Pivos AIOS Network HD Media Center PTGMCART35-US – 3.5" SATA I/II Hot Plug HDD Drive Bay HDMI LAN SDHC USB3.0 HTML 5 Browser UPnP P2P MKV Blu-Ray ISO Support

Pros: Very tinkerable, great community support with alternative firmwares. The stock firmware is nothing to shout about but it does what it says on the box. Having tinkered with a few I have settled on the semi-official R20 firmware which pretty much rocks the box. If you know a little about linux and are comfortable with telnet and busybox then you will be at home with this media player. I have it hardwired into my network on a GB switch with access to my media shares on my other machines, plus an internal 500GB Spinpoint drive. Setup of mountable nfs shares can be achieved and acess to things like Youtube etc are built in. UPnP operation is very straightforward and it will work with WMP 12 and Playon as the server. The aios can also be configured as a UPnP server itself. Video playback in all the formats I have tried is excellent and in certain areas puts my quad core HTPC to shame, especially with mkv files.

Cons: The built in internal memory is approaching it's maximum capacity as firmwares are released with out of memory errors being reported in some cases. The GB lan connection whilst perfectly suitable for streaming video is badly bottlenecked by the hardware and by the HDD interface in the box especially if your HDD is not ext3 format. For maximum throughput and to alleviate space issues the internal HDD should be formatted as ext3 with a swap partition activated. This also improves the throughput on the USB 3.0 port.

Overall Review: If pivosgroup continue with this product then I think they should probably think about increasing the available memory onboard or allow it to be user expanded. The community around this device is extremely helpful and pivos themselves seem to be very responsive to help requests and wishlists. This item was a replacement for an Argosy HV335T which served me well for 3 years until it died, it is a very capable replacement and the tweaks and interface make it a much better user experience. It certainly passes the wife test in terms of usability.

Pros: previously owned PBO and WD TV, this unit is now in the main living room for all my media playback. In a nut shell this is what you will be getting - 3.5" HDD support up to 3TB. - HDMI, Components, Composite, SPDIF, Coaxial - 3 x USB 2.0 ports, and 1 x USB 3.0 ports for connecting to a PC (super fast transfer rates!) - built in card reader - Supports BD-ISO NAV - Plays pretty much all file formats including FLV - Bitstream HD Audio - BT client - supports movie wall and poster mode via thumbgen - supports keyboard/ mouse - built in HTML5 browser! - built in hard reset (virtually un-brickable) ... and VERY customizable....

Cons: - it's slightly bigger than the PBO or WDTV due to the built in HDD cage. - browser does not support FLASH, but it's HTML5 so should be able to browse anything when things settle down a bit with the transition. - remote is full size, would recommend use harmony if you have it. - orange themed UI is a bit bright for my taste.

Overall Review: The hotswap HDD tray is completely tool less, you can mount a couple screws to the tray to secure it, or you can just slap it on like me. The hotswap is very nice consider if you have a couple HDD laying around with videos. The unit plays practically any thing I've thrown at it even some that didn't play on the PBO. What's really nice about it is FULL HD AUDIO support, now my receiver can kick in DolbyTrueHD and DTSMA mode. worth mentioning is their support is fantastic, extremely fast response. I broke my HDD tray and they sent me a free one. Was kicking myself that i have to pay for it, and that was a very pleasant surprise coming from the manufacture. Their forums is extremely active. If you don't like the original firmware, there are quite a few alternative solution posted by developer guys that you can pop it in literally in minutes. You can also customize the icons in the UI relatively easily. Overall, a VERY GOOD product worth every penny!

Pros: This is a nicely built piece, and not a flimsy plastic brick. The setup was quick and easy, though I had some issues due to my security setting for network use. Still uncertain if Netflix works through it, as I've yet to have a chance to set that up. I give it 5 eggs with some reservations, as I've only had this for about a week. My concern with all modern electronics is longevity, being that just about everything is made much less reliable (how long does the new TVs, refrigs, etc last these days compared to the older equipment). I hope to get a few years use from this piece, but only time will tell

Cons: None--yet.

Overall Review: It is really nice that this player has a slot for installing a 3.5 hard drive--too bad they are ridiculously over-priced now. A 1,2,0r 3 TB would be nice, but I am unable to sell one of my kidneys in order to afford one. Hey Newegg--better hard drive prices, please!!!!

Pros: Great Streaming from WHS 2011 box, no stuttering. Updated firmware was a snap. Lots of menu settings

Cons: Remote a little cheap feeling but it works. Does not see network box on network unless I input the IP addy so make sure yours is on a static IP then included login/pass which it then found it. Asus boxes didnt need to do this. REBATE IS TERRIBLE, just bought it and tried to set up rebate and website states invalid for rebate when I entered S/N. I got 2 and both rejected!

Pros: It does everything I expected it to do, I guess. Plays every file format I've thrown at it. Has expandable SATA HDD capabilities. Like the 1080p features. Easy to use, in some instances. See other thoughts...

Cons: HDD fan is no good. Too small to cool larger, more RPM HDDs. Hard to figure out for people with little tech experience. See other thoughts...

Overall Review: OK.....here it is.....this thing could totally be an awesome media player if it wasn't for a few things. First of all, it has a problem with the whole 1080P resolution. Doesn't fill up the screen on some TVs. Also the cooling fan doesn't do anything at all for cooling the HDD, if it's new or old technology. MEH!!! It doesn't work with N**fLiX at all, and we all know why. But maybe it will in the near future, hopefully. Anyway, it took forever to get it to stream in sync with my PC, but now I love the way it works. Kinda don't know how to rate this one. 2 eggs for applications, and 5 eggs for file compatibility. I'll Give it a four I guess...

Pros: Plays all the file formats that I throw in including iso files with menu. Detects internal hard drive every time without a problem. Has the most USB ports in compare with other media player.

Cons: Freezes sometimes when pressing buttons on remote control too fast. Yellow background causing difficulties in reading the screen. (This bothers me the most. I almost return the player bacause of this). Streaming on wireless is not good enough (hesitation/freezing from time to time). Poor instructions: I have not figured out how to use the HTML5 browser as well as all features related to the internet.

Overall Review: This is my first review ever (I've never written a review before). I wrote this review because several other reviewers complained that their internal hard drives, in many cases, were not detected. (I had a similar problem on another media player of a different brand before. After doing what I describe below, the problem was fixed). I want to share what I did and hope it may help. In my case here, I use a 1.5TB hard drive with a couple hundreds avi, mkv, vob and iso files with menu on it, and everything works fine so far. Below is what I did: 1. Use the Pivos player to format the internal hard drive (i.e. do not use Windows to format it). Then copy files to the internal hard drive through the USB3 connection. 2. Be patient when power up the player: after selecting "File Manager", wait until HDD appears on the menu before pressing any button. It works for me. Good luck. Now, for the rating: If I could figure out how to use the HTML5 browser and the internet, I would give it a 5 stars. For now, it's a 4-star player because it plays all the files I have on an internal hard drive. In addition, it plays all the files on a 2TB external hard drive plugged in an USB port. Besides, it has lots of features at an excellent price.

Pros: Plays lots of formats. HD quality video, digital audio

Cons: Unstable, horrible UI, terrible remote, cannot consistently perform intended functions, internal hard drive recognition issues

Overall Review: Ultimately, you will be disappointed. IN SHORT, I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND PURCHASING. The box looks nice from the outside (aside from the completely useless display), and has decent components. However, performance and overall user experience is sorely lacking. The gigabit ethernet can only sustain file transfers around 3 megs per second. Two different hard drives I've put in there are accessible only sporadically. The GUI is downright atrocious. It freezes and hangs too often. The remote is a total joke - you better have a harmony if you actually want to operate this thing. It's a shame because the AIOS runs linux and could be used for lots of great things. When it does work, it plays files well. However, it cannot do this on a consistent basis.

Pros: Its cheaper than a WDTV, plays Blu Ray ISOs and highly compressed media much better than a WDTV/roku2.

Cons: Stock firmware is an eyesore, hacked firmware is ok, but in the ends its all really laggy. Web interface is slow, and so is FTP. The data scrapper in this is weak compared to the WDTV, you basically can only use themoviedb, and there is no scrapper for TV shows or music.

Overall Review: This is a great player if all you're looking for is no-frills playback of blu ray ISOs, highly compressed MKVs, and etc. However, if you're looking for any other functionality, such as anything related with meta data, its useless. The interface is slow, but it gets the job done. I had gotten it for $50 after rebate, and for the price it was nice. However, I decided to step it up a notch and just get an HTPC. I really like the WDTV, but if you're on a budget this thing is hard to beat. If you're budget is a bit lax, then get the WDTV, and if you can build an HTPC, then there is really nothing better....