I have been using a Popcorn Hour A-110 at a trade show for the last 8 weeks, and it works an absolute treat. Got a 25 mnute clip in HD on a loop. People stand there and stare at the image coming off. Blown away. The A-110 has never got hot, and so far has been faultless. Plus a new firmware came out last week to address a few niggles. Tested it last night and no issues. With a 1Tb hard drive built in, I think its a much better bet than the WD. And it comes with a brilliant, extremely busy forum for instant support.

I have been using a Popcorn Hour A-110 at a trade show for the last 8 weeks, and it works an absolute treat. Got a 25 mnute clip in HD on a loop. People stand there and stare at the image coming off. Blown away. The A-110 has never got hot, and so far has been faultless. Plus a new firmware came out last week to address a few niggles. Tested it last night and no issues. With a 1Tb hard drive built in, I think its a much better bet than the WD. And it comes with a brilliant, extremely busy forum for instant support.

According to the Popcorn Hour website, none of their media players include a hard drive.

John

I'm surprised at how many of these boxes are out now: (from Amazon.com)

Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player ($99)
Iomega 3400 USB 2.0/AV 500GB ScreenPlay HD Multimedia Drive ($139)
Iomega 34151 1TB USB 2.0/AV ScreenPlay Pro HD Multimedia Drive ($259)
Mediagate Network Multimedia Center w/Full HD 1080P Wi-Fie and UPNP ($302)
Masscool MP-1368AS 3.5" IDE/SATA Media Player ($89.99)
LaCie LaCinema Premier 301814 500GB USB 2.0 Multimedia Hard Drive ($181)
Popcorn Hour A 110 Networked Media Tank ($249)

The LaCie comes with a 500GB hard drive and a remote. Anyone try it yet?

EDIT: The Western Digital got the highest rating on Amazon
EDIT #2: The LaCie doesn't have HDMI out (only composite and component) Not good.

According to the Popcorn Hour website, none of their media players include a hard drive.

John

I think his point is you can put a HD inside. With the WD you can't.

I think his point is you can put a HD inside. With the WD you can't.

You can buy them in the UK with a 1Tb hard drive already fitted and configured from ripcaster.co.uk

I purchased mine seperately as it worked out a bit cheaper. Compared to the WD it's a better bet. Only one item to carry rather than two, plus better support.

WDMP saved the day today.
...
Hoping some of these issues will be addressed in future firmware updates, but overall, very pleased.

Bill, make sure you communicate these to the company. Defect submissions by customers are handled with greater urgency than a line item on an engineer's personal TODO list.

You can buy them in the UK with a 1Tb hard drive already fitted and configured from ripcaster.co.uk

I purchased mine seperately as it worked out a bit cheaper. Compared to the WD it's a better bet. Only one item to carry rather than two, plus better support.

To me, one of the benefits of the WD is that I can leave it plugged into my TV and I just bring an external hard drive or a USB thumb stick with what I want to watch.

To me, one of the benefits of the WD is that I can leave it plugged into my TV and I just bring an external hard drive or a USB thumb stick with what I want to watch.

And you can with the Popcorn hour as well.

Bill, make sure you communicate these to the company. Defect submissions by customers are handled with greater urgency than a line item on an engineer's personal TODO list.

Done. Supposed to get a response by the next business day.

And you can with the Popcorn hour as well.

OK, maybe the Popcorn is the better bet after all.
However, if you need to buy something for a client I guess the WD is cheaper and they can use their own Hard Drives

Western Digital has a new firmware version for WDTV.

Version 1.02.07 Now Available:

Release (4/27/2009)
(includes all previously released updates)

Enhanced cover art, album art, and thumbnail support for media files and folders
Additional subtitle languages and decoding support
Improved media playback and navigation
More audio formats for MKV container
Fixed bugs reported by the WD TV user community

WD TV Product Update (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/wdtv/)

Does this fix any issues for anybody?

Saw one of these units at Costco in Canada today for $129 Can.
Maybe i should invest in one.

My main issue, truncation of .wmv files, has not been resolved with the update. WD tech support's only solution is to use another "more supported" codec. Gee, thanks.

I use the WD TV Media Player with a 16gb usb memory stick, ideal for displaying at shows or client showings. Plays H264 files back without so much as a stutter. The longest file I have on the stick is 30 minutes.

I just tried to play back a test shoot I did with me Letus, shot at 1080 25p.
It was a 8 min clip, that I had Compressor convert to H.264 .mov file (same resolution)
Looks like the WD chokes on this, playback stutters and can´t be viewed properly at all.
To try to figure out what was wrong I made a 30 sec clip the same way and the WD plays that clip fine. The pan is smooth as can be.
So is it down to file size, do I really have to downconvert my footage to use this thing?
Any suggestions?

PS File size ca 3,5GB

Does this unit have a loop mode? I would like to use one on an exhibition stand.

It does have a loop mode, but it displays the name of the file for 4 sec. When it starts over. It is something about it earlier in this thread I think.

Thanks Joachim will make a search.

I just tried to play back a test shoot I did with me Letus, shot at 1080 25p.
It was a 8 min clip, that I had Compressor convert to H.264 .mov file (same resolution)
Looks like the WD chokes on this, playback stutters and can´t be viewed properly at all.
To try to figure out what was wrong I made a 30 sec clip the same way and the WD plays that clip fine. The pan is smooth as can be.
So is it down to file size, do I really have to downconvert my footage to use this thing?
Any suggestions?

PS File size ca 3,5GB

What hard drive are you using to connect to the WD?

What hard drive are you using to connect to the WD?

Their very own MyPassport 250GB.
I do think it must hav something to do with the filesize, but I´m not sure how,
In the past I have mostly used it with 720p footage and I haven´t had any problems, but mostly I have used it for smaller files I think

I just got this and had some issues with a 6 minute 1080p QT H264 video stuttering about 2 minutes in. I played with settings in QT Pro and came up with these that seem to work well:

H.264, frame rate and size current (for me 29.97 and 1920x1080). Key Frames automatic, Data rate restrict to 20,000 kbits/sec, optimized for streaming. Encoding Best Quality.

Looks like there might be an update to this unit coming soon:

WD TV-2 spruces up Western Digital's already attractive media player offering (http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/16/wd-tv-2-spruces-up-western-digitals-already-attractive-media-pl/)

dave

I have bought a second Western Digital TV HD Media Player which I'm hoping to use as a point-of-purchase HD player in several locations. My problem is that I can't get my favorite picture with audio (the HD-DVD selection in Compressor looks fantastic but won't play audio--"audio file not supported").

I shoot with the Sony PMW EX-1 in XDCAM and import into Final Cut using Sony's XDCAM File Transfer.

I have tried to make MPEG4 files using various settings in Compressor and the resulting files are jerky and/or audio sticks and is off sync. I''ve also tried converting a Quicktime movie to MPEG4 using MPEG Streamclip and get the same problem.

This is my second box and it is driving me absolutely nuts (I've posted here before). I know the solution must be incredibly simple but I'm missing it. WD tells me to call Apple and Apple tells me to call Sony etc. It's really maddening. Could some kind soul out there PLEASE walk me through what I need to do to get my fantastic EX-1 1080i 60 footage to play--with audio!--on this thing?

Please? I will gladly pay for tech support! PM me.

See my post one up. Make self-contained QT file and use QT player (pro) to export to those settings. PM me if you need further help.

Oh, and make sure player's firmware is up to date.

Did the firmware update solve the looping problem where the menu (or something) popped up every time it started a new loop?

I'd like to use this for a point of purchase display, etc.... But I'm trying to decide if this is the best unit to go with. Might have to wait until the new TV-2 version comes out.

Thanks for keeping us updated on this product. Much appreciated. :)

Can the WD TV box play native EX1/3 files? I'd like to be able to have a device that will allow me just copy the files to a HD or memory stick and than play them on location. If the WD won't is there a box out there that will? Will the Popcorn Hour do that?

I tried to look through this post but I couldn't find the answer so sorry if it has been already addressed.

Thanks,
Garrett

I don't think so.
Bought one a month or so ago, doesn't seem to work too well for me.
But only tired it for a short time.
Quality of .mov i have seen were poor.

Thanks Bob. Have you heard of any media player out there that can play the native Sony EX files?

Garrett

I have the EX1, WDTV and PS3.

In the end, the PS3 does the best job with native EX1 but you have to go through some hoops.

- You have to strip the away the mxf container from the mpeg-2 file. There are several free utilities for this. You have to do this for the WDTV as well.
- You have to play it from a USB jump drive, fat32 hard drive, or BD-R/RE disk to avoid high bitrate stutters that you would get if you tried from DVD-R/RW media.
- To get the PS3 to output 24p, the media has to be authored as an AVCHD disk, even if it is a USB jump drive. Use TSMuxer for this.
- You have to use 8.3 file naming conventions of the authored files to play on FAT32 media. Use AVCHD-Me for this.

All in all, that's quite a bit more complication than just stripping away the mxf container and playing it from the WDTV player, which works fine as I recall for 1080/60i, but stutters with 24p from the EX1 (even after the 23.98 firmware fix).

I have tried to make MPEG4 files using various settings in Compressor and the resulting files are jerky and/or audio sticks and is off sync. I''ve also tried converting a Quicktime movie to MPEG4 using MPEG Streamclip and get the same problem.


Are you reading from a good USB reader and card? Use HDTach to measure the read speed of your USB flash device.

- You have to strip the away the mxf container from the mpeg-2 file. There are several free utilities for this. You have to do this for the WDTV as well.


Tom, which utility do you use?

Gints,

I use the Snell and Wilcox MXF Desktop, which was offered for free at one time, but seems to have disappeared, or not be available now.

Below are a few links to mxf unwrapping tools that are recent.

freeMXF.org - MXF tools and information for free (http://www.freemxf.org/)

MXFLib - A C++ Library for MXF file I/O | Get MXFLib - A C++ Library for MXF file I/O at SourceForge.net (http://sourceforge.net/projects/mxflib/)

Regarding the last two links above, you download them both and use them together. The first one is a GUI for the second one, which is the C++ library. You don't have to do any programming or compiling, except that you do have to download from two places, and combine them in a common directory. Hope that helps.

Has anyone tried any other media players? I'd like to wait for the new WD TV-2, but I'm not sure when that's supposed to be released. Our company is planning to sell some indoor digital signage using a flat-screen and media player, but I'm not sure what the best media player would be at this point. This player needs to play 720p or 1080p in loop mode 24/7. There are quite a few listed on Amazon:

Iomega ScreenPlay Plus HD ($146.50) HDMI connection/built-in 1TB hard drive/won't play some media files.

Asus O!Play ($89.99) HDMI connection, no built-in storage, compatible with virtually all video files (according to Amazon reviewers)

Brite-View BV-5005HD "CinemaTube" ($99.99) HDMI connection, no built-in storage, compatible with virtually all file formates including H.264, smaller size than Asus, supports Mac file system (HFS+) hard drives (great if you're on a Mac and have large file sizes)

DViCo TViX HD M-6500A ($299.00) Expensive, large, HDMI connection, but I think it has room for a internal hard drive (allows a SMB mount as well as NFS mount....what ever that means), the specs say 1,300g (with HDD), compatible with virtually all video files including AVCHD and .mov (H.264)

I'm leaning toward the Brite-View and a high-quality USB flash drive. (crossing my fingers)

Thanks for the MXF info, Tom.