Media Player

ASUS O!Play - TV HD Media Player (Black)
$99.99
I got this from Fry's because I couldn't wait for the [then rumored] release of the new WD Live. I watch a large amount of foreign content so subtitle playback is really important to me. The large subtitles annoyed the heck out of me because a long line that doesn't fit horizontally would break into 4 lines and take over the entire screen. I was horrified that there was no setting option for subtitles (text size, text color etc.). That's finally solved with the new firmware and now I'm able to reduce the font to reasonable viewing size. It also doesn't support two independent subtitle lines at the same timing (for example, the dialogues and background lyrics), which is a drawback but not totally unacceptable.
It plays most of my videos except for the few XVID files I have. They're not altogether unrecognizable; the vids appear, sputter, and then the player gives up. There's also no manual control. If you lose the remote control, or it dies, you'll be left with a nonfunctional box. Overall though, I'm pretty happy with the player. HDMI + 1080p looks sharp and great. I have no real need for network access so I can't comment on that.

*edit* so now it doesn't want to power my portable hdd anymore. It recognizes my hdd, works for a while (sometimes up to a minute) and then starts to lose power and disconnects the drive, then reads the drive again, and repeats the problem. I'm not sure if it's because of the new firmware (1.13) or not but that is a real issue. It still works with the little USB stick and the external hdd with its own adapter. The problem is, the USB stick doesn't have big space, and the ext hdd doesn't have portability. So it is a nuisance now trying to play my media via this thing.

Brite-View BV-6000P 1080p HD Multimedia Player with RM / RMVB & DTS, Black
$99.99
Anyone that gave this product more than 2 stars must work for the company. This item is complete junk. Please do yourself a favor and get a WD media player. This item WILL NOT play .mkv! It locks up and freezes constantly. The WD media player has frequent updates. Anyone having problems playing .mkv on WD simply needs to update the firmware. This player is sluggish, has a poor user interface and is made with very cheap parts. If you do get it, it will probably last you about a month before it starts freezing up on you. As for customer support?...there is NONE!!! they have an email address. If you send them an email about a problem...they will get back to you in a day or two..but they wont have a solution other than "perhaps you have a faulty unit." Please do yourself a favor and stay away from this. I have tested many differant players and to be perfectly honest, the new Western Digital with network is the best out there.

Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN
$149.99
I bought the WDTV Live to show a short high def video on a large screen in an endless loop all day. I was influenced by the glowing reviews here on Amazon. But it didn't work for me.

I spent about four hours of total frustration trying to get the WDTV Live to see files on my Mac and visa versa. My network has one Mac and one PC on it that were already working fine. The WDTV would see the Mac but wasn't able to connect to it or see folders or files on it. The Mac likewise would see the WDTV and the flash drive connected to it, but couldn't see the files on it. I could also never get any output from the component output. (Yes, I found that I must first connect to HDMI and then find the menu selection to change it; but it still didn't work.)

These problems may well have been settings of mine that weren't correct. But, I got no help from the very simplistic user manual. And customer telephone support was a travesty. Three different support technicians knew almost nothing about the device. None of three knew that the serial number can be found within the menu structure and is also on the box. One tried to convince me that there was no component output, even after I read the specs to him and told him I was looking at a jack on the back labeled component output on the back. None of the three knew anything about Macs or Apple networks (or PC networks for that matter.) All they could do was email me "solutions" from the online FAQ list, solutions that had no relevance to my problems whatsoever. Most irritating was that on my third call the same day I was suddenly hung up on a about 3:05 pm PST. I waited a few minutes to see if they called me; they didn't. So I called them and got the recording that it was "after hours." Yup, on their website it says that they close at 5:00 pm CST (3:00 PST) on Fridays. So I guess when that time comes they just disconnect who they talking to.

The performance of the device was mixed. It played my 1920x1080 AVCHD camcorder files beautifully. (Quite a feat.) But my .mov files created by iMovie and Final Cut were not smooth. They didn't stutter, they just were somewhat jumpy, like not every frame was being properly interlaced.

Conclusion: I'm returning it tomorrow.

None of this is intended to denigrate any of the other reviews. It's just another perspective and another experience.

Noah Company MediaGate MG-M2TVD Digital Media Player HDMI Full 1080P with DTS 2.0 Digital Audio Out (Black)
$84.98
I just received the unit and was very sad that I'm going to have to return it. I tested the fan and the noise is not really that loud at all. Besides, I've lost both of my MG-35 and MG-45 due to heat generated by internal HDD, so the fan is a welcoming addition (I wish they had installed them on those other models). I also got the Antec MX-1 active cooling case for the external HDD.

Like other reviews, this model plays pretty much everything I threw at it with ONE exception. Sets of DVD files (I use DVDFab to backup my DVDs). When I runs the IFO file, it takes me to the DVD menu. However, neither the cursor buttons nor the enter button works. So basically, I can't select anything on the menu (can't play movie, select scene, change settings, etc.). I did get the movie to play by using the play button. However, it decides to play the second section of the movie in French. The other sections of the movie played normally in English. There's no "menu" equvalent button on the remote, so I would have to completely stop the movie and start all over (the resume function works but what's the point). The MG-35 and MG-45 both handled DVD files flawlessly, so I was totally surprised that the same functions are not available in this model. How disappointing. Especially since they finally added support for MKV and H.264 formats. I guess I could convert the DVD files to ISO but that would take me a VERY LONG time to do all of them.