CrunchGear

If there is a sexy media center device, that is certainly it. The Mvix can certainly “have some”.

Something like this is exactly what I want. The less pc-like dedicated media center boxes become, the more stable and efficient they are. I’m all for products like this. Good product with a nice review and photos by skippy…

Finally something that isn’t the size of a receiver. This seems like a practical solution that’s been complicated for too long.

In my opinion it’s still too complicated. The reason why VCRs, DVDs, and the like caught on is because of their simplicity. You stick the disk in to some magic machine and it just works. Us techies can get this thing to work, but once you start talking about file sharing and USB connections to the masses, eyes start to glaze over.

I admire the work DivX is doing to get their codec working in consumer set-top boxes. That’s the right way to go. If you can’t stick a disk in to the machine and press play and have it just work, then it’s never going to work with the masses.

My only question: “Why did it take so long for someone to create this?” Wow! If you don’t like this, you can always stick to your Betamax!

Outside of the price being out of my current range, this looks great. In the past, I’ve wasted many-a-CD on trying to get movies and the like to play on my DVD player (to no avail, because of support issues) along with older, already-burned CD-Rs from friends. With this, all I would need is a better TV and larger HD. XD

But I do agree (partially) with Kurt Collins - this may be too complex for most users. On the flipside of that, the complexity is only as much as you make it, so if there are helpful methods to introduce it (user-interaction, guides) I don’t see why it wouldn’t make it.

This sure is a sexy looking device. I’m not fond of the wireless though, especially for streaming video. No matter what, there always seems to be some sort of stutter or cut-offs with wireless. I’m sure it’s getting better, but a cord will always be a cord.

Also I agree like some have said about being too complex for the masses. Like it or not, a lot of users out there do not get all the tech lingo. Once you start throwing in USB, wireless G/B, codecs, formats and all this crap, they don’t get it. Heck, as soon as you say USB, you’ll be lucky if you still have their attention. It seems hard to believe in this day and age, but out of the tech world, people don’t get this stuff!

Can anyone explain why this product and others (Dlinks media lounge for one) use WEP encryption? Its a deal breaker for me. I live in a congested area so WEP is too weak and have to use WPA for my wireless. TO use this on my network I’d have to move everything to WEP and the kids in the neighborhood would have access to my network within a couple of days for sure.

Is it more expensive to integrate WPA? I bought the media lounge from DLink and just had it wired instead of using the wireless but customer support wouldn’t give any reasons why they wouldn’t be upgrading to WPA in the future.

Firmware 1.1.17 added WPA. They’re now up to v1.1.25 which just came out this week.

As for it being too complex, those same users probably didn’t set up their AV systems all by themselves either, but they’ve got it now and probably love it or at least take it for granted! Computers and electronics are just not getting to the ‘Star Trek’ simplicity level anytime soon.