| | |  | Uncategorized | Home » » Kodak Theatre HD Player | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | Forget crowding around the computer, with the Kodak Theatre HD Player, you can relive your memories on your big screen HDTV in stunning high-definition. Invite your friends and family over to show off your personalized slideshows, videos and web content in the comfort of your living room. Then share the excitement by wirelessly sending your content to anyone, anywhere. | | | Features: | |
• Re-live your pictures and video on your HDTV
• Access photos from your PC, camera, and online photo sharing sites
• Wirelessly send and receive pictures with Kodak's Picture Mail feature
• Create slideshows enhanced with your favorite songs
• Access Internet Radio, podcasts and other web content on your HDTV
| | | Product Details: | | | Product Length:
| 9.5 inches | | Product Width:
| 6.0 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.2 inches | | Product Weight:
| 2.25 pounds | | Package Length:
| 12.4 inches | | Package Width:
| 8.2 inches | | Package Height:
| 4.3 inches | | Package Weight:
| 2.85 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 28 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 28 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
29 of 32 found the following review helpful:
 Fabulous accessory for your big screen TV, insane remoteNov 15, 2008
By Daniel D. Briere
I have this product installed on a 50-inch LCD in my living room. We use it to access six accounts worth of iTunes and overall 6000 songs, about 10,000 pictures, and various home videos we've converted to digital. I love my Kodak player. We use it a lot at parties to play music from playlists (can import or create your own), and to show screen images from the photo collection. (I'd like to be able to email photos from here please Kodak as other parents want pictures as they come up!) The remote is a Wii-like remote that works on the TV, and it's great -- all TVs should have this remote. This would make a great gift for anyone with a digital storehouse of info they want to access on their TV. The only issues I had were that I could not mount a network drive (I store my content on a homeserver) and a minor issue that when reported they sent me a patch. Overall, I'd recommend this to anyone who wants to access their content on the TV.
12 of 13 found the following review helpful:
I have one, and it's cool.Jan 07, 2009
By J. Gable
The Theatre player is a really unique device because it does so much more than you might gather from just reading about it, and it has such a powerful new user interface. Comparing this to other set-top boxes is like comparing the first Mac to DOS computers, because the Theatre comes with a remote pointer that is so precise and easy to use that you wonder why it's not everywhere already. And just like the first Mac, it makes the applications on your big screen TV much easier to use and more powerful at the same time.
Practically speaking, here are some key aspects:
1) It displays your photos better than anything else available. Period.
2) It navigates and plays YouTube better than anything else on TV. Period.
3) It's great for playing music and even Internet radio.
4) More features get added over the network.
Photos - It's from Kodak so it's no surprise that it does more with photos than anything else. Partly because you have the pointer, like a mouse on the TV screen, you can navigate through 1,000s of photos from your PC. Or on Kodak Gallery. Or on Flickr. You can make slideshows on the TV, link them to your music, zoom in on photos, mark favorites and more.
YouTube - This application was just downloaded to Theatre boxes this week and it's a real trendsetter. It makes sitting back and enjoying YouTube videos with friends a great group experience. Anyone can do it because the pointer is so natural and features like searching for a video are much easier than with an old fashioned remote -- no more going right-right-right-down-down-down, oops, now I need an "a" again... you get the idea. This app really shows the right way to craft web content for the 10 foot experience.
Music - Other features like playing your iTunes collection (even better now that Apple dropped DRM), are improved because of the user interface. It's easy to make playlists, and you can use the playlists you made on your PC. You can even do obvious things like jumping ahead in a song by clicking on the progress bar, something trivial on PC and not possible with old remotes. Same thing for playing back podcasts and other videos.
Lastly I like that the product improves over time because it is network connected. YouTube was just loaded this week and Kodak is showing some new features at CES that will be loaded later. There are no on-going fees for all this either.
To me it's a great product for big screen TVs, especially in the family room where people can share photos, videos and music. It has memory card slots on the box so you can pop in cards from your camera when you get back from an event and view them without going to the PC at all.
And it's just fun.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I do some work for a company that helped Kodak create this product. That is why I know it well. It's also why I bought one for myself when I could. The cool new pointer and interface will be a benchmark for future products too.
14 of 16 found the following review helpful:
Amazing. I Use It Every Day.Apr 28, 2009
By Brad
"Brad"
There are so many things to like about the Kodak Theatre HD Player that it's hard to know where to begin. It's a media extender, like many others, but the difference with this one is that it focuses on you and your content. It's not a gateway to an online store where you can spend more money to view content that other people have created. Kodak has made a media extender that focuses on you; your pictures, your movies, and your music (all right, the music was probably created by somebody else).
The first thing you notice about the Kodak Theatre is that it's small. I had read the dimensions. I had seen the pictures, but when I opened up that box for the first time and saw this thing, I was stunned. It's small. It's sleek and elegant looking. It looks great when sitting next to my HDTV. It also feels very durable. It feels as though it has a great build quality and that it will last forever. Also, it has no moving parts inside, so it is quiet. In fact, it makes no noise whatsoever. (Originally I was debating between a Kodak Theatre and a low-end XBOX 360, but decided to go Kodak mainly because of the noise issue)
The remote is also really cool and really unique. First, it works off a radio frequency (as opposed to infra red) so you don't have to have a direct line of sight to the box to make it work. You can be in the next room with the door closed and still operate the thing with the remote. It's a good size, and when the AA batteries are in it, it has just the right amount of weight as well. The unique feature in the remote is that it's motion sensitive. That doesn't mean you point it at the tv and a pointer moves to where you are pointing like a Nintendo Wii remote. Here, you have a cursor on the screen and if you hold the remote straight, the cursor sits still. Tilt your hand to one side and the cursor goes in that direction until it hits the edge of the screen. Tilt it up or down and it follows right along. I thought that this would take some time to get used to, but it was so intuitive that after a few seconds of using it, I felt very comfortable with it. It makes it a breeze for typing in your network information or searching for things in YouTube.
It was also very easy to set up. As soon as you turn it on (and there is no way to turn it off besides unplugging it), it guides you through a step-by-step process to connect to your network and access your Kodak Gallery account. Kodak suggests that you have a strong connection, and I can attest to that. Originally, the signal the box was receiving was at 40% (which the handy onscreen tool will tell you) and sometimes fast moving video would stutter. I adjusted the placement of my router and got the signal up to 68% and suddenly all those problems went away. Something else to keep in mind is that the minimum hardware requirements for your computer are pretty accurate. My computer just barely passes the test, and while it works, it does take a little while to load, buffer, and view videos. When I use the Kodak Theatre with a new computer, it works flawlessly and fast.
The software that gets installed on your computer isn't the greatest, but it works. One of the other reviewers commented that there is no way to minimize the software, and that's not true. In fact, after you have installed the software and have set it to monitor your media folders, you can close the program. The software continually works in the background and monitors your folders for any changes. When you boot up your computer, the software loads automatically in the background. If you have an older computer, you will probably notice a slight decrease in performance, but for any computer purchased in the last three years, you should be fine.
There are a few downsides though that I feel should be mentioned to keep this review balanced. One, it doesn't support the Mac yet. Hopefully that will be coming, but as of right now it doesn't. Also, it doesn't display the name of the video file you're looking at. So if you have folder with 12 video clips in it, all it's going to show you in a thumbnail for each one. That makes it a little difficult to find a specific file, but since it will display the name of the folder you're in, I just put each video in to it's own folder with a title. Lastly, when watching a video, there's no way to scan back just a few seconds. A lot of times we'll be watching a video and just miss something and wish that we could skip back a few seconds to see it again. Right now what you have to do is put the pointer somewhere on the timeline and select where you want to go. It works, but it's hard to make it precise.
I think it's fairly safe to say that I really, really like this thing. I use it every day. I stream my music library to my TV and listen to music while we're having dinner. I have converted a number of my DVD's to video files, and we watch them streamed to the Kodak Theatre HD. And the best part is that it has a screen saver feature which goes and randomly pulls old pictures up off your computer and displays them as a slideshow. I love this because it's like turning my HDTV in to a giant, continuously changing, digital photo frame.
I'm sure there are a ton of other features that I'm forgetting to mention, but just get one and discover them for your self. This thing is awesome. It's well worth the money, and with the software updates, it's only getting better.
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
Makes sense to buyMar 06, 2009
By ORZ
I just bought one from Amazon. Cool device in slick hi-tech looking matte black box with blue LEDs - look good next to my Samsung A650, exudes high quality. It has usual user-friendly Kodak menu and unique wireless-mouse-like remote. After using this remote I wonder why it is not an industry standard.
HMDI output can be set up to 1080p (which I did). My HDTV is Samsung 46A650. Photos look amazing (little oversaturated, but it is Samsung after all - you can tone down it if you want) - resolution is higher than on my laptop, I can see more details. Samsung's own photo viewer (from USB drive) sucks - interface is so horrible that almost impossible to use - I tried couple of times and gave up. And Kodak's menu as I mentioned above - rocks - very well organized and easy to use.
Kodak HD theatre is worth buying for no other reason than just watching Youtube videos HDTV. I do not know how they render image but Youtube looks better on big screen given the resolutions provided by Youtube than on my laptop. You will have absolutely different experience watching Youtube videos on HD TV than on PC.
The other cool feature is Internet radio portal. There are thousands of radio stations available from all over the world, in every genre. They are grouped in many different ways, like music in decades - 60s, 70s, 80s etc, or Rock, Soft Rock, Classic and etc. Talk radio stations are grouped in left wing, right wing, middle and etc. It can play slide show at same time as streaming internet radio.
Regarding videos I was able to play full screen mpeg-2 and mpeg-4 videos, but could not figure out how to play Quicktime MOV files. I called Kodak and also Kodak online technical support but they were clueless as if never heard about HD Theatre. I have a Kodak v1253 digital camera that makes HD (720p/30fps) H.264 codec videos with STEREO sound with pretty good quality (so I retired my Canon Optura60 MiniDV camera) so playing MOV files on HDTV was the most important thing for me after Youtube.
But I found workaround for MOV videos. I transform MOV file into MP4 file using file export feature in Quicktime Pro (I recommend to spend $30 and get one - it worth it). Probably you can simply rename file extension .mov to .mp4, but I did not try it. For those who do not know - .mp4 container is based on (almost identical to) Apples .mov container format, but unlike .mov container it is the international MPEG standard so all players support it. And indeed Kodak HD player plays back .mp4 files from USB drive or memory card just fine.
I recommend QuickTime Pro also because it allows creating reference movies - you can merge videos together and even edit without changing original master files - it simply changes content pointers in reference file. Another advantage of using QuickTime versus using play-list is that QuickTime buffers next movie before previous one finishes (like slide show player does). It makes movie clip transition smooth with no interruption as if you physically merged clips. With play lists on other players video will interrupt for a second to buffer next clip.
Another advantage of QuickTime Pro is that you can reformat movie files made on digital camera. The reason is as in case with Kodak cameras - they do not create .mov files exactly following Apple's specs. Movies made on camera play back okay but when using QuickTime Pro to create reference movies there are problems. E.g. QuickTime Pro cannot correctly determine playback time from file header created by digital camera and ends up with negative time values when you merge 5 or more clips together. After 8-9 clips QuickTime Pro simply refuses to add more clips. To solve this problem I open original movie and copy it (Cntrl A-Cntrl C), then create new file, paste and save (Cntrl N - Cntrl V -Cntrl S). New file will have correct .mov file format.
HD Theatre upscales all videos to fill the screen regardless of original resolution. For anamorphic widescreen format (my Canon Optura60 camcorder just happens to make makes anamorphic videos) HD theatre automatically zooms video horizontally to 16:9 aspect ratio while for true VGA videos (made on my old Hi8 Sony camcorder) it shows video in 4:3 aspect ratio, but still fills the screen vertically. Therefore player automatically determines format of video, renders it in correct aspect ratio even if it is anmorphic and upscales it to fit the screen. Videos look pretty good on HDTV.
On Kodak HD player you can create slide shows with videos and pictures with mp3 files playing in background. But note that first in slide show must go the JPEG file.
Now the issues I had with HD Theatre.
First issue I had is inability to playback .mov videos. This issue is easily resolved by exporting .mov files to .mp4 format (it is lossless process) as I described above.
Another issue is that all video files icons look the same on the screen - no frames thumbnails or file names are displayed so it is impossible to tell one video from another. I found solution for this issue - I put every video file in separate folder - HD Theater shows folder names on screen. I also capture frame from video (can use QuickTime or Kmplayer to do that) as JPEG file, stamp the movie title and date on it and put it in the same folder as video. It serves two purposes - first it shows as the thumbnail image on folder so you can easily identify video and also can be used as the start for video slide show serving as a movie title frame (Kodak shows it for several seconds - enough to read title and then starts playing video clips one after another in play list manner).
Of course instead of buying dedicated HD media player you can just use your PC/laptop with HDMI interface (my laptop has one). Advantage of using PC is that you are not at mercy of Kodak SW development team and can run any S or players you want and to go to any websites. But the problem with using PC or laptop - navigation on the screen is very difficult because at 1080p resolution everything looks extremely small on TV screen - you still can use wireless mouse as a remote but you have to sit very close to TV to see filenames but is not easy to click correct menu option or file name with wireless mouse when you sit 6 ft away from TV on the coach even if you are able to see names. HD Theatre is user friendlier and in general easier to use that PC, and it renders Youtube videos with high quality. In my opinion Kodak HD player worth to purchase and enjoy.
P.S. I wrote this review some time ago. But recently I discovered issue that may be helpful u to know about. I made 1080p-30fps and 720p-60fps MOV/MP4 H.264 videos on Kodak's own pocket camcorder Zi8 and tried to play them on Kodak HD Theater and it could not handle high bit rate these videos require. The bit rate is about 18-20 mbs. HD theater is able though to play back 720p-30fps mp4 videos normally made by digital still cameras. If you think that you can play back full fledged HD videos on your laptop - forget about it too. My laptop is brand new HP dv5z and I tried to playback 1080p-30fps and 720p-60fps video on it too and codecs I have were unable to handle 18 mbs. I tried Apple's own Quick Time Pro (which could not handle even half bit rate of 720p-30fps), Windows Media player - which can hardly play anything and even KM player which is the only player on my PC which can handle 720p-30fps H.264 gave up on 18 mbs H.264. So it seems that only option left is to play videos from camcorder itself which is not helpful since you have to store all videos on SD cards or find a blueray player which also can playback videos from hard drive.
10 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 HW OK-Software terribleSep 24, 2009
By S. Alexander
I have been looking for a device that would make it easy for me to view photos located on my computer on my HDTV. The Kodak HD Theatre looked like a good solution. I loved the way the remote worked and the user interface in general was fine. Since my primary interest was viewing photos on my TV my main problem was I just couldn't grasp how to make my photos accessible. Somehow I did get all 7000 images so that I could look at them on my TV but there wasn't any organization to them. It was just screen after screen of 8000 icons. On my computer they are in folders by year and event but that was all lost when attempting to view from my TV. I read and reread all the supplied documentation and then I searched online for info on where I might get help but couldn't find anything useful so I gave up and returned the unit. Some time afterwards I was running out of space on my 500 GB hard drive and finally determined that the Kodak software had made duplicate copies of all my photos in another folder on my system. Once I deleted them my system was back to normal.
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