Hard disk player from Thanko

In the age of HTPCs and nettops, the novelty of Thanko may seem a bit old-fashioned, but it can be a particularly tempting alternative for those less familiar with IT to replace the existing VHS VCR and DVD player.

Strictly speaking, the HDD Media Player 2 is nothing more than a target computer that is primarily used to play digital files. We’ve seen similar in the offerings of Freecom and several other manufacturers, but the novelty of Thanko is cheaper than ever, with you tasting just $ 70. Unfortunately, this amount does not include the purchase price of the hard drive, but from an optimistic point of view, this solution can also have an advantage, as we can decide for ourselves the storage capacity of the applicable hard drive, depending on our wallet. Designed to play motion pictures, the device has all the features you would expect from an add-on in this price range: it handles files recorded with a more well-known compression method in terms of software, so it doesn't have to play DivX and DVD files, among other things. From a hardware point of view, we have no reason to complain either, as in addition to the VGA port, composite connector and S-Video jacks, an optional digital audio output can be requested, so the HDD Media Player 2 can be easily connected to most home theater systems. However, the HDMI adapter has been left out, which on the one hand can be a serious negative if we have an HD Ready display, and on the other hand it also means that the device is not suitable for playing high definition media.

Despite all these negatives, the novelty of Thanko could be a striking alternative to replacing our aging devices with something more modern.