Hisense 1080p HD Media Player

[Malakai]

When pondering network media players for my future media server, the price of the hisense media player was just too tempting not to check it out, at around $54.99 plus shipping.

What exactly is this media player and what is it suppose to do? It's considered a USB media player, with LAN streaming.

The media player consists of a relatively small, flat purple/blue box, with two usb ports on the side as well as component a/v, spdif, rj45 lan, and hdmi connectors on the back.

The hisense player is for playing a large variety of audio, picture, and video files, from real media, up to 720p, and h.264, xvid, mpeg-4, etc, up to 1080p. It'll play mp3s and probably most image formats as well.

When I first connected the system, turned it on, and setup the network, I initially tried to get a 720p h.264 video file to play. It played the intro for a few seconds with lots of stuttering and then just quit. Several files did this. I then tried some SD xvids, and on at least one occasion, the player spit out an i/o error and quit playing.

At this time, I'm thinking, "why the hell would this company sell this player as an hd file player, when it can barely even play standard def material?" and, "you get what you pay for!" lol

After awhile, I decided to check the net, thinking I'd see a bunch of complaints about the system but instead found a few forums that talked about how badly the system played until they updated its software.

I found and updated the system software, via a usb flash drive, and the settings had to be redone. After that, I tried an HD file, and it played, with no stuttering and seemed to have no problem. I played a few minutes of several 720p files with no problems, but one of the only 1080p files I had actually pixelated very badly. It could be just a problem with that specific encode but who knows? I'll probably generally stick with 480i/p and 720p files anyway.

Conclusion:
I'll likely get a few more of these over time, for the media server. These are cheap and seem to do a pretty good job for what they do. The UI isn't anything to write home about. In fact, it's pretty plain jane, but functionality is what I wanted.

4.5 out of 5 stars easily for the price!

I may revise the rating over time if there are any pluses or minuses that arise.

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I'm also considering getting a much better/more expensive media player device as my main unit for one room, which has a hard drive and pvr functionality.

[Malakai]

Unfortunately, this box has already been discontinued. That doesn't mean they aren't worth getting used or as NOS, if the price is right.