Sitecom Media Player 2TB MD-272 review -
Product Showcase
Product Showcase
Alright then, above we can see the Sitecom HDD TV Media Player 2TB MD-272. We received the SKU with with a 2 TB HDD built in. Let's have a look at the bundle.
The bundled items are definitely okay. Next to the HDD TV Media Player 2TB MD-272 unit you'll receive a very decent media remote control with batteries, a manual, power adapter, USB cable, component and composite cables and a good quality HDMI cable (1.3a).
The included media remote (still IR based) is average at best to be honest. The remote covers all the functionality, selecting chapters, fast forward, next, stop, play menu, setup, the entire spectrum of functionality that you may expect from a media remote control.
Unfortunately this model is not that intuitive, and the small and slim design makes it a little uncomfortable to work with. Some might like that, me personally not so much.
Being a media remote control it would have been nice to have UV reflective buttons, that would be very handy in the dark room while watching a movie.
But wait, there is an alternative.
Interesting is the fact that you can use your mobile phone to control the unit. You can download a free Media Remote App. It looks good, works OK but obviously will work in your local LAN network only, meaning you are working over WIFI with your phone.
Its a fun gadget alright. On a smartphone the app might be a little too small to work with, then again on a pad or tablet it will work fine. Both Apple IOS and Android versions are available by the way.
The Sitecom Powerline Ethernet adapters allow you to use your mains electricity circuit to transfer data, this way you can extend your network to wherever you have a free plug socket. The product we test today comes from Sitecom, their 500 Mbps plus Homeplug. The kit provides a connection of up to 500Mbits/sec. Divide that by 8 bits and you'd in theory would be able to see transfer speeds of 62.5 Megabyte per second. In practice, however we tested the maximum net data rate is much MUCH lower, 60~100 Mbits/sec - still that is faster than Wi-Fi and sufficient fenough or streaming high-definition video from say your PC with network shares to, for instance, your HTPC.
Sitecom Media Player 2TB MD-272 review
So the new Sitecom Media Player comes standard with a new improved GUI, but also hardware wise harbor the latest Realtek 1185 chipset, and that changes a thing or two as pretty much any of the performance issues we had noticed in 1080P content playback (with very high bit-rate) on the previous chipset now are a thing of the past. That Realtek 1185 chipset has an increased clock frequency, 500 MHz coming from 400 MHz on the original version. And as little as it sounds, it makes a serious difference. The HDD TV Media Player 2TB allows you to play digital films, music and photos directly on your TV with High Definition quality (1080p).
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Sitecom introduces a series of standard routers but with a twist. They tagged their mainstream range from X1, X2, X3 and a more enthusiast range from X4, X5 and X6. They are all Gigabit models, but obviously the higher the number the better the feature set. all models now come with cloud security, and that's the new feature we'll discuss later on. We test the X4 WLR-4000 model.
Sitecom MD-500 Digital Media Set review
One of the kits Sitecom recently introduced consists out of a Gigabit router for your intra and local area network connectivity, a storage unit which Sitecom calls 'Home Storage center' will function as NAS server for all your multi-media content like photo's, music and movies. And then a small all-in-one HTPC or TV media player as we like to call it these days. To top things off they throw in a Logitech Harmony 650 universal remote control. Aren't you just eager to see how this HTPC network platform will perform ?