Cideko Android Media Player

**Shady** · 23rd January, 2012, 01:53 PM

Picked up one of these today.. Cideko Android HD Media Player : Media Adaptors : Maplin Electronics

and have been asked to do a little review of it.

First off, the price

only ?49.99 for a networked media player with android 2.2 built in.

First thing you notice when opening the box is the size.. its tiny..

just under 13.5cm x 11cm..

After putting the ir receiver (hidden away at back of remote keyboard) into the back of box and puting batteries into tjhe remote, you power on to this screen

As I bought this mostly as a media player/streamer i will show this aspect first.

After choosing the video icon, you are presented with a choice of 3 locations, upnp server, samba server or system memory (usb or sd card).

I already have a samba share set up via my router so i picked network search and there was my samba share already listed.

menus are quick to fly through to choose which file you want to play

and you get a little thumbnail video of each file. After choosing, playback begins within 2-3 seconds

The box plays back all the major codecs including .mkv with no jitters.

Now this box is ethernet only, so unless you have homeplugs or enough cable, you are limited to where you put it.

Now the android system... this isnt the best, its 2.2 froyo and the site says that its 10.2 flash compatible.. however, i have had trouble playing any flash sites such as iplayer or itvplayer.. youtube has its own app tho and works well.
I tried installing the iplayer app, but it wouldnt install and am waiting for the manufacturers to get back to me on the flash issue.

An app that DID install and function correctly is Atorrent, a bit-torrent client that you would use in exactly the same way as a pc, browse to torrent site, d/l and choose the torrent client to use.. job done. This particular box will only d/l torrents to an sd card tho, which is a shame as usb offers more storage capacity.

The keyboard/remote is a joy to use, with full qwerty, media playback buttons and also operates like a wiimote to move the on screen cursor around.. its responsive and feels nice in your hands.

Now this is only a quick review, but so far im loving this little box. the only con i can find is the android experience not being as good as it should.. with no flash (or no way that i can find to get it working atm) this feels more like android 2.1 than 2.2.

continued below >>>>>>>>>>>>>

**Shady** · 23rd January, 2012, 02:05 PM

I havent tried all the other built in apps yet except the iTV player.. which seems to host iptv from different countries.. a load of crap mostly, however on the uk region, a site was playing a james bond movie... alas i cant find a way to choose particular films to watch.. seems to be the case that you watch what is showing at the time..
as you can see from the above pic, social networking is well covered with msn, facebook, skype (although not sure how this would work on this box) and twitter.. <<< edit >>> have now tried the msn app and had a convo with another dk user.. works fine

In summary then...

GOOD

Media playback and streaming
Size
Remote
Some android aspects
THE PRICE

BAD

No wifi
android is picky
no flash (at this time... watch this space)

Even with the bad points, this box does everything (and in some aspects more) than other media streamers do that cost a lot more.

Its a top little box and for media freaks, i cant recommend it enough..

**gmb45** · 23rd January, 2012, 03:49 PM

hmmmmm the lack of flash ability as put me off atm, the only reason i want it is to watch vid from any site that plays flash, hmmmm am gunna hang on a bit to see if you make any headway regaurding this.

**nathan2007** · 23rd January, 2012, 08:26 PM

yeah if flash was working would be a gem of a bargain mate

**Shady** · 23rd January, 2012, 08:27 PM

tbf, without flash its a gem of a bargain.. show me another media player in this price range that can do all this can do?

**nathan2007** · 23rd January, 2012, 08:55 PM

no totally agree mate i might get one and flash it with clockwork mod to see what i can play theres bound to be flash support somewhere if its android