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-   -   Media Player? (https://www.cableforum.uk/board/showthread.php?t=33685458)

idi banashapan 12-02-2012 19:52
Re: Media Player?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuart (Post 35380767)
Well, I do have this player's big brother, and while the video quality is never going to win any awards, and neither is the user interface, it's certainly watchable, as good as the video quality from any laptop I have seen, and a lot more convenient.
but we are talking about the little brother... if the big brother isn't great, I'm now definitely dubious about the quality of the little brother!

---------- Post added at 19:52 ---------- Previous post was at 19:52 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq (Post 35380769)
Yeah, but the OP is talking about travelling (with his laptop) to various places including hotels and hooking it up to their TVs. At which point connecting a laptop is no harder than connecting a laptop and a media player (easier some might argue) and he won't have to copy stuff off the laptop to the media player as well. I see no point in carrying around two devices when one does the job, especially if one has to travel light.

In your own living room where the weight doesn't matter and it's plugged in once and left indefinitely, it's a different matter.
what he said.

Stuart 12-02-2012 22:17
Re: Media Player?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by idi banashapan (Post 35380775)
but we are talking about the little brother... if the big brother isn't great, I'm now definitely dubious about the quality of the little brother!
But you missed or ignored the bit where I said the quality was "as good as the video quality from any laptop I have seen". I don't think most Laptops or desktops would win awards for video playback either.

qasdfdsaq 12-02-2012 22:33
Re: Media Player?
 
I'm not sure there's any such question of quality when we're talking about digital reproduction of an identical digital bitstream.

Either what the laptop outputs is an exactly 100% perfect bit-perfect representation of the original, or there's a fault in your system. There should be no question of quality. The data is exactly the same, the decoder (if properly following standards) should output exactly the same thing, and the HDMI interface which is also digital should transfer the output bit-perfectly with no loss or change of anything. There is nowhere for "quality" to be gained or lost.

Nothing in the middle - e.g. RAM, processor, or I/O busses should be modifying the data in any way and if it does anything that could lose quality, you'd have bigger problems than video playback - your system wouldn't even boot to begin with.

Stuart 12-02-2012 23:15
Re: Media Player?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq (Post 35380909)
I'm not sure there's any such question of quality when we're talking about digital reproduction of an identical digital bitstream.

Either what the laptop outputs is an exactly 100% perfect bit-perfect representation of the original, or there's a fault in your system. There should be no question of quality. The data is exactly the same, the decoder (if properly following standards) should output exactly the same thing, and the HDMI interface which is also digital should transfer the output bit-perfectly with no loss or change of anything. There is nowhere for "quality" to be gained or lost.

Nothing in the middle - e.g. RAM, processor, or I/O busses should be modifying the data in any way and if it does anything that could lose quality, you'd have bigger problems than video playback - your system wouldn't even boot to begin with.
You forget one thing. All Mpeg 4 based compression systems are lossy. This inevitably introduces errors or artifacts into the compressed data. A system with good decompression will minimise the effects of those artifacts.

And just in case the discussion heads this way, in general, I don't agree that more expensive cables and components automatically make for a better digital reproduction.

qasdfdsaq 12-02-2012 23:23
Re: Media Player?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuart (Post 35380933)
You forget one thing. All Mpeg 4 based compression systems are lossy. This inevitably introduces errors or artifacts into the compressed data. A system with good decompression will minimise the effects of those artifacts.
But that has nothing to do with the hardware or device, it's entirely up to the software used. Every laptop or media player with the same decoder will output the exact same data with the exact same artifacts, and you can always change the software on the laptop, it's nothing to do with the laptop itself.

Stuart 12-02-2012 23:28
Re: Media Player?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq (Post 35380939)
But that has nothing to do with the hardware or device, it's entirely up to the software used. Every laptop or media player with the same decoder will output the exact same data with the exact same artifacts, and you can always change the software on the laptop, it's nothing to do with the laptop itself.
Except if the decompression is done in hardware, or is hardware accelerated.

qasdfdsaq 13-02-2012 12:22
Re: Media Player?
 
Well that's another argument of laptop over dedicated media player then, in that the laptop you can freely choose the software you use, and the drivers for the hardware which determine it's decompression characteristics can also be freely changed. You can also freely choose whether to use the hardware acceleration or not. None of which is easily done on a standalone player.

nick_f 13-02-2012 20:04
Re: Media Player?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stuart (Post 35380754)
I'm was in almost the same position. I had a load of media files that I wanted to play on my TV. I have a Macbook that was (and is) perfectly capable of playing them through the DVI connector on the TV, but I still got an external media player because it frees up the laptop to do whatver I want while the movie is playing.

Not to mention the fact that if I just want to watch a quick video, I can do it in a few clicks on a remote control, where as with the Macbook (and any PC), I would have needed to start the computer up, start the program then go hunting through the media files.

Cheers stuart thats what i was hoping, plus when im at home i can use it on my tv there hassle free, its nice to see sarcasm isnt always required!;)

Kymmy 23-02-2012 19:43
Re: Media Player?
 
Here's a great little tool for those wanting more than just a media player when on holiday or away on business..

http://www.saverstore.com/product/20...r-Media-Center

Quote:
Media player adapter, e-mail, internet surfing, gaming social networking, e-book and much more.

idi banashapan 23-02-2012 22:30
Re: Media Player?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by nick_f (Post 35381463)
Cheers stuart thats what i was hoping, plus when im at home i can use it on my tv there hassle free, its nice to see sarcasm isnt always required!;)
lol - the irony

Quote:
Originally Posted by nick_f (Post 35380445)
not while using an hdmi output genius

qasdfdsaq 24-02-2012 15:27
Re: Media Player?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by idi banashapan (Post 35387275)
Quote:
Originally Posted by nick_f (Post 35381463)
Cheers stuart thats what i was hoping, plus when im at home i can use it on my tv there hassle free, its nice to see sarcasm isnt always required!;)
lol - the irony
Quote:
Originally Posted by nick_f (Post 35380445)
not while using an hdmi output genius
Pwnd.

Hom3r 24-02-2012 17:20
Re: Media Player?
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kymmy (Post 35387172)
Here's a great little tool for those wanting more than just a media player when on holiday or away on business..

http://www.saverstore.com/product/20...r-Media-Center

So I guess I could be able to connect a USB HDD to it and the unit to a TV?

Scrubbs 24-02-2012 18:12
Re: Media Player?
 
I travel a lot and use my archos 705 which I can watch a movie in the airport or plug it into the scart socket of most hotel tv's. I am up to season 3 of "house md" I can also plug in a usb stick/card reader for any other movies I travel with.:)


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