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Multimedia Hard Drive

Discussion in 'Computers/Gadgets' started by dking, Mar 24, 2009.

  1. dking

    dking
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  2. windhover

    windhover
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    Im not too sure what it does exactly but why not get an x box? can play all your movies etc from computer
     
  3. south

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    if you've a hd-tv i think you can get one on that site that will play hd-content

    here it is i'm not sure if it has any storage tho
     
  4. RastaRed

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    Even better would be to get a PS3 with the added bonus of a blu ray player;)
     
  5. RedRuairi

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    They are good but this one is very expensive. Also these I-Omega use desktop drives and are known to die after about 9 months unless you power it off after use. If you do get it make sure you turn it off and stop the disk spinning...it prolongs its life span
     
  6. dking

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    Not really great when if comes to techy things like this , despite loving anything gadgety!!!

    I download movies and keep them on my external HD , then if I want to watch them on my TV , I have to burn them to dvd and play them that way.
    Havent got an x-box or ps3 as red rasta suggested .
    So what iam looking for is a mediaplayer that i can transfer my movies from my external HD by usb too. Then this connect to your TV and you have your movie library in one place .

    I seen that one too south , has good reviews .
    You need to buy a Hard drive to go with this , Yes?

    Thanks Ruairi , I havent put too much work into this yet and thought I would seen what info I could got off you lads here before buying anything. The one south has suggested is the one I looked at originally .

    Any more thought lads?
    Thanks.
     
  7. F@ces

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    Hi dking.

    See this thread where I've posted some info on something called Popcorn Hour.

    Mine is the A-100 model, if I was you I would get the new model Popcorn Hour A-110 with WN-100 (I bought mine before this was released).

    It gets great reviews. It's probably best for movies only, but is one of the best for that for the money. The problem with most of these media players, is that the support can be terrible. Basically all movie files are basically containers, containing video and audio codecs. You might think that 2 ".avi" files (for example) would be exactly the same - but not necessarily; they may contain different video and audio codecs. Therefore, you need a media player that can not only play loads of different types of codecs, but that also has regular firmware updates available for new formats (for example the .mkv (great - basically compressed HD) format is relatively new and I doubt the PS3 supports - albeit maybe someone could confirm that?).

    Since I've got it I have no complaints. The firmware updates keep coming, and I rarely "get" a movie now that doesn't work on it. It's also a lot easier to set-up and use than I had thought from user comments.

    My 2c. I haven't regretted it. If buying one again I'd go for the model above as it's got Wi-Fi and a few neat changes to the hardware.
     
  8. dking

    dking
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    Hi Faces,

    Thanks for all thank info and the previous thread link too.

    I was reading threads of afterdawn and this was highly rated in the posts but to be honest i didnt follow it up due to its name !?!?!?!

    Most of my movies are avi files anyways.

    Do you need a HD with this or has it got storage ?


    Can you get it here ?

    Was just searching through the my irish gadget shops links for the popcorn Hour and couldnt find it ,

    found this ,
    what do you think?

    http://www.backfromthefuture.ie/pro...=1334&osCsid=12a45dd1e3880a76cd075307f54d8cd0
     
  9. Bren100

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    The man has a good point!
     
  10. Bren100

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    Just seeing this post now - Would it not be cheaper to download a converter from avi to dvd and just rip them onto a dvd-r?
     
  11. dking

    dking
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    it would bren , basically all it does (well why i want it) is saves you having ripped dvds all over the kipp . Like it is in my gaff at the mo.

    Just watched

    http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/accessories/0,39100117,49298605-1,00.htm?autoplay=yes

    and am thinking there might be a device like the popcorn hour which lets me plug in a memory stick (like the popcorn hour) with a film on it .Watch it , delete it from the stcik and just keep the files on my external HD (as is ).

    Anyone ?

    Will the WD TV that south suggested do this ?

    http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=408560
     
  12. RastaRed

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    Lidl were selling dvd players last week for around 60 yo yos, hdmi upscale and you can plug in usb drives to watch avis
     
  13. F@ces

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    Hope that helps. Note the final point is more relevant if you are attaining your movie files from questionable sources (shall we say ;)).

    There are a number of different solutions of course, and they all come down to really how much trouble you want to have each time you watch a movie.

    For example, with my 1TB Ext HD plugged into my Popcorn Hour, I simply turn it on, and then select any movie I want using the remote control, press play, and away I go*!

    So it's really a trade off between how much your willing to spend for whatever level of "ease".


    * Please note Popcorn Hour will not, unfortunately, make the popcorn as well. You'll have to leave the couch for that one :)
     
  14. dking

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    not sure how you do that.
    if its simple to do .

    thanks by the way.

    Now thats what Im talking about ,
    microwave popcorn is the job :D

    just checked on the site and its $250 , about 185 euro (?),
    40 euro for postage plus customs duty ...... so easliy 250euro.
    Now thats NOT what Im talking about .

    "So it's really a trade off between how much your willing to spend for whatever level of "ease"."

    TRUE.



    Thanks very much for all the effort you put in on this thread .
     
  15. south

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    the dvd player will do it itself. what i do is download onto a 4gig usb stick and stick it into the front of my dvd player and play it from that. something like the lidl one as talked about above will do the trick. upscales to near hd
     
  16. south

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    probably the cheapest way of watching movies on your tv if your using a laptop is to buy a VGA cable and a audio cable and hook it up that way. you'll probably get a normal hard drive cheaper then a media drive so you could store what you've downloaded on that if you didn't want to use up all you memory on your laptop. it all depends on what inputs you have on your tv. most if not all lcd/plasma tv will have a VGA input. let me know if you need any more help phil.
    here's a video of the hd media drive i was talking about in the above post
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kI_POrIqVs
    but as i said you'll probably have to get a hard drive to go with it.. aldi have a 1TG tomorrow for €99 .. you'll fit a lot of films on a 1TB drive
    (1tb = 1000gb)
     
  17. eegorbishcan

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    dKing... could this be what you're looking for??? also you can use it to play HD if you so wish!!

    http://www.pixmania.ie/ie/uk/1772722/art/iomega/screenplay-tv-link-usb-2.html

    I just ordered one this week, as soon as I get it and try it i'll let you know...
     
  18. windhover

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    xbox does the same thing. straight from computer to tv. hd quality no problems and cheaper..
     
  19. F@ces

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    This is a good idea, forgot about that. Before I got the Popcorn Hour, this is what I was doing. I would basically use a VGA cable and an audio cable to connect my laptop directly to my LCD. Then I would change my display settings in control panel to output to it, and change the external output channel on the TV to PC. If you have a laptop already it's defo the cheapest solution.

    It worked fine, but again it's all down to how much effort you want. Each time I wanted to watch a movie I had to boot up the laptop, connect the cables, change my display settings on the laptop, change to PC on the TV etc. Also, I had to position the laptop as far away from the TV as I could as sometimes I would get audio feedback.

    So again, it's all down to how much effort each time you wanna watch a movie. As I said Phil, I'll drop u a pm/post up here when my techie mate gets back to me on your suggestions above. Cheers.
     
  20. Aido82

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    i personally have a flashed apple tv, that i have plugged a 1tb hard drive in to it.

    When you flash it, xbmc comes as standard on it.
     

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