Customer Reviews

Hauppauge MediaMVP Digital Media Receiver (Model 1000)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

What a great concept: Play the media that resides on my pc (music, videos, digital pictures, webcast radio) from anywhere and as many locations as I have wired network access.

The MediaMVP hardware appears very well conceived and implemented (see the Hauppauge site for specifications). Sound and video quality of streamed content are entirely satisfactory (providing your recordings are of good quality). Yep. Hardware appears to be Hauppauge's forte.

Their software, however, which manifests itself most noticeably as the user interface, is unforgiveably crude. File system navigation and remote control key mapping are noticeably misprogrammed. Even the most rudimentary MP3 playing capabilities are missing or broken. I would compare the display with the old Commodore 64 but that would be an insult to my C64. Sad to say, Hauppauge does not appear to be interested in fixing any of these deficiencies as they have persisted for at least the last 3 software releases and are still present in the current Beta release.

Service is a mixed bag. If you call them, they will replace defective hardware well enough. But don't expect much more support than what you can do for yourself by reading the FAQ on their website. And don't bother emailing a question to support. With the exception of the automated reply, they never answer email. The good news is that there is a large, vocal user forum for this and other Hauppauge products (hey, I said their hardware is pretty good) and, if you don't mind wading through web forums, you can get a lot of answers there.

I want to love this product but I can't. I purchased it primarily to play MP3 music throughout my house and this is certainly the thing it does worst of all (did I mention the LOUD inter-track popping?). So my dissatisfaction should be taken in that context. Certainly its webcast radio (which I use often and enjoy), picture slideshow, and video playback capabilities suffer much less from the UI's lack of sophistication. And people who use the MediaMVP as a front-end for their Hauppauge based PVR systems (personal video recorder - think Tivo only no service charge) love these things.

One hope I hold out for my MediaMVP is the global community of private software developers that are hacking away, rewriting its software. I have no doubt they will eventually do what Hauppauge won't. But until they do this is a seriously crippled product.

If you own a ReplayTV then this is the thin client you've been waiting for. Out of the box this unit is able to play native ReplayTV videos when they are copied to a PC (I own a 5040 unit, so I'm not certain this would be true for owners of 4xxx units). To get things rolling, here's what you need.

1. A ReplayTV unit connected to a home Ethernet network.
2. A PC on the same network running DVArchive (free software)
3. The MediaMVP connected to the network and to a TV

Once DVArchive is installed, you need to configure it to download recorded shows from the Replay; a simple task that can be scheduled periodically. You then plug the MediaMVP in (power, network, and TV connections), install the software on your PC, and then set it up to point to the directory used by DVArchive to download the videos.

The MediaMVP will find all MPG video files in the DVArchive download directory and present them on a menu on the TV. Pick the video and you're off and running.

I have tested both Medium and High quality recordings and they play flawlessly almost 100% of the time. The few minor glitches I noticed were apparent 'stutters' in video playback. The only thing I miss on the MediaMVP (that is available on the ReplayTV) is commercial advance, variable speed FF/Rewind (only 2x is currently implemented), and 29 second skip ahead. But for the price, it can't be beat.

Check back in a few days if the product is shown Out Of Stock as Amazon/Office Depot seem to keep a low inventory.

This product is in what I would call beta stage but will hopefully get better as Hauppauge releases new firmware and software for it.

It is missing vital features:
1) It does not have the ability to fast forward and rewind MP3s.
2) It will play an entire folder of MP3s or one MP3 at a time but it is missing is the ability to pick and choose MP3s you want to play. You have to go to the computer and create play lists, then the MVP will play those playlists.

Bugs I have found:
1) The MVP server software that runs on the computer and allows access to shared media has to be restarted once a week or more before the MVP will find the server.
2) When playing videos (mpg, avi, etc) you can fast forward and rewind but often after doing so the audio gets out of sync with the video.

Conclusion: Good, fair-priced device (under a hundred dollars) but it definitely needs some improvement. Also, be wary of wireless "Media Receivers." I have done some research on them and their biggest complaint is that they only work well when wired. That is why I bought the MVP, it is wired (only) so you are not paying for the wireless feature.

I've been using this box for about a month now and love it.
The user interface, although very basic, gets the job done.
It probably has far fewer features than competing boxes, but
the price it right.

The software on the PC is very light. When the MediaMVP is
powered on, it will load its software from the PC. I have
downloaded a couple upgrades from Hauppauge already. Each
upgrade adds more features. Recently they added a skip ahead
15 seconds feature and jump to 10%-90% (1-9 buttons) of the
video. I did not expect such continued development from a
manufacturer for such an inexpensive box. Hats off to
Hauppauge. I think recent updates may have also fixed sluggish
response from the remote. I noticed that problem at first, but
I don't see it anymore.

I did need to upgrade my home network to 100Mbps. With a 10Mbps
network, I could not watch MPEG at a bit rate faster than about
2.5Mbps without problems. 100Mbps solved that problem.

I also bought the WinTV PVR-250 which I use to record TV shows
and then stream the recorded video to the MediaMVP. I can even
stream the video while recording. This allows me to pause
live-TV and the picture quality is great. Who needs Tivo? I
just wish they could integrate the 2 products together so I
could control the WinTV through the MediaMVP.

For MP3s, I usually create a playlist (Winamp format) on my PC
and the MediaMVP will just play the playlist. It shows the song
title down the bottom of the screen. I just wish it had a
shuffle feature. Maybe on the next software update.

I haven't used the photo album feature much, but it does work.

I have noticed the following bugs - an occasional MP3 will
abruptly stop and go to the next song; after long periods of
pausing video, the box will sometimes hang and need to be
turned off/on.

In summary, the box is everything I expect and more.

I recently purchased this unit becuase it was a lot cheaper than the other units and I was planning on hard wiring the unit to my network anyway. This unit also does streaming MPG1 and 2 when a lot of the other units only do audio and JPG. You can get this unit to work with a wireless bridge as well but some people have had problems doing so. All in all the unit works like it should. My only complaints so far are that the user interface could be better and you cant quue up a song. You can create playlists though. One neat thing is you can mirror the TV interface on your computer screen with a download from Hauppauge's website. This works good for me as I have speakers hooked up to my stereo that are out on my deck. I can take my wireless laptop on the deck, then remote into my server and control the music through the mirro image of the interface. pretty cool huh? I would recommend this unit to anyone looking for a way to stream MP3 JPG and MPG1 & 2 that does not want to spend a lot of money. There are probably better units out there but they also cost twice as much.

I bought this with Hauppauge PVR-500MCE (2 tuners) to records shows. I wanted to setup a media center (PC) to store all my videos, pictures and mp3 files and be able to view them from my tv in my bedroom. I didn't want to hook my desktop since it's bulky, ugly and noisy for any bedroom. Add to that the physical location of my PC was on the 2nd floor of the house and my bedroom is on the ground floor. I did not have an internal network in the house so the solution had to be wireless. After looking through the net for solutions, I found the perfect solution with GBPVR. It's a complete PVR solution and most importantly, it's free. Installed the Hauppage software just to see how it looks, never even used it. GBPVR is a great PVR solution and fully supports Hauppauge hardware which helped me in my decision to get these hardware. Now, regarding wireless solution, was able to resolve this by following some simple workarounds from GBPVR forums. Used 2 Linksys WRT54G routers, one acting as a router connected to internet/media server and one acting as a bridge for my MVP. Works like a charm, give or take, it sometimes disconnects but overall works. I watch, pause Live TV, record with a TV guide, listen to internet radio, listen to aerial radio (via FM tuner of PVR-500MCE), view my pictures, listen to mp3s, read RSS news, get weather, etc. while sitting down in front of my TV.

love this setup.

I've had the Hauppauge MediaMVP Digital Media Receiver for several weeks and it works flawlessly. It was simple to install and worked well as soon as it was turned on and my firewall was configured correctly. The video quality is outstanding and the MediaMVP server consumes very little of system resources. In fact, my PC is able to simultaneoulsy record a movie from TV capture card, playback a movie using the MediaMVP and still function well for e-mail, web browsing and other uses.

The remote control is well designed and works fine, except that it uses the same code for volume as my TV, so adjusting volume using the remote adjusts it on both the MVP and the TV.

The only con is with the on-screen directory. Media files are displayed as large icons that only fit 6 per screen. This makes browsing directories with many files inconvenient. Also, only a small part of the filename text is displayed. Other than this, the MediaMVP is an excellent addition to any PC/TV media system.

I had looked on the market for something like this for a while and I was going to get the Sony RoomLink however when it came time to buy, Sony was out of stock. I decided to buy a cheap end model and hence bought this and I love it.
It plays MP3s, MPEGs and picture without issue. However, it does seem to lack some nice features that other similar products provide. For example,

Music collection - The MediaMVP does not utilize ID tags in MP3s but rather displays a directory list of filenames. As long as you name and organize your MP3s in a way that you will understand you will be fine. There is also no search functionality which is a little frustrating. It will play playlists but does not give shuffle functionality within a playlist so you always start from the first song in the playlist and play the same order over and over again. It would also be nice to have some "Queue it up" functionality to select multiple songs in your collection and play one after the other.

MPEGS - I have had no problems with playing any MPEGs although I haven't tried multiple types

Pictures - Again, the MediaMVP basically displays a directory list of folders and pictures and it has nice slideshow features but it would be great if I could select multiple directories to slide show at the same time.

Connectivity - connecting this up is a breeze providing your home network is already in place and easily accessible from your home entertainment center. I have a wired solution, not sure how it integrates on a wireless network. Connecting to you A/V equipment is just like hooking up a VCR. It would be nice to have a digital output on the MediaMVP though.

The good news is that the software for the MediaMVP is downloaded from the server computer in your network so upgrading to new releases is simple. Hopefully the manufacturer will add some of these features into future releases.

All in, I think the MediaMVP is a great purchase for the price and for those who are looking for a simple way of playing their MP3 music collection, MPEGS and pictures through their home entertainment center, this a very effective and inexpensive method

After months of searching for a way to access my media files from my computer, I found the MediaMVP media server. At first I was skeptical since a co-worker had purchased a similar product with less than desirable results. When I got the package in the mail I couldn't wait to get home and hook it up. After routing CAT5 cable through the attic and crimping connectors, the hard part was done. I hooked up the media server to my TV and installed the software on my computer. In 10 minutes I was streaming media files from my PC to my TV.

The pros of this product:
- Plays just about any type of media file
- Has a shuffle feature for random playing of media files
- Play a picture slideshow and listen to music at the same time.
- Server software is stored on your computer which makes upgrades easy.

The cons of this product:
- Won't resize video files to fit your screen. You have to encode the files at a minimum resolution of 640x480.
- Divx files look jerky in some spots (even with a 3Ghz processor)
- Audio doesn't synchronize after pausing a Divx file.

Overall, this product is amazing for the price. The Soundbridge mp3 player is almost twice the price and only plays sound files.

We were skeptical about this product before we purchased and tried it. It is a great concept but we did not think that something that costs a mere $90.00 would be able to do all that it claimed. We were wrong!
The product works wonderfully. We now have a way to tie our computer to our home entertainment system.
We use this product for
(i) listening to MP3s on our home entertainment system;
(ii) watching the still pictures and AVIs stored on our PC that we take using our digital camera; and
(iii) watching TV shows that we record on our PC using WinDVR.
The product works perfectly for all three functions.

It was a breeze to setup and continues to perform marvelously. If you are considering buying it, do it. You will not regret it.