Mvix Ultio Pro Media Center

by Mvix

Product Details

• Item Weight: 4.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 pounds
• ASIN: B0036TD2KC
• Item model number: MX-880HD
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,787 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 2, 2010

Product Description

Full 1080p Media Decoding Technology supports popular 1080p HD video codecs, including H.264, MKV, Dixv HD, MPEG 2-TS, VC-1, WMV9. Enjoy playback from over a dozen video formats and codecs on your HD LCD or Plasma via HDMI interface. For movies, TV shows, camcorder footage and more, the Mvix Ultio is capable of playing dozens of digital media files and formats including DivX (3/4/5/6), Xvid, MPEG 1/2/4, WMV-9, ASF(WMV9), MKV, DVD(IFO, VOB), ISO, MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, FLAC, AC3.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Beware of false good reviews. Read forums to see the problems, July 11, 2010

By 

Daniel Flick (Tomball, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mvix Ultio Pro Media Center (Electronics)

Read the positive reviews and you will notice that they sound like they were written by salesmen, not users. I fell for buying the first generation Ultio. Product arrived broken and I had it RMA'd. They took so long to fix it that the warranty expired before I got it back. When it arrived broken again, they wanted to charge me to fix it! I was threatened by a customer support manager that they would not work with me unless they were allowed to try to fix it again. No refund would be given. At that time the forums on the MVIX site were full of similar experiences like mine. I was so disappointed by the service that when the unit arrived back over 2 months later, I just left it in the box. I bought a Popcorn Hour C200 which does work well. Just this weekend, nearly a year after I originally purchased the unit I plugged it in as I had a TV that I wanted to see a movie on in another part of the house. I was not surprised that the unit had no audio and the picture shuddered and stopped as if I was running HD video on a 486 PC! I figured I would try an update to see if that would help. Well, after loading the 3.0 firmware, I was greeted by a saturated green screen and no audio but it was nice to see that the interface had become much more responsive. Well, this is going back into my closet for another year and we will see if it actually functions when they release 4.0. PLEASE spend your money with another company! It may be a neat looking machine but it is an expensive paperweight. I noticed today that the negative posts in the forums on the MVIX site have been taken down including mine. Smart move by the company.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Among the worst user experiences I've ever had., December 27, 2010

By 

Frank Stallone III - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mvix Ultio Pro Media Center (Electronics)

Lately I have been looking at different media boxes for televisions and I have an interesting history with them. About a decade ago I modded my original XBOX to have XBMC on it, it played movies and games right from the internal ATA hard drive. Fantastic device really, limited by it's 720p resolution and non-HDMI output (it had component, but HDMI is audio & video and much easier to work with =).

So the quest continues a decade later, now with the Logitech Revue Companion Box with Google TV and Keyboard Controller, Apple TV MC572LL/A (2010), Roku XDS Streaming Player 1080p, and Boxee Box by D-Link devices -- none of which have hard drives -- and I would like to have a portable media device that does not rely on just internet to play videos/audio (as you can see I have higher expectations due to past experiences).

A friend told me about the Mvix Ultio Pro (MX-880HD) Media Center w/PVR so I thought I would give it a shot -- had someone buy me it for Christmas. The un-boxing experience wasn't too shabby, it's not like opening an Apple product but it is nice to see that they offer multiple power adapters and audio/video cables. The remote is a nice full sized remote with a lot of options and the hard drive is a breeze to install (warning here, the hd has to be formatted by the device after putting it in).

Loading up the unit on the TV is where everything went down hill; the first picture on the 720p monitor is of a 2-5 color MVix logo, then a main menu that looks like it's 240x480 stretched to fit a 720p screen -- a pixelated mess really. Instantly you can see that the interface was either an after thought or not very well thought out. Upon performing the firmware update -- which is almost impossible to read the version on the unit -- the graphics get a little more sharp but still have a XBMC / Plex want-to-be but not well thought out design.

I moved a few videos over the network to the unit using the clumsy menu's and confusing language (don't get me started on the lack of feedback) with the loading icon that looks 2-bit and pixelated. The movies play however you can not move out of a playing video without completely loosing your place in that video. Where other TV based units will continue to play or pause the video while you flip through menu's, this one simple stops all video playing.

There is a Flickr add-on, I have a Flickr Pro account -- I can't access my photos on this unit, it just posts random photos from Flickr... Useless. I go to the YouTube plug in and again the menu's are useless and look like someone's first programming project in high school, no real thought on how the user might actually USE it.

Then I went to see how the news appeared on screen, completely blacked out background with a white san-serif typeface... awesome.

Overall at this point I was completely turned off by the unit and would have much rather spent my money on a Boxee Box and external hard drive (for the same price as this unit).

Another Note: It concerns me that all the 5 star reviews of this unit are from people on Amazon who have only reviewed THIS product, another Amazon user Daniel Flick has also commented on this and I also agree this appears to be a marketing sham. You can not find a community online for these at all, there is nobody talking about it and the company themselves have removed negative commentary from their own personal forums. This device is a joke, and I wouldn't recommend it to anybody because their are much better devices on the market with people who work hard to make the user experience fantastic. I almost cannot believe that a unit like this can actually be sold like this these days and rest assured I have saved this review and if it gets removed I will re-write it and blog it myself.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't trust MVIX, December 23, 2010

By 

Batman (philadelphia, pa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mvix Ultio Pro Media Center (Electronics)

I had the 780HD for a while and once I finally hooked it up via HD cable, the picture was all messed up. Customer support said they could not help me since I was a week or 2 out of warranty, and they wouldn't even offer the option to pay to have it repaired. Their service was also quite rude. I'll never buy another MVIX product again. If you want a media player, just buy a HTPC.