External HDD or Media player with inbuilt storage?

jojonic

Following on from very helpful replies to OP's question about HDDs, I have a similar problem in that my OH's macbook has ground to a halt with no storage left so I was planning to get him at least 1TB of storage in one form or another.

However, as its mostly films, music and photos he stores I wondered about getting him a media player with in built storage... something like http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freecom-33257-MediaPlayer-WLAN-adapt/dp/B002GBCT0K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1288608721&sr=8-2

I dont seem to find many reviews on these things and the ones I do find suggest there are lots of problems... does anyone have any first hand experience of these gadgets? Any reccomendations on VFM brands / models?

Needs to be compatible with both Mac for him and Windows for me, we're all wireless at home so be good to have one we dont have to keep moving around between TV and computers. I guess 1080i would be worth investing in, even though we dont have a capable TV yet...or not?

Be good to hear your thoughts?

Russel245

Looks awesome, not something I've ever seen before, well like that at least.

The only issue I can foresee is with the networking of the device, though it looks pretty plug and play.

The other option of course is to simply put a new HDD in the mac with more storage capacity. Though I've no idea how easy it is to upgrade a mac laptop.

poppy10_2

jojonic wrote: »

However, as its mostly films, music and photos he stores I wondered about getting him a media player with in built storage... something like http://www.amazon.co.uk/Freecom-33257-MediaPlayer-WLAN-adapt/dp/B002GBCT0K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1288608721&sr=8-2

That one's pretty poor. This La Cie is cheaper but much better:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/LaCinema-Classic-Multimedia-Definition-Player/dp/B0037RFRSS

It's got 1080p output, so is future-proof for when you upgrade your telly to high-def. Plus it has DLNA networking built in, so if you have wi-fi in your house you can stream video and pictures to other computers/laptops, games consoles or even DLNA-enabled TVs and photo frames. Plus it will work with mac and windows.

Couple of reviews here, here and here

jojonic

Thanks Poppy, I'd looked at the LaCies earlier in the day but was looking at the non HD one which didnt seem much bang for your buck.

Will def consider the LaCinema HD I think (esp as its recommended by MacWorld... at least I can say I did me research !)
:cool:

jojonic

Okies bit rude to bump my own thread but am on the verge of going for the 1TB LaCinema HD from DABS as good company and price...

http://www.dabs.com/products/lacie-1tb-lacinema-classic-hd-hdmi-6JGG.html

(and my 3% cashback - thanks Quidco :beer:)

Going to sleep on it in case any techies have any further words of wisdom for me....

Avoriaz

External HDD or Media player with inbuilt storage?

That depends on whether the extra storage or the media player itself is more important.

There are dozens of media players around so make sure you know what you want.

Make sure it has the right connections for your TV. You say you don’t have a 1080i capable TV yet. What inputs does it have? Component video, Scart, S-Video, composite video? Audio can be digital, optical or 2 cable RCA phono.

I would advise you get a HDMI 1080p capable media player as you may well buy a new TV sooner rather than later.

Do you want a media player that takes internal drives, either 3.5 inch or 2.5 inch? Some players don’t use internal drives but allow you to attach an external drive via USB. In my opinion that gives you the most flexibility as you can use any external disk with a USB capable caddy. You don’t have to open up the media player to swap drives, you just plug in another USB drive.

I bought a Ryan Playon HD media player a few months ago for about £75 and I am very pleased with it. It has no internal disk so I use 2.5 inch external disks in caddies connected via a short USB cable. The player powers the disks via USB so I don’t need a second power supply. 3.5 disks do need their own power supply.

It is very compact and so are the 2.5 inch caddies so it takes up very little space. 3.5 inch devices are far bulkier and more power hungry. It has HDMI 1080p capability but, like you I am on older TV technology so I use the component video connections and RCA phono audio. I’ll use HDMI when I get a new TV.

The Ryan was right for me. That doesn’t mean it is necessarily right for you. There are many other good media players around.

PM me if you want more details.

hanwellmike

I have the WD TV HD media player which is just a player (no storage capacity). I plug in my 640 gb Freecom 2.5 portable hard drive and watch my movies that way. I am very happy with this set up. The previous advice from Avioraz was very good. You ought to consider what types of files you have in your library (eg avi, wmv, mkv etc) and make sure that your new media player will play them all.

Avoriaz

hanwellmike wrote: »

I have the WD TV HD media player which is just a player (no storage capacity). I plug in my 640 gb Freecom 2.5 portable hard drive and watch my movies that way. I am very happy with this set up. The previous advice from Avioraz was very good. You ought to consider what types of files you have in your library (eg avi, wmv, mkv etc) and make sure that your new media player will play them all.

Good point that I forgot to cover.

My Ryan handles just about everything, even very high video bit rate .ts files that some players struggle with.

There is the odd file that it won’t play or plays with scrambled video. That is the nature of the 1,001 file types and codecs out there. Some players allow firmware updates so you can keep up to date with new codecs.

It won’t recognise .m4v files but it will recognise them and play them if I change the file suffix to .mpg.

That is a good tip if you find a file a player won’t recognise. Change the file suffix to .mpg or .avi and it might play it. That has worked for me more than once.

jojonic

Thanks guys, all good advice.

AFAIK the LaCie supports the majority of file types for movies but unfortunately not lossless for music... but hopefully he'll get over that

First off it will only be a big storage device so he can sort out some space on his mac but we will be getting a big telly with 1080p soon-ish, so hopefully then it will also be a fantabulous media player...

Maybe in the not so far distant future even blu-ray will be superceeded by movies on flash drives... maybe you'll just go into HMV with your memory stick and pay to transfer new movies onto your drive?

Anyway, thanks for help,,, will report back if I get it and whether its any good