Review: Eminent EM7285 hdMEDIA RT3 Limited Edition media player

In early December 2011 I received the HD Media Player EM7285 hdMEDIA RT3 from Eminent. Mouthful for a crazy media player who, according to the press release, is their most advanced HD media player ever. But is he really worth his money?

Meanwhile I am finally ready to describe the device. I tested it somewhere over the Christmas holidays. All the questions I still had been answered and now I have time to say a word. The result is that the Eminent EM7285 is now available for about 2-3 months, because it is a Limited Edition. So be quick if you want it! In the box you will also find a Dutch manual and all necessary cables, including HDMI.

Now I have to admit that I don’t know a lot about codecs, chipsets and related technology, but I will do my best to describe everything well. A 3.5inch hard disk fits in the EM7285, but I had none available so I have not tested this option further. The only thing I can mention is that there is a handy cover on the side to easily get the hard drive in and out.

Appearance

The appearance of the EM7285 is well maintained. The media player is made of aluminum and therefore also feels very sturdy . The fact that an antenna for the WiFi (300N) protrudes does somewhat detract from its care, but that’s the way it should be. You can also unscrew the antenna if you connect the media player to your router via a cable. At the back are all connections, including eSata, USB3.0 and HDMI . On the front is the display, with a large amount of disco lights . Red, orange, blue, very cozy, but in the twilight of a nice movie I personally find it a bit disturbing.

Audio and video support

The Eminent EM7285 supports the most common file formats (for more detail, see website Eminent ), including MKV, VC-1, AVCHD and H / X.264 . Because these are not always well supported, I tested them and it went well, except for one. But after investigation by the Eminent development team, it turned out that this was not the media player, but a corrupt file. The audio track was behind and on another media player it worked fine. It turned out that there were two audio tracks on the file, with the AC3 version lagging 2-5 seconds and the DTS version only 50 milliseconds. The EM7285 unfortunately took the AC3 (normally very fine by the way) and the other media player took the DTS track (usually forced).Here is the difference. Conclusion: make sure you have a good rip.

Interface

Eminent has made the interface a bit more fun than standard. It feels smooth and everything is actually quite easy to find. There was still a slight inconsistency in the version I tested (firmware 1.1.7 with Appcenter), but I reported the error and assume it has been investigated and is being resolved. If you went to the menu and saw “Apps”, went browsing or started a movie, then on the menu the app suddenly said “App”. A little crazy. But otherwise lists can be sorted fine , everything is easy to read and it is not slow. If you want to see more images, read this review at Hardware.info , there are some screenshots.

Appcenter / Third Party Apps

But now what matters: the Appcenter. This recently became known as Third Party Apps, which in my experience makes it clearer what we are talking about. The media player also contains standard apps, such as YouTube XL and Picasa , and this is really different. You get access to apps that have been specially developed for the Eminent media players, such as Uitzending Gemist, RTL Gemist, Oog TV and RTV NH . In addition, Flickr and even a porn channel that you can put behind a password, and even a Usenet client with which you can download even more material to play.

You can make the apps available by registering with Eminent. This can be done via the interface in the media player, but that did not go smoothly for me. But it was a beta version so you can. You can also register via the website and that went fine. In principle, an email address is sufficient. Then you can choose apps from a list and add them to your account. Then they are immediately available on your media player. The possible reason why Eminent does this via a portal like this may be that it is not easy for other manufacturers to adopt. Moreover, the media player does not need to be updated with every new app.

The quality of the apps is fine in itself, but the quality of the video image can vary considerably. RTL and the public broadcasters must have thought that pixels cost bandwidth, so they saved on that. That is not due to Eminent, but to the providers of the apps. Nevertheless, you can still look back on your TV Kassa or The Voice.

Conclusion

All in all, I am quite happy with the Eminent EM7285. It just looks good, except for the display and offers a lot of functions, partly due to the Third Party Apps. The interface works smoothly and is very pleasant to the eyes. We forgive the minor inconsistencies. From me the Eminent EM7285 Limited Edition gets a 9-. He’s not crazy at this price (199 euros list price) with all these options, but disco lights … no.

Pros

• Smooth interface
• Sturdy
• Third Party Apps

Negatives

• Disco lights in the display
• Inconsistency in the interface

The Eminent EM7285 is available for another 2-3 months for a suggested retail price of 199 euros, including a 5-year warranty (so pay attention if the seller wants to apply more warranty), but you can also find it slightly cheaper at Wehkamp , Laptopshop and Bol.com.