Legit Mods and Ends Reviews
Diamond MP1000 Media Wonder Full 1080P HD Player Review
| Manufacturer: | Diamond Multimedia |
| Product: | MP1000 Media Wonder |
| Date: | Thu, Aug 12, 2010 - 12:00 AM |
| Written By: | Legit Staff |
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Final Thoughts on the Diamond Media Wonder HD
The OS was very similar to the Patriot Box Office with the most obvious difference being the Diamond branding. However, the OS seemed a bit more responsive on the Diamond Media Wonder HD. While attempting to log into a network share and again while listening to internet radio, the unit reset and returned to the main menu. This was an isolated incident and, after upgrading the firmware, the issues went away.
Streaming my content over the wired network worked quite well. However, network load is difficult to control and I did observe a hiccup in a 720p stream while a network file copy between other machines on the network was in progress. 1080p content streamed most of the time, but only when the network was completely quite. Even moderate network load could cause skipping in some of the action scenes in a 1080p backup of the Avatar BluRay. I understand that it would likely increase the cost of the unit, but support for 1000baseT would likely allow even 1080p BluRay ISO files to play smoothly. While navigating directories containing videos, the unit attempts to show a preview of the content. When using the network, this preview can take a while to load and slow down the user interface. Of course, you can turn off the previews in the setup menu if they bother you.
If you're willing to wait to copy files over to the USB attached drive, the Diamond Media Wonder HD was able to smoothly play just about everything that we could throw at it. It played DVD ISOs, complete with menus, beautifully. If you intend to use a 802.11g wireless adapter, having an external drive attached to the media player is a must. A wireless-N adapter should be able to keep up with streaming as well as 100baseT.
Opening up the Media Wonder HD revealed an elegant and innovative (among NMP devices) design which quietly dissipates heat. The back plate provides a complete array of outputs to get the video and sound to your components. The only standard missing is s-video, but there is very little demand for that.
Overall, the Diamond MP1000 Media Wonder HD is a solid player that will give you access to all of your HD content. It plays just about everything including DVD ISOs with menus and BluRay ISOs (without menus). The unit also correctly handles subtitles and allows you to adjust the size and positioning of those subtitles. At $113.19 (Amazon), it is priced just a bit higher than it's closest competition (other Realtek 1037 based players: Patriot Box Office at $92.89 and ASUS O!Play at $99.16, both at Amazon).
Legit Bottom Line:
The Diamond MP1000 Media Wonder HD is a great little media player that will play just about everything. There is a lot of competition in the network media player (NMP) market at the $100 price point and this player is in the middle of the pack.
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