Overview
This device can play all files stored on your laptop or desktop PC. Now you can play games, watch movies, listen to music, view snaps or browse websites with your television. All files on your network can be accessed by this device. It can also get a hold on files that are stored on the built-in 2TB 3.5â hard disk. Also you can log onto the Home Storage Center (NAS) with this device. This is really great news. Since digitalization and advancement in technology, we have files stored all across the network and on many different devices in our homes. Now with just one gadget, you can retrieve any file no matter where it is stored. This gadget also makes sharing files a lot easier.
The sleek rectangular façade of the media player has an all black glossy finish. It comes with an infrared remote control. There is a red button that tells you if the power is on or off. The two USB ports are embedded right at the front. There is also an infrared receiver on the front side. Turn the device face down and you will see that it is quite plain. There are a few meshes engraved here for ventilation and there is also a cooling fan slotted in. You will see four screws inserted here, just twist them to open the bottom plate. Lift the cover and access the HDD, they are a standard 3.5 inches. Now you know how to replace them, just unscrew the bottom cover and swap them with a new replacement.
Now turn to the back side of the box. Here you will see a number of plug-in points that offer ample of connectivity. For video viewing, both component and composite, you have four RCA connectors embedded. For analog audio, there are two left and right stereo channels. There are also output plugs for Coaxial SPDIF and digital TOSLINK.
As pointed earlier, you can access your local network with this gadget. This is made possible with the 10/100/1000 Mbit Ethernet jack. Slotted in here is also the HDMI 1.3a connector. With this you can attach an AV receiver to it and then run audio files on it which you can finally view on your TV.
Pricing and availability
It will cost you around 229.99 euros.
Whatâs great?
The GUI has been improvised upon. The hi definition gizmo of 1080p delivers a high quality video output. The screen is high resolution and the menu displayed is responsive. The menu is divided into five different categories, namely; Movies, Music, Photos, File Manager and Internet Media.
Now from your TV you can directly navigate your favorite online portals like Picasa, Google, Flickr, Yahoo, You Tube, etc. The DLNA certification assures that the device can link up a connection with other Universal Plug and Play Audio and Video gadgets.
It has two USB ports and also one USB host port. The USB host port helps to transport data from the computer to the internal hard disk. With the other two USB ports, you can link up the gadget to a host of other equipments. A USB enabled network connection, data storage devices, cables, etc. You can attach three types of cables to this multimedia player; USB, HDMI, and audio/video cables.
The sound quality is amazing. It produces both dolby digital as well as DTS digital output. It hardly produces any stutter and audio playback is really easy. The player has a warranty of 10 years.
It supports all types of video and photo formats. Picture formats it can display are GIF, JPG, TIFF, PNG, and BMP. The different video formats it can go with are MKV, MOV, VOB, IFO, FLV, AVCHD, H.264, VC-1, Xvid, DivX, WMV, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and MPEG-4.
Whatâs not so great?
Some people might find the graphics and the backdrop a little too flashy. Even the red sitecom logo appearing on the screen every time can be heavy on the eyes. The fast forwarding feature of the video can also be improved upon.
Things to watch out for
You might need to adjust your HDTV settings a bit. Set the audio output to RAW so that you can build an SPDIF pass trough towards your receiver.
Copying or transferring large files can be a long wait. Though this is an issue with most media players, you should be aware about it.
Verdict
The GUI is much better in this device. It slots in the Realtek 1185 chipset which works remarkably. The clock frequency of the chipset has been increased dramatically. None of the older chipsets are used in this device. This makes the all new media player much better than its previous avatars.
Word around the web
Hilbert Hagedoorn stated on the website gure3d,
For 95 EUR for the HDD TV Media Player 2TB MD-272 Portable (no HDD) or 200 EUR for the HDD TV Media Player 2TB MD-272 with 2TB HDD you really get a media-player that can compete with a HTPC in price and output quality.
