Diamond Multimedia Launches AMP1000 Android Media Player
by Ganesh T S on August 21, 2012 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- HTPC
- Media Streamer
- Android
Diamond Multimedia is well known for its AMD graphics cards and USB capture devices. The Android Media Player, AMP1000, being launched today is the latest addition to their TV connectivity product line. The unit is being positioned by Diamond Multimedia as a standalone external Android-based media player, game box and Internet device for the big screen home entertainment center.
The recent slowdown in the local media player market has been accompanied by the supposed rise of the cord-cutting phenomenon, particularly in the US market. This has led media player manufacturers to shift focus from local media (i.e, Blu-ray and MKV backups) to online services such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon VoD. Instead of developing a IPTV STB platform from the ground up (similar to what Western Digital, Roku and Boxee have done), many vendors have shifted to using Android as the platform. This is a welcome move, as it enables developers to concentrate on one platform and reach out to a large installed base. Google realized that the IPTV STB is not going to go away any time soon. The Google TV initiative is supposed to address this, but hasn't met its goals yet. Users looking to cut the cord have no need for Google TV's features such as HDMI-In which are meant to support the legacy STB infrastructure. Doing away with those unnecessary distractions has enabled vendors to provide more of a vanilla Android experience. The differentiation lies in the ability to access the Google Play store, app compatibility, upgradability, industrial design and last, but not the least, the remote control itself.
The AMP1000 sports Android 2.3 at launch, but they do promise upgradability. The device also has the Chrome browser with Adobe Flash in-built. With the ability to install apps from the Google Play store, the user has the ability to customize the unit to his liking. I have played with a number of Android-based media players over the last 6 months, including the TViX Xroid A1 and the Nixeus Fusion XS. I believe that such players have the ability to shine in the IPTV STB as well as local media streamer market if they come with a judicious choice of apps on the main screen as well as flawless multimedia playback for different codecs and containers. Manufacturers need to understand that users are primarily purchasing the unit for their media streaming capabilities, as Android by itself has little to offer in terms of a big screen experience. The reason the AMP1000 excites us enough to write about the launch is the bundled keyboard / remote. Diamond provides a 3-in-1 remote that features a keyboard, mouse and motion control. This allows the consumer to use the TV like a computer or a game console powered by Android.
The AMP1000 is priced at $119.99, but Diamond is aware of the competition posed by contenders like the Vizio Co-Star. There is a mail-in rebate available on Facebook at launch time, which brings down the price to $99.99. The unit will be sold at major retailers such as Microcenter and Fry's, as well as e-tailers including Amazon, Newegg and Tigerdirect.
We have seen countless cheap media players running Android. Almost all of them have been based on anemic chipsets with no way to hold up to the demands of even casual web browsing. Combined with sub-par hardware decode acceleration support, the experience has usually not been uplifting for users. We don't have an idea of the internal chipset in the AMP1000 yet, but we do have a unit coming in for review soon. We hope the unit manages to surpass the already low bar set by the competition in this space.
AMP1000 Hardware Features:
- Built in wired Ethernet (100 Mbps) support
- Built in 802.11 WiFi support
- On board HDMI video and audio
- On board Component video
- Built in storage (3.5 GB)
- USB and SD card interface
- 3 in 1 Motion Remote control included
AMP1000 Firmware Features:
- Support 1080P video playback
- Support for the Google Chrome browser
- App Installer for application installation from USB/SD card
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Video format support:
- DAT / MPEG / MPE / MPG / M2V / ISO / TS / VOB / AVI / MKV / MP4 / MOV / 3GP / 3GPP / FLC / AVI / WMV / TS / M2TS / M3TS / M4TS / M5TS / MTS / M4V / FLV / 3G2
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Audio format support:
- MP3 / WMA / WAV / OGG / OGA / FLAC / ALAC / APE / AAC / M4A / AC-3 / DTS / RM
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kineticarl - Tuesday, August 21, 2012 - link
Hopefully this will support DLNA for music and video over wi-fi. Not a bad box if so, but having Gingerbread should give us pause...Tarwin - Wednesday, August 22, 2012 - link
First of all I hope it has a decent processor otherwise internet browsing and games won't be all too pleasant.I also hope you do the same kind of testing you do on the rokus and WD media players to see how lenient the decoding and format requirements are as well as the subtitle support.
Also could you test with two or three different video players as well as test the software decode capabilities for when HW acceleration doesn't work? It's something I would love to see in your phone reviews as well.
For example, mx player has the best subtitle support I've seen (colour, styling, placement, and different font support when using SSA) and good SW and HW decode but not the best (it won't HW decode files that Dice Player can handle without a problem in my experience). Of course it would be interesting to see which video players you guys choose.
And as for the complaints of the OS... I don't think it's such a big deal on this kind of device. I don't think offline voice dictation or Google Now are that necessary here. GPU acceleration for the UI would be nice (I can totally see the difference between connecting my HTC Sensation on ICS via HDMI compared to what it was like on Gingerbread). Let's not forget the advantage of pre-Jelly Bean OSes is Flash Support (it can still be quite useful on many sites), but only if the SoC can handle it well. The only other problem I can see with the OS is newer apps which might not work on older OS versions but there aren't too many of those.
azfarhus - Friday, August 24, 2012 - link
I currently owned a WDTV live streaming and want to know how it is compare to it?Price is not much higher then wdtv and I can also see few advantages over wdtv such as a full browser (flash and html5 support), ability to install new applications, built-in storage, motion remote etc. Video and audio format support is almost same but no idea about their video bit-rates and profiles but if it support Highe@L4.1 similar to wdtv then its good to go for me. Similarly no idea about the hardware yet e.g chip, memory etc.
Waiting for more details........
azfarhus - Friday, August 24, 2012 - link
also want to know if it support DLNA and subtitles.ghd nz - Monday, January 7, 2013 - link
http://www.ghdstraightenercanada.orgTheRock 30 - Sunday, February 10, 2013 - link
Its a shame this box is so slow because its so promising otherwise. I spend 50% of my time using and 50% waiting. The remote is pretty clumsy but external usb/mouse work great. I noticed that as soon as i pair a wireless mouse/keyboard, the cpu usage shoots to over 80% and makes it pretty much unusable, Has anyone else had this problem? Running ics 4.03