Media Player PowerZest HD-500

Recently, there has been a demand for media centers (media players) on the market - devices that make a DVD from a TV, MP3 player, radio, Internet browser, etc., and they also have a hard disk or not. I'll tell you about another representative of this class from the company PowerZest, which has many "goodies", but, unfortunately, without the built-in HDD.


Let's start, as usual, with the external charms and finish on the possibilities.
')


HD-500 is released here in this box, which in addition to the image of the device lists all of its advantages: it is listening to the Shoutcast radio, watching YouTube and much more.



Inside the box in addition to the device itself are:
• Remote control
• Batteries for the remote
• HDMI cable
• AV cable
• Adapter for charging
• Ethernet - wire

The only thing I want to add to this is that the device can be controlled only with the help of the remote, so its loss or breakdown will bring a lot of discomfort. In fact, the device has only one On / Off button.

By the way, about the bird consoles.



It has many special buttons for accessing special features directly, rather than through the menu. And also, an alphanumeric keyboard, which is useful for web-surfing, about which a little bit later.

Also, of course, the bundle includes such a rather thick instruction, which I advise you to read, since it is difficult to deal with some functions yourself.

Appearance

The device is black glossy, on the front side there is only an IR receiver for the remote. On the back panel is a row of connectors: here is USB, and HDMI, and Ethernet, and AV, as well as a green on-off button. The device looks very beautiful and, I think, will fit into the design of any interior, because black is a universal color. The only drawback of the case is, of course, that it is glossy and leaves all prints on it.



There is nothing except the rubber feet and the sticker below. This is right, because you will not hang a device on the wall, since it will be inconvenient to manage, but stability must be present.



I will give some more technical specifications:

Audio, stereo, optical audio, video composite, HDMI 1.3 outputs
Interfaces USB Type A x2, Ethernet, eSATA Host
10/100 Mbps Ethernet speed
Support online video services , photo, radio services
File formats MKV, AVI, WMV, ISO, IFO, VOB, MOV, ASF, TP, TS, M2TS, MP4, MPG
MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, WMV9, VC1 codecs
MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, PCM, FLAC, AC3, DTS audio files
Graphic files JPEG, GIF, BMP, PNG, TIFF
Subtitle support srt, ssa, idx, sub, smi

All these formats are played very well and quickly. Even HD 1080p comes without any brakes. Subtitles are picked up from the folder with the film, in general, everything, like on a computer.

TV interaction

I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos, because My TV screenshots can't do screenshots, but it was the only way to photograph them.

As already mentioned, the device can be turned on in two ways (using the button on the case and the remote control).
After switching on, you will see this picture.



After that, you get to the settings menu, where you can make all the necessary preparations (brightness, volume, connection type, etc.) for comfortable work with the device.



One of the interesting features of this player is the ability to travel across the expanses of the Internet right through the TV.

The first is, of course, the usual sites, initially the choice is given by Google, Facebook and Flickr. But, of course, you can also visit custom sites.



I was very interested in how it is to sit on Facebook through TV. Fun enough. Of course, typing using the numeric keypad is like on the phone, but quite acceptable. But still, using a computer for this business is much more familiar and convenient.



By the way, if you notice, the player automatically downloads information about the weather in your city (based on IP) and displays it below.
And this is how video playback from Youtube looks like. As you can see, the video is embedded in a standard player.



And also, you can listen to Internet radio stations, which perhaps the most popular radio hitch radio provides - Shoutcast.



Undoubtedly, you can connect and Internet TV. Here it is, for example, viewing the Belgian channel.



And if you set up RSS feeds, you can also read the news via TV.



No wonder the USB port is made, because by inserting a USB flash drive or any other drive (camera, camera, external HDD), you can watch movies, photos and listen to music.
The player looks like this. Quite convenient, and the music continues to play in the background, that is, you can watch photos and listen to music at the same time.



In addition, I want to say that in the HD-500 there is the possibility of torrents and connecting to network devices and playing media files from them. Well, the developers succumbed to the motto “Everything is better with Bluetooth”, so from the player you can connect to a BT device (phone) and listen to music from it. True, I did not succeed.
These are the things that this little black box provides.



The price of the device is about 5 000 p., Which is quite good for a device of such quality.

Summarizing

pros
+ Design
+ Abundance of opportunities
+ Browser
+ HDMI and AV
+ Price

Minuses
- Lack of HDD and Wi-Fi
- Not very user-friendly interface



In general, I believe that inexpensive media players arrived in the regiment, and this is a good replenishment. Inexpensive, powerful, functional and just beautiful. Of course, the interface has slightly reduced my enthusiasm, although perhaps it depends more on the TV itself, but the movies are played in good quality and without grain. And the rest is a dream. The abundance of features, built-in browser, Youtube, Shoutcast, Ethernet communication and Bluetooth. For such a price - this is quite acceptable. What else is needed if you just want to make a multimedia player out of TV?