XTREAMER PRO Media Player & Network Streamer (2 x 3.5" Hard Drive Bays)

• Two 3.5" Hard Drive Bay with up to 4TB Hard Disk Capacity
• Integrated dedicated eSATA controller & PC eSATA bracket included
• Twice the Memory of the original Xtreamer
• Stunning HD Graphical User Interface
• Full 7.1 HD Audio SupportDTS-HS MA & Dolby True-HD NOT YET AVAILABLE (requires a pending firmware update!)

update: so after several firmware updates, virtually all of the xtreamer functionality is broken. Seemly nothing is ever fixed. promised functions have never worked and functionality that once worked is now broken. So the only thing it does now is play DVD isos now. This has been a real let down. I would not purchase anything from this company again. The updates that have been provided have progressively broken features. Never again.

So, I've had a few days to test out the Pro. I have experience with the ROKU SDRoku SD Player box and loved it. I thought I would solve a network storage for media problem as well as eliminating a DVD carousel and CD carousel.

The good: This box is tiny. The box looks nice. The remote is easy to use and has special function keys to speed things up. With fan on low, I only hear hard-drive noise. The UI is usually fast (although it slows down when switching thumbnails) and the boot time is fast. DVD ISOs seem to play without issue. DVD ISOs stream across wireless N without a problem. The device found all of my NAS shares devices automatically. The video quality seems to be good but it is hard to tell as I have had to drop back to composite video as I do not have HDMI.

The difficult:

Firmware:

The firmware provided needs a good bit of work. The functions implemented are brittle. Something works for this file this way and for the next file of the same type it will not. You either get a black screen that you can get out of or the device reboots altogether. Currently, the device reboots all of the time for me as I try something, it hangs and then restarts. The device UI is designed for large screen displays. On my 32", the text is very hard to read. Will not copy files to the box without a flash drive inserted even though it has HD installed.

Music:

The device fails to play any file from my Thecus NAS N2100 Network Attached Media Server (Black). However, it will stream across the network from a PC and will play locally.

Jukebox:

Performance is slow.

Video:

When playing videos through the optical digital cable, it appears that the device is outputting analog signals as opposed to digital. I suspect this because the PCM indication is raised with my receiver rather than just Dolby.

Internet TV

The implementation of the internet tv screens is badly laid out. The thumbnails either do not load or are mismatched in size.

Summary:

The UI is several steps down from the ROKU standard I love.

The reliability of just doing what is supposed to be supported is not there.

Buy XTREAMER PRO Media Player & Network Streamer (2 x 3.5" Hard Drive Bays) Now

This is my third media payer over the last five years or so. The first was an Mvix/Unicorn product, the second was a WD HDTV, and the third is this box. All three are good in their own ways, but this one beats the other two hands down.

This player may not be for everyone out there, because the menus and some features are a little "rough" as other have said, or at least are not exactly intuitive. Put another was, this is the exact opposite of an Apple product. Note: that's not necessarily a bad thing!

This is what this product does well:

It allows you organize massive amounts of media storage into one simple menu for playback on your TV just set any folder from any internal drive, external usb, etc. to the "Favorites" list.

It plays back just about any file type I can throw at it (My WDHDTV had problems with some MKV formats)

Frequent updates address many of the issues that other users have reported. Also note that the updates can de done directly from the menu (as long as you have the wifi antenna) so no need to search for a download, plug in the laptop, etc.

Internet radio, you tube, internet TV channels, etc.

File transfer feature is pretty cool this allows you to transfer files from one place to another without the need to plug the device into a computer. For example, plug in a flash drive or usb hard drive, then transfer over what you want to the internal drive without having to use a computer.

MASSIVE STORAGE (two internal 3.5 bays, esata, two usb ports, plus the possibility of streaming over the network)!

In sum, if you want ultimate ease of use (and you like paying $10-$20 for compressed video files) get yourself an AppleTV, but if you want ultimate functionality and you can deal with figuring out a few settings and menus, and especially if you want to terabyte upon terabyte of storage for your HD MKV files or whatever format you happen to have your movie collection in (ISO, avi, MP4...etc.), this player may be for you!

Read Best Reviews of XTREAMER PRO Media Player & Network Streamer (2 x 3.5" Hard Drive Bays) Here

I was toggling between WD Live Plus and the Xtreamer Pro, just to give a bit o' background on my purchase.

I received promptly from seller (Xtreamer US Distributors) and in fine condition. Box was new and unopened. All items were present an accounted for. They supplied quite a few extras that I hadn't anticipated ie. esata cable, sata expansion card, hdmi cable etc. I plugged it in adjusted a few settings (changed digital audio selection to Tru HD/DTD Master. I also set up my samba connection to Mac Pro and was able to see my shared folders. I also added one of those shared folders as a "favorite", basically making it a shortcut instead of navigating all the way to it.

The menu is bold and visually appealing. I was able to easily navigate through the main menu and all the settings. I fond nothing out of the ordinary good or bad in regards to the main or sub menus. I was able to update the firmware with USB stick (firmware is available here:). Word of caution, I tried using another USB drive initially, and it didn't work. So, make sure the drive is formatted Fat 32 (I formatted w/mac disc utility) and the extracted file from download zip is in the root of the USB stick.

I was able to stream (wired) an m2ts (33.4GB) flawlessly with TrueHD (I have pioneer 7.1 tuner). Info of the file was observable via on-screen text. The video player is able to fast forward in 8 (I think...maybe more or less) different speed increments and in 3 minute increments. No chapter skips, but that's the files fault, not the Pro's. The file was not remuxed with chapter breaks inserted, it is the original file. It also streamed: HD WMV and several mkv(s) with sizes up to 2.4 gb.

I cannot comment on the Pro's movie jukebox via XLive as I have not used it. I did try items through the xstreamering portion of the Pro. I watched several Discovery channel video pod casts. I also watched several movie trailers. I read some bad reviews of the Pro and found them to be unsubstantiated at best.

Hope that helped!

Benjamin

Want XTREAMER PRO Media Player & Network Streamer (2 x 3.5" Hard Drive Bays) Discount?

Plays files a WD Live wouldn't, handles two 2 Tb USB drives (a WD Live crashed with), and sees the PCs on the network. It plays back DD TruedHD and DTS-HD Master too.

It is great. Music is great, pictures are great, video is great. Streaming stuff is mostly SD, if you want that, I only play the HD stuff. Call me picky!

This is great box; so much better than a WD product. All I can say is BUY ONE!

I thought this product was great, I read good reviews about it, but mine just spontaneously reboots!!!!. Upgraded to the new firmware, but didn't fix it! It just reboots anytime it wants too, and somitimes gives me a green screen, and hangs! It reboots while i'm browsing the files of when using File Mananager. Sometimes reboots when I'm in JukeBox just browing movies....

What is worst, it even reboots in the middle of a movie!!!

It is very annoying!!!! I'm going to return it and give it another try, and get another one... I'm hoping that this is just a bad device that I received. I will let you know next time I got the other one.

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5/29/2011 Yes, I bit the bullet again, just to give it another chance... I got the second xtreamer pro more than a week ago now... THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE. DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS PRODUCT. POOR QUALITY. THIS PRODUCT IS HORRIBLE. Nothing but problems... after a week, jukebox started acting flaky, it can't scrape my new ISO, and the third day, it wiped out the entire contents of my movie folder including all the fanarts, xmls and ISO files,, I spent/wasted 2 weeks time ripping my DVDS, only to be deleted by this poor product... I WILL NEVER USE ANY OF XTREAMER products again, I just lost my confidence to this company. What is worst, they dont have a real customer support, I emailed them again, and all I got is the same answer, "Reinstall your firmware.. blablabla". You have to rely to the community of users if you really need help. WHAT A WASTE OF TIME and MONEY.

I've never return a product to amazon before, I can't believe I will ask again for a refund, second time around, for the same product, I dont think this is a coincidence, This product is horrible, Period!. I'm really DISAPPOINTED. I'm very thankful that I bought this through amazon, and they honor returns/refund, especially for very poor product like this one. It's time to buy a competing product now.

Too bad, I can't change and downgrade the Star from 2 to 1 for my second review. It doesn't even deserve a 1 star.