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The market is rapidly witnessing home entertainment media players from various manufacturers. Most claim to be play the latest MKV formats, while some support torrent clients and others can also stream videos and RSS feeds from the internet. The Compro VideoMate NMC950 is not different. It is a full HD multimedia player, but unlike the rest, this one supports an internal storage—a 3.5-inch or a 2.5-inch SATA hard drive up to 2 TB max. The media player supports video formats such as MKV, MP4, AVI, MOV, WMV, VOB and H.264 in full HD 1080p and audio files which include WAV, MP3, OGG and FLAC. Subtitles including SRT and SMI, SUB and SSA are also supported. The NMC950 also features 5.1 and 7.1-channel Dolby Digital AC3 and DTS decoding and bitstreaming for a complete high fidelity and theatre-like surround sound experience while enjoying your favorite HD videos. You can stream videos from the network or Internet and also set the device to download audio or video content from the internet using the built-in torrent client. As the player features a 10/100 Mb/s Ethernet option, you can also store your media content and have it enabled for other users to access the files over the network using the SAMBA service. The NMV650 has a very rugged build quality and sports a brush-finished aluminum body. The front panel is a glossy translucent acrylic that can be easily scratched and also attracts dust within a few minutes. The front panel features the power button, a USB port for quickly and conveniently inserting a USB pen drive or external storage and a few LED indicators for power, HDD, USB and LAN activity. However, a control panel seems to be a missing feature on the front panel. The rear features the HDMI port, an optical S/PDIF, Ethernet and USB host ports, and composite and component video outputs. A mini USB port is available for transferring and organizing the media content on the internal storage after connecting the unit to a computer. The rear also comprises of an exhaust fan, power connector and power switch. The shell being made of an aluminum body also doubles as an efficient heat dissipation surface for the NM950. A 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch hard drive can be inserted into the device for internal storage, though this is not necessary, if you wish, you can also use the player only via an external USB storage. Two screws available on the rear panel, when unscrewed, helps expose the player for the hard drive installation. A 2.5-inch hard drive can be installed with the bundled bracket, while a 3.5-inch hard drive can be inserted without any hassles. Just slide in the hard drive,mount the necessary screws and your player is ready for use. Once the unit is powered-on, the player initiates a command to format the internal hard drive for further use. Though the formatting is not necessary, doing it once is recommended because the player asks for the hard drive to be formatted (if not done) every time it is switched-on. All the data on the hard drive will be erased on doing so, hence it is recommended that you install the hard drive, format it and then transfer your media content to the player. Once the NMC950 is ready for use, a few settings at the beginning needs to be set depending on the type of television set you deploy for playback. If you have an LCD TV with an HDMI feature, it is recommended that you set the resolution and audio settings accordingly. A user guide PDF file available on the bundled CD helps with the installation procedure, resolution and audio settings. Once set, you can sit back and enjoy your movies without any further hassles. The user interface is very intuitive and easy on the eye with a pleasing theme and well set icons for navigating through the menu. The player has features such as resume playback, movie preview, file copy, network file retrieval and more. A few hours of using the media player can make you an expert with the player to utilize its full potential. Options such as movie and music playlists are also available for enjoying your media content without any trouble. The NMC950 is also compatible with most wireless USB dongles for WI-FI network connectivity too. Setting up the network is quite simple. You can use DHCP or static IP addresses and connect it to your home network or router and also setup the player to use the internet with DHCP, static IP or PPPoE options. The wireless option does feature WPA and WPA2/PSK security features. The large-sized remote control was a little disappointing, but it does sport ergonomically placed control buttons. It is quite slim, has a matte-finish front face and a rubber-finished bottom for extra grip. The remote is almost a foot long and features all the required buttons to operate the player. Hotkeys such as subtitle, 30-second forward/reverse skip, angle, zoom, etc are available. The remote also has a very good sensitivity and the response time is quick too. The player powers up quite fast unlike other players in the market which takes almost a minute to boot, initialize the internal/external storage and display the menu interface on the screen. The performance of the NMC950 is seamless. The HD video playback quality is flawless, but a few glitches with the user-interface seem to annoy, especially while searching for your favorite movie(s) in the list of hundreds of files available on the hard drive. The navigation speed in browsing for media files is pretty sluggish—each movie file/title when highlighted sends the player into an information-retrieval mode such as file size, time and resolution. This takes almost two or three seconds to highlight on the screen before you can actually start playing the video. So if you browse to your favorite title and press the ‘Enter’ or ‘Play’ button, the player does not respond to the remote, instead you have to wait for a while and then press the ‘Play’ button again. Another flaw we found on the player is that the manufacturer has not included any display or control buttons on the player’s front panel. This leaves you to completely control the player with the remote —so if you lose the remote, you would be helpless as you will not be able to use the player at all unless you contact the manufacturer and order for another piece. The absence of a display on the player also makes it difficult to know which file is playing or how long the video playing for. Apart from this issue we did not find any other flaw with the unit. The player bundles an IR remote control, a power adapter, composite and component video cables and a mini USB cable. The manufacturer should make a note that if the player is aimed at high-definition media playback, an HDMI cable should have been included in the package. Specifications:
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Tags: Media player , movie player , hard drive based media player
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