This player is one level better than the player I've used for the past five years or so. The major improvement is that it plays a codec the other players did not. That codec is labeled 265 and you encounter it quite often. The remote is not well labeled but rather intuitive. The instructions are reasonably clear. Like a lot of electronics from overseas, (and what moderately priced electronics are not) the manual is not as well written as it might be. But nothing about this player is less than very very good. It costs a little more, but it's worth it.

🌞This is an INCREDIBLE and compact little unit. The picture quality was excellent from my Flash drives. 🌟 The instructions leave a tremendous amount to be desired. They were translated from another language so they are very bumpy and vague.
I am planning on using two external hard drives. I also have a USB hub to be able to use a mouse as well as my flash drives.
I had two problems, firstly with the volume. On most everything it was very low, even when I had the TV almost maxed out. I did my own troubleshooting to no avail.
I watched six movies or concerts that played about 40% volume and three others that played at great volume out of attempts at 15 files in two short days. They were all in a variety of formats.

I can't wait till I get my new replacement unit this weekend as well as turning my TV into Bluetooth to listen intimately through my headphones!

The other huge huge, huge problem was in returning the unit. I had to pay $7.99 for return shipping regardless.
I am in senior living and unable to leave the building in that manner, so I have to have it shipped to and from my location.
Through no fault of my own, I have to pay a big percentage of my monthly free money to return this defective item that was shipped by Amazon. I am very very unhappy about that. So what other options do we have?

I tried a few media players, but found this one the best. For 11 years, I have been happy with my old WD media player, but alas, technology marches on and needed a media player to support 265 and UHD 4K.

Lots of features: Plenty of input options (SD card, internal, and USB). Remote is straight forward. The product and remote give easy access to media, user friendly navigation, and even has file management features. I think the native software is just fine, but for those who want VLC, KOBI interfaces, it's all there.

The remote is super -- and easy to master. For me the mouse emulation is useless. I find I hit the mouse button by mistake and have to strain to get rid of it again. One other tiny complaint is that to turn off the device the command requires 2 clicks. I wish it just went off, without that second OK click.

The more I use it, the more I like it.

I bought this because Plex is horrible at streaming from a NAS. Turns out this doesn't stream a NAS at all but I plugged a SSD HD in and it's flawless. Steams instantly and any format I throw at it is perfect. Picture quality rocks, no lag, no audio issues, etc. For that, it's amazing. Streaming video of my last vacation right now as I type. Also, the company is surprisingly active with Firmware updates. Out of the box this is awful but download the latest firmware and it'll add Random playback (shuffle) and fix several issues.

Then there's the bad... I have all of my stuff in separate directories, no playlist or ability to shuffle recursively (in subdirectories), and it took a lot of trial and error to find (SPOLIER ALERT) that the up and down buttons on the remote skip to the next file and they also change input devices (hdd, stick, sd).

Kodi and VLC are preloaded but I can't get them to do anything for me. It sees my folder but I have no idea how to add to a playlist or make that folder a Source.

And finally, the instructions are just awful. Helpful stuff like how to hook this up to a USB drive and configure it is totally missing, obvious stuff like how to hit the play button is very well documented.

I'm keeping this thing because its cheap and the quality rocks.

TLDR

add a 128GB micro sd card or usb flash drive key chain for under $20 fill up with all your favorite titles, and you can take all your favorite videos, music, audio books and play it via hdmi anywhere on the planet you have power. it's a 100+ DVD disc/VHS player that fits in your back pocket for $70 or less all in no need for internet, subscriptions, accounts and doesnt stalk you....

$50 plugged it in, plugged in usb drive, plays back everything pretty much flawless, a child could use and the senior crowd can too without any internet stalking, set ups, accounts, updates, tinkering. For the most part it just works

plug & play.

Was an OG Xbox hacker running XBMC almost 20 years ago, used the entire wdtv line, dabbled with the pis and I tend to always have an old notebook around which is easy enough to connect via hdmi so I skipped a few generations of streamers. and I have zero desire for streaming but for a stand alone box this is it.

5 stars for the price, size, and doing what it's supposed to do.

If I could make changes.

Power on would check sd card and boot from that.

So those who like a little more customization or updates could just set up a microsd card pop it in and enjoy.

If no sd card then it just boots like it normally does.

An internet search for "mypin firmware" brings up a page easy enough with a file from 2020 around 500mb.

Played around with it before updating worked fine before and after.

Verision 16 of kodi think their on 19 by now. Didnt spend to much time on it, wish it was a little easier to update and add apps, I'm sure I could get into it but not worth the time these days just want it to work and it did.

Was easy enough to just add to root of usb drive, but really didnt give any indication it was doing anything, I'm familiar to just let it be for a while, checked the status and it did change. But there was no reason to update. Maybe a system setting to load update file but 99% of people wont bother.

Turned on clicking video/music didnt show any files no biggy clicked app and kodi, vlc, and an office app popped up.

Thought I'd try vlc it saw files but no sound thought oh boy, clicked app again selected kodi and it played back everything fine. I use a projector.

Theres options to have it automatically start playing that are easy enough.

Some might complain about some of the apps not working but it 3 button pushes its playing fine, scrolls thru titles fast, app and back button tend to get a user where the need so I'd be comfotable gifting to older relatives or kids.

Small footprint microsd cards and usb drives are less than 20 bucks, load em up, store away and go.

The Blue Laser Beam is like the luxor in vegas and i'll never understand why pretty much all electronics need to light up a room when powered off but that's what black nail polish is for, covered up the light and other spots it leaks and remote still works.

Doesn't come with hdmi or batteries, but I have plenty I use a small 1ft one for this.

It came with an extension for ir remote, some old school red and yellow cables and a basic remote.

Would and will buy again. Great travel companion, for hotels, projectors, super portable, user froendly, and if it gets lost or stolen no biggy it so cheap.

Would love physical buttons on these type of products nothing fancy but redundency for a lost or broke remote, a power button and a way to scroll or select.

Maybe another micro sd card slot, it has 2 usb slots, and a file manager so it could double dose as a micro sdcard /usb drive cloner

All 1%er requests but a few tweaks could make this a killer product.

Old wdtv is a good comparison expcept this box scrolls thru titles a lot faster. I havent tried with my big drives, I like to use those for serious back up, keep a few usb drives / sd cards loaded and you can carry hundreds of movies/ thousands of albums ready to plug and play anywhere you go

TLDR

add a 128GB micro sd card or usb flash drive key chain for under $20 fill up with all your favorite titles, and you can take all your favorite videos, music, audio books and play it via hdmi anywhere on the planet you have power. it's a 100+ DVD disc/VHS player that fits in your back pocket for $70 or less all in no need for internet, subscriptions, accounts and doesnt stalk you....