[mythtv-users] uPNP hardware recommendation..

Misty P mistyp at thekorn.net
Wed Apr 23 20:34:35 UTC 2008


Brad Fuller wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 9:46 AM, Misty P <mistyp at thekorn.net> wrote:
>
>>  BTW, I'm using a ZyXEL DMA-1000 (non-W) as my mythTV UPnP box.  For
>>  $100 ($150 with $50 rebate) out the door, I couldn't come anywhere
>>  *close* with anything else.
>
> The DMA-1000 looks like nice, what are the downfalls of it (besides
> what you mentioned)? Are you playing HD with it? Can it play HD and
> downconvert well thru the S-Video out?

I'm regularly playing 1080i (and 720p) ATSC OTA HD with it, works great! 
It's kind of funny that you ask if it can downconvert through the s-video 
output, because that's exactly how I'm using it.  Actually, I'm going down 
all the way to composite video with a svideo->composite cable, and pumping 
it through an old but still working great 25" tube.

I've run into two negatives with it.  It has absolutely no idea what to do 
with a MKV file.  Not that big of a deal for me personally, but it's a "be 
aware" issue.  It also has no idea what to do with h.264.  divx yes, xvid 
yes, avi's and atsc mpeg2 (all flavors) yes, h.264 no.

At $100, I can live without h.264.  At $150, you're now within spitting 
distance of the popcorn hour machine.  The ZyXEL does have the distinct 
advantage that you can buy one and have it show up in a few days rather than 
a few months.  (That's what put me off popcorn hour in the first place -- I 
needed something NOW, not *next* quarter!)

I don't know how often the rebates happen for the DMA1000.  It's possible I 
was just lucky, but if you're not in a hurry it might be worth keeping an 
eye on.




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