HD Networked Media Tank (NMT)
- Thread starter reju
- Start date
any problems - this weekend am going to lamington road to check the specs out - if not i will order the dragontech from the website.
madbullram
Well-Known Member
Problems with? Dragon specs are nice and 6 layer seems to make difference. It will be nice if you buy so we can have our real review
Dragon v/s PopcornProblems with? Dragon specs are nice and 6 layer seems to make difference. It will be nice if you buy so we can have our real review
buddy i am an impulsive buyer when it comes to electronics stuff - though I do spend hours,days, weeks before actually going to a shop - the shop keeper might think that i am a moron sometimes.
I actually would have ordered the dragon online on Monday - but the non-availability of a paypal account meant registering for one and then wait for a few days to validate the card. Am waiting.
BTW if they mention the article as a sample with no commercial value and put a price tag of 50-100 USD would there be customes - if yes how much?
madbullram
Well-Known Member
I aint sure of customs, check the thread by eumagic where he indicated the customs he paid for getting his Popcorn. It should be the same for you.
What is there to check specs?? This can be studied at the WDTV website or from the many reviews available.
Go to Lamington Road only if you know what to buy. They will not give you any demo. In fact no one in Mumbai (as of date) can give you demo of WDTV.
If you are ready to buy WDTV let me know and I shall tell you where to buy and best price.
Forget Dragantech or similar for now. Customs will be approx 3k as informed by eummagic. No warranty. Chinese company stuff is risky.
see i am going to mumbai this weekend for a demo of the m33i/m34i in Vijay sales and MS 906/908. And lamington road is on my to do list - a i have never visited lamington road before.
I have never been undecided in anything - but the WDTV/popcorn(made in china and exported from china like dragontech) and an HTPC choice has left me in the dark. In any case the WDTV falls short of my requirements so will do without any - i.e. if you guys think chinese stuff is bad. I heard on this thread that Elektron 606 is well made (echoed in mpcclub) and so is the dragontech i100HD.
Guys this is one area where the forum is not making things easy - my other pieces like panny pv8, onkyo 606 and speakers are all affected by this forum though. Thanks for that
Reju, do u know of any sellers in bangalore for the same, also let u know where one can buy it from and what is the best price ?
madbullram
Well-Known Member
All you other thingy have been in market for long (TVs , AVRs etc) so you have many people to help and they are widely available in India.
But NMT and HTPC is not yet gained grounds in india and not may members have access to it. So its obvious you wont, the ones who have bought (like me) we do the best to answer
The main board of Elektron EHP-606 went bad within 3-4 months. Same happened to my friend. So we experienced 100% failure. We had bought around the same time (gap of one week). Maybe it is that particular lot/ batch issue? But their service/ support is outstanding. After I sent them the faulty board, they sent me a replacement board immediately, free of cost. Ditto for my friend. It has 1 year warranty.
Not sure if this best price in BLR?
http://www.bwindia.net/category/1/76/636
Binary World #20, 1st Cross, Sampige Road, Malleshwaram, Bangalore, India - 560 038. Ph: +91 (080) 22970070, 22970071, 22970072 22970077, 22970078, 22970079, 22970080 Working Hours Monday to Saturday 9.30am to 7.30pm and Sundays 11am to 4.30pm
Well it is risky, seeing such board failure in elektron products , and it may not be easy for everyone to ship faulty boards and bear charges, haven't seen any such issues come up in the WD boxes, till now most users have reported it to work fine
moserw
New Member
My vote is for WDTV, but if it does not fulfill your requirements then a HTPC is way to go or at the very least a reputed brand like Popcorn Hour. Don't even go near any Chinese stuff. Lots of issues with them and lots of failure rate too.
What's your primary requirement? That above all else should decide things. I really like what MBR has done. For his requirement WDTV is perfect. I don't even have MKV rips, instead all my DVDs are ripped in AVI because I don't even have h/w that plays MKV forget Full HD. I am choosing to wait for DVDPs with Divx 7 profile and then will progress to H.264/MKV rips. I tried the HTPC route but had a lot of issues from packets dropping to plain ground loop noise and just gave it up. Instead I have a HT system with a PV8 and a Panasonic 29" CRT TV that work just great for my Divx rips and DVDs. For music I have all my files ripped on the PC in FLAC and have instant access to most of my music collection instead of having to hunt for CDs when I'm in the mood to listen to a particular track.
Let your requirement decide above all else. For me personally a DVDP with external USB support does just as fine as WDTV and I just use an 8 GB pen drive popped into my Philips DVDP. Pardon my asking (I've not read through all the posts here), but do you have content that requires an NMT? If so then go for Popcorn Hour, but not Chinese. HTPC is the best though since no problems with codecs, reading certain file formats, etc., but connectivity issues do exist with going the HTPC route.
Well i called them, they said once you order they will procure the same, its costing Rs 8100.
For warranty the guy said for any issues you need to courier the product to the service center, he said they have a doorstep warranty on the product, where they will send the courier guy to collect the product for any issues.
Well 8k is very high, i think i will wait out and try to get the product directly from US, as i end up saving 3k on the price
Suprateep I am in the same position as you are . But you also have got to understand that the requirements are a personal thingy. For example PopCorn Hours is available for USD 250 in USA , which at the current exchange rate is Rs 13,000. A WD TV cost rs 7,500. That is a nominal difference of Rs 5,500/- . For me the difference is marginal for whatever I buy I plan to keep it for next 3-4 years. For me the biggest offsetting factor here is after sales support. Even though the product is reputed there is no surety that the other factors may end up killing your product. A classic case would be when my friend had bought a yamaha avr from USA . Recently due to a transformer fault there was a brief surge in electricity which killed his yammy. He was stuck. Many a times the product itself may not be at fault.
I am a play it safe guy hence I will go with an Indian warranty most of the times if the comparative price diff within India and outside India is not very high. But I think you are willing to take that risk so by all means you should go for a true NMT. As MBR said we want pics and reviews immediately after you buying. If the product tuns out good then maybe other members ( along with me
) would follow suit. Just my two cents here bro and all the best for your purchase.P.S : How about starting a new thread for the Dragontech NMT ?
The popcorn A110 is made in China and ships from China - same locality as dragontech, elektron hour etc. All are made in the same factory. The problem is Popcorn supports google checkout - which has problems. The net is full of horror stories about google checkout - not that paypal has not but lesser.
Problem is i do not want a chunky power hogger in my setup - we dont have cabinets here - i checkedout Pune and spoke to a lot of people in mumbai - HTPC cabinet is a strange word here. And believe me i am not patient about the actual buying process. I have a lot of movies in different formats like mkv, avi, divx and a whole collection of music videos which i listen frequently. A HTPC is best - cant find the right components and am running out of time - i have deleted over 50 movies in DVD quality in the last 3 months because of space constraints.
neo
Active Member
Hey can any one tell me the diff between the WDTV,Popcorn hour & TviX.
TIA
Cheers
TIA
Cheers
One more link to add to mine as well as suprateek's confusion here :-
EGreat USA Networked Media Tanks (NMT) & Digital Multimedia Players
:-EGreat USA Networked Media Tanks (NMT) & Digital Multimedia Players
Dude the previous posts warrants a read!!!
That said:
1.All are media boxes that can play a variety of audio and video codecs and are made by diff manufacturers using a particular sigma chipset
2. WDTV is for the budget conscious (7-8k in india) - can play a whole lot of video formats - lacks in DTS - True HD aduio passthrough HDMI (1.2 i think). Also lacks the networking aspect and cannot accomodate an interanl HDD - plays of usb drives. Popcorn hour/Dragontech i100hd/Elektron 606 have similar HW and even formware and are called network media tanks - have the networkgin facility (with proper free software) and a WIFI/lan connection, can accommodate an internal HDD. These NMTs have a huge following and are good VFM for money (in india though it will end up costing 15 to get shipped). They play almost all proper video and audio formats at HD resoltuion. The popcorn can also downmix DTS to stereo sound. TVIX on the other hand is portrayed as a media jukebox - the networking is difficult somehwta but can be done. Can take a internal HDD, has a better interface and expensive (26k in india).
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