The Mvix (MV-5000U) Media Center w/FM is basically a portable external hard drive with the remarkable ability to play “…dozens of video, audio and digital image (i.e. JPEG) formats over your TV, projector or home-theater system.” Even better, the (MV-5000U) unit comes with the added ability to transmit audio to one of 4 FM stations of your own choosing. Thus one could purchase the power adapter or souped up Car Pack and thereby use with your car audio system. It’s genius baby, simply genius! You could have your entire digital music library at your fingertips wherever you go.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
BELLS & WHISTLES (Cool Features)
The Mvix media center makes it so that one no longer has to burn or convert video files onto disc in order to watch them on a TV. It is an all-in-one video storage and playback device that already contains all the codecs necessary for proper playback.
What’s also amazing is that it will play ISO and VCD (.DAT) files as well, noting once again that one no longer needs to burn video discs of almost any shape or form.
The Mivx media center supports a variety of video files that includes the following:
DivX 5.x, Divx 4.x, Divx 3.11, XxiD, Mpeg – 1, Mpeg – 2, Mpeg – 4, .AVI, DVD (.IFO/ .VOB),ISO, VCD (.DAT)
Trying it out for myself, thanks to the great guys over at Mvix who allowed me to take one of their fine units for a little “test drive,” I was taken aback by the ease with which I was no able to watch a downloaded movie. Now I have one of those cool home theater projector setups, so even when I download an XviD file, I always have to convert and burn it to DVD to watch the movie on it. Unless I have a feeling the movie’s going to be terrible that is, in which case I’ll relegate it to the confines of my PC to watch. Either way, the Mivx media center makes the whole process a piece of cake, and makes the hole affair considerably less of a hassle to deal with. If there’s a flic or even a simple video short I have on my PC that I want to watch on my TV all I have to do is “drag and drop” it onto the Mivx media player’s HD folder and I’m done. Then all I have to do is take it, plug it into my TV, and press play. No tiresome conversion or burning process whatsoever, just drag, drop, and play. Who knew watching downloaded movies could be so easy?
This is potentially the biggest overlooked potential of the Mivx media player, for depending on the storage size of the HDD you put into it, you could theoretically have your entire library of music at your fingertips wherever you go. I put a 300GB HDD in it, which goes for a fairly reasonable price of $139 bucks on their site, and put half of music library in it, about 80GB. The newfound portability of my music library was awesome to say the least. It comes with a canvas “man pouch” also so was convenient and easy to take wherever I went. Those of you who have the crazy 100GB+ MP3 libraries may end up driving in circles around the block just to try and hear them all.
What the Mivx media center is also able to do, at least with the MV-5000U unit that I took a look at, is playback audio via an FM transmitter. Thus, in conjunction with the auto-power adapter you can use the player on yur car-audio system and have your own endless stream of digital music. That’s a huge kicker for those who have a large music library that is more often than not confined to the limits of their PC. A quickly burned audio disc is usually the most light of day that their library ever sees, and so the ability to take it anywhere, anyplace, and at anytime opens up a whole new genre of listening opportunities.
“What kinds of audio files can it play?” you ask. Well, the Mvix (MV-5000U) Media Center supports a number of different audio files, a list of which I include below:
MP3, AC3, M3U (Playlist), OGG, WMA, DTS Passthrough, MP2
So as you can see, it pretty much supports them all.
BELLS & WHISTLES (Cool Features)
I wanted to take the opportunity to go over some of the neater features of the Mivx media center.
The first is the fact that it comes with a remote so once you plug it into the back of your TV, a video jack, and left / right audio jacks, you can sit back and control the media center with the touch of a remote. It offers all the functionality of a regular remote, with volume control, fast-forward, rewind, stop, pause, etc. It also has a zoom feature as well.
The second is the fact that, which can be easily overlooked, that you could use it as in external data storage device as well. Though not able to do anything with them on the media center, of course, one can still put data on it for later retrieval and so too justify buying it as way to have a backup storage location. Too boot, you can literally use the Mivx media center to hold an endless amount of video, audio, image, or even data files, and literally take and play or transfer them anywhere.
Thirdly, if you take a look at the picture below, it shows the menu that will appear on your TV screen after you plug-in and power up the device. It shows just how easy the Mivx media center allows you to hear and watch all of your favorite video and audio files from the comfort of your living rather than from behind a desktop PC. Using the remote, you simple scroll down the menu list and select whatever it is that you wish to play. Forgot a video or something just finish downloading? All you have to is power it off real quick, plug it into your PC, drag and drop, and reconnect to your TV. No annoying converting or burning is necessary with this little bad boy.
(click on image to enlarge)
Moreover, it;’s going to be tough to part with this groundbreaking piece of technology. It literally bridges the gap between my PC and TV. No to mention the fact that I can take all my music and movies with me wherever I go and either broadcast the music over a car or home stereo, or watch a flic without worrying if my buddy’s DVD player will support VCDs. The Mivx media center takes all the headache out of getting ones video and audio to view or play in a different location. “Drag and drop,” it’s that easy.
(click on image to view )
Model No.: MV-5000U
TV System Compatibility: NTSC / PAL / AUTO
Video and Audio Output: RCA L/R, Coaxial, Optical(5.1ch), RCA Y, Pr, Pb, S-Video, IR-Ext
PC Interface: USB 2.0 (Backward Compatible with USB 1.1)
Subtitle Format Compatibility: SMI, SRT, SUB
Video Formats: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, DivX3.11, 4x, 5x, XviD, DVD(IFO, VOB), ISO
Screen Aspect Ratio: 16:9 / 4:3 Letter Box / Pan Scan
Audio Formats: AC3, MP2, MP3, DTS pass through, WMA, OGG, M3U
Digital Image Formats: JPEG
FM Transmitter: YES
LCD display: 128 X 64 mm
UP Scaling: 1920 X 1080i, 1280 X 720p
Dimension: 7.5 x 6 x 2.5 inches
Power: External 12V DC Adapter
Package: MV-5000U, Stand, Remote control, Bag, A/V cables, USB cable.
UPDATE: Are currently holding a drawing to win one of these Mvix units. For drawing details please check out THIS FORUM POSTING. THX.
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great product great reiew!
Hmm had to chip in – http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USB2-HDD-Player-Multimedia-AV-Portable-MP4-MP3-DVD-VCD_W0QQitemZ280000608953QQihZ018QQcategoryZ96894QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
The idea is not new i bought one the above babies about 6months ago and it rocks its basically a portable hard drive shell which you can pick up for around 20 quid and you bung in a 100gb drive if you want to and it works exactly like any removable portable drive except when you have unplugged it you can plug it into a tv video in socket or use the vga output directly to watch any divx/xvid/mpeg movie you have on it or mp3 photo etcetc using the built in media player pcb which is very good the only thing is it has no radio output (i wouldn’t use that anyway) and no battery as it is tiny – you have to use the mains adapter or what i use is a tekeon portable battery unit and plug my eyetrek glasses into it turns airtravel into a really nice experience 
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/RIMAX-Virtual-Vision-3-0-nt-olympus-eye-trek-36-LCD-TV_W0QQitemZ5879848803QQihZ008QQcategoryZ72406QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Just cant wait till they make a full size hard drive version of this so i can whack in a 300gb drive
Actually you can “whack in” a 300Gb HDD. As a matter of fact the unit we will be holding a drawing to win comes included with a 300GB HDD.yer-drawing-38093.html#post432497
Drawing details can be found here: http://www.zeropaid.com/bbs/site-announcements/t-free-mvix-pla
hmm still seems very over priced for what is basically a hard drive shell with a custom pcb running the hard drive
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Portable-MP4-MP3-DVD-MPEG-Player-3-5-AV-HDD-Pla yer-D0P_W0QQitemZ200001813134QQihZ010QQcategoryZ96894QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
It got me thinking so i picked up one of these babies for under 30 uk pounds and picked up a 300gb hard drive for 65 uk pounds and it absolutely rocks the playback quality is absolutely superb and so far it has handled everything i have thrown at it.
I know isnt it dope? Can’t believe I have to raffle it off……….isnt it cool to not have to burn any discs ever again? And I dont know what kind of TV you have but I have one of those Home Theater Projectors and yes the PIC quality rocks……High RES JPEGS are even better.