Sumvision Cyclone Micro 4 Media Player

I already have have a WesternDigital LiveTV and wanted something for another room. Most media player things seem to be streaming players - i.e. you have to "stream" the video file from your computer to the AV device and thence to your TV. I don't want the overhead of having to have my computer on just to watch something on the TV! I'm also not in the market for mirroring an iPad or tablet on my TV - again it's an unneccesary overhead in my books. I want an AV device that will simply pick up a video file from a networked NAS and play it back on my TV. No computer or tablet required to playback the file. No media server required. I'm also not in the market to pay a rediculous amount of money for such a device! I could build my own from a Raspberry Pi, but I don't actually like the XBMC interface. This version 4 of the Sumvision Cyclone series is the first one that is network enabled, and at under £25 the price is most definitely right (less than a Raspberry Pi). It comes with all the necessary gubbins to work out of the box (except an HDMI cable), and work it does! The user interface is easy to understand and navigate through, and the remote control is responsive. The device automatically gets network information from my DHCP server and sets its time and date. It also has a USB port so that you can plug in a hard drive with your files on it rather than access a NAS over the network - which also works well. Like the WesternDigital LiveTV it plays every file on my NAS, including foreign language films ripped as MKV files (because the mkv container handles subtitles better than the mp4 container) from my DVDs which have vobsub subtitles (the Cyclone doesn't actually list vobsubs on its playable subtitles list on the box). The picture it puts up on the screen is excellent as is the sound. This is a cracking little box, at less than half the price of a WesternDigital Live TV player. It doesn't have all those extra apps like BBC iPlayer or Neflix, but I don't need them, I have enough devices plugged into my TV with those on already! I don't know if its customer support is better or worse than WesternDigital's as I've not had need to contact them, but it certainly now gives us "non-streamers" another box to play with. Very happy with my purchase.

Great little product here. I already have a WD live TV media box but find it a bit clunky and the software takes an age to load.I got this Cyclone from Amazon and am very happy with it. It is tiny for what it does. I got it mainly to take abroad with me when on my travels. In practice it works very well. Plays everything I can throw at it. I have used a MICRO SD card, a portable hard drive which was in an enclosure and powered by a powered hub. I have played music and videos from my nas drive on the network.I can stream you tube from my android device to it using bubbleupnp server app (paid version).I can browse my nas drive contents and stream them to it using bubbleupnp app.I can remotely browse my nas contents and stream to it when on my travels using bubbleupnp app or plex app.I downloaded the android app made for the cyclone which is called "airfun"This is actually better than the remote control which is pretty cheap and very clicky.The software on the cyclone is a tad slow and doesn't look as neat and user friendly as the WD live but in use it is well on par for useability.Video plays great with no lag at all, even on a remote connection, something my tablet sometimes struggles with.On the odd film I did get out of sync issues, but there is an option to adjust it so not really an Issue.I have not used miracast yet as my Android devices don't yet support it. Soon to be changed though :)This unit is very portable and is in my opinion highly recommended.Edit: I just got a new 1TB 2.5" hard drive and put in a small enclosure. I now connect this to the Cyclone 4 with a small usb Y adapter and connect the Y adapter to a mobile phone usb wall charger using a male to female usb lead, thus doing away with the need for a powered hub.This means less to carry around when abroad as I have my phone charger with me anyway.Basically I now have over 1TB of music, video & photos wherever I go without the need for an internet connection.