The video playback that this player has produced over the year on test has been nothing short of flawless, even over a network. The setup I have tested it over involves two external hard drives plugged via USB into my home PC which is wired to the network. The Mede8er is then wired into the same router in order to create the connection. At no point has the Mede8er ever failed to see shared folders or access the media within them.
As we review streamers on this site, it is important to have a consistent set of media to test them with. At this moment in time, the test material will be a DVD ISO rip of Jurassic Park, an HD movie file of Fame (2009), Star Trek DS9 series 2 in MKV format, and some downloaded videos from various websites. Home shot material consists of standard definition material, shot from a Fuji camera, and High Definition material from an iPhone 4. Each streamer we test will also be subjected to some DRM protected material. These will consist of an iTunes movie and some downloaded windows media protected material from the Liverpool FC website. I should point out, from a legal point of view, that every piece of material tested is owned by myself, and that you should not use a streamer to play illegally obtained material.
The first thing to note is how well the machine dealt with the HD rip of Fame. The source material is surprisingly testing, providing a picture which pushes the Mede8er. The source has a nice colour depth to it, and pleasing contrast and the Mede8er reveals this well. The black levels, as rendered by the streamer, are accurate and despite the fact that the picture is being streamed I detected no artefacting or any other picture degradation whatsoever. The 5.1 soundtrack is well rendered too, being streamed to the amp via HDMI and filling the room accurately.. Overall, although there may be a very slight reduction of picture quality from watching the original Blu-ray, this is nowhere near as pronounced as one would expect. I was very impressed with the HD performance of this unit.
Next up was a DVD ISO of Jurassic Park and immediately the quality of the streamer was again evident. However, before we get on to the quality of the picture, one slight flaw should be mentioned. When playing back a DVD ISO, the alignment between the graphical overlay and the menu option is slightly off. This is a problem that is present in the current version 3 firmware, but I am pleased to report has been eradicated in the version 4. So this is a problem that you may experience out of the box, but it will be eradicated within the next few weeks. The speed of moving around the DVD menus is comparable to a DVD, and the actual speed of access to the movie or the special feature is quicker than a DVD. The picture quality when watching a DVD through the Mede8er through the network is comparable to watching the original source and the challenging picture is perfectly rendered through the streamer. Dark, rainy scenes are as clear as on the original DVDs and the clarity of the well lit early scenes in the desert are fantastic. Again, the sound here is superb – the DTS soundtrack sounding as good as the original disc, right down to the Tyrannosaurus chomping down on an unfortunate beastie in your rear right speaker. There was no discernible difference between watching the DVD and watching the ISO through the Mede8er. Another test passed with flying colours.
Next up is the Star Trek : Deep Space Nine series 2 MKVs. Again, the Mede8er copes with these superbly and there is no discernable difference between watching these and the original DVDs. One nice touch here, is that the Mede8er keeps a record of the last episode you watched by putting a little icon next to it. This makes it easy to see (when presented with a long list of episodes) of exactly how far you have got through the series.
All downloaded clips from the Muse website played with no problems at all, although downloaded clips will reflect the original resolution. It is not, for example, realistic to expect a poorly encoded video to look good on a large HD screen. This should be remembered. Every downloaded video that I threw at the device worked absolutely fine, as did video shot on my Fuji camera. Unfortunately, I did run into problems with HD video shot on my iPhone 4. Basically, although the picture was fine (and looked absolutely stunning) the sound failed to play at all. This may be down to the encoding that Apple use, but it is disappointing. However, again version 4 has rectified this problem and the iPhone videos play beautifully through the Mede8er.
One nice feature is that every time you start up a video, it is possible to restart from your last viewing point via a pop-up menu. This is another feature that makes navigation of your clips easier. You also have the option, within playback, of zooming in and out in increments and also of resizing the image. It is even (sacrilege) possible to extend a 4:3 image to fill a widescreen, but this really isn’t recommended. Another really nice touch is that when you play a video the Mede8er creates automatic chapter points throughout the video for every minute. So, for example, if you want to skip to 98 minutes into a movie just hit 98 on the remote and it will take you straight there.
It is also possible to view two different layers of information about the clip you are viewing via the info button. Pushing this once gives you information about the file, and how far into the clip you are. Pushing it a second time gives you more information about the audio and video properties including codecs used.
As previously mentioned, it is also possible to play back music through your mede8er. Music quality is fine if not a little harsh in the top end. Through my setup, music playback lacked a little bass compared with the same file streamed through my Squeezebox. However, the overall quality was absolutely fine for general listening. Photos looked good through the slideshow option, allowing for various customisable transitions and effects. The playback of photos and music is nowhere near as intuitive as it could have been – the Mede8er is most definitely a video player first and foremost. But this is something it has in common with all such devices.
