HD300/HD200: Your preference?

[PeteCress]

• HD300 takes a more generic power supply connector
• HD300 seems to have some sort of extra HDMI audio ju-ju

What about CODECs? Can the 300 handle anything that the 200 cannot?

Overall, do you have a significant preference for one over the other?

[trk2]

HD300 is superior for everything. Faster processor, supports more audio format decoding, supports HD audio bitstreaming, supports 24fps, supports HD menus, and has remote IR jack. Only potential downside is that it runs hotter. I can't think of a single thing the HD200 does better than the HD300, and the HD300 does a lot that the HD200 can't.

[wayner]

I have found that HD-200 is more reliable which may be due to the heat issue. The other advantage is having all of the output ports without needing the breakout cable.

I am pretty sure that the HD-200 does support HD menus. I don't think the performance difference is that large. I currently have three HD-300s and six HD-200s in use. I actually have about 4-5 additional HD-300s that I bought second hand a couple of years ago but I haven't bothered getting around to replace the HD-200s with the HD-300s.

[trk2]

Originally Posted by wayner

I am pretty sure that the HD-200 does support HD menus.

That's possible. I retired my HD-200 when the HD-300s were released and haven't used them since. I looked though the HD-200 firmware notes and didn't see a mention that HD menu support was ever added unlike the HD-300 where there was an explicit line item in the patch notes.

I highly recommend using routerunner's plugin that shuts off the extenders when not in use to help with the HD-300 potential instability with heat.

[pjpjpjpj]

Pretty sure HD200 menus are 720. So technically HD...

[trk2]

Originally Posted by pjpjpjpj

Pretty sure HD200 menus are 720. So technically HD...

The HD200 menu resolution was 960x540 when released. It may have been increased in one of the firmwares, but if so, it wasn't included in the firmware release notes. The HD300 menu resolution was also released at 960x540, but 1280x720 became available with firmware 20101022-0.