Black Boxes: Hauppauge MediaMVP
Hauppauge MediaMVP
$100
Hauppage Computer Works, Inc.
91 Cabot Court
Hauppage, NY 11788-3198
631-434-1600
www.hauppage.com
Do you burn audio, video and picture discs from your computer, only so you can carry them twenty feet into the living room to the home entertainment center? If so, then Hauppauge's MediaMVP may be for you. Designed as an easy, inexpensive way for home computer users to play the media on their hard drives on the home entertainment center, the MediaMVP, though a little bit quirky, will likely be just the ticket for those who don't want to take the full step of creating a full-blown TV/PC, but still want to make their TVs a little bit smarter.
Just Plug it In?
The MediaMVP's setup is fairly simple, provided you have all of the necessary conditions in place. Designed to work as a part of a home LAN, the MediaMVP consists of a small set-top box with an Ethernet connection and a standard set of audio-video connectors (S-video, composite video, stereo audio). In principle, all you have to do to get the MediaMVP working is plug the A/V connectors into your home entertainment center, plug the supplied Ethernet cable into your home Ethernet LAN via the hub (not provided by Hauppauge), install the software on your computer, then sit back and use the provided remote control to view your pictures, play your music and watch the videos on your computer's hard drive. Plugging the MediaMVP into our home LAN for testing purposes took about an hour, from opening the box to viewing media on the TV.
What's that? You don't have a home LAN to plug the MediaMVP into? This is where the setup of the MediaMVP gets to be a little difficult. You can plug the MediaMVP directly into your computer's Ethernet port (if it has one), but this requires the use of a crossover cable. All of this sounds very simple to some of us, but if you've never done it before, setting up the MediaMVP could be quite frustrating. Note, too, that Windows98 users could have a little trouble getting the device to work properly.
Smooth, Simple Control
Before you can begin viewing and listening to your media, you'll have to tell the MediaMVP where your pictures, songs and videos are on the computer's hard drive. After you tell the device which folders to look in on your computer for Music, Video and Pictures (each must be done separately), these folders will appear when you select the appropriate menu on the television.
Once that's complete, you're ready to sit back and start browsing your media from the couch. (Note: for video to play via the MediaMVP, it must be encoded as MPEG-1 or MPEG-2). Video and audio playback is smooth, and the quality of pictures is good. If you're used to browsing huge lists of pictures or songs on your hard drive, you might be a little disappointed by the MediaMVP's interface, which only shows six items at a time on the screen. Also, you might be shocked to discover that the MediaMVP will only display pictures at 4:3 aspect ratio, so you could find yourself doing a little processing on some of your favorite digital images in order to get them to look good on the television.
Though it does have a few drawbacks, the MediaMVP will be just the ticket for a certain type of home computer user who wants an easy way to view movies, videos and pictures on the television directly from the hard drive of their home computers. It isn't very smart, to be sure, but it will certainly be useful to some.
Smart Specs
Inputs/Outputs
Ethernet, S-Video, Composite Video, Stereo Audio, A/C Power; IR Remote Control Receiver
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