Hardware Icy Box IB-MP303S-B Media Player

http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/03/13/icy_box_ib-mp303s-b_media_player/1

Raidsonic blends a basic home theatre PC into an external drive enclosure to create a low power Mac Mini look alike. All you need to do is drop in a SATA hard drive and off you go! Is it really all that, or does it try to do too much?

 

What a disappointment.

I saw the price, saw the concept - loved it. But having to be plugged into a machine all the time? No Linux support? No Component out? No HD support I assume too

 

Disappointing tbh. Could have been really good a few years ago, but just seems a bit lacking now.

I think you mean composite and not component.

 

Yep, my bad. Fixed now.

 

Yea, that's why we got one in. It wasn't until we used it that we realised it's not so great

 

methinks an xbox with XBMC has far more potential...

 

PS3 also offers Media Extender via any DLNA server including Windows media player, worth pointing out in case people don't know.

The ICy box is pretty good for the money, for those that don't have HDTVs it would do, lack of a network port is bad news, do you think it would work with an NSLU2?

Of course that adds to the cost just wondered.

 

This thing would get sooooooo much better if instead of a USB cable it operated via a USB-dongle

 

i've been looking to purchase something like this for some time: now i'm just confused...

networked player = no/limited local storage, limited to wireless, or homeplug where i live
divx player = arse of burning disks
media pc = yet another pc

i'm lost, if anyone has any suggestions please let me know!

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000G2Y59E I've got one of these, component, composite and hdmi outputs, can play Divx files from disk or via it's USB port, I've got a 200GB external HDD attached and it works wonders.

upscales DVDs too, damn crisp picture.

 

Depends entirely what you can be arsed with doing - I'd personally go home plug + streamer given the extra features.

The upscaling player is really nice - and it has USB! EDIT: Like you just said

 

360 Arcade with Media Center- why get anything else?

 

hmmm... a bit of - "yes im working, there's a query running in background" -surfing later and i stumbled upon this LNX-TrustedReviews ... nothing a little modding wont fix...

It seems there's more competition in this area than i thought... Raidsonic has a fight on its hands alright

 

just build an htpc. Won't be stuck with certain file formats, can stream media over the network, support for new codecs, can browse the web etc. etc. A device like this is about 4 years too late. Just buy the cheapest sempron you can get your hands on and a AMD 780G chipset motherboard and you'll be good to go.

 

its just a mass storage device surely? or did i read that wrongly?

 

I agree with the comments about various xbox solutions. I actually LOVE my xbox (1) running xbmc. It's on the same network as my 1Tb NAS. It all works beautifully. It doesn't like HD though, so when HD becomes more of a standard I'll have to change.

It seems like this Icy Box is a great idea, just executed slightly poorly. I think it'd be really useful if you wanted to take your videos round to a mate's house to watch them.

 

It bugs me that no one can seem to get this concept right. We need a device that is both NAS box and also a standalone player with all the connections and a decent set of firmware and the ability to download new codecs as needed. Why is that so difficult?

 

because then they cant the money off people when they realize v2 is so much better

 

I'm planning on using my main system when I upgrade, I have a AMD 64 3200+ right now with 2gb's of memory and a onboard 6600gt of course I use my 7900gtx but the 6600 should play anything I throw at it. I'm still undecided as to whether this system is going in my car or my living room though ; ). But honestly I don't see why someone wouldn't just build a low end system anyways. I'm always going to rip my movies with the fastest PC I own because it takes so damn long. And then I just do a direct HD-HD swap which I have found is the fastest way to do it. Just make your HDD's easily swappable and it's no problem.

 

Hi there.
What you are looking for is a Popcorn Hour - A100.
I don´t own one myself due to the lack of the units, still in dev and Sweden gett them in 04-10 or so.
But i have read that runs .MKV (matroska) files flawlessly.
Here are some specs http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/

Both HDMI and Component and as for audio its coax.
The player also have DTS passthroug.
sorry for bad language.