[quote=stockstradr]Well, I took your advice, got the WiFi blu-ray, tried all the apps. Everything worked just fine, from the apps to the blu-ray player.
Now, I think I’m gonna return the WiFi blu-ray player
WHAT?
Read on..
I can get my $225 back, add another $100, and simply upgrade our few-years old home pc to a media server PC. That will give me ALL the functionality of the WiFi blu-ray player, PLUS way more.
I could then stream hulu – AND I could record it, store it to PC hard drive, along with DVD-ripped movies and music and photos, and play those anytime. I could run iTunes and browse music through “album-flow” on the big screen and played on the 7.1 surround speakers. Or my wife could play Lady Gaga’s new 1080p music videos off VIVO. My kid could play PC software learning games on the TV. I could browse our photos off smugmug. Not to mention free internet porn displayed on big screen TV – assuming you don’t have kids, or a judgmental spouse (I have both!)
Look, you can’t do ANY of the above with the WiFi blu-ray.
Now if you have a PS3 at least you could watch hulu. If anyone knows how to watch Hulu.com on a Wifi blu-ray player, let me know. That could convince me to keep it. (We bought the Samsung BD-C6500)
Oh, and Vudu (on the WiFi blu-ray player) sucks.
Why would I pay $6 to stream a single Vudu HD movie through WiFi blu-ray when for $10/month I already have Netflix deliver as many blu-ray discs as I can watch per month?
Weather.com on a blu-ray player? Worthless! What, can’t I walk 10 feet to my PC and type “weather.com”
Streaming Netflix on the WiFi Blu-ray? Ugh, the picture quality sucks!
However, yes, if a person is buying their FIRST Blu-ray player, sure I’d recommend getting one with WiFi built-in, and you should consider the Samsung BD-C6500 because it is one of the best for under $250.
But we already have a non-Wifi Blu-ray player (it wasn’t WiFi). And we have that extra PC just waiting to be turned into a media center PC.
And until I do that, I can get all the functionality of the Wifi Blu-ray player (and more) by simply hooking my laptop up to our big screen LCD.[/quote]
My media center requirements are pretty low…But, I’ve been pretty happy with this thing.
High fidelity folks, this probably won’t cut it. But adda 1-2tb drive onto it or use it on the net, it’s met more than my needs. I don’t have a blue-ray player.
As a bonus, it’s linux based, so there are already opensourced/hacked versions that do beyond what it does.
Good for traveling with the kid. Since I don’t have lug around all the dvd’s/etc. Just a portable usb drive and this thing with some cables.
Next step: run this in a car’s DVD entertainment system (which shouldn’t be hard if the system has composite input)
