.

Something like this....
http://www.johnlewis.com/230174836/Product.aspx

buglawton

claire2007 wrote: »

Something like this....
http://www.johnlewis.com/230174836/Product.aspx

Yes but the one and same box must also accept usb devices to play other (many types of) media, have a wireless connection and a satellite tuner + recorder like the Foxsat. Plus do ITV player and C4's equivalent. Gotta keep the box count, number of wires and number of remotes down to a minimum!

gonemental

I'd recommend something like this:

expansys.com/hisense-1080p-hd-tv-media-player-watch-your-downloaded-films-on-your-tv-in-hd-186127/

It has an HDMI socket and will play High-Def files (such as .mkv) on your TV. It was at £49.99 on Expansys recently, and you could get £10 cashback on that.

Only downside is it looks a little ugly, but hey it works.