MV-5000U hard drive with media output
Basically the Mvix MV-5000U is a USB 2.0 3.5" hard drive enclosure, which means you can plug a standard computer hard drive (of any capacity) in a small enclosure and connect it to a computer with a USB cable to make it a portable hard drive. But the MV-5000U is a hard drive enclosure with a twist. On the back of its case there are all kinds of media output possibilities to connect it to your television or audio system so you'll be able to play all the audio and video files you put on the hard drive. The MV-5000U comes with a remote control to use with the menu shown on your television. You can also navigate through your files with the buttons on the front panel and the LCD display. The firmware (operating system) of the Mvix can easily be upgraded by downloading the latest version from the Mvix website. The media types currently supported are:
- MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, DivX, XviD, DVD (vob, ifo) and DVD ISO's
- AC3, MP2, MP3, DTS pass through, WMA, OGG, M3U
- JPEG images
Getting everything ready to use is pretty simple. First of all you need a 3.5" hard drive which suites your capacity needs. You may have one lying around in an unused computer or you can get a new one (Western Digital is known to have reliable products and sells a 250 GB hard drive for $69,-). The cover of the MV-5000U can be unlocked so you can slide it off. You connect the power cable and the IDE cable to the hard drive and slide the cover back on. Now you can connect the MV-5000U to a computer with the USB cable and transfer your audio and video files. Because the MV-5000U can play DVD ISO's, ripping a DVD and playing it on your TV is really easy. You can create an ISO file of a DVD very quickly with software like DVD Shrink and then copy that ISO file to the MV-5000U for playback (with menu support, subtitles, etc.).
Once you have transferred some audio and video files on the MV-5000U you can connect it to your television. It has all the output options (RCA L/R, Coaxial, Optical(5.1ch), RCA Y, Pr, Pb, S-Video) so you can pick which one works best with your TV. Once you turn on the power you can navigate through your audio and video files on your television with the remote control and start playing.
There's also a Mvix hard drive enclosure that supports wireless network access to transfer files over your WLAN. We'll come back to that version in a later post. But it's the price of the MV-5000U that can make it a perfect solution for many. You can get a Mvix MV-5000U for only $ 165,-.
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