The next generation

For quite some time now there has been a lot of interest in the Xtreamer media player. Consumers had high expectations of this new player, which was announced a while ago and has now been introduced. The combination of claimed playback options for all codecs and container formats, network support and a price of less than 100 euro make the device potentially very desirable. Until now, Full HD-capable media players with network support easily cost twice as much. Thanks to a new generation of chips, it has now become possible to acquire a Full HD player at a significantly lower price. The question of how the affordable newcomers hold up to the expensive veterans remains to be answered. Earlier this week, Hardware.Info was one of the first outlets to receive a test model of this long-anticipated media player. Of course, we immediately put it to the test.

In the box

Our first impression of the Xtreamer is that it is a rather compact device, bundled with an equally diminutive remote.

Characteristically for a device only available on the internet, the box holds several adapters to make the media player compatible with different power sockets all over the world. Actually that is quite convenient since the Xtreamer is sufficiently portable to take along on a holiday abroad.

The rest of the package seems rather sparse: a combined RCA stereo audio- and composite video cable, a USB cable and a plastic standard to mount the device in an upright position. Remarkably enough for a Full HD media player, an HDMI cable is missing, so be sure to acquire one beforehand if you want to start your Full HD movie night the moment you receive your Xtreamer.

A short installation manual and a pair of batteries for the remote conclude the box’s contents.

The Xtreamer box only holds a few items.

The device

As mentioned, the Xtreamer is a compact device, much smaller than most of the other media players that we had at the Hardware.Info test lab. Despite its size, the player still offers room for an internal hard disk, albeit only 2.5 inch models. For now this means the maximum capacity is limited to 500GB, which is still plenty for most users. With the continued decrease in hard disk prices, a 2.5 inch 500 GB notebook disk will only set you back about 70 euro.

The front of the device is equipped with an IR receiver and LED; the rear features connectors for analog stereo audio, composite video, digital optical audio and HDMI. Also present is a mini-USB slave connector and two USB host ports. One of those ports can be used to directly transfer files to the Xtreamer from a PC, provided a hard disk is present in the device.

The Xtreamer can be connected directly to a PC and used as an external storage device.

Optionally, an 802.11n USB adapter is available for the Xtreamer, making wireless networking part of its feature set as well. As we did not have this adapter included with our test sample, we could not verify wireless performance. However, initial reports from buyers appear to indicate less than stellar performance using the wireless adapter.

The rear also houses a small fan, which we were aghast to find out produces a horrific amount of noise when the media player is running. Fortunately , the fan speed can be adjusted in three settings, as well as be disabled from firmware 1.0.1 onwards. Note: the Xtreamer website highly recommends to not disable the fan, it even states running the fan on a lower setting than ‘Medium’ during the playback of HD movies is not advisable. On the other hand, during our tests in a relatively warm test lab, the Xtreamer ran for hours with a large diversity of content, without running the fan faster than its lowest setting. Heat production is always a problem with media players; the Sigma 8635 also becomes rather hot. The ideal positioning for a media player would be a spot where excess heat can dissipate quickly.

This tiny fan is capable of producing vast amounts of extremely irritating noise.

Those who wish to use a hard disk in combination with the player will have to keep the fan enabled. After all, 2,5 inch hard disks also produce quite some heat. Reportedly, an upcoming firmware update will include temperature-controlled fan speeds.

Megahertz race

The Xtreamer owes its interesting price to functionality ratio to the fact that it contains a more modern chip than the ones present in competing media players, thus making it possible to reduce the production costs. Additionally the entire Xtreamer project appears to be able to benefit from economies of scale, while remaining close to the source in regards to production. Selling the product only through the Xtreamer website means distributor and reseller margins are shaved off as well. It all combines to work out at a very interesting price point, even if shipping costs can amount to a significant increase in the final price.

In the next few months we will see more devices based on this new Realtek chip – or a different version of it. Exactly which version is used by a brand is far from clear. The Xtreamer uses a model with the RTD1283DD code; similar but apparently non-identical chips are present in for instance ASUS’ O!Play and AC Ryan’s Playon!HD. One thing all models have in common is the look of the standard interface, present in media players using the older 1262 and 1282 chips as well. The biggest difference in this new generation, is the increase in performance and of course HD codec support.

The standard Realtek interface: main menu's on top, folders to the left, previews and meta information to the right. Above the implementation in the AC Ryan Playon!HD.

De versie van de Xtreamer.

The 1283DD is a 400 MHz chip, much faster than the chip most used so far in Full HD players, Sigma Design’s 8635, which is clocked at 300 MHz. It will be interesting to see how this Megahertz race will develop itself: we expect the Popcorn Hour C-200 in our test lab shortly, which will feature a new Sigma 8463, a chip that reportedly runs at 667 MHz.

The competition benefits the consumer: after all, the Xtreamer is a device that is not only significantly cheaper than similar models of about a year ago, but also performs a lot better. It requires about 25 seconds to boot up the device, from the moment you press the on-button on the remote till you are able to navigate the menu. This is a big improvement over the older models.

The starting menu of the Xtreamer is available within 25 seconds of turning on the device.

Functionality

The Xtreamer offers the same functionality as most other Realtek based media players, which isn’t a bad thing at all. Apart from the mentioned method where one fills an optional hard disk by linking the player to a PC directly, files can also be transferred to the Xtreamer by means of a network connection or USB-device, connected on either of the two host-ports.

When equipped with a hard disk, it can also be approached over the network: the Xtreamer offers rudimentary NAS-functionality. Additional hard disks that are attached via USB will also become available this way.

The UPnP media server and NAS-functionality can be switched on and off.

Apart from these internal network functions, the Xtreamer also offers the possibility to play media from the internet, using a number of pre-defined settings. Supported sites include Youtube, Picasa and Flickr. Browsing through the archives of these services is relatively easy, using the on-screen keyboard. Youtube videos cannot be displayed in fullscreen, a shortcoming that is hardly extraordinary and, given the low resolution of the display, not a real problem either.

Another feature is the integrated UPnP Media Server, which makes it possible to approach the Xtreamer over the internet, allowing for media playback on different locations as well. Lastly, an FTP server has also been integrated. To optimally use these services, an account on Xtreamer.net is required.

File playback

The primary function of a media player is of course media playback and it has to be said, the Xtreamer manages its main job excellently. The major part of our test suite ran flawlessly, with remarkably fast, smooth playback. We should mention that this performance is specifically high when compared to other media players, there still is the occasional 'loading' animation, if only briefly visible. The test results linked to this article will provide a detailed overview of exactly which file types are supported by the Xtreamer.

A tiny portion of the files used for testing.

We ran a large variety of tests: apart from the conventional test suite, we also tested a hard disk filled with movies and TV-episodes in several HD formats. H.264-encoded MKV’s, Mpeg 2 HD and WMV VC-1 as well as AC3, DTS, AAC and WMV surround audio tracks. Almost all files enjoyed flawless playback. Especially the support for DTS 2.0 downmixing is a welcome functionality, given the fact that many MKV-files use this technology, rather than the more widely supported AC3 (Dolby Digital) format. All Dolby and DTS versions can be sent to an external decoder as ‘raw’ stream as well, including Dolby TrueHD and DTS Master Audio, thanks to the HDMI 1.3 connector.

DVD-9 ISO in AVCHD format is beyond the Xtreamer's abilities - just like any other current media player.

The Xtreamer handles audio formats equally well; apart from conventional standards such as MP3 and WMA, the player also supports AAC, OCG and FLAC. Users that wish to display an image gallery on their television should run into few problems. JPG and GIF are no problem, Xtreamer claims that even JPG files of 40 MB can be displayed without issues. Our PNG test files however were a no-go for the device, despite the claimed support. A 32 MB TIFF file also failed to display, though smaller TIFF images worked just fine.

By and large, file and codec support is very good. As always with media players, 100 percent compatibility cannot be guaranteed due to the large variety in how codecs are applied. The Xtreamer handled the almost forty different extra files we added to our usual test suite just fine.

Subtitles and search

Regarding subtitles, the most common types are supported. None of the – limited –  selection we threw at the device failed to be displayed. A pleasant feature is the possibility to adjust both the position and size of the subtitling during playback. Even most A-brand Blu-ray players cannot manage that feat.

Using the buttons of the directional pad on the remote, placement and size of the subtitles can be altered.

Another example of the power of Realtek’s processor is the zooming function: up to 8x zoom is possible and it is both fast and smooth. With HD material, zoom is more than a gimmick, giving enthusiasts opportunity to for example analyse special effects in detail.

An excellent feature is the implementation of navigation within a file, for example a movie. By pressing the ‘GoTo’ button, a menu pops up which allows navigation in three different ways, by title, chapters and time. Selection of a certain time interval immediately makes the content skip to that position, without any delay.

Skipping to any position within a movie is simply and quickly done.

Image quality

The image quality of the media player is relatively decent. Full HD files look good by themselves, but the upscaling of lower resolutions is done fairly properly as well. The HQV test indicates the presences of basic post-processing in the device, but noise-canceling and frame rate conversion are for example absent. Sadly the chip is not even capable of 3:2 pulldown conversion, a feature so characteristic in the preceding 1262 and 1282 chips.

User experience

Though file support and performance are important, they alone are not enough for a successful device. If a player has clumsy navigation or a slow response to the remote, it will not be used frequently. A badly designed remote control, frequent crashes or a noisy cooling system are other aspects that have a detrimental effect on the user experience.

In this area, the Xtreamer is a combination of both positive and negative points. First the positive side: the standard Realtek interface, present on other devices as well, has quite some annoying issues, but the Xtreamer manages to tackle most of those. For example, the names of folders and files do not feature a slash on both sides anymore (/filename/). There are also a lot more file and folder names visible in listings than normally. That makes perfect sense, as a Full HD screen has plenty of room for such applications.

The Xtreamer displays rather a lot more folder and file names than the standard Realtek interface.

The more efficiently used screen space does however come at a price: 576p (PAL progressive) display lacks parts of the top and bottom of the menus. Given the fact that the player only really shines when combined with a HD Ready or Full HD television, this isn’t much of an issue.

Also positive is the response time of the menu, which is almost too fast: hold down the ‘OK’ button a moment too long and you could wind up in a deeper menu than intended. It does not yet have the smooth experience of interfaces we know from ‘A-brand’ hard disk recorders or for example the Playstation 3 Crossbar, but is still a big improvement to the ‘press a button, wait  seconds’ experience most older media players provide us with.

Like almost all Realtek-based players, it is possible to show a movie preview on the right side of the screen. That’s useful if you want to browse through a disk full of new files, but it gets old quick during normal use: the player will not allow you to start proper playback of a file until it has loaded the preview; pressing a button prematurely results in a rather annoying ‘action prohibited’ sign in the upper right corner of the screen.

The remote control has a clear lay-out and is easy to use.

The remote control lay-out is also good, having the navigation positioned directly above the playback buttons. The most important other functions, such as subtitles, audio tracks, etc, are clearly marked on the remote. The button response is decent and it feels comfortable as well. In short, a lot better than we’ve experienced with more expensive players.

User experience - continued

Unfortunately, not all news is positive. The most important issue has already been stated: in its highest setting, the fan produces a sound that highly limits the usability of the player. At a 15 cm distance, we measured a production of 43,7 dB(A) in our soundproofed enclosure. It is obvious that the sound will not be quite as loud at a greater distance, but the tone frequency of the small fan is high enough to be a persistent nuisance. When we adjust the fan speed to the lowest setting, the sound production is acceptable, but when listened to from up close, the fan still rattles audibly. It appears Xtreamer has cut back ever so slightly too much on the quality of the fan and we hope that it will not become even louder on frequent use. The best thing would be to replace the fan altogether in a new hardware revision.

As mentioned, the 1.0.1 firmware allows the fan to be disabled, with an increased risk of crashes due to overheating as a penalty. During our test the Xtreamer’s casing easily reached a temperature of 45 degrees Celsius. Though this is not unusual for set top boxes and media players, in order to prevent system crashes the chip should definitely not be allowed to grow much hotter.

Media players are bound to crash every now and then; the integrated mini-kernel has no decent error-correction feature and when the player finds itself in trouble, the standard approach is a simple self-reset. The Xtreamer does this faithfully and reliably at such times as on removal of a USB device while the Xtreamer was switched on and on playback from a USB powered harddisk. In the latter case 1080p movies would crash as soon as a button on the remote was pressed during playback, regardless of it being a volume adjustment or some other button. Connecting a network cable while the device was running also caused it to reboot.

Firmware and support

We received the player with a version 1.0.0 firmware, which clearly was a bit rough around the edges, particularly in the area of various translations. The Dutch version of the menu was only half translated.

The Dutch version of the interface contains quite a bit of English or rather, Chinlish.

Version 1.0.1, available at time of writing, delivered significant improvements in this area, even though the menu still remains far from fully translated. One can but hope that future firmware updates will appear on a regular basis adding improvements to the language department, as the English used in places is equally risible, such as the ‘File manager your all file’ header of the File manager section of the menu.

Version 1.0.1 of the firmware weighs in at a hefty 117 MB and adds support for 1080p 24p video, some additional language packs and the aforementioned ‘disable fan’ option.

The Xtreamer site contains by now a sizeable Knowledge Base which contains quite a bit of useful information, such as a page with links to useful software for the serious digital movie enthusiast. It appears that there is a serious support team behind the product, though only time will tell if this will result in regular firmware improvements. Sadly it seems the support team shares a desk with the PR team: the Knowledge Base also contains a lot of statements that are nothing more than puur marketing. This ranges from heavily biased comparisons with competing products to meaningless quotes such as ‘The ports on the devices have also been configured, with a USB port placed at the rear panel, next to the optical S/PDIF.’ Add to that the fact that the only firmware update so far cannot be found in the category firmware updates, but has to be discovered through the General FAQ, as well as a few Lorem Ipsum placeholder-filled pages, and it is obvious that is not just the player that has some rough patches to iron out.

The 'partners' page of Xtreamer.net as of 16 July 2009.

Because of that, we do hope that the Xtreamer is not a one-time stunt to sell a large quantity of Realtek chips, but that support will be available in a year and onwards as well. The question of support is doubly important in view of the fact the player is only sold online; while Mvix is explicitly involved with the product, the device is marketed under a different brand name, which raises the question of how much faith Mvix has in the product, which at this point is more powerful than any available model with Mvix’ own brand.

Conclusion

Considering all of the above, we cannot but conclude that the Xtreamer really offers serious value for money. Until now, the WD TV HD was the king in the price/performance area when it came to Full HD media players, but given the small price difference, the Xtreamer takes its place.

Realtek’s new chip makes the Xtreamer outshine the last generation of media players in almost every department. Of the three devices with a new Realtek chip we have seen in our lab so far, the Xtreamer appears to be the best product: the interface looks the best, the remote works just fine and though the optional 2.5 inch hard disk can be limiting, it does make the player quite a handy product to take along on holiday as well. Though the player costs 99 euro’s, the shipping adds another 20 euro’s, leaving the total at 119 euro, similar to the announced price of the upcoming ASUS O!Play and 30 euro less than AC Ryan’s Playon!HD. These two offer an eSATA connector and a 3,5 inch hard disk option and a cardreader respectively. They are also a lot bigger while their interface remains behind the Xtreamer when it comes to HD screen utilization.

The biggest cons of the player are the combination of heat production with a loud fan, as well as the at time rough user experience, exemplified in incidental reboots and poorly translated menus. Given the numerous pros of the device, predominantly its excellent support for Full HD files and codecs, as well as the important Dolby and DTS downmixing, these problems are acceptable for now. Though the Xtreamer is certainly not the ultimate media player, it is one of the best attempts we have seen in our lab and well deserving of a Hardware.Info Silver Award.

This new chip generation certainly brings us some interesting devices. We are looking forward to see what other brands are planning to do with the newly available computing power. If you wish to purchase a media player at this point, the Xtreamer is an excellent choice. However, with the recent rapid developments, it is quite possible that the market for media players will have changed entirely in the course of a few months. By then, more devices with Realtek’s new chips will be available, possibly polished to increase user friendliness as well. Also available then will be models with the new Sigma 8643 chip, as well as the first player with Intel’s upcoming media processor, the 800 MHz CE3100, which will first be used in Conceptronic's Yuixx media player.

Xtreamer