Koby Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 Not looking for anything fancy.. just something cheap that'll work as a media player for my TV. As long as it'll play 720p to 1080p video fine, that's all I really need. If anyone can post some links to some PC's you find that'll have no problem playing videos for under $300 (preferably even a lot cheaper).The PC I did use for this job is only a few years old. It had Vista, 320 GB HHD, 2 GB Ram, and like a 2.2 dual-core processor... can't really remember but the problem is it's constantly failing to boot up and when it does it constantly ends up on a blue screen.. (I think maybe one or both ram sticks are bad, but since it doesn't happen 100% of the time it'll probably be hard to figure out which so I've just been too lazy.. that and I'm not positive that is the problem). If I could get that one fixed, that would probably be the best route. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big_teddy Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 I don't use a pc, but I do use a media player called Western Digital Media Player. It hooks up to the tv via rca cable or hdmi cable. Hook up your hard drive or usb card and away you go. It plays pretty much every format. I'm saving up for the "live" version. You can buy this on amazon for for under $200.00, and that one comes with a built in 1 tb hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JCBeezy Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 I don't use a pc, but I do use a media player called Western Digital Media Player. It hooks up to the tv via rca cable or hdmi cable. Hook up your hard drive or usb card and away you go. It plays pretty much every format. I'm saving up for the "live" version. You can buy this on amazon for for under $200.00, and that one comes with a built in 1 tb hard drive.Um...how come I have never heard of this? lol If they can handle MKV's with all the options, I must buy one ASAP.Sorry to interfere here Koby, I myself use an eMachines piece that I was given by a friend who owed me money, and it's been fantastic (they're oddly reliable...) since I use it just to mainly watch videos on my TV. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumRoll Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 yeah if it can play mkv's then I'm in. But does it support sub's?also, sorry for deviating from the OP's request but this could save me a lot of arse pain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diablo Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 You can build or buy something similar to this:http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330614763451&refid=storeBuilding your own will be lot cheaper I guess. Btw if you want to just figure out problem with your ram sticks just remove one of them for a day. And see exactly which stick causes the blue screen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koby Posted September 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 I don't use a pc, but I do use a media player called Western Digital Media Player. It hooks up to the tv via rca cable or hdmi cable. Hook up your hard drive or usb card and away you go. It plays pretty much every format. I'm saving up for the "live" version. You can buy this on amazon for for under $200.00, and that one comes with a built in 1 tb hard drive.Media Players are too limited, and to keep up with the times will have to be upgraded. For example at this current time there is no Media Player that supports 10-bit encoding. :/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrumRoll Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 OR they should tell microsoft to stop being gay and let me watch whatever the hell I like on my xbox WITH subtitles.I mean for god sake there isn't even a zoom funtion on the picture viewer, so I can't read the manga I stream from my computer.I need to get a laptop that can play HD videos but does not break the bank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renzourin Posted September 15, 2011 Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 well gee koby you had these kinds of issues and didnt tell me shame on you shame shame pull the ram chip out and see if you blue screen see if its one or two that are bad and do this because its a relatively cheap ass fix if it is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koby Posted September 15, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2011 OR they should tell microsoft to stop being gay and let me watch whatever the hell I like on my xbox WITH subtitles.I mean for god sake there isn't even a zoom funtion on the picture viewer, so I can't read the manga I stream from my computer.I need to get a laptop that can play HD videos but does not break the bank.I wish the PS3 would get mkv support. 99.8% of my archive are mkv.While xvid mp3 .avi, and h264 aac .mp4 work.. it's limited on the type of h264 aac .mp4 that will work. For example although Kaizoku-Fansubs release in that format for their One Piece subs a good portion of their episodes show up as corrupt data on the PS3. Everything has to be within a certain format and cannot by HighProfile 5.1 encoding. >< It's too much of a hassle to re-encode something just to watch on my TV.Sad thing is those stupid scene groups release their 720p American Live-Action TV shows in mkv which is useless to do when you've only got one audio track and no subtitles. May as well keep it mp4 for compatibility with other players but nooooo.. either way I don't grab them because the scene group bloats their encodes to like 2+ GB for a 40 minute show. >.> Could easily be done at around 700 MB. So I grab the 352p avi releases of live-action TV show scene releases since they aren't bloated and they work on my PS3. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† L4ugh Posted September 16, 2011 Report Share Posted September 16, 2011 I found a thread on the XBMC forum that covers different HTPC builds and it's fairly recent. The eSkRo's Builds under group five had a couple that could work for you. I would watch out for the builds that refer to nettops. According to the groups on the first thread they will play dvds but the nettops don't actually come with a rom drive. You'd have to buy an additional external rom drive to be able to watch dvds, and they don't mention that fact. Only problem is I think all the builds refer to barebone PCs, so you'd have to do some assembly. None of them come with ram, rom drives, or HDDs either.For the ram issue you may also be able to try memtest86. It's is a free open source program that comes with alot of the live linux distros. I don't really understand how to use it, but it's suppose to test your ram for errors. It's easy to get running I just don't really know what to do with it from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koby Posted September 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2011 For the ram issue you may also be able to try memtest86. It's is a free open source program that comes with alot of the live linux distros. I don't really understand how to use it, but it's suppose to test your ram for errors. It's easy to get running I just don't really know what to do with it from there.Hardware diagnostics say both sticks are working properly every time I scan it, yet every error the computer gets when I google it they all come back saying it's likely a problem with the ram. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
† L4ugh Posted September 16, 2011 Report Share Posted September 16, 2011 Do you know anyone that could lend you a stick of compatible ram for testing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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