Really Cool Gadget!!!
 

For the last few months I have been downloading high-definition Xvid/DVI to watch on my plasma and I can't begin to praise this format highly enough it's free and high-definition and of course you get all the latest television and movies.

However the major hardware manufacturers for obvious reasons don't want us consumers using this technology. The key problem is once you have the MPEG file how do you get it from your computer to your television.

I started off by burning DVDs the problem with this is that you lose the high-definition and it takes about an hour to create a single program which is really annoying. I then moved on to using a USB-based DVD player and loading the files onto a memory stick.

I bought this product a couple of days ago from Maplin and it's absolutely amazing. You can load all your movies and music onto this device and it will play them back in native high-definition format.

It's brilliant and only cost me £100!!!!!! I can't believe Sony et al won't produce such a product is just as revolutionary as the MP3 player was…..




http://www.maplin.co.uk/images/300/a19hh-1.jpg

Maplin > 320GB Media player v2.0

Thanks for link hadn't thought of doing it that way.

Freecom do something called a media box RRP is about £120 & its wireless

Yep, seems to be quite a few of these devices appearing on the market, all look pretty good too

I've been using one for quite a while now. They are great.

Just thought why not just hook up the laptop's DVI straight into the TV's HDMI?

Is it USB only? Or does it have ethernet/wireless fileserver capeability?

I currently use the Tv-out on my HTPC and remote control it via iMon/iMedian

It's a very well integrated solution, but having a huge PC humming away in the background is somewhat annoying - plus I want to reaquire the HTPC for another purpose.

So that gadget would be perfect if it could be hooked up to my network, so I don't have to keep plugging/unplugging it from the PC to upload data to it. :)

Is there a lot of High-Def material out there on the interwebby? I'd get one of these if there was a lot of good content to download. I noticed you can get Lost in High-Def but what about films, etc. Also, where do you download them from and what does your average 720 Hi-def film take up disk space wise?

I have my pc upstairs and the 360 connected downstairs on the same network and it lets me watch everything on my pc..

Lot more expensive than the thing from maplins but i play games etc on it too so may as well use it.


Mart

I have downloaded about 25 films and the files are .mkv? (Matroska Official Homepage (MKV/MKA)) and the 720p films are around 4.5Gb upwards



Mart

Hi Def avi's have been around for quite a long time now for downloading

I have never bothered due to the massive increase in file size, plus not having anything capable of viewing them on to appreciate the increase in quality

I've been waiting and waiting for MS to enable DivX play back on the 360, but even then this sounds like a better solution. I'd seen them before but never realised they had the juice to be able to output in HD.
What happens if you've got a 1080 HD video? does it downscale it?

The device the OP talks about does not appear to be HD if you ask me. I just looked on Maplin's site and it says this:

"Content resolution: DivX file Up to 720 X 576 resolution/ JPEG file Up to 5120 X 3840 pixel ".

The output is HD, but only because it upscales. From what it says there it cannot actually cope with a true HD Divx file.

All I can say is that I have 52 inch LCD TV and the quality is far better than DVD plus the fact this device is only £100 so you can't really lose.....

I know there is much talk about hd quality etc however there is a huge jump in quality between standard definition/DVDs and any high-definition resolution whether it be 720 or 1080.

The difference in jump between 720 and 1080 is negligible..... 1080 will come into play when we all have 80 inch plus screens but up to up to 60 inch I really think it's objective.

I recently saw a true PAL standard definition image image. Obviously this is an easily replicated but it was incredibly good quality.......... ie a lot of in pictures quality is to do with colour depth and contrast if you just focus purely on resolution you are barking up the wrong tree

Type Name Info Hits Comm Age
Movies: WMV-HD A Clockwork Orange 1971 Bluray VC1 720P 5 1 WMV NOVO
25 0 10 hr
Movies: WMV-HD In Good Company 2004 HDDVD VC1 720P 5 1 WMV NOVO
21 0 23 hr
Movies: WMV-HD Rambo 1982 Bluray VC1 720p 5 1 WMV IGUANA
73 0 1 d
Movies: WMV-HD Transformers REPACK 2007 HDDVD VC1 720p 5 1 WMV NOVO
290 1 3 d
Movies: WMV-HD Hostel Part II 2007 BluRay 720p VC1 5 1 WMV IGUANA
100 0 4 d
Movies: WMV-HD Inside Man 2006 HDDVD VC1 720p 5 1 WMV IGUANA
98 0 4 d
Movies: WMV-HD Tekkon Kinkreet (2006) [720p,BluRay,x264]
117 1 9 d
Movies: WMV-HD Wild Hogs (2007) 720p IGUANA
161 0 11 d
Movies: WMV-HD Gods And Generals 2003 HDDVD VC1 720P 5 1 WMV NOVO
76 0 11 d
Movies: WMV-HD Bruce Almighty 2003 HDDVD VC1 720P 5 1 WMV NOVO
66 0 11 d
Movies: WMV-HD We Are Marshall (2006) 720p IGUANA
84 0 15 d
Movies: WMV-HD Ocean's Thirteen (2007) 720p IGUANA
246 0 15 d
Movies: WMV-HD Transformers 2007 HDDVD VC1 720p 5 1 WMV NOVO
734 10 15 d
Movies: WMV-HD Halloween 1978 Bluray VC1 720p 5 1 WMV NOVO
109 1 21 d
Movies: WMV-HD Commando 1985 Bluray VC1 1080p 5 1 WMV NOVO



A small example of HD WMV rips. Whack on a usb drive, plug into your 360 and you have high def movies on your TV.

There's a very interesting looking device coming to market soon. Strange name; popcornhour, but specs look great - all the new codecs such as h264, 1080p, hdmi 1.1, it even has a BitTorrent client built-in

Welcome To Popcorn Hour

popcorn US version is available now and ship to uk for $224 inc.
review here
Review and Discussion on network media player and storage! dvico tvix tomacro ziova ellion daboda damija synology infrant em8634 Popcorn hour demija - PopCorn Hour: Hi-Jack's review Part IV

media players of various standards available from
Welcome to KJ Global
I've used them for a few things and very helpful

Hmm, with current exchange rates being massively in our favour, thats a very good price indeed :)

For that kit yes it is.
Bloke at work has one dispatched, another is in phase two next week hopefully.

Will update when they get here

Because it's DVI, not HDMI. You (probably) can make it work but it will (almost) certainly look pooh.

SB

I'd have thought it'd look fine, but the sound would be a bit lacking.

I was led to believe that the only difference between DVI & HDMI was the fact that DVI was video only where HDMI is video AND sound?

My computer i have rigged up through the DVI to HDMI cable shows the same picture as the HD dvd player downstairs if that makes sense?


Mart

DVI and HDMI are both high quality digital formats and all you need to connect the 2 is an appropriate cable.
As sound isn't transmitted you would presumably do this from source to your AV amp.

Woah, woah, woah!!! Let me get this straight. I currently have an external 500GB USB hard drive. Are you saying that I could download hi-def movies, hook the drive up to my xbox and play the movies in hi-def? Are you sure?

:thumb: HankScorpio, I'd be really interested to hear how your workmates get on with the players

thanks for the heads up, looks great

Both guys now have players - verdict is:

Playback - Excellent. .264 mkvs at 720p and 1080p are fantastic
Interface and features - still a bit poor and things like ffwd and jumping into material at a specific point still have issues like sound synch.

If you're into the terms, this release is very much like an alpha and hopefully firmware updates will be along shortly. It may be the case that they've issued a batch to enthusiasts at an early stage to sort out these things before going "mainstream".

As they play with them more and try streaming and other things, I'll update.

General opinion - excellent playback and terrific value but needs updates to make the best of it.

I called in Maplins to get one of these HDD's but they had no stock, and the two on display had no boxes/cables :( Looked on their website the day before NY and the price had jumped to £150 :eek: But, a quick browse found the 500gb model reduced to £130 :cool: Ordered :D Arrived this morning :thumb:

Not had much chance to play with it as yet but transferred one AVI from my lappy to test it and only connected through the plasma's front composite sockets and the picture was impressive for a 700mb rip. Can't wait to D/L some better material and connect through component :notworthy Only downside is that they say my Mac doesn't support NTFS formatting so I'm stuck with FAT32 and sub 4gb files until Markus pops in to correct me.

With the latest release of Xbox 360 software, you can also just use one of those. It is great: I can either stream from the PC (slow) or just load the file on a memory stick.

Steve

Careful if you copy files to a USB device, the 360 only reads drives formatted to FAT32 and not NTFS, so your limited to files no bigger than 4gb!

I found it out the hard way and now cant use my 120gb USB drive with my xbox after changing the file system!! Need some software to change it back apparently as Windaz doesn't do it :(