Kodak Theatre HD Player
by Kodak
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Our Price: $84.99
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Category: Digital Camera
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Digital Photo Product Details
Manufacturer: KodakModel: Kodak Theatre
Product features:
- Re-live your pictures and video on your HDTV
- Access photos from your PC, camera, and online photo sharing sites
- Wirelessly send and receive pictures with Kodak's Picture Mail feature
- Create slideshows enhanced with your favorite songs
- Access Internet Radio, podcasts and other web content on your HDTV
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Kodak Theatre HD Player
Customer Review: Makes sense to buy
Summary: 5 Stars
I just bought one from Amazon. Cool device in slick hi-tech looking matte black box with blue LEDs - look good next to my Samsung A650, exudes high quality. It has usual user-friendly Kodak menu and unique wireless-mouse-like remote. After using this remote I wonder why it is not an industry standard.
HMDI output can be set up to 1080p (which I did). My HDTV is Samsung 46A650. Photos look amazing (little oversaturated, but it is Samsung after all - you can tone down it if you want) - resolution is higher than on my laptop, I can see more details. Samsung's own photo viewer (from USB drive) sucks - interface is so horrible that almost impossible to use - I tried couple of times and gave up. And Kodak's menu as I mentioned above - rocks - very well organized and easy to use.
Kodak HD theatre is worth buying for no other reason than just watching Youtube videos HDTV. I do not know how they render image but Youtube looks better on big screen given the resolutions provided by Youtube than on my laptop. You will have absolutely different experience watching Youtube videos on HD TV than on PC.
The other cool feature is Internet radio portal. There are thousands of radio stations available from all over the world, in every genre. They are grouped in many different ways, like music in decades - 60s, 70s, 80s etc, or Rock, Soft Rock, Classic and etc. Talk radio stations are grouped in left wing, right wing, middle and etc. It can play slide show at same time as streaming internet radio.
Regarding videos I was able to play full screen mpeg-2 and mpeg-4 videos, but could not figure out how to play Quicktime MOV files. I called Kodak and also Kodak online technical support but they were clueless as if never heard about HD Theatre. I have a Kodak v1253 digital camera that makes HD (720p/30fps) H.264 codec videos with STEREO sound with pretty good quality (so I retired my Canon Optura60 MiniDV camera) so playing MOV files on HDTV was the most important thing for me after Youtube.
But I found workaround for MOV videos. I transform MOV file into MP4 file using file export feature in Quicktime Pro (I recommend to spend $30 and get one - it worth it). Probably you can simply rename file extension .mov to .mp4, but I did not try it. For those who do not know - .mp4 container is based on (almost identical to) Apples .mov container format, but unlike .mov container it is the international MPEG standard so all players support it. And indeed Kodak HD player plays back .mp4 files from USB drive or memory card just fine.
I recommend QuickTime Pro also because it allows creating reference movies - you can merge videos together and even edit without changing original master files - it simply changes content pointers in reference file. Another advantage of using QuickTime versus using play-list is that QuickTime buffers next movie before previous one finishes (like slide show player does). It makes movie clip transition smooth with no interruption as if you physically merged clips. With play lists on other players video will interrupt for a second to buffer next clip.
Another advantage of QuickTime Pro is that you can reformat movie files made on digital camera. The reason is as in case with Kodak cameras - they do not create .mov files exactly following Apple's specs. Movies made on camera play back okay but when using QuickTime Pro to create reference movies there are problems. E.g. QuickTime Pro cannot correctly determine playback time from file header created by digital camera and ends up with negative time values when you merge 5 or more clips together. After 8-9 clips QuickTime Pro simply refuses to add more clips. To solve this problem I open original movie and copy it (Cntrl A-Cntrl C), then create new file, paste and save (Cntrl N - Cntrl V -Cntrl S). New file will have correct .mov file format.
HD Theatre upscales all videos to fill the screen regardless of original resolution. For anamorphic widescreen format (my Canon Optura60 camcorder just happens to make makes anamorphic videos) HD theatre automatically zooms video horizontally to 16:9 aspect ratio while for true VGA videos (made on my old Hi8 Sony camcorder) it shows video in 4:3 aspect ratio, but still fills the screen vertically. Therefore player automatically determines format of video, renders it in correct aspect ratio even if it is anmorphic and upscales it to fit the screen. Videos look pretty good on HDTV.
On Kodak HD player you can create slide shows with videos and pictures with mp3 files playing in background. But note that first in slide show must go the JPEG file.
Now the issues I had with HD Theatre.
First issue I had is inability to playback .mov videos. This issue is easily resolved by exporting .mov files to .mp4 format (it is lossless process) as I described above.
Another issue is that all video files icons look the same on the screen - no frames thumbnails or file names are displayed so it is impossible to tell one video from another. I found solution for this issue - I put every video file in separate folder - HD Theater shows folder names on screen. I also capture frame from video (can use QuickTime or Kmplayer to do that) as JPEG file, stamp the movie title and date on it and put it in the same folder as video. It serves two purposes - first it shows as the thumbnail image on folder so you can easily identify video and also can be used as the start for video slide show serving as a movie title frame (Kodak shows it for several seconds - enough to read title and then starts playing video clips one after another in play list manner).
Of course instead of buying dedicated HD media player you can just use your PC/laptop with HDMI interface (my laptop has one). Advantage of using PC is that you are not at mercy of Kodak SW development team and can run any S or players you want and to go to any websites. But the problem with using PC or laptop - navigation on the screen is very difficult because at 1080p resolution everything looks extremely small on TV screen - you still can use wireless mouse as a remote but you have to sit very close to TV to see filenames but is not easy to click correct menu option or file name with wireless mouse when you sit 6 ft away from TV on the coach even if you are able to see names. HD Theatre is user friendlier and in general easier to use that PC, and it renders Youtube videos with high quality. In my opinion Kodak HD player worth to purchase and enjoy.
P.S. I wrote this review some time ago. But recently I discovered issue that may be helpful u to know about. I made 1080p-30fps and 720p-60fps MOV/MP4 H.264 videos on Kodak's own pocket camcorder Zi8 and tried to play them on Kodak HD Theater and it could not handle high bit rate these videos require. The bit rate is about 18-20 mbs. HD theater is able though to play back 720p-30fps mp4 videos normally made by digital still cameras. If you think that you can play back full fledged HD videos on your laptop - forget about it too. My laptop is brand new HP dv5z and I tried to playback 1080p-30fps and 720p-60fps video on it too and codecs I have were unable to handle 18 mbs. I tried Apple's own Quick Time Pro (which could not handle even half bit rate of 720p-30fps), Windows Media player - which can hardly play anything and even KM player which is the only player on my PC which can handle 720p-30fps H.264 gave up on 18 mbs H.264. So it seems that only option left is to play videos from camcorder itself which is not helpful since you have to store all videos on SD cards or find a blueray player which also can playback videos from hard drive.
Description of Kodak Theatre HD Player
Forget crowding around the computer, with the KODAK Theatre HD Player, you can relive your memories on your big screen HDTV in stunning high-definition. Invite your friends and family over to show off your personalized slideshows, videos and web content in the comfort of your living room. Then share the excitement by wirelessly sending your content to anyone, anywhere.View the pictures and videos stored on your PC, right on your HDTV.Insert a memory card, USB storage device or plug in your KODAK EASYSHARE Digital Camera. Connect to popular photo sharing sites such as KODAK Gallery and Flickr for access to your pictures and those from friends and family. Quickly sort through your new pictures on your TV and send the best ones to your PC for safekeeping. Make the most of your home theatre system-get to your PC music collection and downloaded movies from the living roomDocking Stations
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