We hunted for such a device for several months trying to decide which to get, we finally settled on the NBOX v3. The box is simple, light weight and easy to use, for the most part plug and play.Upon getting the device we took it out, read through the short and informative manual and went about hooking up some things to test it. We tested AVI, MKV and MPG movies, all worked flawlessly except for one hiccup where it went out of sync on the audio when we left it paused overnight.
The Layout is simple and easy to use, if you can scroll through and choose whether you want a movie, music, file, etc...then you can use this.
Only one concern is the remote, it feels like it's unresponsive sometimes, and I'm not entirely sure it's going to last as long as the device itself is, although I have found that if I sit straight across from the NBOX that I can turn on the device and go through the buttons quite easily, so maybe it's just the angles. Although it is probably best to turn on your movie or whatever and then put the remote up where it won't get sat on or something get put on it so that it will be just fine.
I've now recommended this device to several people, it plays everything I have thrown at it, it went to work smoothly and is used on a regular basis, the family loved it this week.
A side note about the review that said it wouldn't work with 2.5" external drives, I found this to be true at first but I've found since then it isn't true for me. I am currently using an old laptop hard drive with an external enclosure, it won't work with a long USB cord but will with a really short one. I don't know why, but with a short USB cord it works, with the long one it won't. So you might test that see if that holds true with yours.
This is super easy to use, works right off the bat, and is overall well worth the money!
I plugged in a 2TB external hard drive with about 120 movies on it and it all works well. Overall, I am happy and am considering getting another one for another part of my house...
Buy BONUS PACK! NBOX V3 Full HD 1080P Multimedia Digital TV Media player Now
I found myself needing some kind of device to play my numerous digital files. This fits the bill. NBOX offers other models with affordable pricing options. I went for the V3 model with its many outputs to display on any TV. The HDMI has fantastic picture qualiy on my big screen. The SPDIF optical audio output has great audio for movies. The benefit of its small size makes it much easier than always having to hookup your laptop to view various files. Photos, video, audio even text files display big and bright. I convert all my .FLV files to .WMA compatable files to play smoothly on this device. Includes contact info and website link for after the sale service if needed. Amazon product description is accurate.Overall an affordable quality solution to playing digital downloads on your TV.
Read Best Reviews of BONUS PACK! NBOX V3 Full HD 1080P Multimedia Digital TV Media player Here
I've had the NBOX HD 1080P Media Player since October 18, 2011 12:33:14 PM. So it's a been a good month since I've started using it (I use it pretty much every day too). Yes, I read ALL of the reviews on Amazon before I purchased. Yes, I saw that some people hated this (is there anything on Amazon that gets 100% positive reviews? Okay maybe, but some of the negative reviews for this player are unjustified.) So after thinking about buying this for a week, I went ahead and got it because the seller claims to give you a full reimbursement if you are not satisfied. First, I'll go into the Pros and then the Cons.What's Good?
*Plays a Variety of Files:
Honestly, I usually watch MKV, AVI and MP4 video files. They have all played flawlessly except for a few of the larger MKV files (I'll get into it later). It does say that it plays a number of other files, but I have yet to use those file types so I can't comment on them.
*Good Value:
For $60 you won't find a better HD Media Player on the market. The Western Digital Live Plus is a good player too for a little more. Anyways, for only $60, you will save a lot of money in the end and won't have to hassle with all the DVDs you may or may not have. I like to get the most out of my money with everything I buy and I don't like wasting money. This player can't be beat at it's price range.
*USB or SD/MMC:
The USB works great! I've been using my 320GB Verbatim portable hard drive and have had no problems with it at all. Although some of the reviews say that a portable hard drive without it's own external power source cannot be powered by the NBOX, mines has worked without any problems. However, this may vary for everyone because I can't comment on other hard drive brands or memory capacities. As for the SD/MMC, I haven't used that slot yet so I can't comment on it working good or not working.
*HDMI, AV Composite/Component:
The NBOX has your typical red, yellow, white, red (not a mistake), blue, green plugs. But my TV has HDMI so it's the only one I use. The picture quality has been amazing. The large MKV files (8GB, 14GB) look just like Blu-ray quality. The AVI and MP4 files have been great as well. However, although most people should know this, the quality of your video depends on a number of things such as original conversion. (You can't expect an AVI file of 100MB to be as good as a 500MB file of the same video and length. Basically, the smaller you shrink the file size, the lesser quality you will get.)
*Remote:
The remote has a lot of useful buttons such as Play, Pause, Stop, Rewind, Fast Forward, Zoom, Volume, Subtitle, Language, Music, Photo, Text, Ratio, etc. The Western Digital player doesn't have all of these buttons at your fingertips. So this is a real convenience for anyone who likes to be able to do what they want when they want while using the NBOX.
*Resume Function:
The NBOX allows you to start a video file from where you last stopped it. So for example, you are watching a 3-hour movie, but had to stop at the half way point and go do something. You come back three days later and go back to the same file, the NBOX will ask you if you want to Resume Playback "Yes" or "No". I think this is one of the best features because I can watch a bunch of different files and if I don't finish any of them, I can always go back to them. Now I don't know how many files you can playback from, but it has worked for up to at least 10 different files for me (I was trying to find which episode I left off on). And every file I checked, it asked me if I wanted to resume playback. Oh yeah, and you don't have to leave your player plugged in or turned on or in sleep mode, AND you don't have to leave your portable hard drive plugged in either, I've unplugged the player from the outlet and hard drive, and come back to every video file without any problems. In addition, I haven't had any problem using the remote from 7 feet away and the sensor works fine for me.
*Power Button On/Off:
Wow! So many electronics, even in this day and age, fail to have an on/off power button. The NBOX has it! There is a white button in the back of the player that shuts off the main power to it. If you press this button the player will light up the Green LED in front and it will be completely on in the Main Menu screen. If you press it to turn it off, it will go completely off, meaning no Red LED in front, no sleep mode, save some energy. The Power button on the remote only shuts the player down and leaves it on sleep mode (same as with your TV, DVD player or PS3, not to be confused with a computer's sleep mode). As a safety measure, I recommend turning the power off with the remote before pressing the white button in the back of the player (not that I have done this, but I mean, why risk it?)
What's Bad?
*Remote:
Yes, it has good features, but it can also be quite clunky. The buttons are small for me (no I don't have an NFL or NBA player's palm size). This can be a nuisance to some people, and although it doesn't bother me much, just a fair warning to those with big hands I suppose. But the buttons are spaced out so that's a plus. Now some people have complained about the player not being able to catch the remote signal. After a quick search I found a youtube video explaining that some of the older NBOXs had an engineering error and the sensor on the player was slightly lower than the hole that it is supposed to be aligned to. However, I have the Version 3 and have not encountered this problem. You might press the Up or Down arrows buttons to scroll through your files, and it might not move on screen right away. If you get antsy and press it more than once, it will move MORE THAN ONCE when it stops lagging. So yes, the remote is a big part of the negative for the NBOX. If they could fix the remote, they would eliminate probably most, if not all, of their bad reviews. My solution would be to program a universal remote to control the NBOX, however, I do not know if you can do that. Does anyone know?
*Slow Forward:
I know what you're thinking, isn't it supposed to be Fast Forward? Anyways, the NBOX only allows you to "Fast" Forward up to 16x. That can be pretty slow compared to 32x that other players (media players, DVD/Blu-ray, game consoles) may have. Say you were watching some movie or show at your friend's house, didn't finish it and you came home and wanted to jump to that scene (or you just want to jump to a scene), well you are going to wait a little bit to reach that action or love scene. However, does this happen much? Probably not. Most likely you would have started the movie from the comfort of your own home, and if you need to pick up where you left off, that's where the aforementioned "Resume Function" comes in. So this Slow Forward is a minor inconvenience at best. However, you can't skip scenes on the NBOX. Unless the file itself is divided up into scenes, the NBOX will NOT randomly jump you ahead by a couple minutes, if you press the NEXT button it will jump you to the next file in that folder, if you press the PREVIOUS button, it will jump you to the beginning of the current file or to the previous file in the folder.
*Firmware?:
Some players allow you to update the firmware via Internet or Wi-Fi. The NBOX does not. My theory is that whenever they have a "NEW" version, it will be sold as a "NEW" box (does this remind you of Street Fighter 4?). It would be nice if they updated their codecs and whatnot, just so we could have an up-to-date player without having to show up another $60 or more.
*Streaming?:
As far as I know the NBOX has no internet capabilities and thus, no streaming of Hulu, Netflix, or any other program you may use. This really isn't too much of a negative for me because I have a computer and PS3 that can easily do all my streaming for me. However, some people may not have a computer or PS3 and the NBOX may be their one-stop entertainment player. So this "Negative" was for them to know and be aware of before purchasing a media player.
*Not all files will flow flawlessly:
I have watched different video file types of different sizes. I have had one problem, yes 1. This applies to a 14GB MKV file. While watching this file, it constantly had lag. No it was not an action movie with special effects every other scene. It was, in fact, a drama/love story, and the most action there was, was a guy running away from a "bureau" with his girlfriend (can you guess the name of this movie?) Anyways, I also watched a 14GB MKV file of an ACTION MOVIE with computer special effects almost every scene (let's say this guy went into the computer world and found his dad after like 20 something years), and there was NO lag! I thought this was ridiculous, the love story had all the lag in the world, but the action movie had no lag! So this goes to show that: it really all depends on the original conversion of the file whether it lags or not, some movies will lag and some won't no matter what the movie is. However, you can't blame the NBOX for the lag (at least not in my case).
So here you are about 5 minutes later, tired from reading my long and stale review (it took me over an hour to write it thank you very much), and now you are wondering if you should, in fact, buy this media player? I had the same question in my mind when I was searching for an HD 1080p Media Player on Amazon. After reading several reviews on several media players, I finally settled on the NBOX after reading ALL of it's reviews. I knew of the problems some of the customers/reviewers were having, but I took a risk (it's a risk if you buy any product you've never owned before). And I can honestly say that I like the NBOX a lot. Except for the few quirks here and there, I use it every single day now to watch all my videos from TV shows to movies. Do I even watch regular TV anymore? Not except for NFL on Sundays, Animation Domination on FOX, and House. So if you are on the fence, didn't climb the fence yet or fell over the fence about this player, I would recommend it. I've been pretty happy with it and I don't feel like I've wasted $59.99. In fact, you will save tons of money if you buy and use this on a consistent basis (even once or twice a week I imagine). If not, you're free to go buy a more expensive media player and switch your car insurance to the one favored by reptiles to save 15% or more.
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I bought this specifically for the H.264 playback capability. It has no suchcapability in any real sense. The video freezes and frames stutter and sound is
out of sync. The first files i tried were high@L3.0 but i eventually backed down
to Simple@L1 and still no improvement. I re encoded to match the frame sizes exactly
and still no useful picture.
The Divx does seem to work well and i like the resume feature that remembers where you
left off. The manual included DOES state that the USB port will not power a portable
hard drive that gets its power from USB.
I think quite a few of these reviews here are planted. I am surprised at this and will
be much more careful about trusting the reviews in the future.
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