Customer Reviews

MX-760HD High-Definition Multimedia Center without, MX-760HD,

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In response to an earlier blog post on OS X wireless video streaming solutions, fearless reader Scott noted the Mvix MX-760HD as offered by ThinkGeek. Out of all the possibilities posted, this seemed the most relevant: wireless, internal hard drive (entirely optional), USB connectivity, DivX and XviD playback, and composite video connectoids (along with others). After talking with Rich Knitter, MvixUSA's Director of Marketing, he agreed to send me a review unit with the hope that I also get step-by-step sharing instructions for (the as-yet-tested) Mac OS X.

Hardware setup was easy - the unit comes with a stand (which seemed a little loose until I found the center sweet spot), USB and composite video cables, a driver CD, remote control (a block of plastic with a central keypad similar to, but not as good as, a TiVo), the requisite power cables, and a 5dBi antenna. While the unit does support HD and progressive scan and all those other high-falutin' feel-goods, you'll need to supply your own cables. For this review, I've only used composite video.

I first tested without installing a hard drive because my focus was wireless streaming - I wanted my bevy of disks upstairs to combine into one voltronic horde of video bliss. Thus, after a quick load screen (in which DivX was misspelt as "Dvix"), I hopped into the Setup menu and started tweaking the network options. The UI isn't ugly (see the online PDF manual for some examples), though it does seem a bit syrupy at times, but not enough to be annoying. What was annoying is its sole support for WEP as a wireless encryption standard. I don't look forward to reconfiguring all my game consoles, laptops, and handhelds away from the WPA I had been using before. After tweaking my network (as provided by a D-Link DGL-4300), the MX-760HD connected to it just fine, without having to manually specify IPs, routers, DNS, etc.

That left me with just nailing down the actual wireless file sharing and, in the interest of keeping this review generic, I'll leave out the steps to sharing files with OS X. Suffice to say, it works just fine and isn't difficult to set up. Once your files are shared, head back over to the MX-760HD and have it "Refresh" its Movie file listing. Should everything go as smoothly as it did for me, they'll be a bit of a pause as it scans (and caches) the share, but your movie files should be displayed; anything not a recognized movie file is not shown. One of the things I continue to appreciate is the long file name listings: you can actually see more than six or eight characters, and pausing on any one title will scroll the rest of the title in place. I don't understand why they didn't use this same interface for the "Recent Items" screen, which is utterly useless in its current icon-based incarnation. Choose what you'd like to watch, and depending on the size of the video, it'll start streaming to you wirelessly in 10 to 30 seconds. Awesome.

Installation of the optional hard drive is also easy: no tools are required though I did have some troubles getting the single case screw back into place, and it took a few tries of concerted jiggling to align it just right. Mounting the MX-760HD's hard drive does require its power adapter which can cause a bit of frustration when it's entangled into the mass of cables behind your entertainment center. Having a laptop in the living room is one solution; a separate internal drive enclosure for drive swapping is another. MvixUSA recently reported that a firmware update will allow mounting over the network as a NAS/NDAS device, but no ETA on this support has been provided.

Of the 20 or so ancient but much-cherished Britney Spears music videos I threw at it, all showed signs of bad cropping - some had a healthy 20 to 30 pixel column missing from the left hand side. Modern day movie rips encoded at 16:9 receive this same chopping on the right side too. This is disheartening but my previous standby, a Philips DVP-642, also suffered the same problem. Digital video software really needs take these files, figure out what dimensions they are at runtime, then display them shrunk to fit into the TV screen with a surrounding border. Either that, or a Zoom Out (nearly everything has Zoom In, why not Out? Cheap solution!) Some folks have suggested this may be due to my use of composite cables, and I cheerful admit my ignorance and luddism.

Codec and playback support was strong: after testing the first few minutes of nearly 150 movies stored on the hard drive, only two or three gave the unit problems. QPEL support is missing, nor can the unit handle the MS-MPEG4v2 codec which all the DAP's MST3K videos are ripped as, though they admit this is a problem. There are no current plans to support these codecs in a future firmware upgrade.

I did not test the Photo or Music playing capabilities to any persnickety degree, but the smallest increment of time for image slideshows is three seconds, which turns into roughly six or seven if you're wirelessly streaming 2 MB digital camera files. It'd be nice if the unit could start caching and requesting early so that a more smoother and faster slideshow transition is possible. There does seem to be some issues with the "Recent Items" function in relation to photos or missing media or perhaps amount of media: after looking at roughly 50 images of a 500 image directory, I deleted that share leaving me with just movies to be watched. However, browsing through the media list to get to the "Setup" menu caused a freeze on the "Photo" item, which showed "Recent Items" that no longer exist. I don't know the cause, but it was about 90 seconds before I regained control. There doesn't appear to be any way to delete the "Recent Items" so, at the moment, I'm just avoiding that menu item entirely and used the "Setup" button on the remote. A day later, I am unable to reproduce this particular freeze.

Apparent "freezes" like this happened a little more often than I would like, and it always seemed related to the unit's rebuilding of a file list that I know has changed. After adding 100 GBs of movies to one directory, a new access to the hard drive caused the unit to appear unresponsive for nearly six minutes, nearly two minutes after I gave up clicking the "Down" arrow to check to see if it was working. Another down arrow finally teased a response, but my original request never happened. Accessing it again gave the lickety-split response I was hoping for and, save for these initial first requests after file modifications, access to large directories continues without incident. With that said, I dare not throw my 22,000 track MP3 library at it anytime soon (nor would I ever, as my sole desire is video watching).

I was unable to test subtitle support heavily, but there do seem to be problems with .sub and .idx files. Though it claims support for them, a Mvix help document suggests converting them to .srt instead; I was unable to get the files I had working (nor did I try to convert them). Another .srt file loaded with no problems, but the subtitles were in Italian so I am unable to confirm if they matched up with the video properly. There is support for timeshifting the subtitles backwards or forwards, and you can also change their position on screen. Finally, the color of the lettering can be changed from the default white to some others, but the font has black borders which should prevent any one color from being washed out by the current scene.

While there are problems here and there with the UI, I'm quite happy to have the MX-760HD as a central part of my video entertainment: I no longer intend to burn DVD-Rs anymore, and the wireless support removes the need for any other moving parts. Hopefully, future firmware updates will hammer out the remaining bugs, but until then, I'm quite happy to route around them: the advantages and other qualities make this combination of hard drive, streaming, and video too powerful to ignore.

One day over Christmas holidays, I was organizing all of my mp3 files, which were scattered across multiple folders on multiple computers throughout the house. I was consolidating them to a single external drive, when the thought hit me, "Wouldn't it be great if I could just hook this external drive directly up to my Stereo!" Needless to say, I was sure some one else must have had this idea and so I began my research. While there are a plethora of such devices, the combination of wireless streaming and the ability to play ISO files directly made the MX-760HD the logical choice. I've had this only a couple weeks and I'm very pleased with performance of this device. I won't go through all of the features as they have been very well covered in other reviews. However there are a couple of other Pros and Cons in addition to the ones previously mentioned;

Pros:
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+ Plays CSS Encrypted DVDs either from external DVD-ROM or a Folder from harddrive.

+ LCD display on the unit allows file browsing and playing directly from device without turning on the TV. Great for when I only want to listen to music.

Cons:
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+ Poor .m3u support (perhaps fixed in future firmware?)

+ Lack of NAS/NDAS (the company says a future firmware upadte may support ftp for file transfers.)

While setting up the unit is probably not for the "technically challenged", once it was configured for our home entertainment environment, my "technically challenged" wife had no problems navigating the device. As my previous foray into media players was the Primiq (a disappointment to say the least) I was pleasantly surprised by the performance and output quality of the MX-760HD.

Did a lot of reasearch before buying this and I am extremely happy with this device. The video playback of Hi-Def content is faultless. It has a true HD output 1920x1080P. Pretty much plays all my ripped DVD files, DVD ISOs, MP3 and WMVs. All my recorded TV Shows (MPEG) work brilliantly. Seems to work well over wired network but wireless implementation is poor for HD content. It doesn't like TS Mux (.TS) files created by DVB Web Scheduler. You have to capture the entire stream (Full TS). I heard that it also plays Divx6 files.. but I am yet to test those.

PROS:

+ Supports multiple file formats - you name it and it plays!

+ Simple interface. Excellent Video Quality

+ Can stream media !

+ Can read directly from any external USB device (even an external DVDROM)

+ Huge Variety of AV connections.

+ Supports large-sized (750GB) HDDs.

CONS:

- No HDMI (you can use a DVI to HDMI converter)

- Supports PATA HDDs only.

- No WPA Encryption.

- Wireless Streaming is unreliable.

- Cannot copy from USB drives or from the network.

The MX-760HD is an excellent all-in-one multimedia solution -- as long as you're not wimp about installing a hard drive. I have used it constantly for over 2 weeks and now we are even taking it on our family vacation.

This player is a must. I've been using it for 3 months now and I'm very pleased. As soon as I connected it to the network I was able to browse the shared folders in our home network and could play 99% of the movies (a 2TB digital media library)

PROS:
1- It's an external storage
2- It's a network storage
3- It's an HD player
4- It's a multimedia player
5- It's plays ISO images!!


CONS: (No show stoppers)

1- No HDMI, I use a convertor
2- Wireless - No WPA - I can live with that
3- Problems playing WMV - I'm still glad I bought it.

I have used 3 similar products in the past, but honestly I like the way this machine works. Video playback and networking is crisp and smooth. Absolutely no doubt about it. I have even tried using a 360 - but nothing beats this box. At home, I have a PC and a new 42" Sharp Aquos. To connect the two, I decided to get a 360 to view movies and pictures, etc. Turns out that the 360 sometimes doesn't see my PC and then the pictures advance slowly and of course it doesn't support as many formats as the Mvix. My wife totally avoids the 360 because it's not reliable then sometimes the PC gets turned off. I love the portability as well. I can lend it to my friends, take it to parties, hook it up at my father-in-laws.

Given the reliability of this unit. I have nothing but praises for this brand. A Job well done!

Before buyng my Mvix MX-760HD, I had the other Media Center (5000U). The 760HD has EVERYTHING I've ever wanted in a compact unit like this. If you like Hi Def 1080p content on your large screen... this puppy does it BEST - hands down. I can list a number of features that this product does remarkably well:
1. Video: Excellent - I havent seen anything (1080p) better than this - yet.
2. Pictures: Brilliant. This has made it so easy to share and show our family photos with friends and family. Now our pictures reside in our living room and not on the PC in our study area.
3. Networking: This was the simplest plug and play wireless setup for me. I was up and running within 5 minutes. I dont read manuals either :)
4. USB host: Unbelievable. All I have to do is connect my camera via the cable to this unit and play all videos and pictures from it on my large screen TV. This was the most amazing idea built into this unit.

I just found out that I can even use this unit without a Hard Drive... which means... I can simply stream content directly from my PC. I dont know how much I will use it, but that adds yet another feature.

If everybody is talking about this brand... it cannot be wrong. I HIGHLY RECOMEND THIS PRODUCT.

I have owned my Mvix MX-760 since January and have pretty much loved every minute of it, after countless times of going on vacation with stacks of cds and dvds it is awesome to have them all in one handy unit that pretty much hooks up to anything (the only extra adapter needed was a $15 coax/cable tv converter for hooking it up to a hotel tv with cable input only)j

Everything about the unit works as advertised and better.....sound and picture are great, very easy to connect to a tv, home entertainment center, wired or wireless network, computer.....just about anything, and if you run out of space, just hook up another external hard drive, dvd drive via usb or even a usb flash drive/sd card adapter.

As my intro stated, "...pretty much loved every minute of it", early on there were a couple of those times where the unit seemed like it could use a bit of help: it froze occasionally fast forwarding, the interface was limited to 8 charactor naming, connecting as a network attached storage unit, etc...........that may sound negative but it brings me to the most impressive part of this unit and the Mvix Company,

THEIR SUPPORT IS INCREDIBLE,

it's like they read your mind, it seems like before I even had a chance to email them a concern, they had a firmware update that tweaked the problem and opened up a couple more features...the unit is forever evolving with software only upgrades which are as easy to install as starting a movie, song or picture slide show.

I received the MX 760-HD media center as a gift. I had been extremely frustrated with my prior, off the shelf, media center. I am not a geek, but not a technophobe either. I sit on the IT committee of a large company. I found the MX 760 - HD to be extremely easy to set up. I installed a 300 gig HDD internally. It took minutes. I set up the software; again, in minutes. I plugged it in to my home entertainment and holy cow; it worked right off the bat. Easiest, fastest menu driven media search I have seen anywhere. My wife uses it; and she has virtually no interest in anything "tech". It has openned up a whole new level of access to my media. Every new TV or stereo system should come bundled with this thing. These designers actually gave this device some thought; somewhat rare today, in my opinion. Run right out and buy this thing; if you're in the market for a media center.

This is th last time i buy a thing from Mvix. I got two of these media center and one of them keeps freezeing every time i play a movie and sometimes it just hangs up and never reset unless i pull out the power cord plus the fan sound is toooo loud even anoying.
The other one is even worse, first when i switch it on there is nothing displayed on the LCD at the front face of the player. Secondly after 30 sec. it switches back off by itself !! plus when i opened it to install the HD i found a loose wire and another one that is not properly soldered into the power cable that connects the HD to the player.
Basically, both of them are not servicable !! i tried to contact custmer support at Mvix it took them 2 weeks to answer the claim ticket and even worse they were so cold on the respond. Now i sent the players back to Mvix for replacement and i am afraid i am gonna get another two bad ones again What a service ??

I collect videos and clips from several torrent sites - they are in divx, xvid or ISO files. This player was recommended to me by my friend and I am so glad i bought it. It has played almost 95% of all videos that I download ... believe me I collect a LOT of videos. Have a 750GB hard drive installed in this player and its amazing what this small little box can do. Very impressed and very highly recommended.