Standalone RMVB-player, a short review

peter

16 June 2008

Gadgets

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RMVB is a very popular fileformat in Asia because it has a good quality/filesize ratio. Most files shared through the darker regions of Asia’s cyberworld are therefor in this format.

But unfortunately, for a long time, there were no standalone players for this file forma. Possibly because of the closed source of the fileformat or maybe just because other videoformats like AVI, divx were just much more popular.

However, since a years, standalone RMVB-players were available. We’ve learnt that most of them are using the same chip (and thus the same firmware), only the casing is different. As of writing, there are players available which can be upgraded with a 2,5″ HDD, a 3.5″HDD, memory cards, USB-sticks or even a combination of these.

We’ve bought one player to dissect.

Our exemplar is, as the box says, a “RM/RMVB/Divx Player & Recorder” and can enclose a 2.5″ harddisk.

I can bore you with a long description and explanation about this player, but I’m sure all you want to know are facts and findings. So no long story, here are the hard facts:

Video playing is quite high quality. Sharp and vivid colours.

Using component-connection means the menu will be in higher resolution, but there is no difference between normal video out when watching movies.

It indeed plays RM en RMVB files. But also divx, vob, avi, mpg files. Unfortunately, no quicktime or mp4-files.

The firmware doesn’t support long files/foldernames. These will be capped off. No chinese letters either.

It support both HDD as well as SD(HC)-cards. These will be shown in the menu as “USB”-media. Opening the USB-icon through the menu will reveal the files.

It has a weird ordering of files. They’re ordered in (I assume) modification date, not filename.

Although it supports a HDD,I haven’t found a way to use the player as a real HDD-enclosure. Before I had to return the 2.5″ HDD I borred, I couldn’t find a way to connect the player to my computer with USB and transfer files to it. But I find it easier to just insert a SDHC-card anyway. When the player is all connected to the tv, I really don’t want to disconnect it and stuff…. Especially because the player did not give enough juice to the HDD to spinup… The extra power cable is needed for the HDD to spin up. (*update: a member told me that there will be an option in the menu when you connect it to the comp in order to set it as a mass storage device. Unfortunately I couldn’t test it anymore)

The player boots up in like 5 seconds, but it won’t remember what you were watching when you shut it down.

Despite what the box suggest, I couldn’t find a way to record video. There is no video-input…

Conclusion: this standalone RMVB-player is quite a good catch for it’s price. It can play a lot of videoformats and offers a crisp image (although I find my mediacenterPC to be just a tad sharper). It controls and firmware are a bit spartan, but it works. For a mere 60 bucks,you can’t go wrong.

PS. The player was bought at dealextreme. We’ve received the player in less than 10 days.

More player models available here

last but not least, the specs:- Model: HP3025
- Supports 2.5″ SATA hard drives (20GB~500GB)
- Features SD/MMC/MS/XD memory card reader slot (built-in) for playing files from memory cards
- USB 2.0 port for PC data transfer
- Outputs in PAL/NTSC/Y Pb Pr formats
- High definition 1080i video output capable
- Both component video cable, composite audio+video AV cable, and USB 2.0 included
- Supported video formats:
.
RM
RMVB
MPEG1 (VCD)
MPEG2 (VOB)
MPEG4 (DIVX)
.
- Supported audio/graphics formats:
.
TXT/eBook
JPEG
MP2
MP3
OGG
WMA
.
- Full featured slim IR remote controller included
- 100V~240V AC UK style adapter included