After converting my media center pc into a hackintosh, I had trouble playing my media content. Sure, VLC is a great way to go, but none of the remote controls that I had worked on the mac. Watching media without a remote control is like trying to drive a car without the wheels. I was left with a few options. Build another media center PC or buy an XBOX 360 to use as a media extender or buy a DVD player which supports USB and multiple formats. I picked up the latter as that was the cheapest among all the options considered. Here is a short review of the Philips DVP3166 DVD player that I purchased:
The Philips DVP3166 has a front USB port where you can plugin a USB flash drive with media content that could be of any of the following format: MP3, WMA, MP4, DIVX or MPG. What I like most about the device is its very sleek form factor. I tested by plugging in flash drives upto 8GB in capacity and they all work fine. It can play slideshows of your photos too. The user interface isn’t as pretty as Windows Media Center or Frontrow, but is usable though.
The best kept secret about this device is its ability to display subtitle files. Just download the subtitles for your favorite movie from a site like subscene and copy the file to the same folder with the same name as the movie except for the extension. When the movie is played, it displays the subtitles, which can be turned ON or OFF using the option in the remote control.
Other features include progressive scan and 5.1 channel amplified output. All you need is a 5.1 set of speakers and your home theatre is ready to rock!
Some users report that it is even possible to plugin FAT32 formatted portable 2.5″ hard drives after powering them through an adapter! If you are in the market for buying a multi format media player, DVP3166 is a very good bet. It produces great picture with stunning sound.
By the way, beware of chinese players in the market. I saw one for Rs 1300 ($35) which sports USB port and plays ‘high resulation’ movies (sic). Reports coming from users say that the DVD drive fails very fast in such cheap players.
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I have a VMC set up with hathway digital cable box. I am unable to download the tv guide listings. I have tried numerous postcodes including 110019, 560001 but it says that the guid is not available for this postcode. It connects to the internet and gets to the downloading page though.
Can you help????
my email is suneet_agarwal@hotmail.com