Micca Slim-HD: 1080p In Your Pocket
by Vivek Gowri on November 23, 2010 1:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Micca
- Slim-HD
- Media Player
Micca Slim-HD - Performance
The Slim-HD has it’s fair share of container and codec support, as listed in the table below. Most of the standard suspects are there, but some of the more interesting (or obscure) things like webm, m2v, and ISO are missing from the spec sheet.
| Micca Slim-HD Digital Media Player | ||||
| Feature | Supported Formats | |||
| 1080p Video | MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4-XVID, DIVX, H.264, H.263, WMV9/VC1 | |||
| 720p Video | RMVB | |||
| Video Containers | MKV, AVI, TS/TP, MP4/M4V, MOV, VOB, PMP, RM/RMVB, MPG, M2TS, FLV, WMV | |||
| Audio Codecs | MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, APE, AAC, AC3, ATRA, DTS | |||
| Image Files | JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG | |||
| Analog Video Outputs | 720x576 (PAL), 720x480 (NTSC) | |||
| Digital Video Outputs | 480p, 720p (50Hz/60Hz), 1080i (50Hz/60Hz), 1080p (50Hz/60Hz) | |||
But when we ran the Slim-HD through our Media Streaming Compatibility Test Suite, we hit some problems. First and foremost, higher framerate 1080p x264 got shafted, especially in the .mkv container. Tons of choppiness, to an unwatchable extent. Add DTS Master Audio, and you end up with a literal slideshow. Weirdly, the problem with DTS-MA also showed up in the 720p test clip. Even trying it two or three times didn’t work too well. The other problem is that while trying to play through those clips, the entire unit would basically go unresponsive to remote inputs (for example, trying to pause it or exit the video and go back to the menu). Let’s just say that the slower processor is coming back to bite the Slim-HD.
As we mentioned before, no ISO support, so the DVD and BD ISO files were goners. Some of the files simply wouldn’t open, even files in common formats supposedly supported by the Slim-HD (note the OGG file [012], the 1080p24 x264 mp4 [010], and a few others). And then some of the more obscure formats that don’t work. We do have to admit that these test streams are meant to put even high end media streamers under stress, and that most of the streams with which the Slim-HD has problems with are not very common. As long as you don't expect everything off the Internet to play, the Slim-HD keeps chugging along.
| Micca Slim-HD: AT Media Streamer Test Suite | |||||||
| File Name | Aspects Tested | Max. Score |
Slim-HD Score |
Notes | |||
| 001-1080p30.x264.AC3.m2ts | H.264, AC3, M2TS |
8
|
8
|
||||
| 002-480i30.MPEG.ASF.dvr-ms | ASF, DVR-MS |
2
|
0 | Format Not Recognized | |||
| 003-1080p24.WMV9.WMAPro.6Ch.wmv | WMV9, WMAPro |
8
|
8 | ||||
| 004-1080p60.x264.8ref.mkv | 60 fps L5.1 H.264 |
8
|
2
|
Very Choppy Playback | |||
| 005-1440x1080i30.SonyAVCHD.m2ts | HD Camcorder Clips |
10
|
10
|
||||
| 006-1080p24.x264.16ref.mkv | L5.1 H.264 |
8
|
0 | File Does Not Play | |||
| 007-1080p.x264.DTS.6Ch.mkv | DTS |
10
|
10
|
||||
| 008-DTS-HRA.8Ch.m2ts | DTS-HRA Bitstreaming |
8
|
8
|
||||
| 009-TrueHD.6Ch..m2ts | TrueHD Bitstreaming |
8
|
8
|
||||
| 010-1080p24.x264.AAC.mp4 | AAC, MP4 |
8
|
0 | File Does Not Play | |||
| 011-FLAC.6Ch.ASS.Subs.mkv | FLAC, ASS Subs |
8
|
4
|
Stylized Subs not displayed | |||
| 012-1080p24.Vorbis.ogg | Vorbis, OGG |
4
|
0
|
File Does Not Play | |||
| 013-352p25RV40.RACook.rmvb | Real Media |
8
|
8
|
||||
| 014-1080i25.AVC.AC3..MPEG-TS.trp | TRP |
2
|
0 | Format Not Recognized | |||
| 015-360p24.XVid.12LanguagesSRT.Subs.mkv | UTF Subs |
8
|
8 | ||||
| 016-1080i30.MPEG2.HeavilyInterlaced.ts | Deinterlacing for MPEG-2 |
8
|
2
|
Flickering Issues | |||
| 017-1080p24.TrueHD.PGS.Subs.mkv | PGS Subs, TrueHD Bitstreaming from MKV |
12
|
8 | No Subtitles | |||
| 018-480p.TVCapture.wtv | WTV |
4
|
0
|
Format Not Recognized | |||
| 019-240p.H264.AAC.m4v | M4V |
8
|
8
|
||||
| 020-1080p30.x264.AC3.m2ts | H.264, AC3, M2TS |
10
|
10 | ||||
| 021-442p30.DivX.AAC.mkv | DivX in MKV Container |
8
|
8
|
||||
| 022-DVDISO.iso | DVD ISO |
10
|
0
|
No ISO Support | |||
| 023-BluRayISO.iso | Blu Ray ISO |
10
|
0 | No ISO Support | |||
| 024-1080p24.x264.DTS-MA.7Ch.mkv | DTS-MA Bitstreaming from MKV |
4
|
0
|
Extremely Choppy Video, No Audio | |||
| 025-720p24.x264.DTS-MA.6Ch.mkv | DTS-MA Bitstreaming from MKV |
4
|
0
|
Extremely Choppy Video, No Audio | |||
| 026-1080p24.VC1.AC3.mkv | VC1 in MKV |
10
|
10
|
||||
| 027-1440x576p25.WVC1.wmv | WVC1 |
8
|
8 |
||||
| 028-720p60.WVC1.WMA3.6Ch.wmv | 60fps WVC1 |
8
|
8 | ||||
| 029-1080p60.AVC.AAC.MP4 | HD Camcorder Clips |
10
|
10
|
||||
| 030-272p.VP6.MP3.FLV | VP6 in FLV, MP3 |
10
|
0
|
File Does Not Play | |||
| 031-854x480p30.H264.AAC.flv | H.264 in FLV |
10
|
10
|
||||
| 032-1080p.VP8.Vorbis.webm | VP8, WebM |
10
|
0
|
Format Not Recognized | |||
| 033-480p24.MPEG1.mpg | MPEG-1 |
4
|
4
|
||||
| 034-1080p24.xvid.avi | HD Xvid, AVI |
10
|
10
|
||||
| 035-672p30.DIVX.MP3.divx | DivX |
10
|
10
|
||||
| 036-720p60.MPEG2.m2v | MPEG-2, M2V |
2
|
0 | Format Not Recognized | |||
| 037-1080p30.MPEG2TS.ts | TS |
2
|
2
|
||||
| 038-1080p25.AVC.AAC.6Ch.MOV.mov | MOV |
10
|
10
|
||||
| 039-1080p24.RV40.Cook.rmvb | HD Real Media |
8
|
8 | ||||
| 040-Anamorphic.MultAud.MultSubs.mkv | Anamorphic, SSA Subs |
10
|
10 |
||||
| 041-1080p24.VC1.DTSHD-MA.m2ts | VC1 in M2TS, DTS-HD Bitstreaming |
6
|
6
|
Only passed DTS | |||
| 042-1080p24.VC1.TrueHD.AC3.m2ts | VC1 in M2TS, TrueHD Bitstreaming |
6
|
6
|
||||
| 043-1080i30.H264.HeavilyInterlaced.ts | Deinterlacing for H264 |
8
|
2
|
Flickering Issues | |||
| 044-1080i30.VC1.HeavilyInterlaced.ts | Deinterlacing for VC1 |
8
|
2
|
Flickering Issues | |||
| Total |
226 out of 336
|
||||||
Overall, the Slim-HD scored 226 out of a possible 336 points, which is 67.25%. That’s pretty good compared to the WD TV Live Plus, which got just 200 (58%), but here’s the rub. The WD TV got really owned in our compatibility suite by the lack of WMV audio and the entire RMVB format. Other than that, it seems that the WD TV might do slightly better with highly compressed 1080p video, but it just doesn’t have the amount of compatibility that the Slim-HD does, and if you’re really into Windows Media or Real Player video formats, the Slim-HD is clearly the way to go.
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abrar - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
i noticed that there is a Firmware download link on the Micca website, have you tested it ?and if so , have you noticed an appreciable difference ?!
jack@micca - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
I believe the test unit already has the latest firmware. We do release new firmware frequently, however, and hope to improve handling of less-than-popular encoding methods and parameters.Jack
blowfish - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
The look of the UI would be the least important aspect of any media player. I'm far more interested in media compatibility, so thanks for doing a throrough job on that. x264 support is high on my list of priorities. Personally, I have no interest in streaming media.The Slim-HD seems like a handy device to hook up to an hotel TV when you're traveling.
Rainman200 - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
Couldn't disagree more with you on that, the GUI is supremely important which is why Apple trounces many of their competitors.For far too long media players have had very poor GUI's designed by people with no UI experience or training at all. See the stock skin of the Realtek RTD1073 players.
Shouldn't have to be that way, we can have both.
jack@micca - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
I agree with you that the GUI is important. And to that point, I would say that the Slim-HD's GUI while not pretty, is functional, simple, and responsive. Sure it doesn't have fancy transitions, a movie jukebox interface, or movie cover-art/info displays. But if you take a look at the modern digital media player with such fancy interfaces, they are either very expensive, and/or have a lot of bugs.I am not saying a nice interface is impossible, but industry as a whole is searching for an efficient way to present the massive video collections that users have in some coherent user friendly fashion.
For us, usability is still the main focus for now. Future firmware versions will add a bit of eye candy to the various pages. But we will control such changes so as not to impact usability.
Jack
WingNutZA - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
Does the player need external AC power when you hook it up to a PC as a storage device or can USB supply enough power when you only want to copy stuff to/from the unit?jack@micca - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
No AC power is needed as this works as USB hard drive while drawing all the power it needs from the computer's USB port.Jack
mfeller2 - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
I checked the docs, and there is not the ability to copy files from an SD card to the hard drive. It should be a simple software change to add this functionality, and adds flexibility to let Micca address a different market. There are products for in-the-field backup for digital cameras. Plug in the media card to a portable hard drive, and media card contents are automatically copied to disk, to have a second copy in the case of media card failure. Smaller than a laptop when there are packing constraints (photo-journalism, nature photography). With newer digital cameras now supporting video, the ability to do this in-the-field backup, and then do playback from the Micca drive...it's a nice all-in-one package that does more than the dedicated photo-backup hardware, and cheaper to boot.Rainman200 - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
The sochip SC9800 is definitely Arm based as there is a Chinese forum that deals with it used by Ainol players and someone hacked Android onto one of the PMP'sIf the rumors are true the Boxchip F10 is supposedly the same although why the different names is a mystery.
Pooki - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
I'd like to pick up the micca slim hd and pair it with a boxee remote. Combined, that's about the price of an AppleTV. Would it work, you reckon?