Media Streamer Platforms Roundup
by Ganesh T S on June 13, 2010 7:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Media Streamer
- Gadgets
A majority of the consumers in this market have been spoilt for choices since they come from a HTPC background, and stress their media streamers to the limit (even beyond the officially supported specifications). Sometimes, they are pleasantly surprised by some available unadvertised feature (like the TrueHD bitstreaming in WDTV Live, which wasn't part of the initial specifications). Most of time, though, various limitations start showing up, both in terms of hardware capabilities and software support. These are dealt with in the reviews of the individual products. The end consumer needs to look at his requirements before choosing a media streamer. In addition, reviews on the net should cater to what the market really wants, and not rehash the marketing speak from the companies. Anandtech is working on creating a comprehensive suite of test streams to identify the capabilities as well as shortcomings of the various media streamer platforms. Towards this, we have identified the following features which differentiate the various platforms, both from a hardware as well as software perspective.
- Audio & video container support (MKV / MP4 / MOV / AVI / FLV / WebM etc.)
- Video codecs (H264 / VC-1 / Real Media / VP8 etc.)
- Audio codecs (Dolby / DTS / FLAC / Ogg Vorbis / WMA Pro / HD Audio - Decoding / Bitstreaming)
- Multiple subtitle formats
- Interlaced video streams in different codecs
- Specific video & audio codec quirks (such as weighted P-frame prediction & unreasonable number of reference frames for H264)
- Maximum video & audio bitrate
- Maximum video frame rate
Readers are welcome to suggest other aspects which need to be added to this test suite.
While this roundup article may not have an analytical conclusion, I will bring it to a close by listing out the platforms which we will closely follow in the coming days with respect to the above features:
- Atom + Ion / Ion2 [ x86 + Nvidia custom HD decode engine ]
- Mediatek 8520 Series [ ARM11 + Mediatek custom HD decode engine ]
- Sigma Designs 86xx Series [ MIPS + Sigma Designs custom HD decode engine ]
- Realtek 1073/1283 Series [ MIPS + Realtek custom HD decode engine ]
- Nvidia Tegra2 [ ARM Cortex-A9 + Nvidia low power custom HD decode engine ]
- Samsung S5PV210 [ ARM Cortex-A8 + Samsung low power custom HD decode engine ]
- Telechips TCC89xx [ ARM11 + Chips&Media Boda series HD decode engine ]
- Intel CE4100 [ x86 + Intel custom HD decode engine ]
Stay tuned for exclusive analysis of the capabilities of each of the above platforms from Anandtech in the near future!
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Handi P - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
Can you please add some comments about these new toys that you are going to line-up, about their ability to handle picture scaling modes for use with a projector and an anamorphic lens?Also can you keep an eye if there's any feature on it that can manipulate subtitles location in terms of the use of an anamorphic lens ?
rgds,
Handi P.
ganeshts - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
Handi, Thanks for your feedback. We will note the following points for future reviews:(1) Picture scaling modes test
(2) Subtitle location / size modification ability
daskino - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
I would still say that K.I.S.S: Technology was the first company to make media players.they launched a player back in 2002 based on the early Sigma processor the 8620
http://www.industryconvergence.com/home/the-evolut...
ganeshts - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
daskino, Thanks for the excellent information.I would have to say, I didn't pay much attention to KiSS's players since I always had the impression that they were just fancy DVD players :) Also, since their products are long discontinued, I couldn't dig up much information on their specs during market research.
Thanks again for the eye opener. Just goes to show how much Sigma Designs has been dominating this market in the last 8 years or so!
The0ne - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
Haven't read it yet but I'm thankful this has finally come out. Much appreciated!The0ne - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
doh, only a small preview :(DieterBSD - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
> 2. Video codecs (H264 / VC-1 / Real Media / VP8 etc.)Don't forget mpeg2.
> 4. Multiple subtitle formats
And closed captions (e.g. from recorded broadcast TV) support.
If you can't make out a word when someone mumbles, how easy is
it to rewind a few seconds, switch closed captions on, read
the word, then switch closed captions off again? This could be
a real pain if buried deep in a menu system. Is it possible to
put the subtitle/captions in the letterbox black band area
rather than blocking the picture?
Quality of interlacing and de-interlacing. Since sources
come in both interlaced and progressive formats, and AFAIK all
displays are fundamentally one or the other, everyone has to deal
with this. Poor quality interlacing/de-interlacing is really
painful to watch. Add in pull-down and some of the bizzare
things being broadcast and it is a mess.
Ability to keep audio and video in sync.
> What is the use of 1080p without HDMI?
> Any media streamer worth its salt interfaces with the rest of
> the AV components using HDMI.
All the world is not HDMI. Ever hear of DVI or Displayport?
IIRC component can do 1080. Many people have TVs or monitors
that they are very happy with that don't have HDMI.
How is the quality of the output on component, s-video, composite?
I would love a device that can output s-video with more
than the DV standard 720 pixels horizontally.
Measured specs such as signal/noise, distortion, etc. would be nice.
Quality of scaling, both up and down. I've read that many
HDTVs have poor quality scalers.
Ability to seek to a specific spot, skip forward/backward,
freeze frame, step through frame by frame forward/backward,
playing slow/fast at various speeds. I've read numerous
complaints about boxes that do poorly at these things and
are only good at normal playing.
Ability to zoom in/out easily (mainly to deal 4:3 vs 16:9
issues). Ability to compensate for source material that is
squeezed or stretched. (Amazing how much they get wrong...)
When you say "local media" do you mean "stored on a computer
(or NAS) on the local network", or "stored on a device
(e.g. an e-SATA/firewire/USB disk) connected directly to the media streamer"?
Perhaps scrap the term "local" and using:
internet
LAN
attached (e-SATA, firewire, USB, ...)
internal (inside the box: hard drive, CD/DVD drive, ...)
How well do these streamers deal with the variety of
computers, protocols, filesystems, found on LANs? (FreeBSD,
OS-X, Plan-9, Linux, ...)
Network: wired 100 Mbps Ethernet is more than fast enough for
a single stream of compressed 1080 or less. If you have a
lot of stuff happening on your network you'll want a gigabit
switch and probably gigabit ports on the computers. The
wireless stuff is problematic, I'd advise against it. A cat6
cable is dirt cheap and far more reliable, As far as I'm
concerned, wireless built into a video streamer is a *negative*
feature. Runs up the cost just to pollute the airways.
ganeshts - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
DieterBSD, Thanks for your extensive comment.We will keep your points in mind. Ability to keep A/V sync is a really important feature which many streamers fail at.
While I agree with almost all of your points, I beg to differ with respect to HDMI. DVI and DisplayPort are not aimed at the multimedia market. DVI is unable to carry audio signals, while DisplayPort connectors are not present on TVs / AV receivers which are common parts of a home theater system. Like it or not, home theater enthusiasts seem to be stuck with the HDMI standard rather than the royalty free DisplayPort :|
UltimateKitchenUtensil - Monday, June 14, 2010 - link
"the main advantage viz a viz the freedom to tinker around""Viz." is an abreviation for the latin videlicet. It means "that is to say". The French expression meaning "relative to" is "vis à vis".
ganeshts - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 - link
Thanks for bringing this to my notice :)