Brite-View BV-5005HD

usability, price, design, size

reliability

83% of the reviews on Amazon.com give this product a positive rating.

Plays just about anything as specs state, and can stream via network too

Ever since new, hangs, remote hangs like some conflick but if you either wait or just unplug power and reboot, it's great. Won't play WMA, have to convert first

Plays just about anything as specs state, and can stream via network too.

Ever since new, hangs, remote hangs like some conflick but if you either wait or just unplug power and reboot, it's great. Won't play WMA, have to convert first.

Streams many formats. Silent. Small. (about the size of a router)

The menu is a bit crude.

I have a wide variety of video files and had only one issue, the very latest MKV format, released in August would not not play the audio but video was perfect! PRO - they are addressing this and the newest firmware, in Beta now, fixes this issue. They...

Not really a con, but for some the only down side may be is that you can't install a hard drive and even on units you can do so, unless you pay much more for a higher end unit moving files or copying them can be a bit awkward or confusing anyhow and...

This is what I've been looking for for a few years now. It's VLC in a box. It plays just about everything flawlessly. Setup was a breeze and it connected with my network with very little effort. The new firmware also includes USB DVD drive support.

I really think that 802.11n built-in would have been nice, as well as front USB ports. But those are minor things.

It streams all of the common file formats; Small footprint; Wireless capability; HDMI output; UPnP support.

Cannot restart playing a DVD where you left off; Forced subtitles on DVDs not supported; Layout of the remote control is a mess; Network connectivity flaky; Consistently need to reconnect to shares for no apparent reason; UPnP interface is a joke;...

Samba share client that works... not hassles, no intermittency, it just works. Nice user interface, with plenty of useful options. Oh, and zero hassle with HDMI on any resolution.

Some sort of power or overheating that essentially killed the product. The unit was prone to dying in the middle of playback, as if the power had been lost, and then re-booting. Try as we might, we never found a cause for the problem or a set of...

can find for under seventy bucks when on sale.

does not play WTV files

Plays lots of formats, clean easy interface, active support forums with quick responses. Almost the perfect device except the con below. As always, NewEgg is first class as a business.

Cannot play 1080p over network if bitrate over 30mbit. While some report they can, offically this product only supports 12 mbit MP4 or VC-1 over network. Very small print in a chart hidden on website. Tech support wasn't aware until I pointed it out....

Plays everything I've thrown at it. Plays 1080p quality videos. Firmware upgrades are easy and automatic over the 'net.

Fast Forward / Rewind is clunky and slow. To play anything you have to go through at least 4 menus, if not more, to get to the files you want to play. This is the biggest issue with this device - they should work on making this as few steps as possible...