Maplin Media Player review
This here is a new gizmo I've picked up. It was £40 in Maplin, which is a damned good price given the Freecom branded equivalent is £100.
What you use it for - you shove a hard drive in it, and hook it up to a computer through its USB port. You copy on masses of video files, music and photos, and then unplug it, walk over to your TV and plug it in there. And then you have a really rather good media player and can make the most of all those legitimate backups you've obtained through the interwebs.
I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it is though. I like a lot of Japanese films but some really excellent ones aren't available to buy on DVD (Region 2 or otherwise) - like those from the thriving Direct-to-Video studios. But, to watch them, I need subtitles. I figured it wouldn't be that much of a hassle to matte my own subs onto a film like Don't Look Up if needed... but no, this little box knows its audience and has subtitle file support. Great!
It plays videos encoded as MPEG 1,2 and 4 and the myriad of MPEG4 knockoffs like DivX. It can also play the MJPEG AVI files my camcorder makes when you record to its SD card. (Oh yeah, it has an integrated Flash Memory reader - and you can copy files to and fro with its built in file manager.) Not tried OGM files yet (most of my anime is OGM). WMV and MOV are probably a no-no. You can copy DeCSSed VOBs as well (ie. you can copy DVD files straight onto it to play).
It claims to only play MP3s on the box - it played some VBR files perfectly, so it's not restricted to 128kbit CBR files. I haven't tried it with OGGs. WMA files are allegedly unsupported, but the user manual clearly shows one being played... what do I care though, WMA is ass-magic. iTunes/AAC - no idea. I only have MP3s and OGGs. It'll probably play WAVs.
It displays JPEGs very happily, and does a nice slideshow, as one would imagine.
I couldn't try many files on it because my server was in the middle of an upgrade process when I set it up, but those I threw at it, it played perfectly. I'm going to dump a few of every different file I can think of to get an idea of what it's really capable of.
Downsides - no network connectivity. That's a tiny thing. I have no idea how a network connection could work on it in reality. At present I have a network cable running from my router to the PC under the TV that used to do all this media playing, but I'm going to replace that with a super-long USB repeater cable, so that my server can dump files straight onto it. Another downside is that it needs the drive to be formatted as FAT32, which is a bit crap - but ubiquitous. To get around some of the file-bloat that this can bring on huge drives - this can take 500Gb drives, after all - the designers have allowed for the drive to be partitioned. (If you don't know what I'm on about, you probably don't need to - but if you were to get one of these, you'd probably find Google Is Your Friend.)
Upsides - nice remote control. Quiet (no fans, unlike the PC under the telly). Very low power consumption. Nice use of the aluminium case as a heat sink. Simple to use, fast to boot, easy to expand. Cheap.
Overall - a bargain. I'm pleased with my purchase.
- Irregular Shed's blog
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yikes, look excellent. if
yikes, look excellent. if it's really this good, i'll get one next weekend.
Further review
I'll be doing a full video review over this weekend to make sure it's really as good as it seems from initial impressions...
But at the moment, I'm very impressed.
(PS: Welcome back, Pipster!)
Manufacturer's website
http://www.noontec.com/en/ProductShow.asp?ArticleID=109
Worth wading through the Engrish to keep an eye out for Firmware updates, I guess.
Maplin A50WF Media caddy
I managed to get my hands on one after driving to Derby then Nottingham.
How long does yours take to initialise?
Mine take about 5 mins, then goes into 'searching' mode for another 5.
I converted my 200gb (two patitions) drive from NTFS to FAT32 using patition magic instead of formatting the drive.
I have about 80Gbs of MP3's and about the same in DivX and MPG vids.
Apart from that it's great at playing my Dr Who eps and other TV I've recorded on my PVR.
The only drawback is navigating through one level of MP3's, but is only 40 quid!
The caddy I took the drive out cost me that.
Oh and Maplin will not anymore stock for at least another month. So grab one if you can.
G.
5 minutes? Blimey!
Mine initialise's a few seconds. Under 10. However, I've currently only got a 20Gb drive in it (I need some quiet time to dismantle my old media PC - it's a Mini-ITX box and it's very, very cramped).
The searching time you're getting is probably because you're using the buttons on the main screen (the video and audio ones) - I'm more at home navigating a file system, so I head straight to 'Files' and find what I want there. It also makes navigating MP3s a little less painful =)
I've noticed that it gets in a mood with some video files though - a couple of iPod-friendly MP4 files refuse to play at all, and one from www.archive.org plays with no sound. The MPEG files that my digital camera creates play full screen with no sound, but the AVI files my camcorder makes (MJPEG format) play with sound, but without filling the screen. Weird.
The MPEG2 file I tried with it worked perfectly, as did the VOBs I copied onto it. (Both made by my DVD recorder - more Doctor Who!) DivX and Xvid AVI files have been fine so far, so I'm guessing it can have a problem with MPEG wrappers that it doesn't have with AVI wrappers. The AVIs I've tried have had audio encoded either as MP3 or as AC3 and have come out stunningly well. And the subtitle file support is excellent - the subs are done in the font used in the MP3 player, so nice and compact but legible.
For £40 I wasn't expecting much but I've been impressed. It has rough edges, but overall it's a bargain.
Slow initialisation and searching sorted
Sussed the really long boot time.
All my MP3's were organised (by WM player) into folders and subfolders (over 3000).
I used ID3-TagIt to move the MP3 files into a flat directory.
I've organised my MP3's so there are no dupes, and the actual file names are <ARTIST> - <TRACK>.
Now the box boots in around 10's then it takes 10's to search over 8000 MP3's.
G.
Hello shed! *waves* Is it
Hello shed! *waves*
Is it this http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=97124&TabID=1&source=1&doy=20m8 ? Wouldn't be able to get there til the coming weekend at the earliest and the shop seems out of stock. Boo.
That's the puppy!
A couple of months ago they had 1000 in stock at £59.99 - they drop the price by twenty quid and they sell out in no time at all.
How's your volume?
Hey Mr. Shed,
I bought one of these little beauties a couple of days ago. Works a treat. Only thing I'm a bit disappointed with is the volume. How is it on yours? I got the media play box pluged into the AV socket and volume up to full (16 is max?) and my TV on full blast too (which would normally shake the room)! Even then it's still fairly quiet!
Glynne, regarding the slow start up - did you create separate folders "Music", Pictures" and "Movie" as recommend on page 3 of the small booklet? I found it helped me. Also, I had some problems trying to get my spare hard disk formatted to FAT32, ended up finding a copy of Partition Magic on torrent spy. It worked a treat.
Chris S.
Whisper quiet!
It's very quiet, you're right. It's down to the chipset they've used, I think - Sigma made the chipset in a DVD decoder card I had back in the day, and that was also incredibly quiet. I ended up running audio through an old boombox to act as a preamp.
Glynne's not mentioned his blog entry about the player, which has some nice photos. So, for completeness sake, it's here.
When it comes to formatting and partioning the drives, don't forget that you should really be using the diskmgmt.msc program for the task in hand. It's far better than trying to rely on the lightweight 'Format' command that you get by right-clicking on icons in My Computer. I've not had any problems using it, it's just most people forget that it's there!
Low Audio Level
Yes, it is very quite.
I was waiting to try it again when I get home for the weekend.
The Hotels in Hilversum limit the volume of their TV's in the room, so not to disturb other guests (very thoughtful).
I've got a pair of small Logitech speakers which I lump around with me, and they give me the sound level I need.
Glynne
Does it only have the VGA
Does it only have the VGA out? How do you have it connected to your telly?
Three outputs
There's three outputs to choose from: VGA, Composite Video (the one I use) and one of those odd progressive component outputs, YPbPr or something. Sadly no RGB for SCART, but the composite output is nice and crisp - perfectly acceptable for me.
The composite output is on one of those three-output things like camcorders have, and is shared with the stereo audio, so even if you've got it hooked up to a PC monitor you'd need it for the sound.
Formatting as FAT32 Howto
I've just discovered that I was having the same formatting problems now I've swapped the old 20Gb drive I was using for a 120Gb one. So I did some Googling and found a solution.
The easy way to format partitions greater than 32Gb as FAT32 with Windows XP is to go here and download the very simple command line program, FAT32format. It's open source and, as such, free.
Ive also just got one of
Ive also just got one of these HDD players, i really like it, does everything i really wanted from it, except, i'd have loved a feature, where i can have MP3's shuffle, instead when i turn it on, it just plays the mp3s in order.
MP3 Shuffle
Ive also just got one of these HDD players, it does everything i really wanted, except it does not shuffle mp3s when i turn it on. Is there a way we can do this, or do we have to wait for some firmware upgrade (assuming the device gets this sorta support)
IM A NOOB
Sorry for the double post, i refreshed, and it didnt show my first post, so made another.
That's okay
n00b =)
I don't play MP3s through mine so I have no idea about the shuffle function, sorry...
I got one of these today and
I got one of these today and just found your page looking for other peoples' opinions. It does have a few cons but nothing too major considering the price!
we should have a yahoo group for us folk to get the best out of these things. There are a few mysterious quirks and features I'd like other peoples' opinions on
Not a bad idea
Although I have to admit, I'm not a fan of Yahoo Groups... but I'd join one if somebody else started it =)
Mine finally arrived today
Mine finally arrived today too, having ordered it a few days after you made your blog post :)
I'd already started ripping all my DVDs to DivX (I have a spare 200GB disk lying around) so this is perfect.
And Google Groups is much better, natch ;)
Nothing like customer service, eh?
I hope it treats you well, Pip =)
Google Groups - you're right, it would be better. As the unofficial website of the Maplin Media Player (or so it would seem) I'll have a look at lunch.
it's probably too late, but
it's probably too late, but the performance and quality is much better if you just rip the DVDs using DVDshrink - much quicker too. Then you can even choose whether to watch in widescreen or pan&scan - unlike with avi files. Just takes up more space...
Yeah, that would be OK, but
Yeah, that would be OK, but I have over 200 DVDs, and a load of anime too, so for now, "reasonable" quality will win out. It's an exciting experiment, too :)
GigaView - Some Tips
Hi all,
I purchased one of these back in Sep after a long wait. Price made it worth it and I am quite happy with it but there are some things that once corrected, make it more enjoyable.
I've found that files ripped straight from DVDs have low audio and never filled the whole screen. I tested numerous programs available that just didn't give very good results. Some were very slow, some the video/audio sync was out all the time, some suffered low volume, limited control of the picture quality etc.
I finally found a program that I'm currently using. #1 DVD Ripper V 5.1 (http://www.dvdtox.com). The results are very good and it enables you to do the following:-
- Convert to DVDs to DIVx/Xdiv
- Increase the volume
- Change picture aspects to fill the whole screen
- Remove the black bar (Crop)
- Change bit rates, higher/lower video quality
I'm in the process of converting all my DVDs which will take a while, but the end results are far better than the films I've downloded recently. Obviously it does take a while, but I set it going when I leave for work and when I get back it's done. You can find a crack/serial for it somewhere, so try it out.
Main thing for me is that 100% of the converted files work on the GigaView media player. Other rippers programs I used gave varied and unreliable results.
Anyone want any info on the #1 DVD Ripper's/DivX settings I'm using, post a reply.
Cya
Gigaview
Got mine yesterday. bloke in front at the checkout was returning his second one as u/s - for different symptoms he said. His last return was for, "The CD won't read and I can't get a picture on TV (via a/v) or monitor (via VGA).
Well, I had no probs.
The CD seems to contain only a prog for formatting at win32 (I guess to achieve 500GB at win32). I didn't use it since I have just tried an old 30Gb and used XP for formatting.
I think that you have to have it cabled up to a display before switch on. The 3.5mm plug needs a good, hard push to get it in all the way for TV video and a bit of a waggle to avoid hum.
Then all fine - took about 10 secs to initialise this hdd size..
Connecting to VGA, at first gave me a green hue, but after going through Setup, it suddenly fixed itself - don't know if there was some sort of reset going on.
you have to use the file selector for anything but slowness. The other options depend on making thumbnails wihich are obviously slow. In file selector, you only get to see the first 10 or so characters in a file name - unless someone has found how to disable the thumbnail window?
Vol control doesn't do much apart from at min., but overall it gave enough o/p for the samples I offered it - films, music and spoken word.
Offers a reasonable image slideshow, auto and manual transition.
I have had a couple of divx s which it didn't like (wrong codec) but I couldn't see how they differed from other files (audio/resolution/frame rate (some Dilbert cartoons) and an xvid
which bombed out.
BUT BASICALLY - It's about all you can get, it works, PAL and VGA quality is fine and for the £40 I am more than happy. I reckon that my man who was returning u/s stock was suffering from finger trouble.
A thought. I don't think that you can plug a USB memory stick in to xfer data to the hdd (can't see how) - only connect the device to a PC via USB.
For those interested or concerned about such trivia, it's a great silver colour and a sexy shape!
Takes a good variety of memory cards.
Just thought, I am happy
Just thought, I am happy that it enables me or the kids to d/l divx and watch them on TV without a faff or converting to DVD/VCD, etc.
Can't see the point of converting DVDs to divx for use on it, though!
Thanks for this useful information
Thanks for making this information available. I bought one of these last weekend and couldn't get the unit to see any files. It wasn't until I read here that the HDD needs to be Fat32.
Thank you also to the post mentioning the fat32format application.
Cheers,
Loxmyf
Thanks for your comments
Thanks for your comments everyone, I'm really thinking about buying one of these... The only issues I'm conserned about is when you say that in file mode it only displays the first 10 characters of the filename... I really can't live with that as I have files with HUGE filenames :S Isn't there any solution for this "issue"? Thanks
maplin media player
Hi,
as per excitemnent in the past weeks on this thread i sought one out and am happy to have got it.
i couldnt wait and i know maplin are outta stock now so try scan and kjglobal (cheaper than amazon cos that who they ship through)
is there a google group =-)?
take care all
J