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In a living room or bedroom the pleasures of high definition entertainment are becoming adopted by a wider audience.
A large percentage of users however don't want a full sized computer chassis taking up precious space next to their television. KitGuru has reviewed many products from A.C. Ryan but today we are looking at several products from another big player in this field.
Dutch company Eminent sent us two of their units for review today. The EM7080 hdMEDIA RT and the EM7095 DVB-T.
These players target slightly different audience sectors, but both offer 1080p high definition playback, with full support for a variety of image and video files, such as the MKV container and AVCHD H/X.264. We will have a look at each later in the review as well as the interface menu system.
| Product | EM7095 | EM7080 |
| Overview |
-HD media player with PVR – Built in DVB-T tuner – Play movies and videos on your Full HD 1080P television – Two USB ports for connecting your USB memory stick or external USB hard disk – Media browser for pictures, video and music – Supports SRT subtitles, with adjustable color and size – Schedule recordings using the built-in EPG – Supports Teletext – File manager function to copy and delete media files on the connected USB device – Coaxial connection for digital audio output |
– Stand alone HDMI 1.3 HD media player
– Play video formats like MKV, VC-1, AVCHD H/X.264 on your Full HD 1080P television – Two USB host ports for connecting your USB memory stick or external USB hard disk – Stream music or video from your network by Samba or UPnP – Supports internal 3.5’ SATA harddisk up to 1.5 Terabyte or larger – Built-in BitTorrent download client – Optical output for Dolby AC3 & DTS – Supports AC3 & DTS stereo downmix – Supports Blu-Ray ISO files – Connect to your network or via USB to your pc – Easy installation – 5-Year warranty – Multilingual user manual |
The Eminent EM7080 hdMEDIA RT arrives in a white and green box with details of the product on all sides. The packaging is elegant and colourful, if nothing out of the ordinary.
The bundle however is extraordinary with a plethora of cables for every possible output demand, including a high quality HDMI cable. A European and UK power connector are included, which is always a bonus.
Additionally, there is a TOSLink Optical Audio cable included, a component video cable, compositive video/stereo audio cable, USB cable and a well written multi language user manual to help set the product up. It even explains how to add an internal hard drive if this is a prerequisite. The only cable we noticed as a strange omission, is a Cat 5e or Cat 6.
The remote control in particular deserves a mention as it is a full sized unit with a very intuitive and comfortable layout. This remote, throughout our testing proved to deliver a very strong signal, and didn't need pointed directly at the player either. When compared to the AC Ryan Playon!HD Essential controller (second from right), it is a much nicer design.
The EM7080 is a moderately priced (£125) high definition (1080p capable) player with HDMI and optical audio outputs with full support for wired and wireless connections. Eminent also sent us a wonderful, fully flexible HDMI cable which can bend into any shape to suit any occasion. They also sent us a wireless 802.11n USB adaptor which is built specifically for this product. In a similar fashion to AC Ryan, they feel that an external unit gives a better signal so they have not incorporated this inside the EM7080.
The EM7080 supports a wide array of video, music and picture files. It even supports ISO rips and an optional hard drive can be installed inside if you wish to have local storage within the player.
The front of the player has two USB 2.0 ports and an eSATA connector for external device connection.
The left side of the unit is completely sealed, but the right side has a little area cut out for the installed fan, to allow for airflow.
The rear of the device offers connections for 100mbit LAN, HDMI 1.3, composite, component and digital audio out. There is also a USB 2 connector here as well as an on/off button and a power connector. All digital bases are covered, so bonus points here.
Underneath is a restore button which resets the player back to factory default settings.
The EM7080 is powered by the obligatory and award winning Realtek RTD1073DD media processor that we know and love. This is the same processor used in AC Ryan Playon! and Asus O!Play media streaming products. It is a great choice for one of these devices as it can handle 1080p content with ease. Sadly however the only limitation of this configuration is a lack of support for gigabit network speeds. Its not an issue for streaming 1080p media, but when copying to an optional internal hard drive, it can prove laborous. The small fan which is fitted into the side panel does not generate much noise and we could only hear it in a silent room, registering around 30 dBa.
| Processor: | Realtek RTD1073DD |
| Video Output: | HDMI, Composite Video, Y/Pb/Pr |
| Audio: | Optical (TOSlink) and stereo |
| Hard disk: | Internal 3.5 inch SATA (NTFS/FAT32) |
| Streaming media: | Video and audio |
| LAN port: | 100Mbps |
| USB ports: | 2x host and 1x client |
| eSATA ports: | 1 (Front) |
| Picture formats: | HD JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIF, PNG |
| Video codecs: | WMVHD, AVCHD, H.264, VC-1, MPEG1/2/3/4, MKV, M2TS, TS, ISO, AVI, MOV and others |
| Audio codecs: | DTS, AC3, MP2, MP3, OGG Vorbis, WMA Std, PCM, LPCM, MS-ADPCM, LC-AAC, HE-AAC, COOK, RA-lossless, FLAC |
DVD and BluRay ISO files are supported, however bluray menus will not display. Not a limitation of this specific player, but more of the Realtek platform.
Installing a hard drive is a straightforward process and no external power connectors are required. The drive simply slots into the data and power connectors on the PCB. The unit is built to fit the drive perfectly, with no space at the side.
The Eminent EM7080 hdMedia RT above the AC Ryan players. It is the most compact player of them all, the length of a 3.5 inch hard drive.
Side by side with the latest AC Ryan Playon! HD Essential unit (right). You will notice that the Eminent player offers more connectivity than the AC Ryan player.
The bundle for the EM7095 is reasonable, although we were disappointed to note the omission of an HDMI cable and an antenna/aerial system. They include a manual, remote controller (with batteries), power adapter, scart converter and audio and video composite cables.
The remote is a smaller design than the one included with the EM7080 and the power adapter is all built into a single plug based unit.
The main focus of the EM7095 is as a DVB-T Tuner however it can play HD media from a USB drive which can be attached directly to the player. There is no built in networking with the EM7095 either. Interestingly, the appearance is completely different from the glossy EM7080 – this player is supplied with an anodised brushed metal finish.
On the side of the player, is a Coaxial connector, in front of two USB 2 ports. At the rear (from left to right) there is a DC power connector, Antenna in/out. Next to audio and composite connectors. Finally there is a HDMI 1.3 port.
In the UK, the player supports up to 50 free digital channels. It is not limited to this however as you can hook up a USB drive to play media files, such as MKV and H.264. There is an electronic program guide to see which programs are airing and to schedule recordings to an attached drive. This unit also supports teletext. The EM7095 is powered by the MStar chipset.
The main interface is based around the Realtek reference design with only minor changes to default icons. Sadly we noticed a few spelling errors throughout the interface such as ‘scene' spelt with an extra C and ‘director' spelt with an E. Hardly that big a deal and we are aware they are a dutch company, but a native english speaker could certainly have spotted these before going to retail.
The signal can be output as HDMI dual channel (downmix), HDMI Multi Channel, HDMI Raw (Bitstream), SPDIF Downmix PCM and SPDIF Raw (Bitstream).
Anyone who has used an AC Ryan player, or who has seen our previous reviews of the products will immediately recognise the interface structuring. As they are all based around the Realtek system, they look similar.
Various languages can be selected from the menu and setting up a wired or wireless network is a straightforward process, no more complicated than a Windows system.
Browsing and playing files is extremely easy, you can access all the NAS systems on your network and stream files directly from the hard drives. Photo slideshows can be set up with various transitions available.
You can also copy files across the network to an internal hard drive, if you fitted one beforehand. Formatting takes only a few minutes.
Copying files is a step by step process from the source location (left side) to the player itself (right side). The networking capabilities are limited to 100mbit, so big files can take some time to copy. We are really hoping a future player from one of these companies has full gigabit support.
The Eminent player supports every file format we threw at it, from MKV's, DVD ISO's, DVD _TS folder structures to AVI's and WMV's. Fast forward and rewind speeds up to 32x are available during playback.
It is very important to keep the firmware updated to the newest revision available on the Eminent website as new features and support are added. To upgrade the firmware, you download and extract the data file to the root directory on a USB drive and plug it into the 1st (top) port at the front of the chassis. The player will reboot when it is detected and the upgrade process takes only a few minutes. After an automatic reboot you can remove the USB drive.
The Webservices section is a very useful menu which offers a wide range of online website support such as Youtube, blip.tv and CNN news.
We have included a video of the interface in action which you can see below.
As you can see from the video, the interface is snappy and quick to respond to commands. This is an upside of Eniment keeping the design very clean and streamlined. While we admire AC Ryan's design team and the desire to personalise the experience, the recent review of the Essentials player did note a substantial level of interface slowdown.
The EM7095 interface is completely different to that experienced with the EM7080. Immediately jumping into a DVB-T scanning installation guide.
The layout and structure are also different to the EM7080 player as can be seen from the images above. All the icons are in a row along the top of the screen and are self explanatory.
The ‘tabs' are laid out to offer a variety of options for scanning and setting up video display output quality. Passwords and reset options are offered to lock out the device or to return it to shipping condition. Multiple languages can be selected for various countries also.
While there is no networking support built into the unit, it is possible to play and view media files when connected to an external USB drive. The software can also be updated from a USB drive, in a similar fashion to the EM7080 on the last page.
Just like the EM7080 player, we found that the EM7095 handled a variety of media files, including HD MKV container based videos. Our NTFS formatted external hard drive was also accessible by the player without the need for a FAT32 reformat.
The interface isn't quite as intuitive for playing video files as the EM7080 as you have to press the red button to switch from full screen to preview, rather than simply pressing ‘play' or ‘stop'. The overall interface might be rather spartan looking, but it is very responsive.
We were impressed with both Eminent EM7080 hdMEDIA RT and EM7095 devices. While we have no real need for a DVB-T system ourselves, the EM7095 interface is stripped down, responsive and fully equipped to handle freeview playback and recordings. The option to play files from an external USB drive is a nice bonus and it works well, supporting all of the files we tested with it. The product is also extremely well built, being constructed from anodised aluminum.
The more interesting player of the two for our readers will assuredly be the EM7080 hdMEDIA RT, which works in an identical manner to the AC Ryan players we have already tested and reviewed over the last couple of months. Eniment don't seem that interested in skinning and personalising the interface however which may annoy some customers.
There are pros and cons with this however. While we know this doesn't look as nice as the new GUI 2.0 interface (based on the Realtek SDK 4.0) from AC Ryan we found the EM7080 to be much more responsive when moving from menu to menu and even when playing files. We are sure AC Ryan will fix this with a future update, but for the time being the ‘sexy' interface is the more painful to use on a regular basis.
The Eminent remote controller is the best we have used to date, the signal seems to be the strongest, and it doesn't need to be pointed directly at the front of the player either. The button placement is also the most intuitive, with everything where I would expect it to be. As the Eminent EM7080 is also the smallest media player we have tested … only slightly larger than a 3.5 inch hard drive, it is going to suit more environments and fitting locations. The bundle is also fantastic with every cable you could need included … the only unusual omission being a Cat 5e or Cat 6.
It would have earned a gold award, but we feel the interface, while very quick, is basically the native Realtek design which seems a little lazy to us. We appreciate many people won't care, but AC Ryan try extremely hard to fine tune and customise their players, and we expect their competitors to strive and achieve the same goals. The pricing also needs to drop, because AC Ryan are selling the Essential Playon! HD for £129.23 with a 1TB hard drive included. We prefer the EM7080 as an overall package, especially with the improved connectivity, enhanced bundle and full sized remote, but the fact that AC Ryan are including a 1TB HD for £5 more means it would be a tough decision for most people.
The EM7080 is available for £124.99 at Amazon. The EM7095 is available for £94.99 at Amazon.
KitGuru says: An excellent purchase for your media desires and while we are disappointed with the interface appearance, these players are quick.
very slick, but I agree, the graphics look terrible.
IM really not that bothered about interface graphics to be honest, id rather get to the files faster. this hard drive capable player appeals to me.
As I said in other reviews, until these companies sort out gigabit lan connections ive no interest. I want to use one as a NAS also, but 100mbit is too slow.
I like the media player, but I own SKY so no need for the other one. shame there isnt even a 500GB HD in the 80.
You can drop a 500GB drive into the em7080 with ease. Just read the review, it’s on page two. I like how it is smaller than the ryan device, and offers a lot more connectivity & warranty, and might try one in the next few months 🙂