Media Player PowerZest HD-500



    Recently, there has been a demand in the market for media centers (media players) - devices that make DVDs, MP3-players, radios, Internet browsers, etc. from TVs, and there are some with and without a hard drive. I’ll tell you about another representative of this class from the company PowerZest, which has many "goodies", but, unfortunately, without a built-in HDD.


    We begin, as usual, with external charms and end with possibilities.



    The HD-500 is produced in such a box, on which, in addition to the image of the device, all its advantages are listed: listening to Shoutcast radio, watching YouTube and much more.



    Inside the box, in addition to the device itself, there are:
    • Remote control
    • Batteries for the remote
    • HDMI cable
    • AV cable
    • Charging adapter
    • Ethernet - wire

    The only thing I want to add to this is that the device can only be controlled using the remote control, so losing or breaking it will bring a lot of discomfort. There is only one On / Off button on the device itself.

    Speaking of birdie remotes.



    It has many special buttons for accessing special features directly, and not through the menu. And also, an alphanumeric keyboard, which is useful for web-surfing, about which a little later.

    Also, of course, the kit comes with such a rather thick instruction, which I advise you to read, since it is difficult to figure out some functions yourself.

    image

    Appearance




    The device is glossy black, on the front side there is only an IR receiver for the remote control. On the back panel there are a number of connectors: here are USB, and HDMI, and Ethernet, and AV, as well as a green on-off button. The device looks very beautiful and, I think, will fit into the design of any interior, because black is a universal color. The only drawback of the case is, of course, that it is glossy and leaves all the prints on itself.



    Below, except for rubber legs and a sticker, there is nothing. This is right, because you can’t hang the device on the wall, because it will be inconvenient to control, but stability must be present.



    Let me give you some more technical specifications: Stereo audio

    outputs , optical audio, composite video, HDMI 1.3 USB Type A x2, Ethernet, eSATA Host
    interfaces
    Ethernet speed 10/100 Mbps
    Support for online services video, photo, radio services
    File formats MKV, AVI, WMV, ISO, IFO, VOB, MOV, ASF, TP, TS, M2TS, MP4, MPG
    Codecs MPEG1, MPEG2 , MPEG4, H.264, WMV9, VC1
    Audio files MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, PCM, FLAC, AC3, DTS
    Image files JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, TIFF
    Support for subtitles srt, ssa, idx, sub, smi

    All of these formats play very well and quickly. Even HD 1080p comes without any brakes. Subtitles are picked up from the folder with the movie, in general, everything is the same as on the computer.

    TV interaction


    I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos, as my telly can’t take screenshots, but it was possible to take pictures like this.

    As already mentioned, you can turn on the device in two ways (the button on the case and the remote control).
    After switching on, you will see this picture.



    After that, you get to the setup menu, where you can make all the necessary preparations (brightness, volume, connection type, etc.) for comfortable work with the device.



    One of the interesting features of this player is the ability to travel through the Internet directly through the TV.

    The first is, of course, ordinary sites, initially Google, Facebook and Flickr are the choice. But, of course, you can visit custom sites.



    I was very interested in how it is to sit on Facebook via TV. Funny enough. Of course, typing using the numeric keypad is the same as on the phone, but it is acceptable. But still, using a computer for this matter is much more familiar and convenient.



    By the way, if you notice, the player automatically downloads weather information in your city (based on IP) and displays it below.
    And here is how playing video from Youtube looks like. As you can see, the video is embedded in a standard player.



    And also, you can listen to Internet radio stations, which are provided by perhaps the most popular radio host - Shoutcast.



    Sure, you can connect to Internet TV. Here it is, for example, watching the Belgian channel.



    And if you set up RSS feeds, you can also read the news on TV.



    It is not in vain that the USB port is made, because by inserting a USB flash drive or any other drive (camera, camera, external HDD), you can watch movies, photos and listen to music.
    The player looks like this. It’s quite convenient, and music continues to play in the background, that is, you can watch photos and listen to music at the same time.



    In addition, I want to say that the HD-500 has the ability to torrent and connect to network devices and play media files from them. Well, the developers succumbed to the motto “Everything better with Bluetooth”, so from the player you can connect to a BT device (phone) and listen to music from it. True, I did not succeed.
    These are the things that this little black box provides.



    The price of the device is about 5,000 rubles, which is not bad for a device of this quality.

    Summarizing



    Pros
    + Design
    + An abundance of features
    + Browser
    + HDMI and AV
    + Price

    Cons
    - Lack of HDD and Wi-Fi
    - Not a very convenient interface



    In general, I think that the shelf of inexpensive media players has arrived, and this is a good recharge. Inexpensive, powerful, functional and simply beautiful. Of course, the interface slightly reduced my enthusiasm, although it may be more dependent on the TV itself, but the films are played in good quality and without grain. And the rest is a dream. A wealth of features, built-in browser, Youtube, Shoutcast, Ethernet and Bluetooth connectivity. For such a price - this is quite acceptable. And what else is needed if you just want to make a multimedia player out of a TV?

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