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05-Feb-2009
Media Player Roundup (Best Media Player) - February 2010

After a break at Christmas we are back with our monthly run-down of new Media Players and developments in existing players, all culminating in our naming our current favourites. As has been the case in the past, and especially so this month as two months are covered, this is a long piece. We have split the market up into HDD and non-HDD players. Tables for each are at the end of the relevant section below and the final top five ranking is at the end.

Since the last list the flow of new products has shown no sign of slowing and has contained a couple of significant new players. In addition the Realtek firmware development race continues with the first releases of a graphical movie jukebox (YAMJ) finally appearing for a couple of players.

New Players

Realtek based: Nationite HDVP-1, Medion Life E85015, Olevia ZP-530, Eminent EM7080, Ellion Labo, EGreat EG-R2A, MSI Movie Station HD100, ASUS O!Play HDP-R3 (Air), ACRyan PlayOn!HD Mini. Sigma 8643 based: HDX-BD1, Popcorn Hour A-200, Dune HD Base 3.0. Other: Sony SMP-U10

Of the new Realtek players many are simply rebrands of the same old hardware. One disturbing trend we have seen more of this month is the release of Realtek players using the less capable 1073DA chipset without DTS downmix. In light of this we re-rated all our players to ensure that no player that cannot decode DTS scores more than 2*. DTS is essential for the future and we cannot recommend an HD Media Player without it.

Of the new players the Nationite HDVP-1, Medion Life E85015, and possibly the EGreat EGreat EG-R2A all fall into the non-DTS category so we won't write much more about them. The one thing we will say is that the Medion Life is the cheapest player in both the UK and Europe. If you are ultra budget concious (and see one in Aldi) then just maybe it's worth it. The Olevia ZP-530 and Eminent EM7080 are similar in specification and availability. Both are fully featured players with good specifications but neither is widely available. It is difficult to write much of substance with so little first hand experience of the product.

This leaves the ASUS O!Play Air, Ellion (Hyundai) Labo, and ACRyan PlayOn!HD Mini as the most interesting of the Realteks launched this month.

The ASUS O!Play Air is a straight upgrade from the Asus R1. It adds internal Wi-Fi and side SD Card ports. The Air is a very desirable product, the build quality is superior to most and you get the support and peace of mind that a big brand can provide. The Ellion (Hyundai) Labo and ACRyan Mini are similar players. Both could be seen as minituarised non-HDD versions of bigger HDD players, both have DTS downmix, both come from manufacturers with a good record of firmware support, and both cost only €99. There is very little to fault with either of these players. With a bit of luck Ellion's recent alliance with Hyundai will result in the Labo becoming more widely available.

The real developments this month have come from the Sigma players. We have seen three new products launched, two expected and one as a surprise.

The Dune HD Base 3.0 finally launched and was lauded with plaudits almost from the off. Unlike other similarly specified players before it, the Dune 3.0 launched with a relatively stable firmware and everything working as promised. It is now the only player to cope with all HD-Audio formats and full BD-ISO. The HDX-BD1 on the other hand launches with similar specifications to the Dune 3.0 but the firmware is reported as being in an early state with certain key functionality missing. There have been a lot of products released recently with firmwares in beta state, which we don't think is right. As such we will ignore the HDX until it gets a stable firmware.

The single most exciting launch this month was the Popcorn Hour A-200. Exciting because it was unexpected and might represent a return to form for Syabas after the C-200 debacle. The price is a realistic $179 and it appears to offer nearly everything the C-200 offers. Unfortunately it is currently shipping with a very similar firmware to the C-200, together with the HD-Audio and other bugs that have blighted that player. With very few A-200s out in the wild and a new and supposedly much improved firmware due in March, we are holding off on judgement (as with the HDX-BD1). We expect the A-200 to be a powerful force in months to come and it would almost certainly not be at bad investment even at this early stage.

Developments of existing players

There has been one big development this month in terms of existing player capability. Two Realtek based players have finally got a firmware with a decent movie jukebox, YAMJ. The ability to display cover art, a synopsis, and an attractive way of browsing media might seem superficial but it makes all the difference when evaluating a product meant for the front room. It should be noted first that all the old Sigma 8635 NMTs have had YAMJ for a long time. The YAMJ release only came at the very end of January so it is too early to evaluate it fully but early indications are that it is very similar to the NMT version. The addition of a browser like YAMJ is something we have been asking for for a long time, and further usability improvements like this must be made for Media Players to make the crossover into the mass market.

At the moment the two players to have YAMJ are the ACRyan Play!On and the Mede8er, with the ACRyan Play!On implentation being more advanced. It is great credit to these two companies that they have pushed onwards with development and got this feature out. We think it likely you will see YAMJ on other players soon, but these two have the head start.

Other firmware releases have largely been incremental. There has been no complete resolution of the Realtek HD-Audio issues (no DTS-HD MA passthrough, TrueHD) and no release at all for the Western Digital products (so no DVD-ISO, RMVB, better subtitle support. etc..). It is the lack of movement from the WDTV Live that causes most concern. Western Digital have never been great with adding features to their products once launched. It was a problem with the WDTV and it appears the same thing is happening with the Live. This lack of progress is the big reason why the WDTV Live will not be the best player for this month, despite it's superior hardware and low price.

The Popcorn Hour C-200 and A-200 are still awaiting the new flash based firmware and a possible resolution of the HD-Audio passthrough problem and other bugs.

Categories have changed slightly this month. We are now judging players based on Best Player (non-HDD) and Best Player (HDD). The high-end category has been abolished due to a lack of competition. New players are almost all priced under $200 with only a few specialised machines costing more than this. These will be dealt with in the text.

Best Player (non-HDD)

Best player without an internal HDD is a large and difficult category to judge. There is no one standout player with all contenders having their strengths and weaknesses. In essence all of the Realtek based players are very similar and give similar performance. For this reason there is a strong argument to go for the cheapest, especially if you are happy to live without DTS. In this case the Medion Life or HiSense are very cost effective solutions. For us though, $99 is not cheap enough for us to be able to recommend something lacking in what will be a neccesary feature in the near future, so we cannot recommend the non-DTS players. The price differential is also not that much before you get to better specified and better supported players with DTS.

So, with DTS being key, the best value Realtek is the Asus HDP-R1. It's widely available, made by a well known brand, and offers an added bonus in it's external eSATA port. The only criticism we have of the O!Play R1 is that the firmware has consistently been someway behind the better supported players, with new features slower to appear.

Other Realteks worthy of mention are the Ellion (Hyundai) Labo and ACRyan Mini. Both of these are very portable players with very good firmware development behind them. The ACRyan Mini in particular will benefit from ACRyan's obvious seriousness in supporting their players. Once the YAMJ implentation is available for the mini it becomes a whole new machine in operation. Whether either of these players are worth the extra $50 over the O!Play is debateable though, especially when you consider that new features on one Realtek player tend to find there way onto the other Realteks fairly quickly.

Of the rest, the level of firmware support is behind the above and they fail to sufficiently differentiate themselves on price. As said above, any Realtek will be very capable so it is very much of a muchness. There are no Realtek players that we would warn anyone off buying completely.

And onto the competition.. At the moment the only competition to the Realtek deluge remains the WDTV Live (and WDTV Gen2 if you don't want networking). Ever since launch the WDTV Live has been our top ranked player thanks to it's fast Sigma 865x hardware and low price. We've expanded somewhat on the Live already in this article but in brief, our opinion of it is shifting slightly as it's deficiencies are not addressed in firmware updates and other players gain better firmware, more features, and lower prices. The WDTV Live is still a fantastic Media Player. It contains hardware that is capable of decoding video that no other budget machine can and it has better HD-Audio support than the Realteks (e.g. TrueHD passthrough). However, the lack of DVD menus (vital since this is a feature people use a lot), and it's poor subtitle support have lost it it's crown. Western Digital need to make some moves to fix these flaws. The subtitle support would be relatively easy to add into the firmware..

So, for the month of February 2010 the iboum.com Best Media Player ranking (no HDD) is as follows:

1.	Asus O!Play HDP-R1	$89	$87.99 £81.72 €91.95 $139.99	Great price. Good format support and DVD menus. eSATA. Good availability.
2.	WDTV Live	$119	$119.00 £97.75 €108.95 C$129.99	Loads of power at a superb price.
3.	Ellion (Hyundai) Labo	$119	BUY NOW	Great format support with DVD menus. Good ongoing feature development.
4.	ACRyan Play!On HD Mini	$119	BUY NOW	Great format support with DVD menus. Good ongoing feature development.
5.	ASUS O!Play HDP-R3 (Air)	$139	$129.99 £119.99 €146.00	Internal Wi-Fi, SD Card ports, eSATA. Good availability.

Best Player (HDD)

Best player with an internal HDD is an easier category to pick a winner, but gets complicated when looking at the runner-up spots. There are far fewer HDD players, as this segment becomes increasingly marginalised for the mainstream user as external storage becomes faster and more prevalent.

At the top of the list is a player that has finally realised the promise of the 2009 generation Sigma 864x chipset. After a false start with the Popcorn Hour C-200, the Dune 3.0 Base/Prime launched with a firmware that was almost feature complete and contained few bugs. That is was capable of playing BD-ROMs with full menu and both downmixing/bitsreaming HD-Audio made it exceptional from the start. The interface is not as aestheticly perfect as it could be, and it lacks RMVB support but overall the Dune 3.0 is the only Media Player available that will truly do everything. It finally provides a decent Media Player counterbalance to the growing influence of the mini-MTPCs and is a marker to aim at for any new players entering the market at this price.

In the absence of the yet to mature Popcorn Hour C-200 and HDX-BD1, all the other players on the list are Realtek based. The usual Realtek caveat applies, every Realtek will offer great format support and performance, so there are no bad players as such. With this in mind the emphasis shifts to fimrware support, features, and price.

Our long term favourite Realtek is the Xtreamer. It is available at a great price and had always been at the very front in terms of firmware. In this month the Xtreamer has managed to fall behind a little. Whilst there is talk on the Xtreamer forum of a new firmware based on Realtek SDK3, it is at the moment just talk with no release dates specified. We would prefer for Xtreamer to be more transparent about firmware releases and use public betas as with other players. One big advantage the Xtreamer has over the other players here is that (in £ and € at least) it remains considerably cheaper than the rest.

Two players have released an SDK3 firmware, abeit as beta. These two players were both already near the top of our rankings and the rapid advancement of their firmwares has pushed them further up the table. The ACRyan Play!On has the most advanced implementation of YAMJ and, together with it's longstanding great firmware support and friendly appproach to users on it's forums, becomes the number one Realtek player. The YAMJ firmware is on beta3 and is looking good. The Mede8er is less easy to evaluate because the forum makes it difficult to ascertain exactly what state the YAMJ firmware implementation is in. We presume it is less advanced than the ACRyan Play!On (one beta so far?) and are less sure about past support. If the forum was public and it was more clear what was going on then maybe the Mede8er would rank higher.

Finally, we have ranked the Popcorn Hour A-200 at 5. At the moment we can't rank it higher since a lot depends on the new March firmware which nobody has seen in operation. With the hardware inside this player and the stated specifications it is likely this player will rise up the rankings in future.

For the month of February 2010 the iboum.com Best Media Player ranking (HDD) is as follows:

1.	Dune Base 3.0	$350	BUY NOW	Does everything, and does it extremely well. Full Blu-Ray support, full HD-Audio support.
2.	ACRyan Play!On	$150	BUY NOW	Format support, YAMJ, 3.5" HDD, lots of firmware updates.
3.	Xtreamer	$150	$145.00 €132	Good price, format support, lots of firmware updates.
4.	Mede8er	$159	BUY NOW	Good format support, 3.5" HDD, YAMJ, good firmware support.
5.	Popcorn Hour A-200	$179	BUY NOW	Loads of promise, powerful hardware.

Best Media Player (Combined)

The Dune 3.0 sits at the top of the table as it is the only player to have full HD-Audio support and it's ability to access BD-ISOs with full menus is also almost unique. The obvious drawback of the Dune is the price, costing more than twice any of the other players on the list it will be overkill for many. For this reason the other players on the list will be more suitable for most people. The Asus is a rock solid product now at great price and the ACRyan is the best supported Realtek player, offering the best specifications and experience if a cheaper HDD player is required.

The final combined iboum.com Media Player ranking table for February 2010:

1.	Dune Base 3.0	$350	BUY NOW	Does everything, and does it extremely well. Full Blu-Ray support, full HD-Audio support.
2.	Asus O!Play HDP-R1	$89	$87.99 £81.72 €91.95 $139.99	Great price. Good format support and DVD menus. eSATA. Good availability.
3.	ACRyan Play!On	$150	BUY NOW	Format support, YAMJ, 3.5" HDD, lots of firmware updates.
4.	WDTV Live	$119	$119.00 £97.75 €108.95 C$129.99	Loads of power at a superb price.
5.	Xtreamer	$150	$145.00 €132	Good price, format support, lots of firmware updates.

Comments

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There are 4 comments

CaP

February 25, 2010 - 02:20

Always a pleasure to read your blog entries iboum.

I'm looking forward to the next roundup. Have you ever considered an rss feed for the blog? (I'd like to add it to my Xtreamer RSS menu)

Cheers

'CaP

Kent – Texas

February 12, 2010 - 17:48

I fail to understand why you rate the Asus O!Play Air R3 less stars than the R1. As your own information states, these players are essentially identical except the R3 has WiFi added. Yes, it is a little more expensive, but that pays for the added hardware, so it seems absolutely wrong to me that you would rate it lower for having more capability!

If anything, I could understand a lower rating on the R1 simply because it absolutely cannot do something the R3 does do. It is also understandable to have the lower cost offset the lack of WiFi and keep the rating the same, but certainly not higher.

I do not know if I even like the product; however, having inconsistent ratings sure makes it harder to evaluate.

Reply to Kent

Lars – Belgium

February 15, 2010 - 10:37

The whole point of these players is to stream or play from a (internal) HDD high definition media and doing that wireless is not a very good solution (mainly stability or quality loss, not to mention the added GHz radiation indoors) so I can understand that WiFi is not really an asset in this category of hardware.

Reply to Kent

iboum

February 15, 2010 - 11:07

The R1 is priced very competitively compared to similar machines and includes a useful additional feature in eSATA. We also value highly the hardware support mechanisms you get from a massive company like Asus. The R1 is therefore now a bargain.

The R3 on the other hand is expensive compared to both the R1 (+ ~$40) and other Wi-Fi capable (optional) players. As Lars states above, Wi-Fi in these players is of dubious value as it will tend to struggle with the bitrate of some HD video. We therefore prefer to see it as an option until it can consistently deliver HD video.

Both the Asus players are near the top of the pack when looking at Media Players and hence both feature in our top player lists. But we stand by the ratings.

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