In an age where personal video recorders are all the rage is it any wonder that a product that would allow you to watch what you want and when you want would provide such a satisfying experience?

Enter the MVIX760HD a product from MVIX which allows you to have all your music/movies/photos on this external hard drive which hooks into your TV through a variety of options including: RCA, S-Video, Optical, DVI, and USB. Aside from the absence of HDMI this product will connect to just about anything. With an output of 1080p/1080i and its respective lower resolution of 720i/p and 480i/p you are looking at some ultra crisp visuals no matter what.

The Setup

The MVIX760HD set up is relatively easy. Unscrew the screw at the back, lift up the cover, put in your Hard drive, connect it up, close the case, tighten that same screw, plug it in and it’s ready to go! Hooking up the MVIX760HD to your computer is simple. All you need to do is connect the MVIX760HD through your USB port and your hard drive appears. All that’s left to do now is drag over the media you want to watch.

Using the excellent remote included with the MVIX760HD you are able to easily browse your media which supports wmv, avi, mpg, vob, mp4, asf, tp, trp, and OSP. The audio codec’s it supports are MP3, WMA, AAC, Ogg, PCM, and AC3. If you are into having slideshows of your favourite photos the MVIX supports JPEG, BMP, and PNG.

Portability

What I really like about the MVIX760HD is how easily I can put it in my bag take it to a friend’s house and have hours of entertainment at the click of a remote. The idea of not having to take my case of CDs, DVDs is a great change from lugging around 50 CDs. The great thing about the USB feature is that you won’t have to burn any CDs or DVDs when you have this piece of hardware- just plug in your USB and drag it over. It’s that simple.

Wireless Capability

Wireless setup is fairly simple. Everything is accomplished through the GUI of the MVIX on your television. The MVIX760HD also supports encryption for those of you that have that option enabled on your network. After following the instructions on the website (http://www.mvixusa.com/support/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=78) I was able to stream media effortlessly from my PC to my TV in the next room.

What’s Missing?

Not a whole lot actually. One of my major gripes would be that there is no Quicktime (.mov) support. This is usually the case with most 3rd party media centres but you would think by now Quicktime support would be implemented.

Final Word

Priced at $299.99 CDN and with the option to put in your Hard Drive it’s kind of a no-brainer decision as to why you wouldn’t want this. Think of the money you would save on CD and DVD spindles for instance. With the price of Hard Drives always coming down this could be the perfect addition to your Home theatre system.

For more information or to buy a unit, visit thinkgeek.com or mvixusa.com.

Comparison Between Mvix 760HD and the Tvix 5000a

Mvix 760HD Tvix 5000
Ease of Use 3.5/5 3.5/5
Wireless Yes No (Requires USB Wireless Adapter)
Streaming Yes Yes
Setup 3.5/5 4/5
Design 4/5 4/5
FTP Support No (Coming Soon) Yes
Hard Drive Support Yes Yes
HDMI Output No Yes
Price $299 $399

We reviewed two very similar products that compete for space in your living room. We found both products to have very strong offerings for a media centre, however, we felt that the TVix just slightly beat out the Mvix, although it may really come down to personal preference. While the Mvix 760HD has built in wireless support, if your house is already networked with Ethernet wires, this feature won’t matter as much. Furthermore, streaming video is much quicker through Ethernet than through a wireless setup.

Another feature that we felt was helpful was the FTP server feature, currently only available on the Tvix unit. If you use a Windows based PC, this feature is not as important for you then if you have a Macintosh computer, since the software for streaming only runs on PCs. With the FTP support, a Mac user could upload their media files directly to the unit.

The lack of an HDMI output on the Mvix is another feature that really depends on your personal preference. You can still get an HD signal through the composite outputs.

Nevertheless, adding either of these units to your home theatre is a must. Find one that fits your personal needs for features and design, as we found both units adequately did the job they were advertising.