AC Ryan Playon HD 2 or Boxee Box ?

Purgatory

Purgatory

Purgatory

Soldato
Joined
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Okay guys which is a better buy I'm more bothered in the video and audio quality of stored media files and not too bothered about all the internet features they may have. Also owners of each device what problems have you noticed in playback of files. I really need to buy a device to play back my HD media files and getting tired of having to re-encode everything to AVCHD so the Panasonic Plasma TV plays them and then there is the hassle of having to move them to a special "PRIVATE" folder for them to even be detected, so again fed up of having to move files in and out of that folder to play them.


Also is the AC Ryan Playon HD Mini 2 the same player just without USB 3 and a hardrive ?

Also I heard the boxee box has a few problems keeping MKV files audio synced
correctly, is this still a problem ?

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
Have you considered the WDTV Live? Had one for a few months and it's played everything I've thrown at it with no problems whatsoever, files ranging from 4-40gb all play flawlessly.

Not sure if I can post any links here but have a read on their website about it, you might like it.
 
The Boxee box just works for me. No messing about, easy to setup and can be used by a 5 year old. It has a stunning user interface and is always being updated. i use it with a Panasonic viera G15 plasma and have had no issues with playback of any of my files, I haven't been able to flummox it with a single file I have thrown at it.

My friend has just gotten rid of his WDTV live to get one as it was in his words "useless".

Yes they are acer revo money, but they require basically zero setup and are very family friendly.
 
I have had a Playon HD mini and currently have a Playon HD2 and two WD Live TV HDs.

The Playon Mini could not handle large 10+GB files during the time I had it.

The WDLiveTV has a basic user interface and the on screen keyboard can be irritating at times but it has played just about everything I have thrown at it and is more responsive both in menu navigation and the time it stakes to start playing a file than either of the AC Ryans I have had. It is also pretty easy to set-up with a wireless dongle as long as you get one that is supported (there is a list somewhere out there with various models supported)

The AC Ryan HD2 has a nicer GUI than the WD, can be fairly easily customised for a video wall (the WD can also be customised like this with custom firmware freely available). Only one movie has had issues playing from a network share (around 40GB in size). Bit slow to navigate and start a movie once you select it.

sHo0sH said:
My friend has just gotten rid of his WDTV live to get one as it was in his words "useless".
Click to expand...

Strange, my technophobe wife and both kids (12 & 3) can all use it fairly well. Wireless set-up can be a bit of a pain but no more than any standard wireless set-up using a USB wireless dongle. Would be interested to know why your friend considered it 'useless', it is by no means perfect or particularly pretty but it has, in my experience, worked fine out of the box, auto updates from the internet (something the AC Ryan does not) and has played just about all media I have thrown its way over a network up to about 50GB Bluray ISOs (I have no larger ISOs to try).

I have no experience with the Boxee so cannot comment on that one.

RB
 
Not sure exactly but I am seeing him on sunday and will ask him, I think it was having a lot of problems playing some of his rips and was changing aspect ration randomly on him... he is however loving the boxee.
 
sHo0sH said:
Not sure exactly but I am seeing him on sunday and will ask him, I think it was having a lot of problems playing some of his rips and was changing aspect ration randomly on him... he is however loving the boxee.
Click to expand...

Strange. I have no issues with my rips at all using standard tools and options (ie. well documented guides).

If Boxee works best for him then great.

I may look at boxee as I am looking at putting a HTPC together anyway :D.

RB
 
I think the "box" software is a few steps ahead of the DIY version, better in some ways not as good in others, but there are always trade offs when you sell out hey?

If you can have a play with one I'd highly recommend it, if you're lucky Boxee might come to Singapore, they came to London!

Lots of screenys of the new UI here...

http://boxeeboxtips.com/boxee-box-v1-1-review/
 
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Thanks for your thoughts guys and yes never thought about the Acer Revo too, that maybe a better way to go I do need a Bluray player too and maybe a good way of using one device for all. Will have a bit more of a think about all this, but I really do need something that can handle all my HD media without the device making a fuss at every codec I throw at it.
 
Purgatory said:
Okay guys which is a better buy I'm more bothered in the video and audio quality of stored media files and not too bothered about all the internet features they may have. Also owners of each device what problems have you noticed in playback of files. I really need to buy a device to play back my HD media files and getting tired of having to re-encode everything to AVCHD so the Panasonic Plasma TV plays them and then there is the hassle of having to move them to a special "PRIVATE" folder for them to even be detected, so again fed up of having to move files in and out of that folder to play them.


Also is the AC Ryan Playon HD Mini 2 the same player just without USB 3 and a hardrive ?



Also I heard the boxee box has a few problems keeping MKV files audio synced
correctly, is this still a problem ?

Thanks for your thoughts.
Click to expand...

Had both. Boxee 100% no issues with mkv, brilliant coverflow stuff. love it.
 
Is there an alternative interface on the Boxee? I'm not a fan of coverflow.

Also I'm after something that can stream iPlayer. Can the Boxee? Looking at it, Boxee uses XBMC with just Social/internet stuff on top, which I'm not interested in. Hmm.
 
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Boxee has an excellent implementation of iPlayer, it can also do ITV player and Five, not sure about 4oD though.

You can have list view with a pic on the right of the current album artwork as an alternative to the Cover wall
 
Sorry I should have been a bit clearer, I don't want to play the iPlayer tv shows, I want to be able to stream certain facets of it; eg Test Match Special :D.

Certainly with XBMC I know I can specify a stream to connect to, thereby play the video and sound you get on the bbc sports website.
 
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