MVIX MX-780HD Review

[mobilenvidia]

[uPDATE] I have send this unit back as the recurring reboots started up again.

Watching a movie for aprox 1/2 an hour after this continual reboots.

Seems to be a heat issue but not the CPU.

Anywho I wait a replacement machine

I needed a new bigger HD preferably not attached to the laptop with cable(s) as I had before.

My Wife could do with a media player to play her collection of DivX files.

I came across the MVIX MX-780HD and this looked to fit the bill nicely

* Video Formats: DivX, XviD, DVD (ISO/VOB/IFO), MPEG, VCD(DAT), WMV(WMV-9), ASF(WMV-9), TP, TS, TRP

* Audio Formats: MP3, WMA, AAC, OGG, PMC, AC3, M4A, DTS decoding (down-mixing / Pass though)

* Image Formats: BMP, JPG, PNG

* Subtitle Support: SMO, SRT, SUB

* Video Out: HDMI, Composite, S-Video, Component

* Audio Out: RCA, Digital Coaxial, Optical

* TV System: NTSC, PAL, Auto

* HD Support: 720p, 1080i, 1080p

* Networking: 802.11b/g (WEP/WPA), 10/100 Ethernet, NDAS

* Internal Disk: 3.5? IDE or SATA

* USB: Slave (for connecting to computer) and Host (for additional storage)

I splashed out NZ$400 for this and another NZ$380 for a 1TB Western Digital Hard drive to put in it.

A few days later both devices had arrived (separately).

I opened up the MX780 which in case is via 2 screws, I think your supposed to use the 1 bottom one and the other acts like a hinge but found this awkward to open this way.

I placed the HD in the cradle and latched it down.

Now here the first small gripe begins.

The SATA cable (included) needs to be put onto the MB then attach to the HD, BUT the socket for it faces the wrong way which means bending of cable past the HD caddy then to the HD

To make matters worse the power cable (with supplied SATA adapter) ads to the awkwardness, as the SATA data cable needs to squeeze past this on it's way to the HD.

What happens is with all this awkward cable placement, the lid becomes hard to close.

Next thing was to hook it up to the TV.

I started with HDMI cable, at first no picture.

But used the LCD panel to navigate to the setup pages, which are easy to find.

Here I setup the HDMI output.

I then had a working unit on my 32" Toshiba LCD TV.

Now next was to partition and format the HD

Plug in the USB cable, then run the Disk Management app in Adminstration tools in control panel.

I setup 3 partitions then formatted them to NTFS.

By now the unit began to start behaving odd.

The LCD would flash light/dark the buttons on the front of unit become very touchy.

Then the reboots started, at first at a few minutes then more frequent.

I left the machine to google for some answers, grabbed the latest firmware (2.01 at time)

Turn machine back on, didn't reboot anymore so I proceeded to flash the firmware.

After deleteting firmware and about to write the new one the unit rebooted and turned off

Turning back on I get a message about loading boot rom and then nothing.

I had 'Bricked' the MX780 and only had it 2 hours :)

So more googling, needed to get hold of a X-over LAN cable to attempt the MX760 emergency Firmware flash via FTP

Luckily MVIX has included this feature with a key combinations upon power up :)

Once I got the cable and installed the TFTP server app, all went well really quick.

Had to then installl a modded Firmware with no model lock code as I ended up with a MX760 after the emergency flash.

Once the modded FW was flashed I could then flash back to an original firmware.

I discovered during all this the heatsink was not seated properly on the CPU and once pressed down no more issues.

Right back to business.

Shove the included driver CD in to attampt the NDAS driver install.

doh! no x64 OS support :P , so off I go to Ximeta and grab the SW my self.

Install this put in the included key codes and the 3 partitions pop up in My Computer.

I then copy some files across to the HD.

1080p DivX file played right away, looked great on my screen, BUT no sound from the HDMI setup :P

Here are my thoughts on the various functions I have so far used.

NDAS

Pros:

Easily to setup

Works well

Cons:

10/100Mbs connection really not good enough these days, but OK to stream HD movie.

No X64 driver support on the install CD, bad bad

Front Face

pros:

Looks nice in back

Cons:

Buttons are a little naff, cheap feel about them.

Once setup you really never need to use them ever again which should be a pro

LCD screen is tiny.

The LCD could do with a rotate feature so when the unit is on it's side (flat) then the screen would be readable.

The cooling fan is at the bottom of the machine pushing air out.

This to me makes no sense, as warm air rises, so pusing out the cooler air at the bottom is not helping.

On it's side the cooling would work.

The included cradle that comes with the unit has nothing to hold it to the MX-780 it just sits there, only gravity holds it in.

A heap of cables in the back could mean it could be pulled out of cradle and drop from where ever it was.

Why the added rotate feature of the LCD would be a good idea when lying flat where the unit cannot fall down.

Back Panel

Pro's:

It has all the outputs that I need, or could possibly need.

This is a very good feature of this machine it's ability to hook up to almost everything

Cons:

Really could have done with one USB socket on the front panel for memory sticks etc, hard once installed to plug them in the back.

Picture Quality

HDMI 1080i as my TV is, was excellent, could not fault this at all

Composite prone to interference, but who would use this anyway.

Component not tried.

Sound Quality

With HDMI I could get not sound with any firmware, not sure this is my TV or the MX780, other experience this as well.

But luckily the MX780 can output analogue so an extra set of cables later sound is back, but not ideal.

System Navigation

Very easy, with headings and then options.

Finding files is relatively easy except for the HD naming is not included just HDD1, HDD2... so you need to know which partition you have stuff on.

The unit does a heap of Movie files, Music files and Internet Radio is also included.

Internet Radio has a hundreds of stations which is rather daunting to wade through to find something.

WIFI

I could not get this to connect to my router, but with only 54g will be of little use to do much of anything but play Interet radio.

Wired LAN

Piece of cake, it just works, BUT cannot have both Wired and Wireless at once.

100Mbps was fast enough to stream 1080p to my laptop.

1Gbps is becoming the norm now and other units have this

USB

3 USB ports are included.

1 is for connection to a computer, this will then turn the MX780 in to a USB hub and give direct access to the HD.

No other features are available once in this mode.

But for file transfer in a hurry this is the fastest way.

2 other USB ports are for external devices like memory sticks, HD's and I think also external DVD drives or anything else the MX780 can stream from.

Music section

Really tried this yet, support a heap of formats, MP3's play with ease.

Internet radio

Great feature if I can ever find a station I like, there are so many.

Need to work out how the sort works.

Other things

Fan in the unit can be heard, it's always on, tempted to trial with it unpugged.

The HD makes no audble noise unless you stick your ear on the unit, so no issues here.

Firmware updates seem to happen every few months so this is good to add or fix issues/features.

Assume all firmware updates as beta, as I found with very latest FW that HDMI has no sound and no picture.

Power Adaptor came with a NZ plug so this must be good.

At first my thoughts where on this being the problem mentioned earlier.

As there are apparently issues with some machines and 3A 12v adapters as I have.

But this is working fine for me, I did notice that the MX7x0 ship with a wide range of outputs from 2.5 to 4A

Remote is OK, with NDAS running it takes sometime for the unit to respond.

With NDAS off it responds well, NDAS will only be off if either my Wife's and my laptop are off also.

So not sure if this will become an issue yet.

The remote has a heap of buttons, key response is good.

Of course the MX780 does need to be in view for it to work.

File Support, it plays most common files.

Most notible omission for me is MKV and I think for some lossless audio.

Future items

Torrent support would be nice to leave the MX780 to it, and give the laptop a break.

Can see this being a very much anticipated feature

Internet TV, the sample stations that FW 2.01 can get were nice quality but my fast DSL still made it start and stop.

Still in beta phase.

Conclusion

This is a 50/50 item, I needed an external HD to free up my lappy from all the cables.

This is does as good as any external box.

The media player side of things is good, not excellent.

There are many little niggly issues to sort out.

Would I buy this unit knowing then what I know now, I would have to say no.

I could have gotten a cheaper external NAS box for me and upgraded the DVD player to an all format player for my wife.

Once the issues are sorted it should be a very good machine, even though it's based on the MX760 and now technology over a year old.

it is still cheaper than products that have better features, so can't complain there.

[uPDATE]

A little birdie tells me later this year a recordable unit will be released.

This I would think will have the newer CPU version which could mean:

MKV support

Gigabit LAN

11n Wifi

Faster response time to start movies etc.

Links

MVIX USA Home page here you can find all the details including purchasing one.

MVIXCommunity Forum a better forum then rthe official ones for hangin with other MVIX owners

Firmware updates for the MX7x0 series

[Dox]

nice review, you had some hiccups with it, hope its all ironed out.

[Kamika007z]

This is really really cool!

Thanks for the writeup!