socialmedian: HD Media Player Battlemodo: Apple TV Killers [Battlemodo]

User-submitted headlines for this story

Clip

HD Media Player Battlemodo: Apple TV Killers [Battlemodo]

Source: Gizmodo

Nov 05, 2009

Summary

When Apple TV 3.0 came out, we were unimpressed. Readers asked what else they could use to play their many videos. Here are five nice ones to suit different needs—nearly all cost less, and do more, than ATV.

The goal here is simple: Play all the videos that I have ripped from DVD, downloaded from the web, shot with my own cameras or obtained in some other manner, no matter what the format. It sounds simple, but Apple TV can't do it. Video codecs and containers are a nightmare to keep track of, and even more of a nightmare to convert.

This isn't about photos and music. Apple TV is better at both of those than any of this stuff. It's also not about renting movies or buying movies, or even streaming movies from Netflix. Roku has a nice cheap box for that, and Apple TV is suitable if you just want to live inside Steve Jobs' media store. This is about playing non-DRM movies, pure and simple.

The names might be familiar to you: The Popcorn Hour C-200 by Syabas is quickly gaining cult status (and has its own hacker wiki), while the other four smaller boxes come from

...Read the full article

Comments (0)

Add Your Comment