Eminent HD Media Player EM7280 Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging & Bundle3. Eminent HD Media Player4. The User Interface5. Testing and Performance6. Closing Thoughts7. View All Pages

The Eminent HD Media Player EM7280 is a simple and elegant design. It is also very compact, meaning it will fit in next to a television set without being intrusive.

Eminent have had to fit a fan to the back of Media Player, and it can generate some noise when it reaches a specific thermal threshold, under load. We feel if they had made the chassis slightly larger and incorporated bigger heatsinks, then they could have ditched the noisy little fan completely.

I was impressed by the interface design as it does incorporate a lot of key features, these mainly being the Apps – including Facebook and Youtube. The third party apps include Torrenting services and there are many others that are under development. The application support appears to be growing all the time however it is too early to make a judgement on the longevity of the device.

There are problems with the EM7280 too. While the box is fairly quick at playing movies, the menu interface is sluggish and the lag between pressing a button and getting a response can be rather irritating.

It is interesting that the processor is able to cope with playing back Blu-Ray ISOs and other high definition media, but does hesitate when loading a menu. We would assume that there is room for operating system optimisation in the future. We would like to add that this isn't a huge issue, but it does ruin the overall experience.

We were also a little confused as to why Eminent haven't included a Media Library, as each time you want to play a movie or cd, you have to scroll through all the file system menus to find it.

It would have been much easier to have had one Media Library with three sections (Music, Photo's, Movie's) and then to be able to add or even scan for media files for each of these. The features of the file system are still useful and I wouldn't want them removed but feel that a Media Library on a High Definition Media Player makes it more convenient.

There are however plenty of advantages in purchasing the Eminent HD Media Player EM7280, mainly that it will play nearly every media file out there, including .FLV .VOB . ISO and plenty more.

The EM7280 does also have Gigabit ethernet, allowing super fast transfer rates between all network attached storage devices, as well as USB 3.0 support for super speedy initial transfers when setting the device up. We were very impressed with the speed of transfers, and the fact it nearly managed to maintain an average of 100 MB/s across 53.6 GB transfer means stiff competition for others on the market.

While we know the AC Ryan products are very popular and tend to be more customisable, Eminent are certainly fighting back and with the inclusion of third party apps and several firmware updates since release we are quietly confident that this device will just get better and better.

With a price tag of a cool £200 it is certainly a large investment, and for only 1TB of storage included this may seem a lot, but we feel that this could be an essential part of your entertainment system and would compliment any new high definition television set very well.

Pros:

• Plays all media files smoothly.
• Super speedy Gigabit ethernet and USB 3.0.
• Small and compact with large 1 TB HDD.
• Easily upgradeable storage.
• Has Youtube and Facebook built in.

Cons

• User Interface is sluggish.
• Remote is not the most user friendly.
• High price tag.
• No Media Library.

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