Blu Ray or Screw Ray?

[mountainsoft]

Been using the Micca media player I just got. Overall, I really like the player except for one (a pretty big one) thing. The picture I notice is darker than usual. This is more apparent on lower quality videos, but noticeable all around. I've had to adjust the brightness of the TV display just to be comfortable watching media with the Micca. There is no brightness setting with the Micca software.

Bummer. I haven't used my Micca player in several months, so I can't remember if it was darker or not. I have noticed the video on my Roku is darker than what I get from TV, Blu-Ray, or network media player. I'm not sure what causes that, or if anything can be done other than adjusting the TV brightness.

You could try upgrading the firmware if you're not using the latest version already.

https://www.miccatron.com/micca-mplay-hd-mini-1080p-digital-media-player/

 

[easysurfer]

Bummer. I haven't used my Micca player in several months, so I can't remember if it was darker or not. I have noticed the video on my Roku is darker than what I get from TV, Blu-Ray, or network media player. I'm not sure what causes that, or if anything can be done other than adjusting the TV brightness.

You could try upgrading the firmware if you're not using the latest version already.

https://www.miccatron.com/micca-mplay-hd-mini-1080p-digital-media-player/

I've decided to return the Micca and try my luck with a different brand. The other media player should arrive today. Got my fingers crossed it will give a brighter picture.

Kohls is on my way back from errands on Saturday anyhow. Good thing for free returns and back goes the Micca and the switch and cable I no longer need.

 

[mountainsoft]

I've decided to return the Micca and try my luck with a different brand. The other media player should arrive today. Got my fingers crossed it will give a brighter picture.

Good luck! I hope the new player works better for you. I would be curious to hear what you chose and how it compares to the Micca.

 

[Freedom56]

I'm slow to adopt to new technology. The way I figure, if old tech is working and meets my needs, then why change. Thus, I've pretty much avoided Blu Ray and have stuck to DVDs.

I have an OTA DVR/DVD combo. One nice feature is when I record a program I can fairly easily dub to DVD as backup. This works great except when the program over an hour long as then video quality suffers. I recorded a 3 hr program (award show) but dubbed DVD quality was terrible. I cut down to 2 hrs and now dubbed quality is barely acceptable.

So, I did some thinking. First the thought of using a double layer DVD (9.4GB instead of the regular 4.7 GB of space). But the DVR/DVD combo doesn't recognize a double layer DVD.

Then I thought, what about Blu Ray? A Blu Ray disc should have plenty of space to make a quality backup. Only to find out, there really aren't any Blu Ray recorders in the USA. Long story short, companies must assume we are all crooks trying to pirate stuff so do not make Blu Ray recorders. . If that isn't screwing the consumers, I don't know what is.

Another alternative I guess is to use some video capture device to capture as a file to a hard drive. But I've used one before and the files get really big and not as convenient like just recording to a single disc as a backup.

I'm thinking now, either to settle for a barely acceptable 2 hr DVD using to DVR/DVD combo I have. Or use a separate DVD recorder (I have one around) to record into two good discs in higher quality.

No wonder people don't make archives of what they record on their DVR .

I use to use a USB QAM tuner (works with OTA and Cable) and Microsoft Media Center as DVR to record live TV. it use to be part of Windows 7 and 8. The USB tuners are inexpensive (about $20 online) and worked well. I used an old laptop has my DVR with an external portable drive for recording.
They dropped Microsoft Media Center on Windows 10, but you can still find it online and download and install it (it's free). After we dumped cable many years ago and started streaming, that setup became obsolete but it is still the choice for many who what a free version of Tivo like system.

 

[mountainsoft]

I use to use a USB QAM tuner (works with OTA and Cable) and Microsoft Media Center as DVR to record live TV. it use to be part of Windows 7 and 8. The USB tuners are inexpensive (about $20 online) and worked well. I used an old laptop has my DVR with an external portable drive for recording.

When cable companies switched to digital, most (ours included) started encrypting even the local channels. So a basic QAM tuner doesn't work anymore. I know there are tuners by Hauppauge (and probably others) that let you install a cablecard from your cable company to record encrypted stations.

I just dropped cable and switched to free OTA TV.

 

[easysurfer]

Good luck! I hope the new player works better for you. I would be curious to hear what you chose and how it compares to the Micca.

Follow up. The other media player I bought is even worse is video darkness compare to the Micca. Plus the remote control had very cluttered buttons.

The media player used the same OS which makes me now wonder if the darkness is set by the OS, hardware or combination of both.

I have that set to return to Amazon also .

Looks like I'll take a step back and evaluate my options. 1) Keep looking, 2) Go back to the Micca and just get used to a dark video or 3) Use my computer to view the videos instead of a player.

 

[jim584672]

I went to use a computer. All the "players" I tried seemed lacking in one way or another.

 

[mountainsoft]

Follow up. The other media player I bought is even worse is video darkness compare to the Micca. Plus the remote control had very cluttered buttons.

The media player used the same OS which makes me now wonder if the darkness is set by the OS, hardware or combination of both.

Dang, sorry that didn't work out. I think a lot of these devices, like the multitude of Android media players are all made by the same Chinese companies. Maybe a different case or remote, but the same basic guts.

Good luck with your search.

 

[easysurfer]

Dang, sorry that didn't work out. I think a lot of these devices, like the multitude of Android media players are all made by the same Chinese companies. Maybe a different case or remote, but the same basic guts.

Good luck with your search.

I almost found a solution right under my nose. Ends up, I have an Amazon Fire TV (1st gen) that does play media off a USB. I plugged in a USB and played some videos using the VLC app and the picture looked good. But then trying to play from another flashdrive, I got lost in VLC trying to navigate to the where the files are stored.

Looks like for time being. Videos just stored on my computer will do.

 

[easysurfer]

Dang, sorry that didn't work out. I think a lot of these devices, like the multitude of Android media players are all made by the same Chinese companies. Maybe a different case or remote, but the same basic guts.

Good luck with your search.

Decided to try my luck one more time. Instead of buying a media player like the Micca (for fear I'd just same OS in a different housing), I decided to get a small DVD/flashdrive player that can play MP4 files. On the DVD/flashdrive player there is a max flashdrive size of 32GB, that I could live with as long as the picture isn't too dark.

Player arrives on Tuesday. Either third time is the charm or third fail means time to throw in the towel. I shall see ... .

 

[easysurfer]

Good News and Bad News

First the bad news:

I received the DVD/flashdrive player today and it didn't work for playing USB files. Only played AVI format, not MP4. I converted some test files from MP4 to AVI and they played but the audio/video was out of sync. That's unfortunate too as the picture actually was bright and had a brightness setting. But still no dice, so it's going back as a return.

Second, the good news:

Was looking again at the Micca and there is similar but looks newer (more current looking OS) model Micca player. Looking at the player's manual and options one jumped out. A video settings option to set brightness, contrast, hue and saturation.

So, I'm going to give this another go ... just ordered the other Micca and cross my fingers again. Maybe 4th (or is this 5th? I forget) is the charm.

Back to Micca I go .

 

[easysurfer]

4th Time Is The Charm

Got my new Micca Media Player. Model "Micca MPLAY-HD Mini Digital Media Player". The picture quality works fine. It does have a brightness setting but the default worked great right out of the box.

Overall, I'm a happy camper!!

 

[mountainsoft]

Got my new Micca Media Player. Model "Micca MPLAY-HD Mini Digital Media Player". The picture quality works fine. It does have a brightness setting but the default worked great right out of the box.

Overall, I'm a happy camper!!

I guess I thought you had the Mplay-HD player the first time? What player did you use previously? Was it the older Micca Speck? Maybe the G2?

The MPlay-HD does work better than the old Micca Speck, though the interface is quite similar.

I'm glad you found a player that works for you!

 

[easysurfer]

I guess I thought you had the Mplay-HD player the first time? What player did you use previously? Was it the older Micca Speck? Maybe the G2?

The MPlay-HD does work better than the old Micca Speck, though the interface is quite similar.

I'm glad you found a player that works for you!

I had the Speck G2 the first time. The MPplay-HD looks like a newer interface. From what I read, Speck G2 started selling on Amazon back in 2012 and MPplay-HD in 2017. A lot of improvements can happen in 5 years.

I think the brightness on the Spec G2 might be okay with high quality videos. But for older ones, really need a player that has brightness control as an option.