back to article Crystal Acoustics MediaMatchBox

This minuscule media player from home theatre specialist Crystal Acoustics combines a go-anywhere form-factor with play-anything decoding. Indeed, if there's a file suffix the MediaMatchBox can’t manage, then it probably isn’t worth playing. Crystal Acoustics MediaMatchBox There are basic controls on the player's tum As …

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  1. Throatwobbler Mangrove
    Headmaster

    measurement

    "As befits a box that weighs just 40g and stands barely 16mm tall..."

    Judging by the photo, surely the correct SI unit of measurement to use would be the Cartman? At a guess, I'd say that's about 0.28Cr.

  2. Dodgy Pilot
    Thumb Down

    Not for me

    I was quite interested in this - until I read about the poor remote.

  3. GettinSadda
    Boffin

    The question none of the reviews for this sort of product ever answer - and if you have 'concept albums' or digitized radio programs (such as Hitch-Hiker) it is a biggy is:

    Do they do gap-less playback?

  4. Robert E A Harvey

    nice...

    Only place to put this on my telly would be round the back. Does the IR remote work well with reflected paths, or does it have to be line-of-sight?

  5. Buzzword

    Nice!

    Now could we get the same thing with an Ethernet port to hook up to a NAS ?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I'd roll with that...

      Anyone remember the Hisense 1080p network media player? Dirt-cheap (by the end, comfortably under £50, IIRC) from Expansys, and reviewed in these august pages in 2009... and just a few months later, it vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.

      Sadly, moolah was a bit tight at that point, otherwise I would probably have leapt on it like a starving squirrel on the last peanut on Earth ((c) Scott Adams). I haven't seen a network DLNA media player as well-specced at that price point, since the Hisense - there's a hole in the market, methinks...

  6. Paddy 3
    Thumb Up

    Make it even better

    Why don't they add an Ethernet port? This thing would be cooking on gas then......can any of you guys recommend something like this with Ethernet?

  7. Andrew Baines Silver badge
    Stop

    Size doesn't matter, nor does the remote, but the price?!

    Not sure why you'd want this so small - by the time you've got an external hard drive, PSU and HDMI cable plugged in, you have a big block of stuff. Much easier to have a regular sized box like a DVD drive or amplifier. Then you can have all the cables out the back rather than all over the place.

    Remote? Who care, there are plenty of good quality 3rd party remotes out there.

    £55 though? Take a look on ebuyer, there plenty of equivalents for under £30.

  8. Tom 7

    Raspberry PI

    will probably do all that and games and video too for 1/3rd the price.

    Shame if your telly has shit sound like most seem to these days - remember fundamentals on anything less than 100hz anyone?

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Not sure why you'd want this so small"

    but suspect that's why it's so cheap. No need for it to be big (it's a chip and some ports) and if the unit is bigger the package is bigger, the bill of materials is larger, shipping costs increase.

    A DLNA version of this would be very cool. In the meantime though - will that USB port power a 2.5" drive or is this powered 3.5" drives only?

  10. rpcohen

    No networking? No way!

    It's hard to understand how this device received an 85% rating when it lacks any kind of networking - wired or wireless. What's the advantage of having a tiny decoder when it must be physically connected to much larger storage units and their power supplies and the TV all a the same time? Units like the WD Live Plus offer great codec support and ethernet and wireless networking for around the same cost. Unless your computer and TV are located next to each other this unit is severely limited in its usefulness and should have been graded down accordingly.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Facepalm

      Are you having a giraffe?

      It received 85% because it does what its supposed to do perfectly.

      If it's not your cup of tea because it doesnt have networking then its not the items fault. If you want a media player with networking, buy one but dont go berating this litte beauty because it hasnt!!!

      I dont want or need network connectiviity, so long as i can chuck an SD card/HD/USB flash into this thing at my mates house and watch some HI def film ive downloaded, ripped, whatever, then it suits my purposes.....

  11. N13L5

    it sounds like a great little box, but I needed it to support DLNA

    Every phone and tablet supports DLNA, but the various little players you can find? nope...

    So, unless you want to use your television as a DLNA renderer, you're out of luck...

    This little box would have been totally perfect...

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