Free discussion on the topic of home media player

    Recently, more and more interesting models of home media players have appeared. Various manufacturers, ranging from those specializing mainly in this field, to giants (for example, Asus), strive to develop and present their vision for this sector of the consumer market in the form of their devices. As a result, competition for this market sector leads to qualitative growth: prices are falling, and the number of formats supported for playback, functionality and design are constantly progressing.

    However, the vast majority of reviews, and discussions of a particular model, invariably contain a “fly in the ointment”: either the price is high, then there is no built-in hard drive, then it can’t download torrents, it is too noisy, etc. ... This is quite natural because how many people, so many wishes for possibilities, and so many ideas about the perfect home player. But is there a universal option? Is it possible to satisfy the demands of all at once?

    IMHO, that without additional "gestures" at the moment, this option does not exist. But if we consider the possibility of doing “everything” as a task statement, then the use of a “constructor” with the prospect of using certain functional capabilities without changing the material base can become a completely logical approach to solving this issue. As such a constructor, an operating system can currently be used. It is it that allows you to provide almost any possible functionality with just the installation and configuration of the necessary software (if the hardware allows it).

    That's how I reasoned when I thought about the issue of acquiring (assembling) a home media player. And this is what I got.

    In view of curiosity, as well as a truly Slavic desire to "dig deeper", it was decided to assemble a media player based on MiniITX. And the first task I thought about was choosing a motherboard and processor. In mid-autumn 2009, there were no new Intel Atoms with integrated video, so the Atom-330 was the most productive. Nvidia’s ION chips provided the required video decoding performance. That is the basis. Intel platforms, due to the lack of ION, were immediately excluded from possible candidates. Well, “explosive mixtures”, possessing the presence of both one and the second component, were represented by Zotak and Asus brands on the market.

    I will share the arguments on the basis of which I settled on the second producer.
    Top Zotak IONITX-AE Platform has (as for me) a number of disadvantages:
    • PRICE!
    • surround sound connection only through optical and coaxial SP-DIF outputs
    • the only expansion slot is occupied by the Wi-Fi module

    Still, I don’t really want to pay 230 cu only for a mother with a processor, even with 300 MBit Wi-Fi and a silent external power supply. And the audio outputs will not allow you to get surround sound on the "old" acoustics with finger plugs.

    Now a few words about the second applicant: ASUS AT3N7A-I The
    price is 150 cu, which is a good plus for me (the presence of a wireless network for me in media players is a very dubious feature, and the built-in PSU takes much less places, and its noise can be successfully fought).
    I was very pleased with the presence of 6 finger nests for full surround sound. In addition, Asus was pleased with the presence of “Sinezub”, through which the media center can be controlled remotely with improvised means. And the performance loss to the direct competitor is negligible.

    Thus, having digested all the available information, I settled on the second option, immediately replacing the fan on the radiator with a larger and quieter one.

    I chose the case based on my aesthetic considerations (there are no friends for the taste and color) - CFI GROUP CBI-A8989TG . I also installed 2 GB of memory (by the way, both platforms work with memory at a frequency of 800 MHz, and can do it in dual channel mode) and a 1.5 TB screw from Samsung.

    As a result, I received for 250 cu (excluding the hard drive) a fairly powerful media center connected to the TV via HDMI, with almost unlimited possibilities for expanding the software component, which I did not immediately miss the opportunity to use. Namely, he put LAMP for pampering with websites, Transmission, and also shared samba to LAN with access to the media archive located right there on the hard drive. From outside configured access through vsftpd.

    That's how I got a media center that works around the clock on my rating in p2p networks.

    PS All of the above is my opinion on media centers and my option of finding the ideal media player, so please do not minus, but express your opinions.

    Thanks for attention.

    Also popular now: