[rocklee]

Hey folks,

Been itching for a replacement for my current player (DIVCO M5000u), its awesome but my mobile phone pretty much plays the same formats now (DIVX/XVID/AVI etc), doesn't support MKV or 1080P format and has been buggy sometimes. Not bad for something almost 5 years old.

Some of the things I really liked about this DIVCO player have been:
- the ability to set a timer to switch off (30/60/120 minutes) which I also do with my TV when watching something at night as I like to watch something to fall asleep (sometimes if I don't set a timer the TV will be running all night)
- a "GO TO" button that allows me to go to any time of the movie rather than use the FF/RWD buttons repeatedly
- Volume button that lets me control the volume without reaching for the TV remote

Bought a Samsung blueray player that supports MKV and has been fantastic as a temporary replacement. I can connect my external 2.5" drive and play MKV off it, though it will lag on some high end MKV files. Navigation is very very slow, cumbersome and still a shot in the dark when playing some movies. Certainly not a final replacment for my DIVCO but was dying to play MKV on something other than my computer. Plus it can view youtube videos from the network

What I'm looking for as a replacement:

- can support internal 3.5"/2.5" hard drive
- can play all the popular movie formats including 1080p (RMVB isn't that important as I don't have any RMVB movies)
- can support all subtitles
- NAS support (doesn't have to have wifi but would be convenient)
- has a good and fast interface (I've never had picture or movie preview so anything current is better)
- can produce great surround sound
- can use in different countries (want to use in Japan)
- would love support for 720p/1080p movies from my Canon 7D DSLR
- would love youtube connectivity

The players that I've looked at:

eGreat S2 - Seems perfect, uses Sigma (was told this was better than Realtek), supports gigabit ethernet (but no wifi), plays everything including blueray through the network (gigabit), eSata connectivity or built-in hard drive. I haven't heard much about this player and reading everything on mpcclub, iboum and the internet gave me little information other than the egreat forum which seems to report a lot of bugs. Bit on the expensive side ($255 AUD).

mede8er 500BX - Much older than the mede8er but seems to get quite good reviews particularly here, seems to plays everything including blueray. Cheaper than the egreat S2 ($210 AUD including a WIFI module) which is a huge bonus but misses out on some hardware features like eSata connection and slower network, and I'm not sure about Realtek lasting for the next 5 years.

I was quite keen on the S2 but the lack of reviews and feedback means that this model may still be a work in progress. The Mede8er 500BX gets good reviews and seems like a more reliable bet, but am I buying 2 year old technology?

Did not look at WD, AC Ryan etc because they don't support internal hard drives.
Did not look at the Dune HD players because they're too expensive.
Did not look at DIVCO again because they're expensive (I paid about $300 for the M5000u and felt that I should have gotten a lot more out of it especially for network and 1080p).

Thanks for your advice!