Archive for August, 2008

Mvix (MX-780HD) 1080p Wireless Media Center

The latest, Mvix (MX-780HD) 1080p Media Center features a state-of-the-art digital playback solution that brings all the media content from the PC to the living room. With a dizzying array of file-format support, the Mvix MX-780HD is engineered from the ground up for high performance networking and hi-definition playback.

This comprehensive, feature-packed HTPC provides a near-complete entertainment experience. The MX-780HD offers true brilliance of High Definition and sound output with hundreds gigabytes of media content all within a compact unit. With seamless compatibilty with dominant PC / MAC operating systems, Mvix MX-780HD surpass the traditional media streaming functionality via an in-built Hard-drive (IDE or SATA) interface. (HDD NOT INCLUDED). The localized decoding technology, a hallmark of all Mvix products, enhances the visual experience by providing jitter-free 1080p decoding. Transferring media content to the Mvix Media Center is a snap. The Mvix MX-780HD functions like an external storage device when connected to the PC via USB2.0 interface or network access storage (NAS) device over the network (using NDAS protocol).

Whether you want to archive your entire DVD collection, have immediate access to them at the touch of a button, listen to intenet radio or stream music from your PC to your living room stereo, or even show all your friends and family those pictures you recently took (along with background music), the Mvix MX-780HD is versatile enough to do it all! The built-in Setup menu and a full-featured remote control offer optimal flexibility and control over the entire system. Simple firmware upgrades keep this media center updated with support for latest file formats.

Price: $349.00

Customer Review: decent product but not so decent support
I bought the unit that came pre-installed with a 500GB hard-drive. The unit is well designed and access to the internal compartment is very easy - just unscrew and open. I hooked the unit on the TV using an HDMI cable. Do not forget to order separately if you do not have one. The unit does not come with HD cables. Hooking the unit to your network (wireless or otherwise) is very easy. I also set it up to use NDAS. This is a cool feature that enables your PC access the hard-drives on the unit remotely and without USB connection.

I also tested the USB connection by hooking it to my PC. I tranferred various video, audio and photo files using both USB and NDAS. Transferring via USB is fast, but NDAS is slow even with a G-Modem. I was able to copy a 500MB file using USB in 3 minutes. It took NDAS 15 minutes for the same file. So if you are planning to move a lot of hefty files wirelessly you will be disappointed with the speed. The video playback on this unit is great, especially the HD quality type. It is as good if not better than HD cable. Viewing photos on 1080i on the other hand is really a disappointment. Though the unit loads photos relatively fast, it converts all files irrespective of their resolution and displays them in SD mode (as opposed to HD) which looks bad.

I admit I am little finicky when it comes to photo quality since I am an advanced amateur photographer. So if you plan to use this unit for watching your family photos you may be disappointed with the quality. I haven’t tested the audio capabilities so I cannot comment on it. Connecting to the Internet and watching movies requires a lot of patience even if you have a 12MBit cable modem connection like I do. Navigating through the menu is intuitive. The remote control is also well thought. As of firmware 2.0.3 this unit seems to have a flaw under certain conditions when writing to the hard drive using NDAS: I was able to corrupt the file system on the hard drive by doing the following: While writing directly using NDAS, I plugged in the USB cable. At that point the unit is supposed to wait until everything is committed to the hard drive through NDAS and then switch to the USB mode. It did not do that. Instead it switched to the USB and let NDAS write while it was simultaneously writing using USB.

As a result I got write failures repeatedly on the hard drive. After that the unit ceased to recognize the internal hard drive. I tried to call MVIXUSA support but I was put on the queue and after 2 hours of waiting I gave up. I tried to contact them via email, but never returned my request for help. As a result I send back the unit to the reseller and the reseller diagnosed the problem as a faulty hard drive. I’m not so sure… Overall this product is decent but it has flaws and if you encounter one of those dead-end flaws like I did, good luck! Support or service is hard to get. There is an 800 phone number to call, but once you get queued to speak to a representative, you are perpetually number two in line. Hopefully in the future there will be more coverage.

I would suggest you contact the retailer to see what kind of service they provide before you buy this product. I would also recommend you check the return policy with the reseller for this product. I was surprised to find out that most resellers I checked with had no refund policy on this one and forced you instead to deal with the manufacturer directly in case there was an issue.

Customer Review: A Perfect Portable HTPC for Home and Travel
I bought this unit for storing my entire collection of DVDs and all videos that I have owned for the past 10-yrs. Installed a 1TB SATA HDD in the unit, the day this arrived. Spent over 2-days putting my entire collection on it … powered-on and boom it plays everything. This is one the most immaculate pieces of hardware ever made. Plays my entire collection of divx, xvids and ISOs. What else can I ask for? Its got some really neat features - Internet Radio, Wireless streaming, Auto-Scan Wireless function… (i watched a video from my stupid neighbors open network!). I have it setup such that I start the DVD ripping and then my PC automatically uploads the ripped ISO to this unit during night (scheduler).

The robocopy + ndas function works flawlessly and has significantly increased the network transfer speeds. I took this unit with me on one of my recent travels. It was great… I could plug it into the hotel-room TV and watch my videos. I wish this unit was a bit smaller for travel purposes… Maybe a 2.5″ HDD unit will be great for such portability. Overall, I couldnt be more satisfied with this piece of technology. Well made, and does exactly what it says. Highly Recommended A+++

Media Centre MX-780HD 200GB Full 1080 WiFi HDMI NIB US $31.00 (5 Bids) Auction Ends: Saturday Sep-11-2010 21:00:13 PDT Bid on this Item   | Watch this Item

I just purchased the Vizio 42 inch 1080p HDTV.   I had a question about the P.I.P. mode.  Is that on the screen ALL the time or is that an option that you have on sometime.  If anyone else has this HDTV, be nice to get some feed back on it as well.

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