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Resolved Question

How do portable media players work?

Jun 28, 2012 2:09AM PDT

I am interested in getting a portable media player so that whenever I visit family and friends, I can hook it up to their high definition tv, and watch any given movie from my blu ray collection through a portable media player rather than toting around a bunch of discs. (That way I don't have to worry about anything getting scratched or lost.) However, I am concerned about any possible loss of quality during playback when using these types of products. When I went to Best Buy to talk to them about it, I got conflicting information on this topic from various sales people, and am not sure who or what to believe.

One sales person told me that there would not be any loss of quality during playback with a portable media player. Another sales person told me there is a loss of blu ray quality whenever using any portable media player because it must compress or transcode blu ray files during playback through a HDMI connection. However, when I asked why this is, they weren't able to really give me an answer. I also wanted to know whether or not getting a portable media player with a built in hard drive as opposed to hooking up an external drive would affect playback performance, and again got conflicting information. Can anyone clear this up?

My questions are:

1.) Do all portable media players have to compress, or transcode blu ray files when sent out through a HDMI connection to a High Definition TV? If they do, does this result in a loss of picture quality?

2.) Does hooking up an external drive to a portable media player affect playback performance of blu ray files? If it doesn't, I'm thinking what might make for a better investment is purchase a portable media player, and external hard drive separately. That way in the future, when my collection gets bigger and I'm ready to upgrade my equipment, I can just get a larger external hard drive rather than having to get another portable media player too.

3.) Is there any particular product or products that you would recommend for my needs? I do not care for online features such as being able to access Netflix, Blockbuster, YouTube and things of those nature. I'm just interested in the best playback performance of blu ray files, and the shortest seek times with the portable media players at the lowest possible price. (Also, I don't know if it makes any difference, but what I'm working with is a Windows 7 Operating System.)

What I am looking into:

Currently I am trying out the Western Digital - WD TV Live Hub Media Center with 1 TB Hard Drive from Best Buy for $199.99, but am thinking there may be other products out there that may better suit my needs. So far from trying it out I feel like the time that it takes to locate media on itself is too long, and would prefer a product that is a bit more responsive without much of any seek time. As for the external hard drives, what I'm looking for is the lowest cost per gigabyte. So far the best I have found is at $0.0423 per gigabyte with the Seagate Expansion 3TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive on Amazon for $129.99, but don't know what portable media player would go good with this should I choose this route.

Discussion is locked

BackItUp4678 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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1. No.
Jun 29, 2012 3:24AM PDT

Why? Because most BD content is protected from such transcribing. So a dead end there.

2. Since we can't do item 1, there is no reason for question 2 but HD content has no known issue here on those players.

3. None. You listed common solutions but not one will take BD content unless there is no copy protection and this forum FORBIDS discussions about circumventing DRM and more. Don't start that conversation unless you want it locked.

I do have a question for you. If the maker or seller won't talk to you about your concerns, why would you buy their products?
Bob

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Re-framing the discussion...
Jun 29, 2012 9:22AM PDT

Thanks Bob. The reason I am trying out a product from Best Buy when I do not have much confidence in the knowledge of the sales people is because I can return the product within 30 days should I determine it does not meet my needs. This in turn becomes more of a problem for them than me because technically, I don't think they are allowed to sell a used product as new. So if they don't properly train their sales people, it really hurts them more than it hurts me. I also figure that if I can not get the answers I seek from the sales people, then the only other way would be through experimentation with the product, and by seeking answers online, of which I am doing.

So onto the questions:


1.) Okay, invalid question.

2.) There is no known issue with the playback of HD content in general on portable media players? So what if I take a high definition 1080p video of my sister's wedding and later try to view it with a media player? Doesn't matter whether the media player includes a hard drive, or has one attached to it separately in terms of playback? What about in terms of seek time (the time it takes to locate media)? (Still trying to figure this out with the media player from Best Buy as it isn't quite as intuitive as I had hoped.)

3.) Surely there are products for the playback of legal content, however, whether or not they are any good is what I'm interested at getting to. Thus far my experience with Western Digital - WD TV Live Hub Media Center with 1 TB Drive from Best Buy is that it seems to playback 1080p content fine, it's just that the time to locate and access media is a bit bothersome. What find ironic is that the more I get my files organized the longer it takes for me to access my media using one of these devices. It seems like it takes a while (at least several minutes) just to process, or compile newly discovered media on it after it has received some either by USB or by Ethernet cable. Once it has done this, it seems to take about 10 seconds each time it has to open up a subfolder. So if I have to open up five subfolders to get to the media I'm interested in, that's almost a minute of processing time, which would seem rather slow considering today's computer technology where it'd take me just a couple of seconds to do this.
<div>According to a CNET review I found of the WD TV HD Media Player (Winter 2009) all media players as of the time of that review had that problem. Quote from review: "


If there's a small knock against all these types of media players, it's that it takes a short while for the unit to initially recognize and load all the media files. It's not a huge delay, but you're not looking at the same kind of zippiness you've probably come to expect from connecting a drive to your PC or laptop and having the files show up in a few seconds (so long as everything is connected via USB 2.0). "</div><div>
So I don't know if that is a problem that is unique to just products of the past, or if all portable media players on the market today still have this problem, even in 2012. Anyone know? What I would consider ideal is just a very simple plug and play solution.

</div>

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2. Should be fine BUT
Jun 29, 2012 9:29AM PDT

But then you will learn that the DECODER on these things only supports this and that encoding method. It is entirely possible to encode HD video in a way that this player can't play, play well or have an issue.

The unseasoned user will reply "it plays on my PC."

3. Sure there are. It's called a BD player. Also you can get BD content with some "Digital Copy" feature. But I doubt they support much more than PCs, iPhones or Android things.

-> 2012. DRM is alive and well. While all you want is technically feasible, the industry will not offer what you asked for because that would be the end of BD (HD) content.
Bob

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Faster & Better Media Players Should Cone In Time
Jun 29, 2012 3:11PM PDT

Perhaps it is possible to encode HD in such a way that it will not work on these players, however that comment would also seem to suggest that there are ways to encode where there are no problems too. Such may beyond the scope of this discussion, and I understand that. I don't plan on getting that technical here.

As for a BD Player, I am aware of those. However to suggest one of those is to disregard the reason that was given for seeking an alternative in the first place, regardless of whether DRM is present. (Obviously it wouldn't be if were to burn a copy of my sisters wedding to a BD-R.)

As for the industry not offering what I want (a media player with better processing speeds) that would seem somewhat of an ambiguous comment. If you mean the movie industry will not, I would agree. It is not in their interests. However, I do not think that necessarily means technology innovators who are not affiliated with the movie industry will in time if not already.If there is any reason why manufacturers of media player do not equip their products with better processors, I think it is to make more money over the long term. It's not because the technology doesn't exist. If someone buys a media player with slow processing speed and one later comes out with faster processing speed than the owner of one would feel compelled to buy another, which would mean twice the profits for such manufacturers, where this would not have been the case had they given the consumer every thing they wanted at once.

Though I guess the only way I will be able to find out if all media players on the market still have slow processing times is to contact every major manufacturer of one and inquire about their latest product offerings...

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And Intel has a legion of lawyers to dispatch
Jun 29, 2012 3:29PM PDT

If anyone produces an non-HDCP compliant HDMI device. It's not that we can't get technical here but I'm avoiding a discussion lock. Keep in mind you are on a CBS forum.

As to encoding, the folk that get such things learn fast. There are many tools and until you need them, learning them is clutter.

I can only think you haven't read about Intel, HDCP and more.
Bob