1080p Media Player GK-HD160 Review (GIEC manufacturer)

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Presentation of the 1080p Media Player GK-HD160

In this media player review we would like to introduce you the media player GK-HD160, manufactured by GIEC and bought at Dealextreme (sku.122101). It is capable of playing a lot of audio and video formats/codecs directly to your TV through HDMI cable (or RCA connector).

The hardware features and the package content are:

• Chipset RealTek 1185DD 500Mhz
• 256MB DDR2
• 2GB Internal Nand-Flash
• 2x USB 2.0 ports
• 1x HDMI 1.3
• 1x S/PDIF coaxial
• 1x CVBS/YPbPr
• 1x Network LAN port 10/100 Mbps (RJ45) for Internet connection
• 1x Remote control
• 2x AAA battery
• 1x Power adapter
• 1x RCA connector cable with 92cm
• 1x Manual (Chinese only)

The 1080p Media Player GK-HD160 Features

Besides simplicity, portability and energy efficiency, there are some other features in this full HD media player that can be useful for someone. We put below its features that we consider important for a media player:

• Can handle 1080p videos smoothly (check the formats and codecs below).
• Can handle 720p videos smoothly.
• Change subtitle color (yellow, white, red and more).
• Change subtitle size.
• Change subtitle height.
• Change charset encoding for subtitles (Unicode UTF8, GBK, Big5, Turkish, Greek, Cyrillic, MS-1256, SJIS, ISO8859-11 and some others) - useful to show special characters.
• Play files in your USB flash drive or portable hard drive.
• Play shared files in your local network through wired connection. (*)
• Fast forward, rewind and "GO TO" option works without a hitch.
• Play your videos in 3D red-cyan SBS or T-B. (**)
• Supports FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and EXT3.
• Browse files by list, preview or thumbnail.
• Change audio track.
• It barely gets hot after playing an entire 1080p movie.
• Resume last played (optional).
• Choose OSD language (Simplified/Traditional Chinese, English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Dutch).
• Different output resolution (1080p, 1080i, 720p, 576p and 480p).
• "Shutdown After Played" option.
• Change wallpaper (it is called "Change Xpress" - last option in main menu).
• Control the media player GK-HD160 through a virtual controller when connected to your local network. (***)
• Access Internet through native browser.
• Access to some Chinese CCTV channels.
• Access to some Chinese movies providers.
• Able to upgrade the firmware through USB flash drive.

File Formats and Codecs supported by this Full HD Media Player GK-HD160

Video (****)

• H.264(AVC HD)
• VC-1(WMV-HD)
• AVI
• MKV
• MPEG-2
• MPEG-1
• MPEG-4
• XviD
• VOB (and VIDEO_TS folder with menu), but it can't play DVD ISO
• Bluray ISO
• DivX 3/4/5/6
• RealVideo 8/9/10
• RM
• RMVB
• MOV
• WMV
• FLV
• ASF
• DAT
• MPG
• MPEG
• H.263

Audio (*****)

• FLAC
• ALAC
• APE
• MP3
• AC3
• DDP
• TrueHD
• DTS
• DTS HD
• WMA
• AAC
• WAV
• OGG
• REAL audio

Image

• JPEG
• BMP
• GIF
• PNG
• TIFF

Subtitle (******)

• SRT
• SUB
• SSA
• SMI
• IDX+SUB

The Problems

There are some small issues that we found while using the media player GK-HD160, but in our opinion none of them will disturb its main feature - play video files through USB flash, USB hard drive or local network.

Following are the problems that we found:

• There are some Chinese labels in some remote control buttons (at least there is a English equivalent just above).
• Even if you put the menu in English, there are some texts that are not translated (see pictures above).
• It is complicate to navigate a website using the native browser and the remote control.
• The Chinese streaming providers aren't translated.

As we already said, these issues are not a big deal if you just want to play your media files, but is something that you should know before buy it.

Testing the Media Player GK-HD160 (from GIEC)

To verify the quality of this media player, we decided to do two simple tests for this review:

• Play some files of different formats and codecs through a USB flash drive.
• Play the same files mentioned above but now through wired LAN (local network).

You can see the test with the USB flash drive in the video below, as well as some of the other features of this 1080p media player, but know that the media player was able to play all the files in the two situations above and also to play a 1080p MKV movie without problems.

Sorry for the bad video quality

The detailed information (codec, format, bitrate, resolution, etc) of the files tested in the video above are the following:

• FLAC (937 Kbps of bitrate) at 0:29.
• MP3 (128 Kbps of bitrate) at 0:41.
• JPEG (2560x1600 pixels) at 0:53.
• JPEG (2560x1600 pixels) at 0:56.
• JPEG (2560x1600 pixels) at 0:58.
• AVI (Xvid, 726 Kbps of bitrate and 640x352 pixels) at 1:21.
• VIDEO_TS folder with VOB files (played as DVD) at 2:38.
• Bluray ISO (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, variable bitrate, maximum 22.0 Mbps and 1920x1080 pixels) at 3:12.
• AVI (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, 4273 Kbps of bitrate and 1280x720 pixels) at 3:57.
• M2TS (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, variable bitrate, maximum 25.0 Mbps and 1920x1080 pixels) at 4:19.
• MP4 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, variable bitrate, maximum 40.0 Mbps and 1920x816 pixels) at 5:05.
• FLV (H.263, 781 Kbps of bitrate and 320x240 pixels) at 5:48.
• RMVB (RealVideo 10/RV40, 856 Kbps of bitrate and 720x480 pixels) at 6:11.
• WMV (VC-1, 8000 Kbps of bitrate and 1280x720 pixels) at 6:25.
• 3GP (MPEG4, 363 Kbps of bitrate and 352x240 pixels) at 7:03.

By the way, before playing a file through your local network, the media player GK-HD160 tests the LAN speed and show the result in the screen.

Firmware Update

As mentioned early, you can update the firmware of the media player GK-HD160 through a USB flash drive and using the firmware file provided by the manufacturer (GIEC). There are firmware update instructions in the Chinese version of GIEC's website, however, there is not firmware update instructions in the English version of GIEC's website (at least we did not find any).

We will try to contact them and ask for a translation of those instructions to English and, if we receive a positive reply, we will update this review with the English instructions.

Case you know Chinese or want to try update the firmware by yourself, you can find some firmware files here.

Where can I buy this Full HD Media Player?

We bought our GK-HD160 media player at Dealextreme for about $70. If you want to buy it, check this link.

Note 1: Maybe It is possible to use the VAP11G WiFi bridge to connect this media player to Internet wirelessly. We will test it and update this review as soon as we receive ours. (already tested)

Note 2: We did not test them with proper glasses.

Note 3: Type the media player IP address plus "/remote" in your Internet browser (Computer/Cellphone/Tablet). For instance, "http://192.168.1.155/remote". Only some buttons are available (see pictures above).

Note 4: Since we are putting file format and codecs all together, there may be redundant info.

Note 5: Until now, we only heard audios with 2 channels since we do not have a 5.1 or 7.1 audio system. We will update this review as soon as we test that.

Note 6: The subtitle file must have the same name as the video file.