motherboards

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.

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.

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.