Wireless Media Centres (Mpeg-4 Playback) and DivX Players

[Jack Tan]

Hi Guys,

I was hoping we could kick start some threads concentrating more on the PC to Television 'Media Centre' type concept where the video data is transmitted directly via wireless LAN from the PC to television.

Just that over the last 6 months, there has been plenty of talk of the DivX player and to be honest, I havent really seen too many players out there that are of good quality. Although KiSS is now walking into Australia so maybe they may just save the day!

From what I know, most of the DivX players in OZ are equipped with chipsets such as ESS and MTK. They are from China OEM manufacturers so really, not a great deal of effort was put into the firmware. However the introduction of KiSS at its premium is because they use the SIGMA chipset, and I hear its cost is much much higher than that of the other ones. And given said that, think the SIGMA is much better too.

neuston Corporation previously had the DVX-1201 in Australia, also a SIGMA based DivX player but it seems to have been discontinued so no need to worry about thaqt model.

The Media Centre concept seems like its steadily on the horizon in Australia as many other countries have already adopted. Saw an article in some mag recently with all sorts of Mpeg-4 devices being displayed. The two winners of the test was a KiSS network DivX Player and neuston's Media Centre. Others featured in the article were XMS, Zensonic and Pinnacle, manufacturing products in the DivX player and/or Media Centre space in the market.

Both the KiSS and neuston products are built using network capabilities and functions. Perhaps thats where the market is moving.

Any thoughts?

Does anyone have any of the KiSS, Neuston or Pinnacle products? Dont hear of these three names much on this forum though ironically, they are the three manufacturers that I hear of quite a bit! Not neccessarily in OZ though.

[jokiin]

Just that over the last 6 months, there has been plenty of talk of the DivX player and to be honest, I havent really seen too many players out there that are of good quality. Although KiSS is now walking into Australia so maybe they may just save the day!

From what I know, most of the DivX players in OZ are equipped with chipsets such as ESS and MTK. They are from China OEM manufacturers so really, not a great deal of effort was put into the firmware.

By the end of the year there should be a lot more players available so the market may shift a little, expect to see price drops and increased quality and features, several new models coming and a move to certified DivX Pro players from a number of suppliers. The entry of KISS into our market may be too late as there will be so many certified players available soon at half the price that they may have missed their opportunity, if they rethink their pricing though they may still have a chance.

[davidf]

Hi Guys,

I was hoping we could kick start some threads concentrating more on the PC to Television 'Media Centre' type concept where the video data is transmitted directly via wireless LAN from the PC to television.

At around $130 for a 2.4ghz Av Transmitter and reciever what is the need for a 'dedicated' over priced unit that does little more than this. Mpeg4 players are on the improve and even now most standardised mpeg4 encodes work fine on even the cheapest of players throw in the AV transmitter from PC to TV and you have all the bases covered and money to spare for other goodies.
And the added benefit that if you had more than 1 TV you could buy extra recievers ($75) to cover the whole household.

[StormyKnight]

Just that over the last 6 months, there has been plenty of talk of the DivX player and to be honest, I havent really seen too many players out there that are of good quality.

Jack, most of the Zensonic users are over at the Zensonic Forums & any issues are usually worked thru there. The two machines currently in the market are the Z300 & Z330 have been quite good with very good compatibilty with a large range of Mpeg4 files, including those with Qpel & GMC encoding.

Soon Zensonic are releasing their wireless media player machine the Z400. It is based on a Sigma chip, and we are all keenly waiting for it's arrival.

[iffer]

the zensonic z400 is sigma based? oops.. I may have steped on some toes lastnight :sheepish: I thought their relationship with mediatek would have carried into the new product - and if there are a lot of sigma design based machines, there are going to be very similar in features (especially when so many companies seem to just release the vendor supplied reference design these days).

Hope Zensonic have a great product - they seem to be really interested in producing a good player and keep in touch with their customers.
jen

[jokiin]

the zensonic z400 is sigma based? oops.. I may have steped on some toes lastnight :sheepish: I thought their relationship with mediatek would have carried into the new product - and if there are a lot of sigma design based machines, there are going to be very similar in features (especially when so many companies seem to just release the vendor supplied reference design these days).

Hope Zensonic have a great product - they seem to be really interested in producing a good player and keep in touch with their customers.
jen

They are using a sigma based solution but the software is their own, they have their own development team for the project, don't underestimate the sigma solutions potential.

[Jack Tan]

They are using a sigma based solution but the software is their own, they have their own development team for the project, don't underestimate the sigma solutions potential.

Mate, very nicely said. I have always believed as well that the sigma solutions shouldnt be underestimated as well! It always seems to have so much room to work with as prodcuts that dont change their chipset improve their firmware to engage Sigmas original capabilities with vast improvement and fast fast pace!

It is true as someone said that some companies are just releasing reference designs and software, but the player I mentioned in my posts above...(Neuston/Pinnacle/KiSS) seem to show that there are good efforts in their firmware. Maybe Pinnacle is more about the looks and feel rather than functionality but apart from the first two DivX Players that Neuston and KiSS came out with, their wireless network enabled products are respectively pretty damn cool in their own right!

I hope that when KiSS and the other leading premium manufacturers come to Australia, the potential of SIGMA's hardware decoding technology is appreciated and unleashed into the market!

P.S. I may be biased as Ive only bought Sigma based Mpeg-4 products for its superior original design!

[Jack Tan]

Jack, most of the Zensonic users are over at the Zensonic Forums & any issues are usually worked thru there. The two machines currently in the market are the Z300 & Z330 have been quite good with very good compatibilty with a large range of Mpeg4 files, including those with Qpel & GMC encoding.

Soon Zensonic are releasing their wireless media player machine the Z400. It is based on a Sigma chip, and we are all keenly waiting for it's arrival.

Hey, thanks for the info mate. Would you have any more info about the Z400? Do you know what chip its using? Usually can gauge its pwoer from the original chip! And whats the wireless network bandwitdth? 802.11x?

Cheers

[Jack Tan]

At around $130 for a 2.4ghz Av Transmitter and reciever what is the need for a 'dedicated' over priced unit that does little more than this. Mpeg4 players are on the improve and even now most standardised mpeg4 encodes work fine on even the cheapest of players throw in the AV transmitter from PC to TV and you have all the bases covered and money to spare for other goodies.
And the added benefit that if you had more than 1 TV you could buy extra recievers ($75) to cover the whole household.

If I may david, got a few reasons why I think the Media Centre concept is advantageous to a AV Receiver. Just purely opinion! I mean no offence whatsoever. Cheers.

Media Centres are designed to control digital media in a home. They may be better as;

1) An A/V Receiver would not enable control on the television side of the video, youd have to hop back to your PC to fwd, rew, stop, play and pause.

2) A Media Centre concept would allow multiple televisions to take different videos, music or photos from the same PC simulaneously. Using an A/V Receiver would not provide that versatility.

3) Picture quality would be of poorer quality using an A/V Receiver than that of a Media Centre. After all, it is digital data and with encoders getting more advanced, I wouldnt want to waste the video quality. Some first generation Media Centres already have DVI, Component, Optical and Coaxial outputs as standard connectors today. And with the introduction of WMV HD, no way id want any type of video signal to my television but a high quality cable!

4) THe Media Centre concept with its simple navigational firmware (never seen any that are real complicated) would give other people the versatility to use it at home. eg. My girlfriend uses the Media Centre at home although she knows very little about technology! ha ha.....ah well.....women!

Anyhow mate, just a few reasons that appeal to me. :-)

[davidf]

If I may david, got a few reasons why I think the Media Centre concept is advantageous to a AV Receiver. Just purely opinion! I mean no offence whatsoever. Cheers.

Its just the wireless bit that I don't understand( or maybe appreciate fully)

It would be a lot easier to actually have a real pc as the heart of your home entertainment centre rather than having a pC at one location for that purpose and another box(media centre) as part of the home theatre setup communicating with the 'remote' PC. Software for PC's is moving rapidly in the direction of true multimedia operations.

As you original said its an interesting area, hopefully a lot more options will be available in the not to distant future.

[elite]

It would be a lot easier to actually have a real pc as the heart of your home entertainment centre rather than having a pC at one location for that purpose and another box(media centre) as part of the home theatre setup communicating with the 'remote' PC. Software for PC's is moving rapidly in the direction of true multimedia operations.

Very true but the thing is most people do not want a PC showing in their lounge - I think most of us have enough parts to build a simple PC to do the job of outputting the video but I don't think the women folk would quite like us spoiling the lounge with a PC box. The other alternative is to use one of those PC Cube but again it is the cost.

So you have to balance it out, costs wise with functionality and looks.

I went for the phillips mainly coz it was a big brand name product, been in USA for quite a while and has quite a bit of user forums/support, 3 year warranty and looks like any other DVD player (to fit with the decor). For the price of $160 I certainly can't grumble, and if it breaks I get them to replace it..... By three years time, I will not probably want it and would go for some nifty DVD-recorder/divx with Digital TV reception.

[StormyKnight]

Hey, thanks for the info mate. Would you have any more info about the Z400? Do you know what chip its using? Usually can gauge its pwoer from the original chip! And whats the wireless network bandwitdth? 802.11x?

Cheers

802.11g & I can't get to the zensonic website at the moment to confirm the chip number, but if you search the forum for sigma, it's in there somewhere. P.S. it also has been confirmed that it has 16MB of RAM, the sigma site suggested that only 4MB was used with this chip.

[Jack Tan]

Its just the wireless bit that I don't understand( or maybe appreciate fully)

It would be a lot easier to actually have a real pc as the heart of your home entertainment centre rather than having a pC at one location for that purpose and another box(media centre) as part of the home theatre setup communicating with the 'remote' PC. Software for PC's is moving rapidly in the direction of true multimedia operations.

As you original said its an interesting area, hopefully a lot more options will be available in the not to distant future.

Fair enough. I know quite a few people that think that too. Think that the Media Centre concept uses the PC as 'the heart' in the sense as the PC is acting as purely a file server. That means that your wife, girlfriend, son, or daughter could sue the PC while you were using it for digital media playback with a Media Centre. So no need for fancy sound cards or video cards on your PC as the data is been transmitted out as data packets!

(Think people are calling Media Centres Digital Media Adapters too!)

[Jack Tan]

Very true but the thing is most people do not want a PC showing in their lounge - I think most of us have enough parts to build a simple PC to do the job of outputting the video but I don't think the women folk would quite like us spoiling the lounge with a PC box. The other alternative is to use one of those PC Cube but again it is the cost.

So you have to balance it out, costs wise with functionality and looks.

I went for the phillips mainly coz it was a big brand name product, been in USA for quite a while and has quite a bit of user forums/support, 3 year warranty and looks like any other DVD player (to fit with the decor). For the price of $160 I certainly can't grumble, and if it breaks I get them to replace it..... By three years time, I will not probably want it and would go for some nifty DVD-recorder/divx with Digital TV reception.

You hit it mate! I know my woman doesnt like too mcuh tech stuff in the living room! Its all saved for the study!

[iffer]

part of the reluctance to have computing gear in a lounge is so many "guys" pick their gear for function without thinking about appearances. fortunately this is changing - and a lot of nice looking hardware is out there. For a great functional case that looks as good (in a furniture sense) as it performs, checkout the case at http://www.thermaltake.com/xaserCase...mi/bna/bna.htm
makes me want to clean up the room just so it could come live here
(of course you have to enclose your cable runs, etc to keep it looking neat, but it's a start. match it with a nice lcd screen and a wireless keyboard+mouse and you should have a much better SAF)

Jen (who is specing that next system right now

[jokiin]

There are a few cases that would suitable for home theatre use, these ones are nice http://www.pccasegear.com/category103_1.htm although for me the thing that annoys me the most in the living area is the noise a PC generates, I think that makes these units very suitable http://store.niveusmedia.com/s.nl/c....it.A/id.190/.f if only the budget was unlimited, until then I think the media centre type devices are the way to go, for me anyway.

[iffer]

very pretty - another place to watch in the ongoing search for the perfect upgrade
I was more pointing out that a full PC didn't have to mess up the decor in the room. I'm more inclined to find a convergence device rather than put a full pc in my audio stack (I'm very fond of networks of systems that work together well - and hence my fondness of open systems or at least standards based gear)
thanks for the link jok11n.. pity htpc cases are so expensive
Jen
edit, later...
the case at http://www.pccasegear.com/prod1079.htm is kinda nice too...

[davidf]

I have seen several low profile cases that for all intents and purposes would look more at home under a TV than sitting under a monitor. Keyboards mouse and monitor are not needed if your software is remote control driven so cabling is no more than any other AV object.

Noise can be an issue but small amounts of ingenuity can get around that. Or some of the newer quiet/fanless processor/ MB combo's are pretty good although still a little top heavy in the budget price range.

http://www.everythinglinux.com.au/item/ELS4100

[jokiin]

thanks for the link jok11n.. pity htpc cases are so expensive
Jen
edit, later...
the case at http://www.pccasegear.com/prod1079.htm is kinda nice too...

Nice case, I have one of these http://www.coolermaster.com/index.ph...st&p_class=284 which is a great case, build quality and finish is exceptional, I still wouldn't put it in the living area though. Not cheap either, $195 without the power supply.

[Jack Tan]

Hi Guys. Took a look at the links that you supplied. Especially love the white boxy look that had the Samsung components if I'm not mistaken.

So....what is the perfect type of casing for a Media Centre type product? There is KiSS. Boxy, large and very European brick looking casings. There is Neuston, slick, simple and clean. (Looks like the olds chool BOSE stuff) or Pinnacle. (Is that the reference box? :-) )

If none of these are attractive, whats cooL?