20 Best Media Player With Hard Drive (2023 Updated)

IšverstiShow in original languageThis is an extremely frustrating waste of $150. Do not buy this product. There are numerous competitors that do almost the exact same thing but with a little bonus: they might actually turn on.

I’ve had this device for less than 12 months. At first, all was well, and the video quality looked good and had wide compatibility. At first the Shield refused to turn on every now and then, possibly just to keep me on my toes.

I could get around this with a hard reset: unplugging the power cable and waiting a ten count before rebooting. This worked intermittently for a few more months before the device simply bricked. It output no audio and no video, making it only suitable as an extremely expensive and poorly shaped doorstop.

Merely figuring this out was itself a chore as the Shield has absolutely no external lights, indicators, or otherwise to communicate its status. Once I ruled out the cable (tested) and the TV (tested) only the Shield remained the problem.

NVIDIA did send a replacement. This lasted all of 1 month (bringing the total number of months I got out of this $150 purchase to a whooping 10) before dying exactly like its predecessor. Perhaps not “exactly like,” as this 2.

0 unit skipped the hard reset phase and went straight from operational to bricked. This is a completely unacceptable level of QC or build quality from a $150 product. NVIDIA could – and should – send another, but that would do little to mitigate the immense frustration of an extensive steaming box utterly failing at doing the single most basic tasks for which it was designed.

Do not buy this. If you want to get the same experience, turn off your TV and look at the black screen. Burn $150 in a small pile next to you. There you have it.

IšverstiShow in original languagePros: Fast, good selection of apps, Cons: Forces ads in your face, bad design, expensive, and accessories cost extra. The remote won’t lay flat, the cylindrical device itself would roll of the table if not plugged in, I can’t reach the SD card slot without tweezers, and playing games on it is a hassle to the point where I haven’t really bothered- I played around with Steam Link, and it worked.

ok. Maybe fine for a turn-based game. The main reason I’m writing this review is that this thing is EXPENSIVE. Compared to rokus, firesticks, or other android TVs, this thing is just plain pricey, and what do you get for it? It is fast, loading stuff goes nice and quick.

But the remote isn’t great, and it also lacks things like the ability to plug in headphones for private listening. A huge issue though, is are the ads. A third of the screen is taken up with ads for shows that I didn’t pick, on services I don’t have.

NVIDIA claims this is all google’s doing, and they can’t do anything about it. My guess is that about 150 bucks from you isn’t enough, and they wanted an extra dollar from google ads. Either way, they’re not interested in fixing it, so it looks like that’s how it is from now on, just like how you’ve got a big branded NETFLIX button on your remote.

Why? A buck from Netflix, I guess. If you simply must have “the best”, and are willing to devote a few hours to fixing it out of the box, go for it. If you’re hoping for the best streaming right out of the box, I’d buy a roku stick and wait for something better to come along.

IšverstiShow in original languageIve had my eye on this for about a year now, continuously adding and removing from my cart. Never went down in price but finally did for Black Friday (even though only $20).

I initially had a Firestick 4K which I purchased because my 2015 Samsung 4K tv smart features were beginning to slow down considerably and was getting annoyed so decided to go external. Chromecasts also annoyed me and roku was too expensive when comparing to Firestick.

I was, and still am a fan of the firestick 4k and its an excellent choice for budget 4k streaming device. Super simple and just worked. However, there was alot of content that was primarily in 1080p and not 4K and felt I was losing value from my tv (which still has a great picture).

Thats when I came across reviews of this and its 4K Upscaling, so I knew this was what I was needing. Purchased this, got home and immediately plugged it in. Booted right on up and was able to add all of my apps with no problem at all.

Signed into google which had all of my passwords saved for all of my streaming apps so didnt even have to manually input the login info for majority. Huge perk there. Decided to watch Mandalorian (which is already in 4k) and it of courses looked amazing.

Went onto Hulu and watched some horror flick which def wasnt 4K but this thing did an excellent job upscaling to make little details pop much more than usual. Extremely happy with how this thing works.

Only con I had, and it might of been my controller, was the bluetooth function. Tried 2 xbox controllers that would not sync at all. Finally tried my Elite Series 2 and it did after about 2-3 mins of searching.

Not sure why the previous 2 newer controllers didnt work, they have synced to my phone via bluetooth no problem so I know its not the controller. Gaming on it worked, atleast for the android games. Had some issues with Geforce Now but thats because I dont have the worlds best internet and also wasnt a premium user.

Nice perk to have and can see it being useful if I want to travel but of course dont want to lug around a PC or console. Much easier porting around this tube (plus get my own streaming services) than a big device.

Overall im happy with the purchase as I would say im a heavy user and enjoy top of the line gadgets and this is by far the best streaming device ive used. $150 is extremely steep though and hard to justify for average or even some heavy users.

I got at $130 and that’s still steep for what it really is compared to other options on the market. I believe $100-120 is much more fair. If youre just into streaming content, I believe the Firestick 4k or new 4K Chromecast may be a better option, but if youre a heavy user that wants top of the line and also potential for gaming, this will be a great addition to your entertainment center.

i gave this baby five stars. when i first looked at it, i had my doubts. i had a USB flash drive full of Halloween videos and i just knew that this little box was not going to do the trick. I WAS WRONG!.

I EASILY hooked up this media player to my projector, set the projector in the media mode and both machine worked immediately. i chose what Halloween video i wanted to start with. it started playing and it looped.

i was so happy when it started looping. i did not have to go back to the files and start another video. the videos came up one after the other. Every time a video ended and another one begin, i raised my hands high up in the air.

i was happy because this little machine was doing exactly what i want it to do. the picture was clear and the colors were vivid. i give it two thumbs ups. highly recommended.

The Micca Speck G2 is a great little media player. It has worked well with anything I have thrown at it. Can’t give it a 5 star review due to the following: 1) I wish it had some selectable music player GUI options.

The stock music player GUI is alright but looks very old style and is the only player I’ve seen in a long time with no optional themes. 2) I wish the power light would turn off with the device. Works and sounds great, I’d buy another.

The high definition video is limited to 10 MB/s bit rate. Unless you know the bit rate of the video it would be better to purchase the Micca MPLAY-HD Mini. With this unit it is necessary to re-encode the vide if the bit rate is too high.

Otherwise the sound or video may lag. It would be nice if there was an option to go directly to the list of videos without going through all the menus needed to find the drive. A compact unit with some technical assistance fits our needs for now.

Pros: ⦁ Large capacity hard drive: 2 Terabytes(TB) is a great amount of space to have for a massive CD collection. I was able to save a tremendous amount of space on my personal computer by freeing up memory that could used for other files.

⦁ Backup functionality: Being able to backup important media is critical when you have such a big music library. Naturally, discs become scratched and unusable over time. It’s great to have a reliable option in recovering data.

⦁ Multiple connection choices and connectors included: There are variety of audio options in hooking up this device and Bluesound accommodates by including all of the possible cables and adapters needed.

⦁ Listening capabilities: It was awesome to be able to listen to this device with wired or wireless headphones and not be restricted to only external speakers for my listening pleasure. ⦁ Streaming service integrations: Within the app, I was able to link to different music services where I have registered accounts located.

⦁ Small physical footprint: I’m able to place this music player in a number of spots without taking up a lot of space. Cons: ⦁ Poor app experience: Although there are various customizable options available, the flow and structure of the app could be greatly improved.

For example, I was redirected to installing the Spotify app (which was already installed) when attempting to link my account to the Vault 2i. Also, I did receive some random popups unrelated to an action I had just performed.

⦁ Ethernet dependency/No Wi-Fi: Ethernet ports should be reserved for high priority devices such as gaming consoles and computers. I love my Vault 2i, but I would prefer not having to sacrifice an ethernet port for usage or to buy an additional adapter/Wi-Fi extender that includes the port.

⦁ Lack of a detailed manual: Although there is a quick start guide in the packaging, I did not feel that there was enough sufficient information listed. For example, I was confused at the initial setup because the indicator light was red (which usually means error) for a few minutes, but eventually changed blue.

Unless you download the online manual, you might have to guess what is happening. (Minor Cons below) ⦁ No SSD drive: Although the hard drive is 2 TB, it seems that extra storage space does come at the expense of performance.

⦁ No eject button: I primarily use this device a CD library manager. For this reason, it would be nice to have a physical eject button in the event of software failure. ⦁ Disc insertion: It seems that the CD must be inserted 90% of the way until the Vault decides to recognize and the consume the CD for ripping.

⦁ Moderately noisy when ripping CDs: The Vault 2i is gives a loud hum when ripping CDs, but its not as noticeable when other sound is present such as a television or AC running. In summary, I really enjoy my Bluesound Vault 2i despite its quirks.

In my opinion, it’s made for those who have fully embraced the world of streaming, and individuals who still are sentimental about their disc collection (primarily me). In my opinion, some design choices regarding the device and app could have improved my overall experience.

I wish it contained built in speakers and Wi-Fi. However, the ability to customize so many different things helps me to overlook those flaws.

The Bluesound Vault 2i is essentially a network connected hard drive that’s capable of ripping music from CDs and streaming music from typical streaming sources, with playback via either wired (RCA/digital audio/3.

5mm out) or wireless to compatible speakers. While the product description suggests that this will let you stream music from the Vault, that is not strictly accurate. You can control playback from your favorite smart assistant, but the actual audio from it will only go to the wired or wireless speakers in your own home.

Accessing the music from outside your home will require making use of typical solutions to this problem, made a bit more complicated as this isn’t directly exposing a hard drive of songs (you can connect a USB cable to access it as a NAS, but then you’d need something else to plug it into, like a PC or streaming box which is annoying as the Vault is already a network connected device!).

The Vault really does live up to its name with an industrial square look that makes it seem it really is securing something. There’s a small touch panel on top for manual control at the device, though you’d likely want to use the app.

The device is decently rugged for something that will be in your home, likely either connected to your audio receiver or some other mixer going to your speakers. CDs insert through an almost imperceptible slot on the face of the Vault which is pretty cool.

This makes it once setup pretty unobtrusive. I’m using it with my Yamaha YSP-4300 and the RCA inputs – I’ve already dedicated the digital audio to my TV (though I could switch that to an HDMI channel with ARC).

Once in place, you hardly notice this extra box next to the large soundbar. Obviously, the first thing to try is ripping CDs! Without the app, this process is practically inscrutable. Ripping CDs works, though there were occasional hiccups where it didn’t get all the tracks on a CD.

You can then retry, but then there’s sometimes clutter from failed rips – though it appears smart enough not to just duplicate everything. Luckily, you can connect to it as a hard drive or via the app the clean this up, though as a hard drive is more effective, especially where it fails the name ripped files correctly.

Ripping traditional CDs worked – it did not handle my “data” CDs of already “ripped” music which actually is the bulk of my collection. I have these notebooks of mp3 and other format songs that I’ve acquired a decade or more ago and while I could just sit at my computer and manually copy these over to a NAS, I’d like to have something do them automatically.

The Vault 2i isn’t the solution I’m looking for unfortunately. Another ripping related disappointment is that it doesn’t rip streaming music. While to be fair, there’s some DRM involved with this, that it can’t rip music in transit limits its usability.

There seems to be a way to use it to download music from sources online, but this requires yet another account and doesn’t seem to be a first class feature of the Vault. So, not really an option for me.

As a streamer, this supposedly should then replace my smart speaker. And maybe 5 years ago, this would have been adequate. But now I stream by talking to my smart speaker. And here, I need to talk to my smart speaker, which talks to this, which then does the streaming.

But I need to learn a new syntax to make sure the Vault actually streams from the source I want. but my smart speaker can already handle pretty much anything the Vault can do, so what’s the point? I suppose there’s a slight advantage using the app, but like I said, actually selecting music via app is now the “past”.

I do it from time to time, but mainly when I’m in the car, which you will not be doing with the Vault as it is necessarily tethered to ethernet. That’s right, somehow, despite being a streaming music player and having an app (which apparently is just connected via bluetooth), this device does not actually operate over wifi! When you get past all these issues and actually play music, it does sound good.

For about 50% of the ripped CDs, it’s on par/identical to playing the CDs. For the rest, not as great. For streaming or other digital music already in my library, theres no sound quality improvement.

So really, the big benefit of this is the ability to rip old school CDs and maybe, play them at the same level of quality as the original CD. As a NAS, it’s clunkly and music playback is no better than my existing setup which just uses a hard drive in a dock attached to my router.

In summary, I cannot really recoommend this product. It looks good, and does a few things well. But all of the things it does well are things that existing products do well, except with an easier to use interface or in a much more useful and accessible manner.

As it turns out, there’s only one “killer app” feature with this – ripping music from CDs. But that comes with a major caveat – you’re ripping traditional CDs that encode audio directly to the CD and even then, the result may not be as good as the original.

And that’s if you didn’t run into issues with the ripping process which will then take your time to correct. At that point, you’re no better off using a PC or laptop with CD/DVD drive and software to carry out the same task.

There’s no wifi, so this really is as old school as my YSP-4300 (which at least does things my smart speaker cannot). I think there is probably an audience for whom this could be a great product – you have a relatively old school hi-fi setup, you don’t have an existing smart speaker that you use to stream music, or if so, you don’t really use it, and you have a massive collection of audio (not digital/data) CDs and are not too computer savvy.

For everyone else, this product isn’t worthwhile.

I bought this Vault to replace my old and ‘flaky’ Cocktail Audio cd ripper, which I have used for a number of years. The Bluesound VAULT 2I is well and truly a big upgrade and understandably very much updated in comparison due to change in technology over the years.

You just plug it in, load a cd and it just works!, so easy. I have Cat 6 ethernet around our home and it was simple to set up. I have loaded c 350 cds in ten days, initially I thought it would be an arduous task, but just take a cd out and add another it’s not an issue.

I looked at other units/models but there seemed to be little choice at the price range I was looking at. Lots of reviews at other units twice the price didn’t justify the additional expenditure for me.

Furthermore the DAC sounds better to me than my current av receiver and to my ears is certainly an improvement to my old unit. What I am blown away with is the software,I am oldish have problems working with software and just love the presentation of albums, and ease of search function and the decent quality/size of jpegs for album covers.

Haven’t quite sorted the sub woofer calibration settings yet, but at day 10 my priority is loading all my cd’s first! One mistake(for me personally), I ordered the remote for the unit. As soon as I opened the remote I realised I had made a silly mistake! Why on earth did I buy the remote,5 minutes using my iPad or iPhone, I realised the remote was redundant.

I have since returned it for a refund. So if you are thinking of ripping your cd’s, just do it! It is so easy to use and for the first time ever my wife is using it-its just so accessible. If you want to spent £2k to £3k for a unit I suggest thats only necessary if you have a £10k hi-fi system.

I thoroughly recommend this Vault and am very happy with it so far.

IšverstiShow in original languageThe shield’s Android TV interface runs much faster than my smart TV’s embedded interface while allowing me access to the full library of Android TV compatible services rather than the limited set available on the smart TV.

The remote’s interface is simple and easy to use. Unhelpfully, NVIDIA provides no way to remap the gigantic Netflix button in their software, but this can be done by 3rd party apps. The remote can also be located via the Find My Remote command, a feature that I sure wish my other remotes had when they get lost in the couch! While the Shield was unable to control my TV’s volume by CEC (it could do power state via CEC though) the remote also supports IR commands and was thus able to essentially completely replace my existing TV remote.

I was worried that by adding this device to my setup that I’d wind up having to juggle two remotes, but for nearly all activities, the SHIELD remote alone has done what I need it to do. The biggest negative I have is that the voice assistant feature on it seems somewhat unreliable.

If I use the voice assistant in the SHIELD to ask Google Assistant to turn off the TV in X minutes, the assistant errors out. If I instead ask my Google Home to tell the SHIELD to do the same action, it happily complies.

I find it rather silly that the SHIELD’s voice assistant features are less compatible with itself than other voice assistants are with the SHIELD. Overall the small disadvantages with the product do not significantly reduce the value of replacing the “Smart” features of the TV with something that actually works well.

I’m glad I made this purchase and feel that this is a good value for the money.

IšverstiShow in original languageI’ve had this for 8 months now. Great streaming for non-apple users, but if you are buying this for the purpose of playing games, I’d say look towards the Steam Deck and the impending SteamOS 3 release instead.

First: Streaming. The streaming tools on this are awesome. The support for Dolby Vision is rare to find on many other devices if you’re running through plex, and it is for all intents and purposes an android device with all the joys and pains that brings.

I’ve enjoyed the experience overall. This is perhaps the best device you can buy for Plex streaming. If all you want is simple access to your Netflix/Hulu/Disney+, I’d go for something cheaper though.

The remote is pretty comfortable despite it’s weird shape, and although it definitely stops it from rolling, I don’t think it truly helps with any real couch cushion wedging, in fact I think it might give it an easier time.

The backlight on the remote is a really nice touch though, and something that I think a lot of other devices could learn from. For Gaming: This thing presented the potential silver bullet to my home gaming setup.

I have a PS4 and a Switch, but it feels like a waste to buy a game on either for double or sometimes triple the cost to get that same game on steam. I would love to say that this did it, but it unfortunately did not.

Firstly: Graphics cards. The hardware acceleration relies on NVENC on your graphics card, which means immediately AMD is out of the picture — obvious enough, this is an NVidia product. However, the added caveat is that this feature is not turned on unless you use NVidia’s official game streaming app, and that is limited to a number of games that are ‘Nvidia approved’.

Thankfully, there is a community-made tool called Moonlight that lets you stream your games straight from Steam — boom, problem solved. Right? Not exactly. The problems that the Nvidia Shield has for game streaming are the same problems that PC gaming has struggled with for a long time — a lot of troubleshooting between devices.

I can even deal with that, it’s not their fault, but what I can’t put up with is the total pitfalls they make in user experience. The technical points are perfect — the technology is quite frankly shockingly good.

However, the most basic UX experiences have been shirked, here’s a few highlights: Controllers won’t auto-shutoff when you connect them. You can leave a PS4 controller on all night and run down it’s battery completely.

Steam is smart enough now to have controller mappings for all of the many brands of controllers, but using Moonlight or Nvidia Games streaming wraps it with an XInput wrapper, so all devices appear to be an Xbox controller.

This used to be crucial to compatibility, but these days it just makes it kind of a headache sometimes when stuff doesn’t get mapped right. The Steam Link app CAN map the controllers correctly (and work with a Steam Controller if you happen to have one of those), but it doesn’t get access to the “secret sauce”.

Therefore, the quality is lower, and it caps at 1080p. If you have a multi-monitor setup, sometimes it can pick the wrong one. No problem, go shut it off, it works. If you just close the application and get up and walk away, it won’t shut down the streaming.

When streaming, NVidia hijacks your sound, and won’t let you change it until you close. All-in-all, it is close. Annoyingly close. I can see the ideal of PC game streaming in my house so near, but they fumble it on some total basics so badly it makes it kind of an awful experience.

For my part, I’m waiting for my Steam Deck to arrive. I think that with it’s improved controller support, and it’s ability to run some games locally, it will be the ‘bridge’ between the living room and my office I’ve been looking for.

IšverstiShow in original languageAs a streaming device this is very good, but there are some issues with streaming PC games that need to be worked out. The biggest issue is that I have a lot of problems getting disconnected from the PC in the middle of a game when using the GameStream application.

I can usually reconnect in 30 seconds or so, but nobody wants to spend 30 seconds reconnecting mid gameplay especially if you are playing online. This only happens with the GameStream app however, the Steam Link app works great and I never get disconnected from that.

When game streaming does work properly it works great with excellent frame rates and graphical fidelity. I can stream in 4k or 1440p and get the same framerates I do when playing directly on my PC. One issue I will note however is that I can’t stream games in HDR as my computer monitor does not support HDR yet my TV does, unfortunately the PC sees my monitor doesn’t support it and greys out the option so I can’t use it even though the actual screen I am playing on does have HDR.

I do have 4k support on my monitor so I am able to stream in 4k, but while I haven’t tested it I suspect people who don’t have 4k will be limited to streaming at their monitor’s max resolution rather than the television’s max resolution.

That said there is still a lot to like about this device, as a streaming device the AI upscaling makes it one of the best, if not the best, streaming device on the market. Overall it is a very good device, but if you do plan to use it to stream PC games be aware that there are some very frustrating bugs associated with that technology if you are playing anything that is not on Steam.

I have been extremely impressed with the Nvidia Shield. I own 2 Apple TV 4k streaming boxes which I really liked, but 1 stopped working and there is no way for me to fix it due to lack of inputs. I was frustrated by this and saw that the Shield works well as a Plex server, so I decided to give it a shot.

I have a large library of downloaded TV shows and movies on external hard drives that I run through Plex. I previously ran it all through a PC, but the Shield is more convenient. The biggest bonus is the Shield does an excellent job of upscaling my content.

Most of it is 720p HD, but once the Shield’s AI upscaling gets used to the content it makes it more like 4k. I haven’t played any games on it yet, but probably will in the future. It is an excellent streaming box for the various services.

I subscribe to most of the major ones. Picture is spectacular and the sound is too through my Dolby Atmos soundbar. The only issue I have run into is I did have a couple days where my WiFi wasn’t working well enough and shows would have trouble streaming, Showtime in particular.

I have a mesh WiFi system with satellites and now run an ethernet connection from one of them. I had a lot of devices on my WiFi and seemed to be having some issues with my internet signal in general.

I’m not sure that any of my issue had to do with running my Shield on WiFi as it worked fine for couple weeks before that. No issues at all since I switched to the ethernet connection. I strongly recommend this product for streaming and especially if you have or are interested in setting up your own plex server.

The NVIDIA Shield Pro is the best streaming device you can get right now. Not only does it support all the popular streaming apps but it is the best Plex media player as well. I am able to encode my media content in the highest quality available (H.

265, 4K, Dolby Vision/HDR, Dolby Atmos, and Subtitles) and it plays it with no issues whatsoever. I tired to use many other streaming devices such as Xbox Series X, Playstation 5, Amazon Fire TV 4K, Chromecast with Google TV and none of them were able to play my content without either transcoding the content to a compatible format with that device or down scaling the original source so that it was compatible with the specs of that specific hardware.

I wish NVIDIA would release a new model though as the current model released in 2019 and definitely needs a refresh. There are newer codecs available now such as H. 266 (VCC) and AV1 which are the successors to H.

265 and VP9 video codecs. These formats are designed for ultra-high-resolution video content, including 4K, 8K, HDR, and 360-degree video material. If NVIDIA were to add these codecs, it would top itself and cement its lead in the streaming device category.

Works great, have a few Blu-Ray players with streaming and we setup a DNLA server. Wanted to test WD Play with the DNLA- and it was fantastic! Maybe a touch slow on starting the local stream from the DNLA server (about 10-15 seconds to play from selection sometimes).

Otherwise fantastic, all the normal streaming services like netflix and hulu supported as one would expect, good stream quality and fast starts from the providers. It’s $50 cheaper than most streaming devices, definitely recommend this! Especially if you have a DNLA server and are upset that your Roku opted to not support DNLA.

Go Western Digital, going to replace my sony Blu-ray media players with the WD Play now. I do wish it supported VOB playback (4 of 5 starts for not supporting direct dvd flies and slow DNLA start), but if you are encoding your library properly you will not need VOB playback.

When I started using this media player I noticed that the file content from my external hard drive being shown on screen was very limited to a few entries. No matter how many times I updated this file it only shows this number of entries.

So it was useless for me if I could not update the number of entries on screen. I never used it again. I just wasted my money. It does not show all the contents of the external hard drive. I bought this product so I can view contents from my hard drive and this media player failed to do that.

For anyone that has a lot of movies, videos and pictures on an external hard drive or thumb drive then this media player will work well for you. It pretty much plays most of the mainstream formats. I purchased a refurbished unit and it has treated me well.

There were however some cases where the unit would not play. I couldn’t figure out what the problem was but would later come back and it would play again. I can’t say for sure if it has anything to do with the fact that it was a refurbished unit but when it works it just works.

Another downside is that the remote is tiny. I guess I don’t really expect it to have a big remote with a ton of buttons on it but because the remote is so small it is very easy to lose or misplace. Also, if you lose the remote then you cannot watch anything as the remote is the only way to control the device.

Its not a bad device. It is a decent solution until you decide to get a PS3. The PS3 can do everything this can do and does it better. I still have mine but it has been replaced by my PS3.

The Tivo works very well, and I am glad to see it can now record up to 6 channels, which now matches my home built Green Button that I have been using for 10 years. The commercial skip works quite well, and I am not seeing the same problems that I had recording Fox and some other channels due to copyright protection issues.

I don’t like that the live TV comes on automatically. Perhaps it can be turned off and I just haven’t figured out how. I am also happy to see that it has the possibility of an expansion disk. I have over 20Tb one my old machine, so 3Tb seems kind of weak.

My only serious complain is the ridiculous licensing fees, which were zero on my previous box. I bought a perpetual license, which cost a fortune. However at least I don’t have to pay the Tivo crooks forever.

Works well with better apps access than the Roamio. Since I prefer the rev 3 OS I reverted the unit to that OS. Not sure what TiVo was thinking, but the rev 4 menu is terrible.

Received the TiVo plugged it all in and I kept on receiving an error message saying my hdmi cable to the tv does not support hdcp. I went back and forth with both TiVo and Samung service techs. At the end Tivo charged me $50 and sent me a refurbished Bolt.

Its working smooth. It took a week and $50 to get things working.

After loving the performance of my other 2 WDTV’s, I thought it was a no brainer to get this “mini” version for an older HD widecreen that only had component out and no HDMI. But this “mini” does not support the same files that the WDTV does.

Even though it can still output resolutions up to 1080i, it would NOT play my 720p BDrips in. mkv. Even the 720p h. 264 files of TV shows that I regularly download and play on my WDTV’s would NOT play.

I understand losing 1080p and HDMI for a “mini” version, but why the hell would they lose the. mkv and x. 264/h. 264 support? Well my bad for not doing more research and just trusting a brand from previous experience.

Turns out this “mini” has a different chipset than the regular WDTV. For a “mini” version that retails for only $20 less than the WDTV, but loses HDMI, 1080p,. mkv, and x. 264/h. 264 file support, this thing is more of a “light” instead of “mini”.

I pack this in my laptop bag when I travel as it’s great for hotel rooms and hooks up via Component or Composite cables to any TV, old or new. I now rip my DVDs to an external hard drive and play the images directly through the miniplayer, no conversion and burning DVDs required.

Go into Settings – Display to choose output type and resolution. I was amazed at the quality when upscaling the output to 1080i. If you don’t change this setting when playing on a HD capable TV the picture will be mediocre; at first I thought the Component cable was defective, it looked so awful.

So a little tweaking will reward you! This baby has earned its keep in entertainment value and $50 delivered is a steal.

Pros: Easy To Set Up, Sleek Design Cons: NO password decoder, Doesn’t play MP-4 movies, Resolution too low, Unreliable Other thoughts: It’s a nice small, sleek design, but just doesn’t work good enough.

I have a WD 1 TB My Passport portable drive and stored some movies on it and tried to watch the movies using this media player, but didn’t work. When I tried to unlock the drive since it’s password protected and entered my password the player said that I had the wrong password, so I tried 3 more times and still didn’t onlock the drive.

Ended up making it an open drive without a password and tried to watch the movies, but it couldn’t play the MP-4 movies. The player said that the ‘resolution of the movie is beyond the capacity of the device’, which means NO MP-4, MPEG-4 movies.

Forget that.

I needed a new device to replace my current LG T40 I’m using for music so I started looking and found this iPod for about $30, with Bluetooth, 32GB of storage, and USB support, all of which I was looking for in a music playing device since my current one, the LG T40, doesn’t have USB support and only 16GB storage with my SD card.

It was a deal I couldn’t pass up! To get started with the full-on review, let’s start with shipping; The shipping was amazing! It was very fast, and super easy to track! Not to mentioned it shipped over night from Virginia to North Carolina, which was unexpected for free shipping, but I’m not complaining! Second, The product itself; When it arrived, the packaging was.

interesting (it was wrapped in bubble wrap and thrown into a bag with a shipping label on it) but secure enough to make it in one piece. The device was in good shape as described, with only some scratches on the back, as expected.

The battery of the device, on the other hand, was very disappointing. When playing music only, It gives me about 2-3ish hours on one charge but when doing screen intensive stuff, It’ll only last 30ish minutes on a full charge, and that’s with the brightness down! People use a touch for more than music.

That’s the point of an iPod touch instead of a nano or a shuffle. So when it really can’t do those other things to long without killing the battery, it defeats the purpose. UPDATE: After a dew days of use, I’ve noticed the battery getting better? Odd but ok.

Instead of taking 30min to get a full charge, it actually took 1-2 hours to charge. This is also with a new cable different from the one that came with the iPod, so I can only assume it was a cable thing and not a battery thing.

That’s good because I really didn’t wanna drop $79 for a battery replacement from Apple. The battery is also lasting me more like 4-6 hours, even with heavy screen usage. However, I do have it in airplane mode so that could be adding to the battery health.

With these new discoveries being made in the about a week of use, my rating has changed! One final note, the internal speaker is kinda trash. This doesn’t bother me since I mainly use headphones with it but for anyone intending on using the internal speaker a lot, maybe go for a 5th gen iPod touch instead.

Over all, would recommend to anyone looking for a cheap MP3 player!.

Well it was interesting. That I had a 6th Generation iTouch and a 3rd Generation as well. But this one was the charm. Because it was something in between and something the device connoisseur would deem appropriate and necessary.

Found this one on sale for cheap as a used bargain but it was used but like new. What I like about it was it had the ability to use a camera, but it didn’t have the ability to queue a playlist exactly, but you can add tracks to a made up playlist anyway and keep adding while listening.

That really beats a 3G iTouch and the 6th Generation was better but I wouldn’t deem all of the capabilities necessary when I bought one 4 years ago. This one was what a junkie would use to get ahead.

Maybe a certain genre of music or Alternative mixed with Hip-Hop or a wide variety would please my ears. Thanks!.

I bought this because I had pawned my original Nano off, and really missed it! The user interface is great. One of the reasons I bought it was because my newer Nano’s screen light stopped working. I guess you could say they don’t make ’em like they used to! The control buttons have tactile feedback and the iPod also has the option for sound feedback as you make song selections and volume adjustments.

I personally think this was the best balance between old-school ruggedness, storage space, functionality, and modern sleekness in the iPod series of products. Having the manual buttons is just really nice, and the color options are way cooler than the newer models.

The Bluesound Vault 2i is a great device, capable of doing many things. Unfortunately, figuring out how to use it is not so simple. If you’re familiar with how a NAS drive works, then this shouldn’t be that difficult for you.

Otherwise, you will have to do some research as the instructions (or lack thereof) don’t tell you anything. What is the Bluesound Vault 2i? Essentially, the Vault is a CD ripper, music streamer, 32-bit DAC, NAS (Network attached storage), and a 2tb hard drive – all built into one small box.

The Vault comes equipped with an RCA out output, optical output, 2 – USB slots used for extra storage or you can back up your library, a gigabit ethernet port, and supports Bluetooth and AirPlay2. The Vault lets you connect to many HiFi music streaming services such as Tidal, Amazon Music, TuneIn etc.

Unfortunately, it does not connect to Apple Music as of now, but you can just stream it using airplay2. How it works? The way the Vault works, is it rips a CD into FLAC files, then stores it onto the built in HDD.

It does take a few minutes to complete, as it rips at a speed of about 2. 1x. This is actually a good thing, as it carefully reads the files accurately bit by bit. Once the CD is ripped, it is then automatically stored into your library with track names and cover art.

You can then stream it to other Bluesound devices or play it directly from the Vault 2i with wired speakers. When I first received the Vault, I spent about 3 days trying to figure out how to get the full use out of it.

The manual that comes in the box, is just a quick set up on how to plug it in and download the app. Once I was able to figure it all out, I really started to like it a lot. I went and grabbed my old CD collection and went to town.

Seeing how some of my CD’s I purchased where over 20 years ago, many of them were fairly scratched. The ripper has a hard time decoding scratched CD’s, and many times failed to rip the CD, or it rips half the CD and then ejects due to read error.

The good thing about this, if you want to clean it off and try again, the Vault will just add the files to the CD instead of making a whole new copy. I also tried to insert a CD-R disc that I had, just to see if it would work.

While it does work and rips the files in your library, it does not add track names or artwork. Editing music stored on your Vault’s HDD requires you to connect it a PC or Mac using filesharing. In my case, I connected it to my Macbook pro which was very easy.

This is when I started to appreciate the Vault’s software, the way it organizes and stores all your files is very articulate and clean. It would be nice if the app would let you edit your vault’s contents, but the only thing you can do is re index your library.

The BluOS app is the app that you use to control your Vault and play music. This is also where you would add your music streaming services. The app is limited to just viewing the contents of your Vault and re indexing your library.

Overall, the app does function well although I have had trouble connecting Bluetooth devices through the app. Sometimes it just hangs while trying to find the device, other times it won’t ever find the device.

Also, the artwork does tend to be low quality. The Vault needs to be plugged in directly to your router in order to work, there is no built-in WiFi. This is not really ideal, seeing how my good speakers are in another room and can’t bring them to the Vault.

The good news about the Vault being connected to the router, you are able to access your vault’s library through network share. And yes, you can add your Vault’s library to Sonos!! Overall, I really like the Bluesound Vault 2i.

The ability to rip and store all my CDs in FLAC files on the 2TB built in HDD is great. The sound quality of the built-in DAC is really good. Plus, the ability to add my Vault to Sonos is a huge bonus.

The built-in software that organizes and stores your CDs is very impressive and works flawlessly. The BluOS app is a little buggy when trying to connect Bluetooth speakers, and the artwork quality could use some improvements but overall, it works as intended.

The one thing the company really needs to work on, is the instructions. They need to do a much better job explaining how to set up the network share and so forth. If you are looking to store all you CDs on a NAS drive, then I would definitely recommend this to anyone.

Pro: Good sound quality 2TB internal storage Great built-in organizing software Can add your stored library to Sonos! Cons: Terrible instructions BluOS app has limited features/buggy The ripper is bad at ripping scratched CDs Has to be hardwired to the router/no WIFI.

Overall this unit is very good and has the features that I was looking for in a digital player: large internal HD, external HD capability, RCA interconnects to be used with your existing system, and the transfer feature from your computer over wi-fi of newly downloaded music.

Most of the negative reviews (from a few years back when it originally came out) I read were of users complaining that the transfer of their existing library is very slow. The transfer speed seems fine to me (I selectively transferred items), even over my wi-fi.

Granted it does not sort of zip it but a 16 track album for example only takes about a minute or less. I think these users had such a huge library that it appeared to transfer slowly, i. e. , the green bar hardly moving, because of the sheer number of tracks in their library.

The SONY transfer program is very simple and works great. The Firmware updates are fast. And the App to control it is a must have to operate the unit and maintain the library. The App has a nice layout and is simple to use.

The front panel looks nice and since you use the App anyway it did not matter to me that the screen is rather small. For the price, apart from the front panel, the build could have been nicer, compared to the Yamaha components that have a luxurious finish in that price category, here the case is a bit cheapish and you can see the plain screws that were used.

The remote is really not necessary, again given the App. The only two quirks I had so far is that the external drive feature appears to be an older version, meaning it would not plug-and-play and external USB drive I bought which contained music.

The vendor of that drive mentioned that SONY uses an outdated file requirement. So I had to format a new drive specifically for the SONY and then re-transfer the albums, inconvenient, yes, but it now recognizes it properly.

The other is that in the App the folder view (where you can see the raw data of the tracks) and album view (the front end view) are not always identical after a transfer. I am not sure if this is caused by the App or unit during the transfer.

In the album view, the track sort can have errors. For some reason a random disc number is attached to some tracks and it throws off the sorting. It seems random but adds an additional maintenance work to the library, but it can be easily fixed through the App, which actually has some nice features like dividing an album.

I can happily say that I am a proud owner of the Sony HAP-ZIES. First impressions when bought was that it was a well and solidly built hifi piece. I was particularly impressed with the fact that I was able to do a one-off transfer of all my 850 cd albums which occupied only small portion of the 1TB internal hard drive.

Transfer took a while given the size of my cd collection but was seamless. I would strongly advise on using an ethenet connection when transferring large volume of cds as it is exceptionally quicker.

The internal Gracenote app even provided information about some of my old tracks which I was unaware of. What impressed me most about the HAP-Z1ES was the quality of the sound production. it’s just phenomenal and its hard to beat.

The remote that came with it was quite redundant. I think Sony might have done this on purpose to encourage people to instead use the HDD Remote app instead. and they were surely right as the remote app has loads of functionalities including a search function which comes handy for me when I want to select tracks out of thousands.

Its yet early to give a full review as I have only owned it for about a month but so far I couldnt find any faults as yet. I can see myself hanging on to it for years to come as long as Sony keeps updating the firmware, apps etc.

This unit is great. I struggled with iTunes, keeping the music on the Computer and then in iCloud. I would have a lot of doubles. I take my songs in iTunes that I have purchased or ripped from CD and created apple lossless music files.

ALAC. The sound quality is awesome and this Sony unit plays them. This unit also remasters the music and it sounds fantastic. You transfer the music from a file on your computer. I use dropbox. You use a downloadable program to do the transfer.

It is quite quick, a little faster than ripping CD’s to ALAC. Once the songs are transferred you can play them by looking for the Artist, the Album or the song. You can play on the fly or create playlists.

Another neat feature is the IOS remote control app. Using an IOS device you can completely control the HAP-ZiES. The unit must be connected to a network either wired or wireless. Easy setup. The unit has 1TB of internal storage via Hard Drive, this can be changed to a 2TB in the future.

You can connect external hard drives via usb port and really increase your storage capacity. You can also rip CDs right to the hard drive by using a portable cd drive. You can check the website to see what ones have been tested.

I prefer to rip to the computer first, then I have a copy of the song files. This unit is not cheap, but it is made very well. It weighs 35 lbs and has a 5 yr warranty like all Sony ES products.

I have bought this WD HD TV player because i have an old TV and tired to write movies on DVD’s when most of them i will see them one or two times max. Also is a good solution for my child to watch movies on TV.

My TV have only scart connection so i wanted something cheap, compatible and quality at the same time. The media player was used but in very good condition, i have connect it through composite video and worked very well.

It plays all known formats with superb quality. It’s easy to use, the remote control is small and does it’s job. The menu is simple and is multilanguage supported (not Greek alltough). It supports subtitles also without lags or drops.

I don’t like that it have not internal HDD and wifi connection or bluetooth, and the WD informed me that even with a wifi dongle it cannot work through wifi. Also i wanted to have Greek language and support images as thumbnails on videos.

Thumbnails are accepted only in folders section. At first wanted to buy one android media player, but searching the internet found out that the opinions were very confusing about the codecs they use, the quality of the devices and many other issues.

So i preffered to stay with a used good quality product. If someone have an old TV set and want to play moview flowless then this is your solution.

Pros: Good quality pictures. More Codecs for my local film file formats that I can now play. Cons: Has anoying bright light at the front that stays on when plugged in. If you unplug it when not in use (or to avoid the light) you have to reconnect it to the internet to boot up again.

As I didn’t buy it for web content but to play my locally stored content, this is a pain as I spend 5 minute phaffing around with plugs and cables. I ended up reconnecting my HDD via USB to my BluRay recorder in the end as this was easier to put on standby.

Some of the start up screens are annoying. Start up requires inernet connection, if internet is connected, it doesn’t say it’s an issue, the screen just goes blank. I only resolved by trail and error.

therefore not a very friendly user interface.

Pros: Easy To Use, Sleek Design, Easy To Set Up, High Capacity Cons: Drive takes long to index Other thoughts: Luckily I have friends who have gone through the trial and error period with this device so I didn’t have to waste much time setting it up.

🙂 Basically, here’s the advice I got for loading movies on a portable hard drive that will be connected to the WDTV: 1) Burn just the movie from a DVD to an ISO file (even though most movie formats except WMV would work as well).

The device can’t handle the extra content so there’s no need to burn the entire DVD. It’s just wasting HD space. 2) Grab/create a jpeg of the movie poster so that WDTV would display it on the Video menu onscreen.

Images of the poster can usually be found at the IMDB or [. ] websites. Jpegs should be about 60k in size or it’ll slow the indexing process when WDTV boots up. 3) Make the names of the ISO and the JPEG files match so WDTV would recognize them and match them on the menu.

4) Be sure to place all files in the root directory so WDTV can index quickly. 5) Lastly, make the file name descriptive and include the rating as a suffix of the movie name. The file name is what gets displayed on the screen under the jpeg and if you have young eyes in your home like I do, it’s nice to know the ratings so the young ones aren’t seeing things they’re not supposed to.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any parental controls that I have found (granted I haven’t really looked either) so the ratings in the file name is the only pseudo control I use. So there you have it. Good luck.

It works great for me. When I select the movie icon, the movie just starts. It’s great.

Tivo bolt does everything we can ask for in it’s category. Recording and playback is simple and easily automated. Original quality and integrity of the broadcast is preserved perfectly. There’s ample storage for many more hours of programming than we need, which allows us to store special events indefinitly.

Being able to receive 4 separate channels simultaneously allows us not only to record and watch different programs at once; but we never miss an episode of our favorites, even when favorites are on several channels at the same time.

We can record 4 different programs while we’re watching a previously recorded program. All in all, the broadcast schedule doesn’t dictate our time anymore; we watch what we want WHENEVER we want. Thanks TiVo.

This unit can record up to 4 shows at a time, it can show you the info in many ways. The only thing I don’t like is that 1) when I lifted the unit, the plug-in cord came out (replaced easily), and 2) the remote is rounded on the bottom, and falls easily off a chair arm.

I place it with the top part down to solve that. While it is more expensive than some, if you can afford it, I definitely recommend it. It also has a SATA port for another hard drive out the back, a plus.

Get the one with a 1 TB disc or you won’t have the room you need to record on! If you can find a NEW one, never opened, in shrink-wrap still, it is recommended. I personally wouldn’t buy a used model, too many things can go wrong.

TiVo has changed. It no longer has the ‘THUMBS’ feature which was used to record your preferences for shows and movies. The ‘TiVo Suggestions’ is still there but instead of picking shows to record that fit your likes and dislikes it now just records at random which makes the feature useless.

If this is important to you avoid buying a new TiVo, you will not be happy. The user interface is no longer simple and easy to use due to the features they have added. I liked the older interface better.

The machine does work as it is designed to so no complaints there. The TiVo experience is just not what it once was.

No setup needed. It plays videos with the subs by default and has a button to turn off or turn back on without having to go into the OSD settings. The player picks by default which screen resolution to use 720 or 1080 without you having to tell it.

The only problem and this is major for me is the photo display. If the picture is from a camera with a good resolution, the picture displays properly but if it’s downloaded from facebook or any other webpage, the picture is distorted.

(Stretched out to fit the screen). While checking through my pictures with the. jpg extention, some of them gave the player a problem and the player rebooted itself. I checked those same problem. jpgs with other players I own and those players rebooted as well.

I couldn’t figure out what was so different about those. jpg’s compared to ones that displayed without problems so I just converted those to. png and they displayed fine. The remote has an INFO key which was also very important to me.

When fast-forwarding or rewinding a video, I can hit the INFO button and see the progress. It also shows me the video name and format.

This media player is certainly a great deal for the money. Please note that it cannot play. mov files or 4k files, however it plays almost every other format I’ve tried. It does have one very big problem: When I tried to connect it to my TV through the HDMI connection, the TV doesn’t detect a signal.

The HDMI connection on the TV works fine, and I know that because it works when I connect my blu-ray player to it; but when I connect this device to the same port, it just says “no usable signal”. This appears to be a defect, so there may be a build quality problem here.

However, please note that this device may last for many years. That has yet to be determined. The AV output works well. I plugged a 256GB thumb drive into it and it accessed it quickly with no problems, so large drive size doesn’t crash it.

The picture quality isn’t top notch, but this thing is a killer deal for only $30. 00 bucks, and that’s why i do recommend it in spite of it’s faults! It’s so cheap, I would buy it again!.

If you need to play video/photos/music through a non-smart device, this is a pretty slick little unit. Used it in a non-critical public setting where small size was important and cost was, also. It did the job, putting advertising on a screen.

I cannot complain at all about this IPod 4. It came in excellent condition, not a single sign it wasn’t brand new. The big thing everyone needs to realize is anything older than a 5th gen WILL NOT BE UPDATEABLE past iOS 6.

I stupidly thought I could download any apps if I jailbroak it, but all that really does is allow you to change the aesthetics. That’s cool, but if you are like me and wanted an apple device to use with apps like Snapchat, Hipstamatic, Mextures etc.

some will let you download an old version but that does not mean it will actually work. Snapchat absolutely cannot run on anything running less than iOS 8. The issue is the RAM in the device. Its just not enough, its not capable of running these apps updated for the newer operating systems.

That said. it works flawlessly for what it does do, which is everything besides update. The transitions are quick and smooth, the screen is pretty small and yet still easy to type on. I’m used to a 5.

5″ phone screen (android- which is why I bought this. I missed my apple apps I was spoiled with by my iPad before I broke it) and even with the small size its easy to navigate and for some things I prefer it (talking on it as a telephone-yes there are apps for that) and I love that I can face time with it! So much easier to do with this than on my IPad.

Love the music player- that is really what this is for. but the iPod touch 4th generation is obviously capable of so much more than just a music player. Even with the disappointment of realizing I could never have many new apps, I’ve grown quite fond of my little iPod 4 and find myself using it much more than I thought I would.

The camera isn’t even bad, not bad at all actually considering the resolution that’s much lower than what we have become accustomed to in 2017. As long as you understand its operating system limitations (don’t blame the seller or the product- do your research) and you find this at a decent price of 50$ or less.

I highly recommend. (I cannot really imagine paying more than $80 for it considering I can but a refurbished iPhone 5s for $130 and a 5c for $90) but at a good price. go for it! Ok I think that’s sufficient and the info I wish I’d read before making a decision (I would have still purchased it, and glad I did).

I got my iPod Touch 4th Generation (8GB Black) with the intention of having something to iMessage my friends with. It supports iOS 6. 1. 6 and no later. I soon realized that Messages and FaceTime won’t let me sign in because the iOS is too old.

BE FOREWARNED: You cannot use iMessages and FaceTime on the 4th generation running iOS 6, AT ALL. As of April 2019, only iOS 7 and later works with those things. I decided to use this iPod for basic music, and decided to buy an iPhone 4S (runs iOS 9) and use that as my main device instead (without paying for the phone part).

ANOTHER WARNING: Most apps won’t run on this device because it’s too old and incompatible with the apps of today. Here is a list of some of the apps this iPod refuses to download: Skype, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Asphalt 9, Pandora.

There are a lot of others, but that just gives you an idea of what doesn’t work. The cameras aren’t too bad, Apple makes great cameras, but the overall quality is not that great. The creators put some low-end ones on it, mostly because this was the first iPod Touch to even have a camera.

It’s a little slow at times, but it’s not a too bad of a device. I think Apple did good on this for its time, but it’s a little outdated today.

Someone familiar with apple iPods may find this model simple and intuitive to use, myself this is not the case. Battery life is extremely poor, even driving the supplied earbuds. I know this has been sitting on a shelf for years but it is sold new in original box.

Apple needs to stop selling technology with such poor battery life.

E’ un ottimo prodotto se avete una connessione fibra (i giochi funzionano in streaming, serve molta banda) e se sapete smanettare un po’ (GeForce Now ancora in beta, quindi ogni tanto possono esserci inconvenienti da risolvere per installare i giochi o con gli aggiornamenti).

In cambio avete una scelta di giochi molto ampia, con tantissimi titoli “importanti” gi inclusi gratis (per ora), Steam integrato ecc. ecc. E poi ha su android tv, quindi potete usare tutte le app che girano su android tv (netflix, ecc.

). Se invece avete una connessione lenta, o se non sapete smanettare, lasciate stare.

TraduciMostra in lingua originalePros: I use the Shield TV Pro primary as a Plex client. It is currently the best Plex bar none. It is the only gadget among set top boxes and smart TVs that allows Plex with both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos supported.

The user interface is quick and fluid. The media control keys on the remote control work on my TV/PS5 and vice verse the TV media keys work on the Shield as well. Backlighted keys on remote control is a nice touch.

Albeit the CEC from shield can control either the volume of the TV or the receiver, the remote control can imitate the infrared code of my TV to control the volume instead of CEC. It works on both this way no matter with sound output I have chosen on the TV.

Nvidia is very thoughtful on this! Cons: Both my TV (Sony) and Nvidia run Google TV OS. It is a little bit confusing which one I am using sometimes. It would be nice that Nvidia put an optional custom theme on it.

TraduciMostra in lingua originalePros: Love it! Shield has helped to create a mini Home cinema for me. Been using for 2 months now mostly for streaming. Love the sleep feature that puts my monitor to off too (saving power if left on for over x mins), love the bluetooth audio output so I can listen in my headset at night, and top of all the remote (look, feel, responsive) and above all its not infrared, it uses bluetooth meaning the shield doesn’t have to be direct sight.

Still trying to figure out gaming (have to create account on other sites though). Overall, love the product and definitely recommend. Cons: Haven’t been able to cast using Google Home or Youtube casting, it just won’t connect! It works when casting from Netflix or VLC player app on my Android phone.

Nice media player that finally plays all the movies files that I download for my dad. As he normally uses his DVD player with USB stick but doesn’t recognize all the file formats from movies that I download for him.

So I thought I would try this media player out and he loves it. It plays all file formats which is great but the media player gets really hot my dad noticed but it’s not the coolest in his apartment as he doesn’t believe in ac the reason why.

But in a normal environment with someone that actually uses ac in there home I feel like it will run fine without over heating. So u just got my dad fan and turn it towards the media player as a cooler so it wouldn’t get so hot and it worked.

But other than that it’s nice media player sumthn so tiny can play all formats no matter what file u install on USB stick to read it.

Very powerful compact unit. Uses several media storage devices. Plays many formats. Effortlessly

The HA0053B model by AGPtek, support multiple video format such as RM, RMVB, AVI, DIVX, MKV, MOV, HDMOV, MP4, M4V, PMP, AVC, FLV, VOB, MPG, DAT, MPEG, TS, TP, M2TS, WMV, (H. 264,H. 263,WMV9/VC-1,MPEG1/2/4).

You can connect an external DVD to usb port and play your movie. In my opinion the best multimedia player at the lowest price.

I installed the TiVo Vox to complement the Tivo Bolt antenna based system I recently installed. There is no subscription fee for the Vox, as the subscription for the Bolt DVR covers the Vox box too. I connected the Bolt via Ethernet cable and TiVo’s MoCA bridge to connect the VoX to the Bolt via the coax cable already installed in the home.

Now I have a very fast connection which allows me to stream up to 4K movies without buffering issues. Additionally, the Vox provides previews for all channels coming in via antenna, which are numerous, as I live in a Chicago suburb.

The TiVo format is intuitive and the remote is easy to use, and comes with a voice command function. I highly recommend product for expanding you TiVo experience into other rooms of your home.

Perfect companion to a home TiVo network. Allows live TV access from a room without antenna outlet using tuner from an existing Tivo. Fit my needs perfectly.

Once set up, the Tivo has met my expectations of being able to watch live television as well as recorded shows from one of my other Tivo boxes. Overall, setup was simple but it was made MUCH MORE DIFFICULT because I bought the Tivo Mini Vox from e-Bay instead of directly from Tivo.

The Mini Vox that I bought while new, had been registered with Tivo and thus could not be activated without calling Tivo. While this would not have been bad in and of itself, it was further complicated in that Tivo support did not complete all of the steps necessary to complete activation.

It took THREE calls to Tivo support before I was able to complete set-up and start using the Mini-Vox. Now that it is activated, I am much enjoying using the Tivo Mini Vox to watch live and recorded shows without the significant expense (both one time and on-going) for a Tivo DVR.

This was a replacement for a Magnavox HDD I bought in 2010. We used this recorder as the tuner for an older 50″ Phillips plasma as well as for recording programs. The provider changed channel settings a couple weeks ago and the old unit couldn’t lock in the new channel settings.

The controller for the old recorder was only partially working and died when trying to check alternatives. The controls on the console wouldn’t work either. Since I enjoy the flexibility of the recorder, I purchased this new one.

I was concern when I noticed the date of manufacture was 2012 for the new one. It looked the same as the 2010 model. We used the same HDMI connection and everything went quickly. It appears that the software for the initial set-up has been simplified and automated.

The favorite channels were picked up so we were hopeful that the old unit had just died and the channel change was just a coincidence When we started watching, the picture would breakup and the audio would skip.

We checked numerous channels and the story was similar. Some channels would play for a short period and then be scrambled. A television set bought in 2010 reset the channels after the provider changed channel setting without any problems so we think the provider isn’t the problem.

We recorded a couple programs and there were the same problems when we played them back. We tried again a couple days later and the problem continued. Reluctantly we returned the recorder and are using Hulu with a computer.

The old unit worked great for about two years. First, the up on the channel selector stopped working on the remote controller. About six months later the down selector stopped working. Occasionally the video would flicker and audio would get garbled for a specific channel but it would work fine a couple days later.

The recording worked as programed. The old unit lasted about 3 3/4 years. The rating is the average of the new, returned unit (disappointed) and the experience with the unit bought the end of 2010 (happy with the features but disappointed with the quality and unit life).

Bought pre-owned but looks like new and works great. Manual could be better & takes some guessing on some tasks (like initially setting the clock time, etc) but unit itself is excellent. If you only have Cable TV and your channels are scrambled like mine (Specrum Cable) you can Only record the channel you are currently watching.

If you ALSO have an OTA antenna (like me) you can use a coax cable splitter and run one lead to the unit & other to TV, then you can record any OTA channel while watching a cable only channel. Overall i’m very happy with this unit and it’s performance so far & give it 5 Stars.

Just wonder why Magnavox/ Funai Electric quit making these units as nothing else on the market before or after begin to compare to all the features these units have? Sure beats the high monthly cost of cable rental & service recording fees & TiVo as well.

I purchased this item to save money on monthly satellite dish charges. Basically, it’s almost as good as it can be, a standard definition, one tuner DVR which enables you to record one program at a time (off the air) to the hard disc or DVD.

You can also output an external device like a VCR or camera and record it to the DVR. You can do some basic editing of recordings on the DVR. Most recordings can be transferred to DVD/R. Regarding off air TV, there are no features such as a program guide, just the channel and title information for the program you‘re currently watching.

You program the unit like a VCR, setting the time, channel, and frequency for shows, so get your TV Guide (and eyeglasses) ready. The picture and audio quality are quite good, but aspect ratios (sizing) of the programs are basically ignored by the unit.

If you’re particular about such things, prepare to resize your monitor between channels and programs (not a big deal). I had no luck with the HDMI connection, which worked intermittently, but didn’t seem to be compatible with my monitor.

The difference between HDMI and component connection wasn’t much, so I went with the component connections. The remote is only for this unit, and you really have to press the buttons hard. I found a learning remote from Philips and programmed each button for what I wanted it to do (like one of the buttons for resizing the picture, for example).

Freeze frame and step framing are the best I’ve ever seen, skip and replay are programmable for different lengths, and other than the fact that it doesn’t have some of the niceties of cable and satellite DVRs, it is useful for someone who’s resourceful, patient, and doesn’t want to pay monthly fees to watch TV.

EIt took an age to get it to connect to my TV through the lead enclosed with it. When I finally got it to display and connected it to my hard disc drive it could not read it even though it was formatted in a way the instructions stated and contained files in the correct formatts DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY.

Easy to understand, plug and play. Plays many formats. Does not have VGA as the picture shows, but has HDMI.