Codec Compatibility

Test format / Codec	THEbox
AC-3	yes
3ivx D4	no
Canopus Soft DVSD	no
DAT CD-Video	yes
DivX 3.11	yes
DivX 3.20	yes
DivX 4.1	yes
DivX 5.03	yes
DivX 5.2	yes
DivX 6 (.divx)	yes
DivX 6 (.avi)	yes
DivX 6 with menus	yes **
DivX 2-PASS	yes
DVD Video (.vob)	yes
DVD with menus	no
Leadtools 1.0	no
Matroska	no
Morgan M-JPEG 3.0	no
Motion JPEG	yes
MP3 Fraunhofer	yes
MP3 Lame	yes
MP3 VBR	yes
MP3 CBR	yes
MPEG-1	yes
MPEG-2	yes
MS Media Player 9	no
MS MPEG4 V1	no
MS MPEG4 V2	yes
MS MPEG4 V3	yes
On2 VP3 V3.2	No
OGG	no
PCM Audio	yes
Sigma Realmagic	yes
SVCD (MPEG-2)	yes
VOB (MPEG-2)	yes
VCD (MPEG-1)	yes
WMA	yes
XviD MPEG3 V2.1	yes
XviD + AC3	yes
* video hangs, ** no DivX menu

 

Summary And Evaluation

 

THEbox HP-25OTG

 

Weighting	Factor	Score
20%	Features	80%
40%	Ergonomics	65%
5%	Price	85%
10%	Design	95%
25%	Service	50%
	Overall score	68%

 

Thanks to its versatility, the HP-25OTG is an ideal travel companion that can play back virtually any audio and video format. The tiny unit only reaches its limits when it comes to playing back DVD directories.

 

Source:- http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hard-disk-drive-video-players-hit-mainstream,1107-9.html

Player Setup: Not Much Of Use Here

Lots of setup options? Don't be fooled by its looks.

While the player's preference list contains all the absolutely critical functions, it dispenses completely with any instructions or explanations. Users are left scratching their heads over mysterious acronyms and jargon in both English and Chinese. The manual also lacks clear answers regarding what kinds of effects a modification might produce.

Selecting the TV standard

Two language versions are available

The on-screen text can be deactivated

Resetting the screen

File sorting

(De-)activating the screensaver

Source:- http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hard-disk-drive-video-players-hit-mainstream,1107-8.html

Setup Menu: Audio And Video

Not needed, since the remote has buttons that do the same things

Setup Menu: Slideshow

Image display settings

 

Source:- http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hard-disk-drive-video-players-hit-mainstream,1107-7.html

Not Many Setting Options Either

The main menu on the setup page

To get to the setup menu you have to push a button on the remote control. You'll search in vain for many menu options to configure, though. The menus are superfluously large, making it seem as if you have a lot of options to set, but you really don't.

Setup Menus: Photo Settings

Slideshow setting options

Source:- http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hard-disk-drive-video-players-hit-mainstream,1107-6.html

Spartan User Menu

The main menu is frugal and dispenses with all manner of frills

The player can be unpacked and hooked up in a jiffy. Besides plugging in the small power supply, all you have to do is connect the box to a TV. The unit only functions without the PSU when it's plugged into a USB port on a computer, where it functions just as an external file storage device. The HP-25OTG likewise requires an electrical socket somewhere within a cable's reach of the power supply to work on the road.

A piece of protective plastic inside the remote prevents the battery from running down before purchase, and is easy to remove. Once you've done so, the remote control is good to go. The LED starts blinking when you turn the power switch on; the unit boots within seconds, and then a very lean main menu appears on the screen. Its four buttons take you to the respective submenus. Note that with this player, "File" describes a kind of directory structure in which you can navigate to directly select the individual files you want.

Nine images are viewable in the preview

Long names are a good thing for MP3 files

The sound equalizer during MP3 playback

Located video files are played back in a preview window under the file menu

Minimalist display for video and audio files

Source:- http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hard-disk-drive-video-players-hit-mainstream,1107-5.html

Here's How The Multimedia Player Looks Inside

The actual hardware is mounted inside the unit with four tiny screws. A small board is visible containing the 2.5" hard drive; all other components, including the decoder chip and flash memory, are located next to the drive. The back of the board is nearly devoid of components, as the player doesn't need much hardware for its decoding work.

Compact board with pre-mounted 2.5" drive

The back of the player board

Source:- http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hard-disk-drive-video-players-hit-mainstream,1107-4.html

Contents

 

The hard drive player uses an internal 2.5" notebook hard drive

The unit that houses the hard drive comes in a small cardboard box containing all the important accessories. The only thing missing in the standard set is a SCART adapter, which you need, however, for most TV sets you use one without a cinch input. If you opted to buy the HP-25OTG version without hard drive, you'll have to open up the unit initially to install one; the tools for doing so are included.

 

 

Compact and convenient

 

 

Where are all the buttons, you ask? There aren't any more!

 

Source:-  http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hard-disk-drive-video-players-hit-mainstream,1107-3.html

The Test Candidates In Detail

THEbox HP-25OTG: Portable Hard Drive With A/V Support

 

 

This silver aluminum box is extremely compact, and not only acts as a digital storage device for video and audio files, but is also the ideal playback companion for when you're on the go. While the remote control unit is fiddly-looking, it has a nice feel in your hand. To keep it tiny, the HP-25OTG has no display of its own and no control knobs save for an "on the go" (OTG) button, one press of which copies data from an external USB device to the built-in hard drive. This is a neat function if you want to quickly save some photos from your digital camera but don't have a laptop handy. The HP-25OTG's hard drive thus serves as an image tank of sorts. Using the included RCA A/V cable, you can play back multimedia content stored on the device directly on any normal television set. Unfortunately, there is no delete function, meaning you can only get rid of your stored files in conjunction with a PC.

The specs as listed on the package

Source:- http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hard-disk-drive-video-players-hit-mainstream,1107-2.html

Hard Disk Drive Video Players Hit The Mainstream

Introduction

External storage with DivX, XVid and DVD output.

DVD players can be found in almost every living room today, having long ago replaced VHS VCRs. Many of these players can even play back files encoded in DivX and MP3. But there's a big catch to using these formats, too: you have to squeeze the files onto a blank DVD so that you can stick them in the standalone player. And that in turn means that you have to have your own DVD burner and lots of blank DVDs.

One new alternative is the use of hard disk drive (HDD) players that are based on a 2.5" or 3.5" IDE (ATA) hard drive. These video players dispense completely with optical media; the files are transferred via USB 2.0 to the installed hard drive and played from it directly. The copy process takes about a minute per gigabyte; the files are then played back directly from the disk of the HDD player with the same ease as using DVD players, and of course, with the convenience of a remote control.

HDD players support a wide range of video and audio compression methods. Among the best-known are DivX, xVid and MP3. Unlike MPEG-2 (DVD), DivX-coded files are considerably smaller and thus take up less room. Thanks to constantly improving video code compression algorithms, DivX and the others are more than a match for their DVD counterparts. The latest functions of the DivX codec now even support menus and chapter selection, similar to what we're used to with DVDs. Unfortunately these menus are (still) not supported by the players. Thus, if you want to continue to use this convenience, you will have to switch to the DVD structure. The video_TS directory familiar to us from the DVD medium is accepted by HDD players. All functions such as chapters, subtitles, alternative languages or camera angles can be used just as with a standalone DVD player. It is only a matter of time until the boxes support these DivX codex functions, probably via a firmware update.

Players will refuse to play protected MP3 files downloaded from the Internet, such as I-Tunes files. The same goes for video download portals that offer DVD or AVI files. Files protected with digital rights management (DRM) always need online access, which HDD players don't have. Only after you get a release code can the DRM file be played back, for example on Microsoft Media Player. This received code, however, only applies to that one computer and cannot be transferred to the HDD player or any other computer.

Our three test candidates have gigantic amounts of storage. With a 500 GB hard drive, you could store roughly 10,000 minutes of video in MPEG-2. With DivX-compressed video files, that would in theory mean 60,000 minutes or almost 1,000 hours of video! Sounds great, doesn't it? And you don't have to cut any corners on quality. In the case of MP3 music files, that storage would amount to a guaranteed 3 months of uninterrupted playback!

Source:- http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hard-disk-drive-video-players-hit-mainstream,1107.html

Multiple login in yahoo Without Using any Software

You can login with multiple id's on the same yahoo messenger without any download or patch .
Follow these steps :

1. Go to Start ----> Run . Type regedit, then enter .

2.Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER --------> Software --->yahoo ----->pager---->Test

3.On the right page , right-click and choose new Dword value .

4.Rename it as Plural.

5.Double click and assign a decimal value of 1.

Its done!!
Now close registry and restart yahoo messenger and try Multiple Login

Note:- After these all Again Open Yahoo MSGNR and Login with different Yahoo ID and Password.

Source:- http://hack2007.50webs.com/Multiple%20login%20in%20yahoo.htm