If I needed to sum this review up in one word, it would be impressive.I'll start out by saying that this review is not about what it can do wirelessly or with streaming, just with a hard drive plugged into it. I have not, and will probably not test the wireless/streaming functions, though this does have both wireles and wired internet abilities.
The way I use my media player is to run my hard drive off of it to watch movies and shows.
I am not usually a fan of people who use their reviews to talk about other products, but I have to really quick.
I got the WDTV Live, WDTV Live Streaming, and I have another WDTV product. I am a big fan of the WDTV's. The problem I ran into is that when I moved from first a 500gb, to a 1TB (1000GB) to a 1.5TB and then to a 2TB and 4TB hard drive, my WDTV couldn't keep up. The WDTV worked fine with less than 2TB hard drives. They put out a firmware update so that you can use the larger ones, but the WDTV doesn't "see" the drives after you power it down the first time, because they shut down and maybe take too long to spool up and the WDTV doesn't register them anymore.
So I tried the KDLINKS HD680, basically because it said it played most every format, and there wasn't really much info about the limit of the hard drive you could use. And the fact that I couldn't find any other player that would do everything I wanted it to (play amazon video on demand AND all the formats that I needed). So I decided to take the risk and give it a try.
I have to say I'm very impressed with the KDLINKS. It's played every format i've tried, including
MP4, MKV, AVI, TSO, M2TS. It did have an issue with resuming play after fast forwarding or rewinding the .MKV format, but it did play it fine. It would freeze up and not start replay though, and have to be shut down. NOT all formats, just the MKV one.
Most importantly for me, it would recognize the 4TB hard drive, even after it had been shut down. Just start it up and wait about 15 seconds and it's good to go. Then you don't have to wait until it reads it all, just start navigating.
Also, FYI, it does show thumbnails (pictures you put in the movie folder), and you can navigate by folder (ie. you see the foldes as they are on your hard drive and can open them) off of the hard drive (2 biggies for me that I wasn't sure of before hand.)
The only real bad I have is. 1. the MKV and 2. the remote control seems a little weak. It has trouble picking up the box from about 20 feet away (ie. my couch). but it does work, and it has a ton of options on it.
I highly recommend it. The few marks against it aren't enough for me to dock a star. I'm very excited to have something that works with the 4TB hard drive (actual 4TB, not 2-2TB discs) without giving me any issues.
Hope this helps someone.
The packaging and presentation were top notch, but to my dismay the unit I received had a video output issue. I could not get video and I contacted the kdLinks support email on Christmas morning. Within a few hours I had a personal response! Pleasant and helpful we attempted to trouble shoot the issue. When it persisted they immediately and with no hassle agreed to send me a replacement unit and return waybill for the defective unit! The responses were prompt, friendly and very honest and straight forward! A pleasure to deal with!
I received the replacement unit less than a week later (the only delay being these kind folks knew a firmware upgrade was due, and delayed shipping a day to ensure I had the latest!) I hooked up the new unit and it worked like a dream!
I have 2, 1-TB external HDD hooked to the unit with video, audio and pictures of all formats and resolutions and the kdLinks HD680 played all of them wonderfully. Subtitle files were seamless and the audio was perfect. The 1080p output is perfect!
The wifi found my network in a remote corner of the house that most devices fail to receive and it maintained a strong enough link to play 720p MKV flawlessly from UPNP networked PC. The online apps such as Youtube worked very well. I was floored by the versatility and quality of the play.
The one-touch music feature is one I plan on exploring more but seems to work flawlessly with both my mp3 and flac recordings.
I can't speak highly enough about my experience and the quality of this product. If you are looking for a low cost, high quality STB that handles all of your many video format needs, the kdLinks HD680 is it.
Buy kdLinks HD680 Extreme Network 1080P HD Media Player w/ Realtek 1185 & Built-In Wifi Now
The main reason I got this was because it said it could handle almost any format I threw at it. And unlike other people in other reviews of other products like this, I only use a few types of files to play. Mainly wmv, mp3, avi and mp4. And since it said it could play all that plus had built in wifi and a Ethernet connection, AND could handle HD, I decided to go for it.I got it very quickly, faster than they said it would arrive, and right out of the box it was extremely simple to setup. Like all electronics to do with television, everything is color coded, came with regular A/V cable and component cables. It doesn't come with an HDMI cable so you have to buy it separately, which I did and amazingly I'm still waiting for that. It can handle a USB flash drive easily, can connect directly to a hard drive without an enclosure if you don't have one but I haven't tried it yet, I do have an enclosure and it works great.
All the files I've thrown at it have worked, even swf movies I have saved up work fine. The one weird thing I've found is that flash video is one it doesn't like, but instead of just skipping to the next working movie, the thing shuts down and restarts. I found that weird but since that was just a test file and I don't have any actual movies of that type, that's no big deal.
It has great audio output, used it on our stereo system and it just rocked the house. I've noticed also that I've seen other products with reviews saying "product overheats" or "overheats, has to restart" or "overheating causes sluggish video" or something along those lines. Well I'm pleased to say that this thing barely gets warm. I ran it for a 2 hour movie, you can almost feel it warm in the back, but not anywhere near alarmingly warm.
The remote seems tough, LOT'S of buttons and options for you to endlessly change and it's main menu is simple. Want music...select music, all music you've connected to in your USB drive or network shows up. The search option is a LIFESAVER when you have a lot of music or media that you don't want to go thru folder after folder. Plus, you can mark files as favorites and go straight to them without having to search.
In closing I should say I've this is my first media player, I have nothing to compare it to except the reviews I was seeing on the others. Simply put, it's a great buy, I'm glad I got it over another one I was looking at.
Oh, I forget to mention, if you have or plan on DVD or BLu Ray player of some kind, instead of buying a full on player, just buy a USB drive of that version, plug it into this and this will act as DVD or Blu Ray player, fully supporting it with menus and such. I was actually thinking of getting a Blu Ray player, but then when I learned you could use this as one, I'd rather get a cheaper (-$100) USB player than a $200+ blu ray player.
::::UPDATE:::::
Upon finally getting a wifi network at my house, I set up this to connect to it....SOOOOO EASY and no hassle whatsoever. But since I've had it for so long I figured by now that they might have had a update to the firmware...I'm a nerdy tech person so I want everything up to date. Theres only like one or two things buggy with the original firmware but they don't bother me simply because I don't play/have those types of files to play. But I used Google to look for firmware, of course it took me straight here first and upon looking on this page to find a link, I realized they changed it. Now it's white with control buttons on the front, while mine is black with only the power button. I figured I'd update this so people know and there is firmware for both...black and white...but they're different. I nearly downloaded the firmware of the white version for my black one.
Black Firmware:
White Firmware:
I'm sure the white one they've tweaked things and made things better. I mean the black one is great and I still use and love it, so if they've changed it I'm sure it's even better than I can think. But for those people that want to get this, my review is a bearing but it's only for the Black version of this box. I hope it still applies.This media player is amazing. Love the features: built in wifi, interface, apps, the ability to adjust the location of where the subtitles goes (and size I believe). It has played every type of file I've thrown at it and it stays cool during long hours of usage. The wireless remote could be improved though. Sometimes the device does not receive the signal or there may be a slight delay. Overall, it is the most powerful player I've ever owned. Highly recommended!
Want kdLinks HD680 Extreme Network 1080P HD Media Player w/ Realtek 1185 & Built-In Wifi Discount?
Excellent Amazon shipping. Hope this helps someone out in choosing this product.The Product: I am rating this primarily on the use of connecting to my Network and my NAS or other network devices. I do not use internet TV or other movie sites to stream. If any product can stream my 20GB MKV movies, then it'll be more than capable of streaming regular Netflix or HULU sites. HOwever, this product is not capable.
Good:
Can play or decode any movie or subtitle I have and that's a huge accomplishment because I have just about every format type of movie out there.
OK WIFI if you can connect to it
OK GUI, not best organized or user friendly as my Sony WIFI Media Player
Bad:
No way to connect to my security enabled router. I have the new CISCO E4200 which is a beast and pushes 300Megs at 2.4GHZ and 450Megs at 5GHZ. My NAS is direct connected to my router via GIGAbit cable. This Media player can only connect if I add the MAC address to my filter and enable SSID broadcasting. AND the worst part, it will only connect through WPS. That means everytime I turn it on, I have to log into my router and then click on the WPS button on the HD680 and on my router. Then wait for them to find each other, communicate and connect. No other way to connect to a router with any type of security. If you have ANY security, no matter how small, it can't connect. Just no mether to connect. You can't put in any SSID, PassPhrase or anything. When you connect via WIFI all you do is type in the SSID and go to next screen to connect. No security input, no band selection, NOTHING. So either connect via WPS which is a pain if your router is in a different room, or connect to your router but disable ALL security. How can a great product have horrible WIFI methods!
Because it can't connect to my router with all my security enabled, I have to log into my NAS everytime. So boot up, connect to my router/network via WPS, and log into my NAS. A HUGE hassle everytime. My Sony media can connected via SSID and PassPhrase so it connects to my network immediately upon powering on. AND because it's connect to my network (not via WPS (guest)) I don't have to log into my NAS. And it saves all my info. The HD680 doesn't save your settings. It has a mind of it's own. Some settings it saves, but when i set back to factory all my old settings are there after it reboots.
GUI is not the greatest. Sometimes it jumps two icons or selections over with one push of remote, sometimes it does nothing.
Remote is pretty bad too. Sometimes sensitive and jumps, sometimes does nothing when a button is pushed.
DO NOT attempt to play huge files or large MKV bluray or HD files. This thing really struggles and will make you dizzy within 10 seconds. It's like watching a movie and someone hits the pause and play button every 3 seconds.
Does not keep any of your files (movie or music in same order as it's saved on your computer or NAS). All my files are in alphabet order and sorted by folder name. When it connected to my NAS, the folders are out of order and when I go into a folder, all the files are out of order. May not be a big deal for most, but if you have 100 songs or movies in one folder and you try to find one of them. Now multiply that by 50 folders and it takes 30 minutes just to find a file you want to play.
I've been looking for a product like this for months. With it's awesome range of file types it's capable of playing and it's "fast wifi" and "play 1080P". How can you advertise high speed wifi and 1080p streaming if you can't even have the capability to connect to 5GHZ bands and play so slow over WIFI? I have 2 other TV's, a Desktop and a Laptop hitting my NAS at one time and none of them struggle like the HD680. I can play a different movie, or the same movie on all my TV's and devices at the same time, NO lags or issues. Even with all my devices turned off, the HD680 struggles to stream MKV or large movies. I really wanted to like this media player, but the WIFI killed it for me. Not worth $99. Sony's $49 media player is much better and streams without hesitation or lag.
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