Buying a media player in HK

[clonbur]

Hi,

Will be visiting HK from Tokyo and am looking to see if I can buy a high grade media player in HK such as:

Xtreamer
Mede8er
Popcorn Hour C-200
Sage TV
DivCo M-6500

If these are not sold in HK I guess I can always go for the cheaper Mediasonic/Mediagate

Is there any place/shopping arcade I should focus on?

cheers

Clonbur/aka Jim

[pin]

WD Live you can get here.

Not sure about popcorn though.

I have seen the Xtreamer here as well, Wanchai computer center would be the best bet to look. A few shops there which are dedicated to this sort of stuff.

I should point out a lot of the stuff here are brands you wouldn't have heard of (i.e. generic china brands), but they use the same chipsets as the bigger players (just won't have the same support).

For example there are a bunch of players here using the Sigma chipset (same as the WD Live) and others using the Realtek chipset (as found in the Asus O!Play)

[clonbur]

Thanks Pin,

Great, will check out Wan Chai computer center when I get over there in two weeks time. I guess the generic china brands are okay but you won't get any online firmware updates?

[pin]

Thanks Pin,

Great, will check out Wan Chai computer center when I get over there in two weeks time. I guess the generic china brands are okay but you won't get any online firmware updates?

Updates are there, but probably harder to find and not as frequent.

[mrdollars]

Just as an update - I went out and bought the new WDTV Live box. I was hoping it would act as a media server and replace my PS3 which is quite restricted in the media it supports.

The good news:

The WDTV plays a lot more formats. This is great if you like high res (HD) programs. It also plays MKV files no problem and can handle really big files (8GB+) without any noticeable juddering or performance issues. This is when it works with an attached USB drive.

It will also handle subtitles which is another benefit over the PS3.

The bad news:

Its quite a flaky system! It often reports memory errors, does random reboots (like when signing in to my YouTube account).

The most disappointing aspect is LAN connectivity - in particular its inability to stream media across my home network.

I've only intermittently managed to get the uPnP side working. The extra money you spend for the LAN port is next to useless. It won't stream subtitles (apparently a known issue), it quite often sees network shares then can't see the media inside the shared drives! When it does work it can crash quite often during stream. The same network share streams perfectly on my PS3.

Verdict: I think its flawed product, buggy as hell and would recommend people avoid it. I'm sure they will address many of the issues I've listed with new firmware. IMO, the old WDTV (non-live version) is half the price and is a much better choice if you just want a no frills media decoder that you can plug your USB media in to. All the network benefits of the 'live' are flaky at best. Avoid!
If you want to spend a bit more I advice a mac mini or htpc setup instead. It's what i'll be planning next.

[pin]

have you checked out av forums and avs forum (yes, similar names, but two different forums, the first is uk based, while the second is US based). They both have a wealth of information on this stuff. Included in the forums should be information on custom firmwares, which may help you.

I, like you wanted something that wasn't a ps3. I had been using the ps3 via ps3 media server, which worked fine, however wasn't what I was after.

As a stop gap I got the hisense media streamer. Did what I wanted it to, but I ended up borking it by installing firmware that I shouldn't have.

In the end I ended up buying the Dell Zino HD as an htpc.

[Rob2020]

Personally, I think you're better off just buying a real HTPC, there are some good looking, tiny ones available now.
e.g. from Lenovo the Q Series ; Lenovo - IdeaCentre Q Series

From Dell, Zino Inspiron Zino HD Desktop | Dell Hong Kong

Buying a "real PC" means you will be able to watch/listen to anything, no fuss.

[Rob2020]

Pin - the Zino looks great, are you happy with it?

[bdw]

Why dont you just buy in Tokyo? Check out kakaku.com or walk around akihabara. You will find models like the Dvico all with english firmware etc and prices are about the same.

[pin]

Pin - the Zino looks great, are you happy with it?

I am actually. Its got a great form factor and works quite well. I'm presently spending some time tweaking it. There is a very long thread on AVS Forum which helped me getting the Zino.

I did have a look at building or getting an HTPC made by one of the computer stores, but the size of what they were offering put me off.