Conclusion
The Xtreamer is the media player I've been waiting for. For a low price of €99 you get a very valuable toy to play with. Valuable not only in terms of feature richness but also in used materials which it's made of. It feels not like a cheap plastic box but the look and feel really gives you the feeling that you didn't pour your money down the drain.
Of course there are always negative reverses and the Xtreamer is no exception: only when it is powered, you will notice that the manufacturers could have chosen a fan of better quality, which could cost €5 more but will then be more silent compared to the current fan of the first shipped batch (Xtreamer.net announced that the fan of the second batch will be a different model. What will happen to us early adopters who supported them by ordering first batch units?). However, since it is not an expensive device, I guess we will just have to wait a few more weeks until the first customers will have tested the Xtreamer with other fan models themselves or come up with some nice modding solutions.
Nevertheless, while using the Xtreamer these last days, I never regretted that I have purchased it. It just plays almost any media file I have. Xtreamer.net compared it e.g. to the WDTV and indeed: the Xtreamer can do like everything what the WDTV does, it just does it better than the WDTV. The video quality is brighter, even less jerky, photos look sharper when zoomed in and are loaded even multiple times faster than on the WDTV, DVD menus are supported. The sound quality - as far as I can tell with my average sound setup - is comparable, but is the WDTV capable of DTS downmix? I forgot it already... the Xtreamer can do DTS downmix for sure. Yet, it does not handle TrueHD due to licensing issues but this might be solved in the near future by a new firmware update via audio passthrough at least. Oh yeah, the Xtreamer case is thinner than the WDTV, which looks a bit clumsy for my taste. You can install a 2.5" HDD inside the Xtreamer, hence can carry it with you, without the need to carry a WD passport or another external drive with you, as people have to do with the Western Digital product.
The Xtreamer's system will be open source, which means, in a few months we can expect mods to arise which make the Xtreamer even more valuable and joyful. I am not exaggerating when I tell you: for my personal use, the Xtreamer is not only a WDTV killer but also a PCH killer, since I've always wanted to buy a PCH A-110 before I heard about the Xtreamer. I purchased my WDTV as an interim solution. If the Xtreamer player would not even exist, I think I would still be using my Windows XP Professional PC to play videos via DVI<->HDMI on my TV rather than using the slow WDTV or the expensive PCH. Luckily Xtreamer was born in the middle of my dilemma.
Despite some minor issues which can be fixed by software in the near future you can't do anything wrong by investing €99 in this little media player, which also is a streamer by the way. I am more than satisfied with my Xtreamer and I am sure, Xtreamer.net will reveal some more nice secrets to us soon. Just think about the Movie Jukebox or better FLV support, new themes, better photo/music handling, new video codec support etc... what are you waiting for :-)
Update 2009/08/07
After I and many other users tested the beta of the new firmware v1.0.2 it has finally been released to the public and I can report very positive results. The developers seem to have listened to our bug reports and customer demands and they are working their @$$3$ off to make this unit what we want it to be. Furthermore they are already working with a new Realtek SDK which is going to be used in a later firmware. New SDK, new features, hopefully not too many new bugs... we'll see!
After I and many other users tested the beta of the new firmware v1.0.2 it has finally been released to the public and I can report very positive results. The developers seem to have listened to our bug reports and customer demands and they are working their @$$3$ off to make this unit what we want it to be. Furthermore they are already working with a new Realtek SDK which is going to be used in a later firmware. New SDK, new features, hopefully not too many new bugs... we'll see!
Update 2009/08/31
Maybe it's a good time to shake some thoughts off my mind hoping that I won't sound too much like a bootlicker :) I really enjoy being part of the Xtreamer community. Though they have been criticized a lot for the lack of communication I found that they have learned their lesson recently and became more communicative to us customers the past days. You have always seen official Xtreamer guys in the forums and chats, making an effort to keep close contact to their users/customers. They have just released a roadmap on their firmware developments so you get to know a lot of internal information about new features which other companys in this industry would never release to the public. Studying this roadmap all I can say is: Xtreamer, the future is very likely going to be bright for you :)
Maybe it's a good time to shake some thoughts off my mind hoping that I won't sound too much like a bootlicker :) I really enjoy being part of the Xtreamer community. Though they have been criticized a lot for the lack of communication I found that they have learned their lesson recently and became more communicative to us customers the past days. You have always seen official Xtreamer guys in the forums and chats, making an effort to keep close contact to their users/customers. They have just released a roadmap on their firmware developments so you get to know a lot of internal information about new features which other companys in this industry would never release to the public. Studying this roadmap all I can say is: Xtreamer, the future is very likely going to be bright for you :)