Kworld Media Player - Shown here not much smaller than life sized

I just received my KWorld Media Player which I paid less than $55.00 including shipping and I’m going to have to give it FOUR out of FIVE STARS.

This is a fantastic value for a small device which supports both USB drives and SD Media cards.  I’ve only used it with a thumbdrive so far, but it has played MPEG 2 and Xvid videos perfectly.  The MPEG quality was DVD, so I don’t know what more you’d want.  The Xvids played with less quality, but that’s what you’d expect.

I was pleased with the remote as it ranked well with other digital video players I’ve used.  It doesn’t have the kitchen sink, but it’s responsive and allows for pausing, fast forwarding, etc.

Given the ability of playing videos using something with no moving parts makes this an great device for many display possibilities.  Think continuous gallery, kiosk, in-store and in-office displays using an inexpensive LCD Monitor.

I should point out that while I played videos from both SD cards and USB Thumbdrives, the KWorld Media Player also supports USB based hard drives such as the Western Digital Passport Series.  This opens up some very exciting possibilities.

Lastly, I was surprised that it includes the ability to copy and delete files on / off the devices.  This may allow one to copy images/videos off of an SD card from your digital camera onto either a USB Thumbdrive or a portable hard drive, all without a PC.  (you’d still need a display device like a TV or VGA montor, both of which the KWorld supports!)

The included software is yet another bonus as are the cables.

The menuing system is primitive at best.

Navigating a directory of videos is slow as it wants to preview the videos as you scroll past.  Furthermore, I was out and out surprised that the “preview” in the little preview window goes on and on, for the length of the video!  (sans audio)

It uses some kind of proprietary plug for the video, a 1-in and 5-out affair.  I wouldn’t want to lose this plug!  I’d be afraid to find out how much a replacement would cost!

SOME BELLS AND WHISTLES GO MISSING

There is no slow motion playback.  The common DVD options of skipping to a given point in a video and looping given selected A/B points are missing. At this price, however, its understandable.  Furthermore, other such portable media readers lack these advanced features.

While it supports WMAudio, it does NOT support MS Window Media Video (WMV) format.  It’s wide support outside of that, however, makes up for the absence.  It also does not playback hi-def Xvid videos.

The audio support seems to be thin as well, not supporting OGG or WAV.

Music and picture files were not tested, but it promises to play music at the same time while playing a show of pictures in a given directory.  Going back to the kiosk display suggestion above, this unit can find itself used in many ways.

Excerpts from the Kworld website:

Playback in Multi-Format (Video: Mpeg 1/2, AVI, DIVX, XVID, RMVB, RM, DAT, VOB; Audio: MP3, WMA; Photo: JPEG, BMP, PNG)

Supports YPbPr Output at 720p (VGA 1024 x 768)

For the price and the features, this is solid purchase and I would recommend it for easy viewing of downloaded content.

FOUR OUT OF FIVE STARS.