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| Posted by | Ron Trippaers |
| Posted on | 12/06/08 19:38 |
| Review type | Guide |
One of the problems we face during research on what to buy is the "Descriptive, but not informative - unclear" explanations depicted on boxes and web site listings of product specifications. Marketing people are smart (hell that‟s what they get paid big bucks for) and as always they tell you the truth, but not the full truth so you can‟t accuse them for lying, only for being incomplete. Some of the aforementioned that fit this category have caused quite some "hot" reactions from yours truly in the past and I‟ll give you few examples. Consumers are often tricked into believing the product can do something which it actually cannot do, at least not in the way a normal customer would interpret the announcement. A prime example of this is on the web and all over product boxes in stores you can find the 1080p logo. This may lead you into believing the product can handle "everything" concerning 1080p. While true, the players having this logo can do something with 1080p, it is only a half truth. It can mean something totally different than what you‟d expect.
For Example:
Player A 1080p support might mean the player can "up-scale" standard definition content (DVD, DivX, Xvid) to 1080p, whilst for Player B it means it can actually handle files with the 1920X1080 HD resolution besides the up-scaling function of Player A. So both have 1080p support somehow but in very different ways, a perfect example why no one is telling you a lie, and according to them, „It is you that is guilty of making the wrong assumption.‟ Smart huh?
Another example is the network connection on many of the media players today. People would expect them to have high throughput GBIT or minimum 10/100 network connections for transferring files to a media player which has an internal hard drive. What‟s not transparent is that media chips used (mostly Sigma Designs) have limited I/O performance that deliver nowhere near what you'd expect from GBIT or 10/100 network as you experience daily on a PC. Limitation by the chipset‟s performance is about 4-5 Mbit for 10/100. Did t
he manufacturer lie to you in any of both cases? No. The network connection is GBIT or is 10/100, it‟s just a name; only, it does not perform as you'd expect, due to limitations of the processor but it does not change the fact the player has a GBIT or 10/100 network connection.
As you can see from the examples how easy it is to have consumers believe something else other than what it is in the real world, rather than the tainted glasses of the marketing world. In many ways, consumers are justified in feeling tricked afterwards, when they learn about how they been "played". This whole marketing "mumbo jumbo" is only a small part of the pit falls on making a correct informed decision. There is more.
Features of media players are often unclear. I‟m sure a lot of you reading this article would probably not know the difference between UPnP and SMB and what limitations these can have on your daily use of a media player. "So tell us about the abbreviations", I hear you say…..or could this be an effect of too much caffeine making me delirious……What about all those abbreviations like UPnP, SMB, NFS... What does it mean if products support them or not for you as a user and what are the benefits and cons of all these?
To begin, there are many players that support all three and there are players that support only one or two whilst being in the same price range. A golden tip is too never let prices fool you into measuring whether a product is worth buying more or not. Base your decision on features and quality and then compare for yourself, if you find drawn to the theory that if it is expensive it has to be good, versus other cheaper alternatives that come close. We have all once bought something twice as expensive and only half as useful as a cheaper alternative. In media players, this is clearly the case for some models available out there so don‟t be fooled (and read on). Let's examine a few things on using a media player with different options and then see how both do the same but in very different ways...
UPnP and DLNA are streaming protocols mainly based on a software application that is installed on a PC or central storage server called a NAS (Network Attached Storage). The software will scan the folders on the PC or NAS and create a database of the media files it has found on the hard drives. With media players that support UPnP (almost all do), it is possible to connect to this database and read the content and play these on your TV. Sounds cool, right?
SMB and NFS are network transfer protocols used for transferring files over the network. Many media players incorporate one or even both. For the consumer, this means files stored on the network can be accessed by the media player and played directly on TV without software that acts as "traffic (streaming) agent" in between. Both SMB and NFS present the directory in the same way it would on PC when accessing shared folders for instance. You can see the files and folders and access these from the media player.
Unlike UPnP and most other application based solutions, SMB and NFS have little to do with what the player can play or cannot play. Since it is only a protocol transferring files from a source to a destination it will send anything you select to the player and let the player handle the rest. With UPnP it is actually the software that decides which files can be handled and as such limits the database to compatible files it can handle giving no attention to what the player can do or cannot do. This leads to files being listed that can‟ be played or files not being listed that the player can play.
Perfect examples of popular UPnP applications and its limits is TwonkyVision. It does not have support for subtitles which is very important in some countries where movies are not dubbed, DVD backups (ISO, VIDEO_TS) are not supported and then some others can‟ be streamed over UPnP... A benefit of UPnP however is the use of a database which makes it easy for applying filters and offer more stylish navigation, which media players often lack.
The real comparison to make however is that applications like UPnP are mainly made for supporting music and images while media players concentrate mainly on video performance and support. What makes UPnP strong in some instances is weak on media players and what makes UPnP weak for instance video support is what makes media players strong. So you might ask, "How is all this relevant for this article?" First, it is best to select players that have the most features, which will allow you to enjoy the different possibilities like UPnP for music and SMB for video playback. Second...if you are shopping for a media player and expect it to provide iPod style MP3 support and navigation (don‟ be mistaken here, media players can play mp3‟) or the picture finesse as on the PictureBridge, you will be disappointed. Not one of the media players currently can fulfil this task and supply average Joe‟ needs for a true music and picture experience, but still it is best to select a player that covers all options available to date and is future proof.
That leaves video as the main driver to purchase a media player now, doesn‟ it? The only thing to decide now is what kind of files do you wish it to support? Also would you want to use the player with or without PC software, stand alone or a combination of both? The Music and Picture options are „mall‟extra‟ on these range of products, not mature or competent enough to be called „ain features‟ definitely not worth the purchase if your main target is to provide both, not yet at least.
„He pulls another rice cracker from the packet and happens to read the circular motif stamped into the packaging…‟aked not Fried‟…He raises an eyebrow, "you see, eating healthy … That‟ what this article has driven me too....."
„Were was I?‟
„Oh yeah.....‟
Intro to media players
The fact remains all of the MPC devices are buggy as hell and can't beat having a good HTPC..
Some like to fly with Boeing, others prefer helicopters...
Both can fly but are pretty different, same with HTPC and DMA comparissons. They are two total different things.
Anyway, any discussion with you is too much for me. It took only few words of yours to see how short sided you are and incapable of making a point rather than do some cheap response like this, making any discussion with you uninteresting for me.
PS: Don't blame CDFreaks for this reaction. I am not attached to this site...
Enjoy
Earlier when there were fewer articles being read by more people, this sort of hard work could be justified but now when there are more articles being read by fewer people, I can understand the reasons for a text only format.
Another propblem is that most of the products sold today are a work in progress. We no longer get finished products as it used to be but serve as beta testers paying the full price while the brands created a habit of delivering upon everything later on with firmware upgrades. How long would such articles be valid...?
The article made now targeted 3 key points:
- Players are not that different as many would expect
- Players don't live up to their hype and usage of "labels"
- Players are not completed products and work in progress
As far as people can make the link with HTPC (meaning some don;t understand the purpose of the article) and make claims how unstable these are (even when the article already stated that), i would mainly ask to remove the illegal content making the HTPC work (off the shelf comparison) and off course ask since when they have a stable windows that not needs patching every week either with anti virus soft, Spyware, Spam or Windows patches... (unless using linux but that is a very limited amount of people)
Another problem, I wouldn't even know where to start making such solutions available. I can write about opinions and what i see but i'm not as good a reporter to make such articles which indeed would be better.
Remains time available as well... Sites often are communities so spending days on articles for sitres with no income is impossible. I would expect such articles from sites like ZDNet and PCMagazine... (but they spend even less time on tests than us community freaks...)
Enjoy
The point is that anyone that wants to buy a MPC should be informed but ultimately should decide for him or herself.
The article provides good, clean and simple information and thats what is important.
I have a TVIX and i am very happy with my choice. Its a bit expensive but it does everything i want.
Thanx for the article.
I particularly liked the info on the chips. I had no idea. Very useful.
What I would like to have seen more of would have been splitting the players by usage: the ones where you stick a usb flasf drive and press play, the ones that have an HDD networked etc. Note that you didn't have the info, it was just spread too much.
Also, i would have liked if you had included peculiarities of the players (not being able to handle types of xvid, etc.)
The players with USB slave have benefits (when shopping for one you can check if they have one) as you can connect these to PC and trasnfer data. This is important as transferring data over the network is killingly slow due to the limitd I/O abilities of the chips.
Players with HDMI 1.3 will be able to handle HD Audio (TViX already does in the M-6500A now in a recent update) but there are other players with HDMI 1.3 that will play catch up now. This with HDMI 1.3 will never be able to support these...
Anyway... Everyone is welcome to post questions. We prefer giving up to data information at the right time instead of maybe leaving an outdated schematics online we might not be able to keep up to date...
HDMI 1.1 will never be able to handle HD Audio.
This message was edited at: 11-09-2008 02:59
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