Hauppauge's MediaMVP
by gwinfield
smw.internet.com
February 18, 2004
From the company Hauppauge Computer Works, Inc., that gave you:
WinTV-PVR-usb2 is a personal video recorder. It records your TV shows and home videos to disk over USB (works best on USB 2.0), and includes ULead DVD MovieFactory 2.1 for making DVDs from your video recordings. PC Upgrade Magazine gave WinTV-PVR-usb2 their Editors Choice in the ("Tuning into TV on the PC" article in the Nov 2003 issue).
WinTV-PVR-350 is Their high end PCI board for TV watching and recording. It has a hi-performance hardware MPEG encoder and hardware decoder.
WinTV-HD: If you want U.S. hi-definition TV on your PC screen, look for our WinTV-HD. It displays both the U.S. ATSC hi-def standard TV (not digital cable TV) plus analog TV. Includes hi-def monitor output in addition to hi-def TV on your PC screen!
Comes a new Product, the MediaMVP:
Watch PC based music, videos and pictures on your TV set. Play slide shows with music, too. Connects to Ethernet networks with standard RJ-45 connectors. Plays MP3 music and music playlists. Set up a music playlist for a party, and let MediaMVP be your DJ.
Plays MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 videos Plays JPEG and GIF digital pictures Includes remote control for easy navigation from your TV set MediaMVP Features:
Access digital music, videos or pictures from your TV set, over your home network. Uses 10Mbit or 100Mbit Ethernet, for network performance with any type of digital media. Plays DVD quality videos on your TV set over an Ethernet LAN.
Composite and S-Video outputs for the best video quality on TV sets, plus stereo audio output to TV sets or home theater systems. Watch digital camera pictures (JPEG or GIF) on your TV set. Play slide shows with music, too. Plays MP3 music, either individual titles, all the music titles in a directory or M3U, B4S, PLS and ASX playlists. Plays MEPG-1 and MPEG-2 recordings made with the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR's. Will also play most other MPEG-1/2 standard video files. With MediaMVP’s remote control, you can pause, rewind and fast forward through your recorded videos. Remote control for easy access to your PC media from your TV set. MediaMVPs remote control allows you to navigate through your PCs disk drives, and displays media names, directories and other information on the TV set. MediaMVPs remote also can control the audio volume and mute of videos and music being played.
Navigate through your PC media on your TV set, selecting individual music titles to listen to or digital pictures to watch. You can simultaneously play a digital picture slideshow while listening to a complete music program. Or play a music playlist (MusicMatch, Winamp and Windows Media playlists supported).
MediaMVPs remote control allows you to pause, fast forward and rewind through videos, plus pause music and picture shows. You can adjust the audio volume from MediaMVPs remote control, so you won’t need to use your TV sets remote at all!
Connect MediaMVP to your home theater system, for the ultimate home media network. Just connect the S-Video and stereo audio outputs to your home theater switch, and you'll be able to watch your digital videos and pictures on your TV set while listening to the digital audio on your home theater speakers.
MediaMVP can be used when traveling with laptop computers. It's small enough to carry on vacations and business trips, so you can watch videos, digital pictures and listen to music on your hotel room TV set. All you need is an Ethernet cross over cable (not supplied) to directly connect MediaMVP with your laptop.
MediaMVP is really simple to install: Install the MediaMVP server application on your PC, connect MediaMVP to your PC through any 10/100 RJ-45 Ethernet port on routers, hubs or switches. Plug in MediaMVP and you'll have instant access to digital music, videos and pictures stored on your PC. I did it in ten minutes. Setting up was easy and the manual was very simple to read. The manual, it contains picture and clear instructions from installation to troubleshooting.
I connected the audio and video cables to the TV and Hi-Fi. Then, I connected a cables from my router to the back of MediaMVP. But before power up the MediaMVP, you should install the applications software on the PC that you wish to act as server.
Technically speaking: MediaMVP is a Linux based digital media receiver. MediaMVP includes a hardware MPEG decoder. Music and digital pictures are software decoded by MediaMVP’s processor. It receives the digital media from the PC via the Ethernet LAN, decodes the media and outputs video through composite and S-Video connections, and audio through stereo audio output connectors. MediaMVP provides an on-TV-screen display of media directory listings. It receives commands from the supplied remote control, and sends these commands to the PC server. The TV menus are created on the PC server, sent over the LAN and displayed by MediaMVPs browser.
TV Set Requirements:
Composite or S-Video inputs Left and right audio input jacks PC System Requirements Microsoft® Windows® XP Home, XP Professional or Windows2000 Pentium processor: 750 Mhz or faster CD-ROM for loading software Network Requirements One 10/100 RJ-45 port on a Router, Hub or Switch or Direct connect from MediaMVP to PC via cross over LAN cable (not supplied) Included in the MediaMVP package MediaMVP Stand Wall mounted power supply Remote control with batteries MediaMVP Installation CD-ROM MediaMVP QuickInstall Guide 1.5 meter A/V cable set 1.5 meter Ethernet cable.
Now for what I would like to see in the next upgrade:
Support for new media standards such as WMV and DIVX
Wireless connection
5.1 sound with DTS & Dolby Digital decoding
RF remote control so that no line of sight required
Generation of picture thumbnails can be slow sometimes
Where can you get this great product you ask? Now available at Circuit City, Radio Shack (some stores), Micro Center and Fry's Electronics for just $99.99. |
