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Latest in a series of exceptional sources for the BOCS system – a media player with Blu-Ray capabilities.

I’ve had an HDX-1000 for a long time, and if you’ve read previous posts/reviews, you will recall my findings that it has an exceptional Codec list and can play perhaps the largest set of media out there. Combined with a decent online experience and both SD and HD capabilities, it has been at the top of its class for a long time.  My gripes, however, have been a lack of BluRay support, a less than navigable UI, and a lack of streaming online service (the latter is perhaps not fair since I’m asking for the box to be more than what it was intended).

Now – comes the HDX-BD1. — Frankly, a huge improvement, with a few issues, but a definite upgrade.

I’ll do a full review and post on AVS next week, but a few notes here so yall can go take a look at it.

The new system has:

• Full BD support – once ripped, a locally stored file plays flawlessly (Solving 50% of the issue with the 1000)
• The same exceptional codec coverage – including some of the best A/V sync in the industry
• Hugely improved UI

See the basic page on AmperorDirect HERE. A good general overview can also be found there.

And best of all, the Amperor folks put together a very detailed “Things to Consider before you buy” page HERE.  I havn’t seen that kind of up-front honesty and detailed analysis of a new product in a long time.

The key seems to be that the HdX company in China is actively working on the new firmware since they took it on themselves for this upgrade instead of licensing a third party. It is not yet fully complete and there are definitely a few issues, but the product is clearly ready for prime-time and their work will only serve to make things better.

David