I know – with wireless, DLNA, streaming, cloud, etc. as prevalent as they are, who would need a media player with no networking capabilities? Poor people in China? Well yes, probably… and myself – for my car. I didn’t want to mess with swapping out the stereo this time so I was looking for something to take advantage of the stock Nav unit’s inputs (composite video, L/R audio via RCA jacks).
There were some cheaper (and Chinese-ier) ones online, but good ol’ MicroCenter (and Amazon!) had this one locally and I can’t pass up instant gratification.
HornetTek also makes the PatriotBox (well the original one at least), another home digital media player (with networking capabilities), which was pretty decent in terms of files/codecs supported, so I figured this wouldn’t be too bad either. I’m really just trying to add MP3s and the occasional music video (NOT WHILE DRIVING THO) capabilities to my existing headunit without too much fuss.
From my Amazon review:
Included:
- Main media player with USB and SD card slot
- AC power adaptor
- Remote and AA batteries
- AV cable (Audio and composite video)
Hooked it up for testing to a 42″ 1080p Philips TV and it was decent. Menu has the main choices of Video, Pictures, Music, File Browser, and Setup. By default it’s set to scan the drives when connected and determine what falls into which category. I tested pictures on a 2 gig SD card from a digital camera and MP3s and videos in different formats from an 8 gig USB flash drive.
Pros:
- Small and light
- Played back everything I tested:
- AVI xvid/AC3
- MP4 with AAC audio
- 720p AVI x.264
- MKV with subtitles
- MP3s of varying bitrates
- 8.0MP pictures
- remote has dedicated buttons for Video, Pictures, Music, and File Browser, etc.
- can be powered by a USB cable in the car (need a 12v to USB that supports 5v/2a and a 3.5mm connector, + tip, – ring)
- shuffle mode for MP3s
- can read ID3 tags for sorting and for display on the “now playing” screen
Cons:
- Composite output is soft/fuzzy (kinda expected that…)
- SD and USB were listed in file browser under USB… After opening USB, you see C: and D: (one is your SD, one is your USB)
- Did not list the pics on the SD card under the Pictures category (but you can see them in the file browser)
Since I don’t plan to use this in the house (would buy a networkable one), I think this will fit the bill in the car. I was considering the Kenwood add-on with a dedicated display and controller, but that would be for MP3s only so if/when I choose to watch some videos, at least this supports it. Besides, installation is easier with this, too.