Meeting the Mede8er Multimedia Monster

Mede8er Multimedia Monster

I’m quite a fanatic when it comes to High Definition TV, media and hardware. I have a 42” Plasma screen set-up together with a new 23.6” AOC monitor. Having a plasma screen I am very picky when it comes to video and the quality thereof. I have been keeping up with the times and been enjoying Full HD content a lot, this leads me to the subject of this post.

There are a few media players on the market but to date I have not even considered getting my hand on one of them. Mvix did in the later models support Full HD content which was the first product I looked at. However it only had HDMI 1.0 support which means no sound through HDMI, so I was still not sold. I am pleased to say that I have found a media player worth looking at. This nifty device is called the Mede8er MED500X.

Mede8er Multimedia Monster

I’ll start off by listing the features for those of you who are interested and understand them:

Video Codec Supported: MKV, H264, DVD (VOB – IFO – ISO), DIVX, XVID, DAT, AVI, MPEG, HD MPEG-2, TS, HD MPEG-4, SP, ASP, AVCD (H.264), MTS, M2ts, WMV9, FLV, VC-1, Real Networks (RM/RMVB) 8/9/10, up to 720p

Audio  Codec Supported: MP3, MP2, OGG Vorbis, PCM, LPCM, AAC, RA, Dolby AC3 Passthrough, Dolby AC3 Downmix, DTS Passthrough, DTS Downmix, FLAC, WAV,
WMA Standard (DRM, & Advanced Profile not supported)
Photo format Supported: JPEG, BMP
File System Supported: FAT32, NTFS – UI Format Feature

Input / Output
•  HDMI 1.3, Component video, Composite Video
•  Stereo RCA audio for analogue audio connection
•  SD / Sony Pro Duo Card Slot
•  S/PDIF optical Output / Coaxial Digital RCA Output
•  Video output resolution – NTSC, PAL, 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p, 1080p24hz
•  USB – 2.0 HOST port x 2 (compatible to USB 1.1)
•  USB – 2.0 SLAVE port

General
•  3.5″ SATA Internal Hard Drive Bay up to 2TB compatible
•  Built in 40mm cooling fan – TPE mounts for low noise
•  Playlist creation from remote
•  Screensaver – Selectable in GUI setup
•  In folder JPEG preview feature
•  Easy navigation button use (excl DVD files)
•  Time Bar FF/FR and Time Bar jump
•  Media Library Jump To file number feature
•  Resume playback feature
•  Photo slide show with background music
•  Network – Ethernet 10/100 Mbps
•  Optional Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n up to 300Mbps)
•  Samba server – NAS storage
•  A/V streaming via UPnP Media Server (CNN – YouTube etc via optional program such as PlayOn,   Tversity etc)
•  Internet Radio (SHOUTcast)
•  File Copying – Card, USB, HDD and Network
•  Subtitle: SRT, SSA, SUB, SMI format

Contents: MED500X, RC, AC Adapter, Carry Bag, Cables – AV, HD HDMI, USB, Component, USB extension with Base

Looking at the specs it all seems to be pretty impressive. It is one of the first media players in SA to support HDMI 1.3, X264 Compression and 2TB hard drives. The whole look of the device is really appealing and elegant and the installation of the hard drive was very straight forward.

The setup of the system was very easy and took a mere 10 minutes to do. The menus on the Mede8er are super fast compared to some of the products that are available on the market and are very aesthetically pleasing and modern. Browsing around and looking for a specific file is relatively easy if you know your alphabet, it also has a in-folder viewer which allows you to see previews of all the contents inside a specific folder.

When copying from an external hard drive to the internal hard drive I reached full USB 2.0 speeds with no complications. The unit even works without any internal hard drive installed. You can run your content directly from a USB stick, a SD Card, a cameras hard disk and even streaming via LAN, or Wireless LAN.

Mede8er Multimedia Monster

I did play around with a lot of the features and settings; it played authentic 1080p MKV files, ripped from BluRay originals seamlessly and even when browsing around through the movies the sound and video stayed in perfect sync. I could also enjoy 5.1 Channel Dual Audio through the HDMI 1.3 output, this can also be forced down to 2ch Audio as to not lose the rear channels’ audio, should you be using it on a 2 speaker system. Up to this stage it was hard to find a media device which had all these features and specs.

Mede8er Multimedia Monster

The mede8er is neat and compact, easy to set up and even comes with a decent quality carry-bag. It is truly the perfect solution if you are in the market for a lightweight media player because of its Full HD support and x264 compression support it is at this stage unparalleled with its price of around R2000+ (without a hard drive).

It’s perfect if you are like me; very much concerned about your original disks. You can now copy them onto the Mede8er and have those files at the tip of your fingers. While your original disks sit safely in the safe! What’s more is you can pack up and go in a matter of seconds and view your movies on any kind of screen you’ll find these days.

Conclusion:

If I did want the best in media playback, and I had the Surround Sound with the HD ready TV already set up, I wouldn’t look any further than the Mede8er. Get yourself a BluRay ROM for the PC, use that to rip your BluRay movies to MKV format, and store them on your Mede8er. With a 2TB Hard Drive one can truly have a HUGE amount of data on there, thousands of music files and movies by the dozen. For the price of a 2TB Hard drive, a BluRay ROM for the PC and a Mede8er you will probably still struggle to find a stand-alone BluRay player. If this isn’t enough you can have a hard drive server, with 4TB of space, connected to your LAN network and stream content from there. The only thing it is lacking is a gyroscopic remote which would make browsing your media awesome; other than that I can not think of any other negative points.

I would gladly recommend it to anyone looking for a total Full HD solution which would be up to date for all the new and upcoming home entertainment technologies.