Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I bought the Prodigi PD-100N even though I already own a WDTV because I wanted a unit with networking.I did consider buying the ASUS but decided to give this unit a try mainly because of the 2 year warranty.
Out of the box:
The unit is very compact.Only a little wider than my WDTV, but was thinner and lighter.It was great that they included everything I needed to get going, especially the HDMI cable and networking cable.
Setup:
Setup was a breeze.Since all the cables were included, I didn't have to buy another one or go looking for one in storage.I plugged in the power adapter, HDMI cable, and my external drive and turned it on.I noticed a small detail about the power adapter.Because most power strips have inputs that are vertical, the way this adapter plugged in, it did not block any of my other inputs on the power strip.This was nice.In the past there were times (not always with a media player) when I plug in a new device and it blocks like 3 inputs which just irritates me.I don't know if they designed this adapter in mind, but it only makes sense.
User Interface:
Load time took about 10 sec which is pretty fast.Once it finished booting, within 5 seconds, a message came on stating my USB drive has been detected.That was assuring.The UI was a little different than the WDTV and from screen shots of the ASUS.It was more text base.I guess this could be a plus or minus depending on your preference, but for me it no different.I just want it to be easy to use and it was.The home screen has 5 options, USB, NET, UPnP, Playlist and Setup.Pretty straight forward, just the way I like it.Navigation is pretty standard like windows explorer.Another neat feature I noticed was that when I was playing my movies and wanted to make changes in setup, I didn't have to exit out of the movie to go into setup.I simply hit the setup button on the remote and it brought up a transparent setup menu.Once the changes were done, the movie just resumed.Two more features I wanted to mention is the time search and the resume function.A lot of manufacturers overlook these simple functions, but I love them.The time search allowed me to move to any point in the movie without going through fast forwarding which was awesome.I always fall asleep at night when watching my movies and this allows me to get back on track quickly the next night.For the times that I turn off the unit before I fall asleep, the resume function is a life-saver.The resume feature even remembers where I left off in the movie even after I played a different file.That was surprising!!
Format support:
Well this unit played everything I had.Of course I don't have every type of file on the market to test, but it played the common files such as AVI, MPG, DIVX, MKV and RM.I don't spend too much time on this section because to me format support seems to be pretty universal.I have read the reviews for the other media players and it basically comes down to whether you want RM support or not.WDTV weakness is their lack of support for Real Media.And when comparing this unit to the ASUS and even the Mediagate M2TV the format support are all the same.
Picture Quality:
It really depends on the encoded file you are playing, your connection and your TV.My friend gave me Ice Age 3 in RMVBHD which he claims to be 1080P (4GB) which won't play on the WDTV.When I played it on my PD-100N, I was amazed.I did look like Blu Ray.The picture was smooth and the colors were bright.I was amazed at the clarity.
Streaming:
Streaming was pretty straight forward.I streamed from my laptop which is using Wifi and my desktop which is plugged in to my router.My laptop is running Vista and my desktop is running XP.I simply shared the folder and it was recognized by PD-100N.So far I haven't ran into any problems here.It streamed everything perfectly fine. I couldn't test the WIFI because I don't have an adapter and can't seem to find one to purchase yet.The firmware seems to be WIFI ready because I see it in setup, so I assume they will release it soon.
Additional features:
I found one feature on this unit to be wonderful is the NAS (Network-Attached-Storage) feature.What is does is that it turns your attached USB disk to the unit into a Network Attached Storage device.And what made it even more great was it's ease of setup and use.Basically once you have an external drive, or flash drive inserted into the USB ports, just enable the NAS function in setup.Once enabled, go to your computer and type in the IP address of the PD-100N (which is listed in setup), in a RUN command prompt and you are instantly connected.It took less than 5 min to transfer a 700MB file which is much faster than I expected.I love this feature as now if I want to move the movies I downloaded on my desktop or laptop onto the USB external drive, I don't have to constantly plug and unplug the unit which would be annoying.
Verdict:
Bottom line, this underdog is a WINNER.Everything worked as expected and then some.Provided everything I needed to get plugged in, setup was a breeze, played everything I needed it to play, picture quality was top notch and the NAS feature just put it over the top.I would like to see them come out with a better remote as the current one is a little flimsy.Compared to the WDTV, except for the beautiful UI of the WDTV, this unit wins in every aspect.Unfortunately I don't have an ASUS or M2TV to compare to, but based on my research before I purchased, this one beats out both units.The M2TV doesn't even have networking, so I don't even put it in the same category.Compared to the ASUS in terms of functionality is pretty much the same.The only difference I can see is that the Prodigi included the HDMI and network cable and has the NAS feature.ASUS does have the bigger name, but considering they are a motherboard manufacturer, a Two year warranty is much more assuring.
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Product Description:
You can play videos, music, and photos saved on a USB storage devices such as USB thumb drive, USB hard disk through the 2 USB connectors on the front panel. This device supports almost all formats of HDD and has the most interchangeability. The Prodigi PD-100N can also connect to your home computer network (wired or wirelessly through an optional USB Wifi Dongle) to stream digital movies, videos, music, and photos from your PC. This player provides flexible networking support via either SAMBA client or UPnP to access thousands of digital content stored around your home. You and your family can even watch photo slide show with your favorite music playing in the background.
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