Standalone WMV files Player

HB13DISH

I am looking for a standalone WMV files player, to connect diretly to TV.
I am not interested in converting wmv files to DVD, as this can take a very long time.
Have seen a media center gadget by TrekStor (Germany) in local store, but when I checked the specification, they don't support wmv.
Has anybody seen a similar product with wmv support?
Thanks for any suggestions.

Attached Files

TrekStor Movie Station.pdf (661.7 KB, 4 views)

Burnham Beech

How much do you want to pay. PCH (Popcorn Hour) seems to be the popular choice with prices around £200.

Lower down the range is the WD TV HD at about £80.

You can spend many hours looking into all the various products on the market, and even then you won't get 100% success, but, of course, they never tell you that.

BombedOne

Some cheap samsung DVD players have USB slot and also can play WMV files.

HB13DISH

Thanks Burnham Beech
I considered before the WD TV HD, but it doesn't have a hard disk and it seems to work with a separate USB drive, which is possibility that
I might go for.
The good news is that they have it in the same local store for 700 NIS (~110 Pounds)
Any idea what WMV9 means and if the usual WMV is actually WMV9? as this is one of the file systems that it supports.
Will take a look at the PCH.
Thanks again.

HB13DISH

Thanks BombedOne.
Do you have model numbers?
Samsung DVD is not that popular here, so I might need to order special.

BombedOne

I can't tell exactly until weekend, since they were on market and I can't reach it during work days. My friend was seeking for dvd player with both wmv and divx support. We discovered that LG has divx support, samsung - wmv, but none has both

Burnham Beech

I am no expert on the technical details but I reckon if it says it plays WMV9 then it will play 99% of all WMV files.

I went for the PCH because of the hard drive facility. I looked at the WD TV HD + external USB drive option but in the end prefered the neater one box solution. The PCH can take any format I've thrown at it AVI-WMV-ISO-VOB etc but I reckon it fails on about 1% (I presume due to weird codecs). ANYDVD will convert the failures to a playable file.

HB13DISH

If you happen to see the Samsung model type this weekend, please check if :
1 - It has support for USB and can read USB HDD
2 - If there is a limit om the number of folders or files that it will support when you connect an external USB HDD.
I have seen the spec of a Philips DVD player, and they specify 300 folders and 648 files, which is very limited, as the external HDD can also have numerous jpg photos in addition to wmv files.
See attached spec page 34/58

Thanks and enjoy your weekend.

Attached Files

Philips dvp5992_f7_dfu_aen.pdf (891.0 KB, 1 views)

BombedOne

Hello. I'm just going to market now, sun settled a bit down and it's more comfortable to go outside now. I'll check these specs, but I don't think they will be listed. For example, my LG dvd can play files from usb flash drive/hdd, but I was not able to find any information in manual about number of files or folders it accepts.

HB13DISH

I checked the Pioneer models and they seem to have a reasonably priced model DV-410V-S which has WMV support with CD/DVD/USB
But there is a paragraph that I don't like at all:

About Windows Media Video
(WMV)
(DV-410V only)
WMV is an acronym for Windows Media Video
and refers to a video compression technology
developed by Microsoft Corporation. WMV
conten can be encoded by using Windows
Media Encoder.
This player is compatible with WMV9 files
that are encoded by using the Windows
Media Encoder 9 Series, with .wmv as an
extension.
Compatible with size under 720x576 pixels/
720x480 pixels.
Advanced Profile is not supported.
DRM-protected video files will not play in
this player.

If I have a good quality WMV file, this can mean it will not play with this model.
Oh well, back to square one.