Hisense MP800H Media HD Player review

Once connected, browsing our test files posed no problems at all. The MP800H found everything we had shared, and played it well, with the exception of a 1080p test movie (more on that later). The network playback required pretty much no configuration. There are options to filter by type of content, but we're opposed to doing so, because it makes it harder to browse a complete list of your media.

We were very pleased to see that the machine supports DVD ISOs via the network. This is something that the Popcorn Hour machines can't do out of the box, although plug-ins make it possible, so we were thrilled to see our DVD rip present and correct. Sadly, it wasn't plain sailing from there. Although the ISO image played, we couldn't make the remote control navigate around the DVD menu structure, which meant we couldn't play the film. This is what reviewers describe as a 'fail'.

One of the small bugs we noticed was that, when you select a file, you have to wait for the preview to begin before you can start playback. This doesn't take long, but the average human's brain works much faster than the MP800H and even a delay of a second or so can be frustrating.

1080p network playback
While 720p video played back well over the network connection, 1080p proved slightly more problematic, with our 13Mbps test file stuttering at certain points. You'll need to decide if that's a problem for you. Certainly, it's entirely possible to connect a USB drive directly to the MP800H and watch high-bit-rate video that way.

Easy to use
For the most part, the MP800H isn't difficult to use. The interface isn't that beautiful, but finding files isn't difficult at all. USB media is especially easy to navigate. When you select a file from the list, it previews in a window on the right, and can simply be selected to start playback.

A better remote control would greatly improve the system. The right playback controls would make watching movies much simpler.

Conclusion
All things considered, the Hisense MP800H Media HD Player does a pretty good job of playing back high-definition video when a hard drive's connected. We had no trouble with the USB inputs having enough bandwidth to play our very data-intensive video. Picture quality is good too, and we've no complaints at all about the digital sound that the player sends to an AV receiver.

The MP800H is also cheap. A Popcorn Hour device will cost you at least twice as much as this little machine. The MP800H is certainly capable enough for most people, though. Having said that, we prefer the Western Digital WD TV and, with a new network-enabled version of that on the way, we'd suggest hanging on a while longer before splashing out.

Edited by Charles Kloet