# Best sub-$200 tablet (for Plex) ?



## ArmanUV (Feb 1, 2012)

I am looking for a tablet under 200, mostly for reading pdfs, browsing web and rss (while I am on the train for +2h every day) and playing my movies at home.
Since I have a galaxy nexus, I can't bring myself to use gingerbread anymore. As I understand, webOS is not good enough to be a daily driver either.
So my only choices are tablets that are capable of running either honeycomb or ics. The only decent devices that I could find that can run ics (cm9) are kindle fire and hp touchpad. However, AFAIK they both lack video hardware decoding which means I won't be able to watch any of my 720p videos even with Plex.
So here is my problem: there are no ICS/Honeycomb devices I could find that can play 720p video and are under $200.
So do you guys think I should buy a touchpad? A kindle fire? Or am I missing something?

(Sorry I'm posting this here but I couldn't find a general tablet forum)


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## Brawlking (Aug 28, 2011)

webOS plays 720p video fine, I've loaded 1080p videos into it that played, but that's kinda pointless.You can read PDFs in webOS, it has Adobe Reader, and a few other eReader clients. I watch most of my video on CM9 right now, mostly because I watch streaming video over my home network from my media server, MX Video Player has software decoding mode and plays most of my videos fine (720x300'ish Resolution). webOS has been having issues playing content on my network, but I think that's an issue with my server, my dad's iPad has the same problem. However, playing local video in webOS works perfectly, and has hardware acceleration. I haven't read PDFs much on CM9, battery life concerns might cause that to be a bit of an issue, but there are also ways around that. So having the HP Touchpad you will have two options for both of your most common uses. So, my recommendation is the Touchpad obviously. It will be your choice whether you want to use ICS or webOS, but I think both will do the job you're looking for.

I honestly don't understand why people say that webOS is not worthy of being a daily use OS, the only pitfall it has is the lack of apps on it's market. Battery life is excellent, doesn't have the bugs that are currently in the ICS Alpha, and can do pretty much all of the same things as CM9 right now.


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## Motoki (Dec 30, 2011)

You also have the option of Splashtop, on both the Android and WebOS side, to use to watch videos and so forth.

WebOS is fine for the basics, web browsing, email, watching videos, Facebook etc. Its real weak spot is app selection. You probably aren't going to find a lot of very specific apps you are looking for but the general stuff is all there.


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## scrizz (Jun 21, 2011)

webOS is fine. The touchpad is certainly a capable device.
if you're worried about 720p videos, the Kindle Fire is not the place to go.
it only has 8GB storage(cannot be expanded) and 512MB ram.


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## Turdbogls (Jun 7, 2011)

i played my 720P video files with MX video player....not really sure if it was displaying in 720P or not, but the file played just fine as long as i had hardware decoding selected. it just can stream youtube or netflix at that resolution.

but like others said, use ICS in every other aspect, just play videos in WebOS. its a terrible OS IMO but it will get the job done in a pinch.


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## PigFarmington (Nov 4, 2011)

Touchpad... I know a few people who got Kindle Fire and they said they are disappointing. Touchpad is the $200ish tab that runs like a $600. Fire... is not....


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## ArmanUV (Feb 1, 2012)

Brawlking said:


> i played my 720P video files with MX video player....not really sure if it was displaying in 720P or not, but the file played just fine as long as i had hardware decoding selected. it just can stream youtube or netflix at that resolution.
> but like others said, use ICS in every other aspect, just play videos in WebOS. its a terrible OS IMO but it will get the job done in a pinch.


Did you say you had hardware decoding SELECTED?

------------------------
So overall it seems that Touchpad is a better choice than Kindle Fire.
But I still need someone to do me a favor and tell me if I can do ONE of the following in ICS:
1. Play my 720p/1080p videos with Plex with a decent quality (4Mbps-ish)
2. Mount my NAS share with CIFS (CIFSmanager) or DLNA(Skifta) and use MX Player to play 720p/1080p video.

Other than streaming HD videos, does CM9 have any other major bugs?(I don't need the camera).

Thanks for all the help.


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## viper3two (Sep 7, 2011)

I tried a 720p video in mx and it showed SW rendering. I tried to change it to hardware and it was grayed out, said not supported.(in cm9 ics)


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## Brawlking (Aug 28, 2011)

ArmanUV said:


> 1. Play my 720p/1080p videos with Plex with a decent quality (4Mbps-ish)
> 2. Mount my NAS share with CIFS (CIFSmanager) or DLNA(Skifta) and use MX Player to play 720p/1080p video.
> 
> Other than streaming HD videos, does CM9 have any other major bugs?(I don't need the camera).


1. It will play 720p over your network, but not 1080p. It will play either of them locally I believe.
2. The easiest way I've found to play network media is using a shared folder as I described above. UPnP media players are hit and miss a lot of the time, and I haven't found one that works very reliably. Alternatively, a lot of Media Servers have built in web pages you can use to open movie files, such as with Twonky (which I use) you open the browser and go to the IP of your server "http://192.168.1.20:9000/" you typically have to specify the server port, and it will take you to a page to navigate your library.

You can see the current issues with CM9 near the top of this thread here, where it says "*FORGET WHAT WORKS. WHAT *DOESN'T* WORK?"*:
http://rootzwiki.com...mod-9-touchpad/


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Brawlking said:


> On my CM9 I have my computer's IP address and the shared folder mapped in ES File Explorer. You simply add the server and share folder by IP address such as "192.168.1.20/Movies" That will give you access to your "Movies" folder on the device at the specified IP address.


If you add

192.168.1.20 mytouchpad

to your system host file, then you no longer would have to use the ip (i.e. http://mytouchpad/movies)

decent routers without dumbed down firmware (or aftermarket firmware like ddwrt or openwrt) will generally let you set host names to static IPs as well.


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## Brawlking (Aug 28, 2011)

We are talking about accessing a network drive from the Touchpad, not the Touchpad from another device, which is what you just described. But you did raise a valid point...

In my house everything has static IPs so the IP works just as well for me, but your suggestion would be best if someone is not using static IPs. You just type the name of the computer instead of the IP address. For example if I wanted to use the hostname instead of the IP I'd just type "\\bens-desktop\Movies" in the server field in ES FIle Explorer, and my router would tell it the IP for the machine "bens-desktop".


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Brawlking said:


> ... not the Touchpad from another device, which is what you just described. But you did raise a valid point...


Wouldn't matter if you're doing it on the router though since you can set the hostname of whatever device from there. It's mostly just easier that way even with static IPs if you can't remember every static IP (I have a lot of wireless devices to keep track of). Yeah you could set it up to work even with dynamic IPs as well on a router (ddwrt will let you set a static ip for the dhcp server to always assign to the device if you know the MAC address).

The easier way:

http://www.dd-wrt.co..._as_DHCP_server

The harder way:

http://www.dd-wrt.co...network_-_HOWTO


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## ArmanUV (Feb 1, 2012)

we're getting a little off-topic here but anyways:


> 1. It will play 720p over your network, but not 1080p. It will play either of them locally I believe.
> 2. The easiest way I've found to play network media is using a shared folder as I described above. UPnP media players are hit and miss a lot of the time, and I haven't found one that works very reliably. Alternatively, a lot of Media Servers have built in web pages you can use to open movie files, such as with Twonky (which I use) you open the browser and go to the IP of your server "http://192.168.1.20:9000/" you typically have to specify the server port, and it will take you to a page to navigate your library.


1. AFAIK Plex transcodes the video on the fly. So it doesn't matter what the the source file's resolution is, what matters is the transcoded quality in terms of Mbps. Did you try Plex on Touchpad? What maximum Mbps did you get out of it?

Thanks


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## Brawlking (Aug 28, 2011)

I have not tried Plex, Being a broke college student I'm a fan of free stuff, can't help you on that one.


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## ArmanUV (Feb 1, 2012)

Brawlking said:


> I have not tried Plex, Being a broke college student I'm a fan of free stuff, can't help you on that one.


It's a great app. I'd say it's worth it. But I'm a collage student too so I feel your pain.








So, has anyone tried running plex on the touchpad?


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## tateburns (Feb 13, 2012)

I've tried using Plex on my Touchpad with CM9 and I get audio but no video. My best advice is use CM7 because Plex works just fine there. Acceleration will come eventually with CM9 and you can stomach CM7 until then.


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## nagmier (Nov 27, 2011)

When I'm at home I use es file explorer and browse to my LAN share then play using Max video just fine on aokp

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk


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