Rating: 
Summary: I LOVE IT
Review: Excellent device. It has crashed a couple of times when trying to shuffle photos or images when there were a lot in the directory but I would definetly buy it again and recommend it to others. No other product exists out there right now with the feature set that this does.
Rating: 
Summary: Device Froze Up After Two Weeks
Review: For the first few weeks the Media MVP did exactly what I wanted it to do. It sent video and audio to my entertainment center. But after two weeks of normal usage the box stopped responding to its remote control and was unable to find the computer with the Media MVP software. Customer support is minimal and although the box is priced affordably and worked fine for a short period, it failed quite quickly.With no reset button or way to access the firmware on the set top box there is little I can now do with this box other than use it as a paper weight.
Rating:
Summary: Device Froze Up After Two Weeks
Review: For the first few weeks the Media MVP did exactly what I wanted it to do. It sent video and audio to my entertainment center. But after two weeks of normal usage the box stopped responding to its remote control and was unable to find the computer with the Media MVP software. Customer support is minimal and although the box is priced affordably and worked fine for a short period, it failed quite quickly. With no reset button or way to access the firmware on the set top box there is little I can now do with this box other than use it as a paper weight.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful gadget for the price
Review: 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
Rating:
Summary: Does exactly what its supposed to
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Does exactly what its supposed to
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Very sluggish, clunky interface
Review: I was really looking forward to having a device that I could use to play music and video files on my entertainment center, but I was very disappointed by the MediaMVP. It's designed to do three things: View Pictures: I had no need for this, but I assume from the positive reviews that it works acceptably for that. I never tried it. Play Music: It did technically play the music, but the interface for selecting the music was very clunky. It has no search capabilities, and doesn't do anything at all with ID3 tags. You get to browse through your collection via filenames, or pick a playlist. Nothing interesting is displayed when a song is played; no information about the track, no visualization, just the same directory list you were looking at when you picked it. It does have a screensaver that kicks in, but it's just a bouncing logo. Play video files: This appears to work well with some people's MPEG files, as reported in other reviews. However, I tried it with some MPEG files pulled from a satellite broadcast (480x480 MPEG2) and the audio was out of sync by about a full second. I also tried it with DVD-formatted video (720x480 MPEG2) at a moderate bitrate and it completely failed to play, giving up after a fraction of a second. Both of these should have played fine according to the MediaMVP's specs. The interface is also extremely sluggish, where pressing a button on the remote takes from 1 second up to 10 seconds to respond. This was on a switched 100mbit LAN, and a 1.5GHz dual server. My friend bought one at the same time and had the same problems with his at home, so I don't think mine was defective. I also tried using both the included software and the newer beta version, and had the same problems. Overall, I can see that this would be fine for someone who needs digital picture viewing, basic music playing, and playback of some video files. But I'd be sure to try it out with everything you might want to play while you can still return it.
Rating:
Summary: Does what it's advertised to do at a very reasonable price
Review: I'm very impressed with this product thus far. The installation was very easy, and I was viewing videos and photo slideshows in hardly any time. I'm using this with a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-350 card and SnapStream BeyondTV PVR software, and the video quality is great when viewed on my TV using the MediaMVP. The video and audio are smooth and in synch. I discovered that you can even view a video that's still in the process of being recorded, so you can jump in a bit late and not have to wait for it to finish recording before viewing it. Very cool. There are a few things that could be improved, and I think future software updates could fix them. The fast forward is quite slow -- I think others have mentioned it only being 2X, which sounds about right. It does have a commercial skip feature that allows you to skip forward or backward 30 seconds however, and you can also move to preset relative locations within the video by pressing the number keys on the remote (i.e., 1 puts you 10% into the video, 3 puts you 30% into the video, etc.). It would also be nice if there was a button on the remote that you could press that would allow you to see a timer display of how far into the video you are. The photo slideshow works well, but it seems to loop continuously such that it's hard to tell when you've seen the last photo. It would be nice if it gave you the option to choose to end the slideshow after the last photo as well as choosing to have it loop continuously. It would also be nice if it let you choose how long each photo will be displayed before moving on to the next one. These quibbles are minor, and again I think they can probably be fixed with software updates. Overall, I think it's a really nice product at a price that's far less than that of the competition. I actually ordered another one to use on another TV in the house. You can actually watch the same show on two televisions at the same time, and the video and audio quality seem just fine while doing this. Another very nice feature.
Rating:
Summary: Does what it's advertised to do at a very reasonable price
Review: I'm very impressed with this product thus far. The installation was very easy, and I was viewing videos and photo slideshows in hardly any time. I'm using this with a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-350 card and SnapStream BeyondTV PVR software, and the video quality is great when viewed on my TV using the MediaMVP. The video and audio are smooth and in synch. I discovered that you can even view a video that's still in the process of being recorded, so you can jump in a bit late and not have to wait for it to finish recording before viewing it. Very cool. There are a few things that could be improved, and I think future software updates could fix them. The fast forward is quite slow -- I think others have mentioned it only being 2X, which sounds about right. It does have a commercial skip feature that allows you to skip forward or backward 30 seconds however, and you can also move to preset relative locations within the video by pressing the number keys on the remote (i.e., 1 puts you 10% into the video, 3 puts you 30% into the video, etc.). It would also be nice if there was a button on the remote that you could press that would allow you to see a timer display of how far into the video you are. The photo slideshow works well, but it seems to loop continuously such that it's hard to tell when you've seen the last photo. It would be nice if it gave you the option to choose to end the slideshow after the last photo as well as choosing to have it loop continuously. It would also be nice if it let you choose how long each photo will be displayed before moving on to the next one. These quibbles are minor, and again I think they can probably be fixed with software updates. Overall, I think it's a really nice product at a price that's far less than that of the competition. I actually ordered another one to use on another TV in the house. You can actually watch the same show on two televisions at the same time, and the video and audio quality seem just fine while doing this. Another very nice feature.
Rating:
Summary: Thumbs Up!
Review: 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.
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