Which one? WD Hub / Popcorn

fizzystutter

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Hi,

I need some advice please. I want a media player/streamer for the house, my setup at the moment is the following (albeit brief):

Samsung UE40D5520 (lounge)
Onkyo TX-SR606 (lounge)
Sony KDL32S2010 (bedroom)
Virgin Superhub

I also rewired the house in 2003 therefore I'm hoping I'll get a decent speed through the powerline using either Devolo or Solwise.

I've looked at "Western Digital WD TV Live Hub" and "Western Digital WD TV Live 2011".

My budget is around £750.00 (all in).

Thanks James
 
What are your requirements for the Streamer?

What is it you want it to do/play?
 
Hi,

I'll be ripping some Blu-ray discs and DVD's. Maybe some music as well.

Thanks
 
Hi,

I'll be ripping some Blu-ray discs and DVD's. Maybe some music as well.

Thanks

Do you want it to display the full BD menues and do you want HD Audio support? Any interest in online features?
 
Oooo good questions....

Full menus would be good and yes full HD audio support would be great as well.

I'm not overly fussed about online features as we have enough laptops in the house to cover things like that.
 
Oooo good questions....

Full menus would be good and yes full HD audio support would be great as well.

I'm not overly fussed about online features as we have enough laptops in the house to cover things like that.

OK, this narrows it down to 2 manufacturers: Dune and Popcorn Hour.

Check their websites and the forums here to see which model tickles your fancy the most. The Dunes have the least online features, but have been absolutely flawless for me, playing back everything I have thrown at them with excellent picture and audio quality.

The WDTV Live players can't do BD menus or DTS-MA, only TrueHD.
 
Hi,

That's great, thanks for the advice I'll take a look around.

Thanks James
 
Hi,

By the looks of it I'm favouring the Dune ones as the Popcorn Hour's are out of stock when I look for them.

Just a few last questions. I see you have the Dune Smart D1 in your living room and the Dune HD Lite 53d in your bedroom.

I presume the Dune HD Lite connects to the Smart D1 via your network in order to stream content to the bedroom?

If you could upgrade to any of the other Dune devices would you? and if so which?

Thanks again
James
 
Hi,

By the looks of it I'm favouring the Dune ones as the Popcorn Hour's are out of stock when I look for them.

Just a few last questions. I see you have the Dune Smart D1 in your living room and the Dune HD Lite 53d in your bedroom.

I presume the Dune HD Lite connects to the Smart D1 via your network in order to stream content to the bedroom?

If you could upgrade to any of the other Dune devices would you? and if so which?

Thanks again
James

Hiya,

I have an Acer Revo 3610 as media server and share my HDDs/folders via smb to both players equally. I also have Serviio running so my son can access the files via upnp/dlna from either his Samsung TV or his PS3.

I have no wish to change either of the Dunes and that's saying a lot for me. I am notorious for trying every player out there until I find one that suits my needs, so I am very, very picky.

I went through 3 different WDTV (Live, Live Hub, Live streamer) a Boxee Box, Mede8er, PCH, Xtreamer and so on, you name it I've probably tried it, didn't like it and returned it :)

My D1 is hard wired and the 53d is WiFi and they both perform beautifully and have not let me down yet.
 
Both the Lite 53D and the Smart D1 can house an internal HDD. As long as they are both connected to the network then media can be streamed to either device - as long as they are both powered on. Or in my case I have no internal HDD's and stream all media from my server over the wired network.

I have the Dune Prime 3.0 which is basically the same as the Max. Due to the limited additional features of the Max I doubt I would currently look at upgrading - and any of the other players would basically be a downgrade.

Mark.
 
Hi Mark,

Thanks for the reply. I was looking at getting an external Blu Ray player for my laptop so that I can rip them onto a HD as my PS3 has just packed in and I have no other way of playing the discs at the moment.

The Dune Prime would be an idea, but I guess I wouldn't be able to rip the discs directly from the Prime itself.

James
 
No, to rip a disc you need to do it on a PC or Mac.

Mark.
 
Hi Mark,

That's what I thought. Thanks.

I think I'll go with the Dune Smart D1 in the living room and the Dune HD Lite 53d in the bedroom.

Thanks for all the help guys!

James
 
Sorry one more question before my debit card takes a pounding.

I've read that the D1 will take a 3.5 internal SATA HD. I've also read that the max I should use internally is 2TB as the firmware has issues reading anything larger (internally).

Can you guys recommend a suitable internal HD?

Thanks again James
 
The latest Dune firmware has made the use of HDD's over 2Tb compatible with their players, so you shouldn't have a problem using a 3Tb HDD.

As for which HDD to get - it is advised to only use the cooler running green HDD's inside a media player as the cooling is limited on the players. But other than that just get a HDD from a good maker (WD, Seagate, Samsung etc) and go for the one with the best warrenty and/or price.

Mark.
 
... And don't forget that the 53d only takes 2.5" laptop sata Hdd if your planning to put one in there too :)
 
I have a Popcorn Hour A210 and it really is a class piece of kit, Picture and audio quality using a bluray ISO is superb.

It may be worth mentioning I have tried streaming full discs over my network (using devolo powerline adaptors) and they will not work smoothly. My house however does have 1950s wiring.

Stuart.
 
Hi Stuart,

Thanks for the reply. I'll see what the Dune is like with the Devolo adapters as I've just ordered them. I'll keep the packaging just in case.

James
 
Powerline wont work reliably, use Netgear MCAB1001 Coax to ethernet adaptors, I've been using these for a year or more and they are 100% flawless, check out ebay and import from USA
 
Thanks for the info, I'll see how the Devolo adapters perform before I look at the Netgear MCAB1001. Appreciate the advice.
 

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