Neodigits Helios X3000 HD Network DVD/Media Player

by NeoDigits

Product Details

• Item Weight: 10 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 10 pounds
• ASIN: B000MF6FWA
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,533 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Stream PC-stored movies, music and photos, along with internet media content straight to your television over wired or wireless network. The X3000 brings all the digital media you have only been able to enjoy on your PC into your home theater - all in HD 1080p! With such a wide range of multimedia formats it is able to play, the X3000 lets you take your audiovisual experience farther than ever before.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent unit, extremely flexible, great picture, January 24, 2007

By 

A. Gornick - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Neodigits Helios X3000 HD Network DVD/Media Player (Electronics)

I bought this after researching all the region free players on the market. This player does a fantastic job of upscaling and outputting HD video via component or HDMI (a rare feat for most players out there). It is region free out of the box with no modifications.

I've tested it playing a variety of avi's and mpegs with excellent results, both off of burned DVDs, CDs and streaming over the network (displayed to a 61" DLP).

The computer setup process is about as easy as it gets, just install it and the player will see your computer on the network that is running the software. No configuration necessary. You can fine tune what gets shared and also use as many servers as you want, streaming content from all the computers in your home.

The player's actual internal setup UI is a bit rough around the edges but once you get it set up, there is no real need to ever go back into it again. It offers a ton of configuration features and gives you every possible option you could want in terms of how your video is displayed (full screen, stretched, acutal size, 4:3, 16:9, etc.)

Audio is fantastic as you would expect from any digital audio source.

One downside is the included remote seems to have a weak IR light. So you have to be pointing the remote right at the player for it to work. If you use a universal remote however that will take care of those issues as most universal remotes have a very bright IR light.

Long story short, I have yet to find a network DVD player that is as flexible or capable as the X3000. Region-Free, Upscaling to HD, and Streaming and playing back common video filetypes via component or HDMI all at the same time are huge selling points.

Despite the few negatives I 5'd this player because it just plain rocks, and there is nothing on the market short of building an HTPC that can do what it can do. And even then an HTPC will be bigger and louder than this quiet little player.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Incomplete player., February 18, 2007

By 

drealxn (Movie time, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Neodigits Helios X3000 HD Network DVD/Media Player (Electronics)

I bought this player for watching movies (both xvid/divx avi and DVD formats) on an HDTV. The idea was to put all of my movies on a usb drive. Sadly, the functionality of this player is incomplete for what I want. While xvid/divx playback is impressive, DVD movies can only be played via the DVD drive. It can't read .iso files (or any other image file for that matter) or .ifo/.bup (DVD file formats). Its .vob (DVD audio/video format) reading is problematic. It seems to read .vob files individually instead of sequentially (like a DVD player should). Most movies have more than one .vob file, so the movie would stop. At this point you would have to play the next .vob file (like individual chapters).

The problem with this is that the only practical way to play a DVD is with the DVD drive. In order to put the DVD on the usb drive (and have it play correctly) is to convert it (i.e. xvid/divx). The problem with that is two-fold. You sacrifice image quality (which may not be a problem for some). Also, the conversion process can be both tedious and time consuming (tying up your computer for quite some time).

I emailed neodigits about iso compatibility. This is their reply (quick turn around by the way):

*****

Thanks for your interest in our products.

Current NeoLink software will not be working with ISO video format, although this format is being logged and will be addressed in future firmware.

As a temporary solution we recommend customers to try using the Wizd media server. This is a third party media server and is available via free download:

[...]

Hope this helps.

*****

Anyway, from what I can tell (from reading online forums), this has been a problem for some time.

Good points:

- Plays many video formats. Including HD.

- Up scaling up to 1080P. (Great for watching on big screen TVs)

- Wireless networking.

- NTFS USB 2.0 port for Hard Drive Storage. (Many players only have FAT or USB 1.0 or nothing) Don't get a player with USB 1.0, it's too slow for high quality encodes like HD.

- Online Firmware Upgradeable. (A must, unless you are looking for an expensive paperweight in the future. Online makes it a snap too)

- Wide range of video outputs. (Component 1080I works great for me)

- Fast turnaround on email.

- HDMI

Bad points:

- No disc image support. (Kind of defeats the purpose of storing all your DVD's on the hard drive.)

- No .ifo/.bup support. (Fix this, or disc image support. Either is a workable solution)

- Remote is really bad. Needs stronger IR. (Not sure if a Universal Remote works here, never tried it.)

- Weak external subtitle support. (As long as the subtitles are embedded, you should be fine; however, it doesn't support many external sub files - only one that I am aware of. DVD movies with subs should be fine.)

- On screen menu could use work. (Not important enough to be a purchase factor)

- Only displays 32 movies per screen. (Just use sub-folders.)

- Only 100 baseT wired network. (Well, I'm spoiled with gigabit. Not really a factor)

- No Disk Drive included. External connection only. (Most players that have them don't include one that is big enough anyway.)

If they ever fix the DVD problem, this would rate a 5/5.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A bit clunky to use, company has abandoned support., March 21, 2008

By 

A. Skinner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Neodigits Helios X3000 HD Network DVD/Media Player (Electronics)

I bought the device after reading "Rave" reviews on reputable tech sites.

With WiFi, ethernet, DVD, and HDMI, it sounds like the perfect multimedia device. Unfortunately, the unit fails in so many places.

1. The remote is cheap and misfires. Best to use a universal remote like the Harmony.

2. The DVD playback is good when it works, but there are skipping and sound issues on a number of DVDs (i.e. Howles moving castle, variety of PAL discs.) The X3000 doesn't quite get being a DVD player right.

3. The menus for UPnP is basic at best. No album images or icon display support. Pure text and limited navigation capabilities.

4. Setup menu is horribly ugly and awkward to work with. Including rogue buttons labeled "#CCCCCC" which are color hex codes. I pushed it and it reset my unit to factory defaults.

5. Support will not answer your questions either via email or in the community forums. There has not been any software updates since April of 2007.

6. Streaming playback fast-forwarding and rewinding can be extremely confusing as it jumps forwards and backwards and will not stop where you want it to.

7. The construction of the unit is made with cheap materials. The front buttons have a flimsy feel to it and at times do not even work. You have to reboot the unit for them to work again if they do stop.

8. Sometimes the 'play DVD' menu option disappears and you will have to power cycle the unit to be able to play a DVD.

There are many bugs and unresolved issues in this player. I do still own it and I put up with the problems as I have no other choice. The only plus I can give is that the picture quality is great when you do not need to interact with it.

I would say this is a NO BUY and wish I could personally return this device.

For the price they are asking. You would think that the developers would put some effort into making the unit as flawless as possible and giving a little customer service.

The company has lost interest in their own products.