The £34 HD Media Player
Sunday, January 30, 2011 at 6:49PM 
Sometimes you can get a bargain from HK and this is an example. Amazingly this tiny cheap unbranded black box is capable of playing full HD 1080p videos. Even more surprising is the fact that it will down-mix DTS soundtracks into stereo so they can be played back in stereo via an HDMI lead on a normal TV and this is something that my old Popcornhour NMT A-100 media player couldn't do.
I currently use Boxee on my Mac Mini or my Revo 3610 for viewing MKVs - so I only bought this box to test it out. I already have someone who is waiting to take this device off my hands. It's exactly what he needs - he doesn't care about network streaming and doesn't have an AV system and therefore is unable to decode DTS soundtracks. Until recently he was viewing MKV videos on his PS3 - splitting them into two halves so they would fit within the 4gb limit of the FAT file format the PS3 supports and also re-muxing the sound from DTS into AC3. Its definitely worth £34 for him to avoid all that hassle.
I ordered my media box before Christmas and turned up in January. If you want to order one of these yourself - it came from DEALEXTREME.COM and the SKU (product number) is 50567 (type this into their search box to find it yourself.
Reader Comments (15)
Thank you very much for your detailed review. As always, excellent quality and very well edited video. Really thinking of getting one of these now.
I looked at a different unit, the Sumvision Cyclone Micro 2 Media Player, which is £37 on Amazon and has similar specs. However, there are many reviews that point out the remote is really bad (signal not received unless completely at straight angle from receiver, remote keys hard to press, etc.).
Can I ask you, did you find the remote to be problematic in there respects? I've seen you have to press several keys for pause, etc.. but was the receiver picking up your presses ok? Or is there any other positives/negatives to the remote you would point out?
Thank you.
@Jose
I didn't have any remote issues with mine, but I was testing it pretty close to my seating position too. Its packed away at the moment and I'm giving it to a friend. He is generally pretty critical of things so I'll ask him for his impression when he gets chance to try it out at the end of the week. As far as the remote goes, the lack of a real pause button was the most annoying thing for me, especially because they included a Home button on it, which never gets used.
Please post your friend's impression after he's tried it, that would be much appreciated. It sounds to me like this is a better remote (apart from the lack of a Pause button) than the Cyclone Micro 2. Thank you!
@Jose my friend managed to try the player out last night. His comment was that it is "perhaps the greatest thing ever invented". Of course you have to take into account that he doesn't have a DTS decoder and therefore previously had to re-encode all DTS MKV films he downloaded. I have previously gave him my old Popcornhour NMT A100 and he prefers the new cheaper device for a few reasons.
DTS downmixing
Size
Just works (less temperamental than the Popcorm)
Jump to a time function
Ability to resume from where he left off
He also said the remote works fine for him from his seating position and he hasn't experienced any problems at all.
Hope this helps.
Thank you for coming back on that! That's great news. It really is packed with great features at a very low price. I'm going to order one now :-D
FYI, the item changed:
http://www.dealextreme.com/p/mini-1080p-h-264-rm-rmvb-full-hd-media-player-with-hdmi-sdhc-usb-host-av-optical-50567
now the remote seems more complete
I read the post and the comments, and got a bit confused. So does the Media Player for £34, suports DTS? if not what would happen if i play .mkv file with DTS sound?
I was so close to buying this
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Designer-Habitat-Nano-3-0-Flashdrives/dp/B005ERNITE/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_C?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2FJQ9YUK50PL1&colid=2MC6LIY6T7XCA
but your review has really turned my head.
A major feature for me is the optical output since my AV amp can not cope with hdmi (and I have no plans to upgrade it).
Is DTS passed out of the optical port or is this still a downmix?
Also, DealExtreme are now showing this device as the Measy player in the picture. I know someone suggested it was a clone but could it be true that they are now selling the Measly machine? I am slightly concerned as I am not sure UK trade descriptions are in force in China.
Any thoughts?
JD
@JD Unfortunately I don't have this player any more, and can't remember how the DTS worked out of the Optical port. I'm sure that there are newer and better devices available now. Have you looked at the Sumvision Cyclone Micro 2 player?
Hi Techmoan
Thanks for your quick response.
I have looked at the Cyclone Micro 2 player but as with many of these small players there is no SPDIF out. Hence I am stuck with analogue stereo out or buying expensive HDMI to SPDIF extraction boxes which kinda negates the point of buying a cheap media box in the first place :)
If I were to go for a Cyclone Micro 2 type of player the Designer Habitat Nano 3 looks like a good bet. It is £10 (30%) cheaper and definitely picks up SRT subtitles (I can only assume the Cyclone Micro 2 player does as it is not described), plus it has great reviews.
The whole SPDIF thing is a pain, but with technology moving so fast in this area I am really at pain to pay more than about £30 for a player.
If only we all had friends as good as you, passing on their hi-tech hand-me-downs :)
Thanks
JD
Hi JD,
I have this media player at home but I'm not familiar with DTS. If you let me know exactly what to check I can have a look for you.
Regards,
Jose
Hi Jose
Thanks for the response.
I suppose I was looking for some indication of 5.1 surround sound being present if you plug the optical port into a 5.1 decoder. Of course the movie you are playing would need a 5.1 sound track.
You may not be able to check this if you are just playing through a TV via HDMI.
Also, looking at the Measy website for the A1HD people have picked up that the HDMI output is only spec'd at 720p and people were wondering if this is just a typo.
http://www.measy.com.cn/product/showproduct28_en.htm
Can you shed any light on this?
Many thanks
JD
Hi JD,
Unfortunately I haven't got any 5.1 track to check it, but I can confirm the video playback through HDMI goes up to 1080p, and it´s not just upscaled 720p.
Hope this helps.
Jose
The subtitle issue with lowercase l's being displayed as uppercase I's isn't a problem with the media player. It's an issue with the subtitle file itself. I'm not sure how they produce the subs but it seems like some sort of OCR error and lowercase L's are written as uppercase I's.
The only reason it appears to display correctly in the other media player is because the font used is sans serif, so there are no distinctions between an uppercase I and a lowercase L.
You can open up a subtitle file in something like notepad/text edit and change the font to see this.
Just thought I would let you know.
@Chris Its ok, you are right, but the reason was figured out quite some time ago when the video was first uploaded to YouTube. I gave this to a friend who used it for a while but has just upgraded to a Sumvision Cylone 3 on my recommendation...he is very happy with this one.