Does anyone here have any experience with DVD players with network support? I would like to be able to browse and play video/audio/pictures that are stored on my PC but I don't want to have a dedicated HTPC in my living room. I was looking at the following DVD player:

http://www.onlybestrated.com/avel-linkplayer2-high-definition-with-network-support-p-40.html

Is anyone familiar with it or have any suggestions of other players to look at. It seems to do what I want but I think it has to be hard wired to the computer. If possible I would like to get a wireless one that could steam the data to the player. Is this possible and does such a player exist? Thanks,

James

That's pretty cool. Have you considered using an XBOX, at least the software and codecs are upgradeable. See this link Xbox as media player (http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21960)

some more of the same for comparison:
http://www.govideo.com/Index.asp?GV=D2740
http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=96&categoryid=18
The Buffalotech unit has been getting some good solid reviews and is probably worth a good look.
But as Hedge suggested a modified X-Box running XBMC is a really solid way to go as well, my Son and a couple of others That I know are using this setup very succesfully.

Also although many of these units say wireless they may be ok for music
and still pictures &such but struggle to do video wirelessly and if planning to move
video accross the network a hard connection is the perferred route to go.

http://www.dlink.com/products/?sec=0&pid=387
Try this.

Hi,

My setup may interest readers of this thread. I have a PC with a couple of Dvico Fusion digital tuner cards and an Xbox here in Melbourne, Australia. This is a great setup and it gets used a lot, but the Xbox doesn't have enough grunt to decode and display HD so we can only use it for SD (PAL 720x576 i or p). If HD is a priority then an Xbox isn't the solution. There are a number of both wireless and wired NMD's (Network Media Device) available, the Buffulo quoted above supports HD, I've also heard good things about a brand called Snazzio. As with a lot of these types of devices many of the different units share common firmware and features. I suspect the wireless 11g (54Mbits/s) would have enough bandwidth to handle streaming HD although I'm not sure what the bit rates are for HD in Canada, 9Gb an hour should be no problems with 11g.

I will be moving to Toronto shortly to work for a few years and plan to replace my existing PAL DVB-T tuner cards with ATSC versions. I'll also look to get a HD capable NMD to enable me to push HD video to my Panasonic AE700 (720p capable projector). If anyone has any firsthand experience with HD capable NMD's I'd love to hear about it.

Cheers,

Andy.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I have a high definition tv so I would like to be able to display high def material through the media player. The high definition wireless media player and DVD player from Buffalo sounds perfect. Anyone know any Canadian resellers for this product?

The only canadian reseller I could find with the product listed is this link.
It.s sure not a cheap unit though ouch. These guys are an online reseller out of missassauga and I have No experiance with them.
Ncix CDN Site has a listing for it as well.
http://www.ncix.com/search/index.php?quicksearch=PC-P3LWG%2FDVD&minprice=Min.+Price&maxprice=Max.+Price&imagefield.x=25&imagefield.y=6
http://www.1click2computers.com/product_details/detail.asp?prod_id=PC%2DP3LWG%2FDVD&from_dist=T

Looks like around $400 canadian seems to be the price. a search on Google.ca turned up about 5 canadian sellers all were in that $400 Cdn Range.

Thanks again RRH. Those prices are higher than I want to spend. Hopefully the prices will come down sooner than later.

Before you make any decisions you should find some reviews on it, this site has many DVD players:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDname=&Submit=Search&svcd=1&Search=Search

I was toying with one of these wireless networked DVD players until I started reading some of the reviews.

Here's a link to the Snazio Net DVD Cinema HD (http://www.snazio.com/Links/Net%20DVD%20Cinema(new).htm) that I mentioned above. I believe that it's street price will be around $400.

Looks Like a sweet unit Tasty, To bad they don't have any North american
distributers yet by the look of it. I will be looking to see if it shows up here
though.

Out of all those players, only the IODATA player can play TS HD mpeg2 files.

Does anyone have the Avel Linkplayer? It's pretty much the only one that I can see supports VOB's without gaps by being able to use the IFO file instead of just streaming individual VOB's.

I own a LinkPlayer2. I'm not sure I can recommend it. The LinkPlayer is like a woman....it can be the cause of much frustration as well as much joy. It really just depends on the day.

Regular Firmware upgrades constanly fix bugs while breaking other functionality which makes it useless for some users. The total lack of comprehension from their forum... (the only Admin is a Japanese man who can be very difficult to understand MOST of the time) In fact half the time I don't even know what the heck he's talking about.

Complaints are met with .."well wait for the next firmware.. wait for the next firmware." It will be fixed

I know the current firmware totally broke DVD playback for users who upgraded..i mean even your cheap 30$ Dvd player can play those flawlessly.

The hardware is cheap and flimsy. The DVD loader looks like its going to break everytime it opens. The remote signal sux, u need like DIRECT line of sight from 4 feet away almost to get it working. And even then sometimes I have to press the button 2-3 times

On the other hand... with the firmware i'm using (an older one). It does play any Transport Stream Mpeg (.ts) file I've thrown at it. These are ones I download off the newsgroups. It also has Divx HD playback. Off a DVD. I also have an external Hard drive plugged into the USB port. I've got a library of over 75 HD films (That's alot of gigs !!). Usually movies I own on DVD too, and they do look incrediable vs the DVD

I would seriously check out the complaints at the IODATA forum before proceeding to buy this unit. Also don't be fooled by the rebranded JVC model. Though it comes with a DVI output, it's essentially the EXACT same player as the IO-DATA with a 150$ US premium to pay

If you have any questions about it, i'd be glad to answer.. or you can go thru the 5000 page discussion at avsforums lol

I am expecting delivery of this player. Which firmware upgrade do you find the best i.e. .ts HD playment, DRM, upscaling etc.?

Another good place to look would be I-O Data's own user forum (http://www.iodata.com/usa/forum/).

Looks Like a sweet unit Tasty, To bad they don't have any North american
distributers yet by the look of it. I will be looking to see if it shows up here
though.

It's available through their webstore and they ship to North America

http://www.snazzishop.com/cart_netdvdHD_FreeShip.asp

I have to agree with Hellspawnt .. it's a bit of a love/hate relationship but after reading most of the posts on the AVSForum, I decided to take a chance and bought a used one on eBay a couple of months ago for $155US. The reason I bought it was I have a Sony HDR-HC3 HD camcorder and have accumulated a number of HDV tapes and I wanted something much more convenient than hooking up the camcorder to the TV and searching for what I wanted. I use the DVD route as opposed to having one of my machines serve the files over the network. I still have an issue where it won't immediately spin up the drive fast enough after loading ... but the workaround isn't difficult and the results are excellent. I just posted my experiences (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=556122&postcount=23) with moving material from the camcorder to DVD.