Best media player?

Hi,

I currently have a Sony BDP-S580 that I'm using to play files on my computer via Serviio. It works pretty good, but there are many little annoying things. For example:

- I can't see any thumbnails for audio / video
- No support for external subtitles
- MKVs with embedded subtitles must either be re-encoded to play correctly / have multiple problems playing when not transcoded (lag, can't fast-forward, etc)
- Some formats that my computer can play flawlessly fail on my BDP, even when transcoded; I must changed them manually from DivX/DX50 to XviD/XviD
- Interface is slow and buggy; it's ilke the Playstation 3 interface, pretty much the same, but with a really annoying lag that makes everything seem slow and low responsive
- Not much options when playing videos... for example, the audio/video resync options allows me to only enter positive numbers, so most of the time it's just worse
- And I could name a lot more

So my question is : do you know a good Blu-Ray player / Media Player (BDP preferred) that could fix most of the above?

Thank you

Sam

[WildRushSykes]

WDTV Live Gen 3 Hands Down as it plays most formats natively has inbuilt metadata and supports a wide range of on demand services

http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=330

I second the vote for WDTV Live. Amazing device that has flawlessly played everything I have thrown at it.

Rubbish - it's over-rated. It can't play the BBC catchup rss streams - the audio craps out after about 2 mins.

Video files take an age to load - a live tv stream took 1 minute to start playing.

And there's NO volume control on the remote - just a mute!

I agree with castalla, the WDTV SMP is not all that great and if you want to minimize bugs it may not be your best option.

There are things I like about it. As a local media/network media player it's excellent. There's only been one file for me which it didn't play and that turned out to be corrupt anyway so it doesn't count. I don't use serviio to serve local media to it, as it can play everything I have via a network share. I like the interface, I think it looks good and functions well. Wireless N is handy too (though it's not 5ghz!).

Where I do have issues however is with the 'live' aspect of it. The online services (for the UK at least) are lame. It has 2 youtube apps, both of which are so crippled that I use serviio (and another server too) to watch youtube. One of the youtube apps has been abandoned by google, and the other doesn't allow you to log in so you can't access your favs or subs. The latter one is the only one that supports HD so not being able to log in is rubbish. In the UK there's no ITV/4oD/5oD or even Lovefilm. I believe there's no Amazon VOD either for the US market, neither is there any plan to add this.

There's been an ongoing issue with netflix which WD hasn't resolved in months and is affecting a lot of people, whereby your user login data is lost and constantly needs to be typed in (which is very tedious). An issue with some netflix UK users is that the WDTV gives a 502 error and won't log in at all. There was also an issue with MLB.tv which they did fix within a week or 2, but I think that was for the sake of their partner and not for their customers. WD's customer service as far as communicating about the status of updates and upcoming apps (if any) is sparse bordering on non-existant. The device is prone to freezing where you need to turn it off at the wall to reset it. This generally happens when it's tasked to play a livestream and something goes wrong. The streams for me take about 50 seconds to initiate on average which can be embarrasing if you want to put something on for a guest. I don't know what I'd recommend in its stead as I've heard most media players have their gremlins but please be aware the WDTV does have bugs.

Rubbish - it's over-rated. It can't play the BBC catchup rss streams - the audio craps out after about 2 mins.

Video files take an age to load - a live tv stream took 1 minute to start playing.

And there's NO volume control on the remote - just a mute!

For $80 it is an amazing deal, I haven't seen anything come close to that value proposition. The only "live" stuff I use on it is netflix which has been flawless as well. I have tried the majority of the other live services and they work just fine here in Canada and I haven't noticed any delayed starting for videos, perhaps that is related to your internet connection or location. To be clear my evaluation is entirely based on its ability to play all of my content located on my server via DLNA and direct windows shares and netflix, the rest of the stuff I don't care much about.

I haven't noticed any delayed starting for videos, perhaps that is related to your internet connection or location.

He means live streams (I think) that are served up via Serviio. They take an age to start playing, I think it's because the buffer has to fill up before playback. Not sure if you've tried running a livestream, give it a shot if you haven't already.

Where I do have issues however is with the 'live' aspect of it. The online services (for the UK at least) are lame. It has 2 youtube apps, both of which are so crippled that I use serviio (and another server too) to watch youtube. One of the youtube apps has been abandoned by google, and the other doesn't allow you to log in so you can't access your favs or subs. The latter one is the only one that supports HD so not being able to log in is rubbish. In the UK there's no ITV/4oD/5oD or even Lovefilm. I believe there's no Amazon VOD either for the US market, neither is there any plan to add this.