TVisto Series 3.5'' Multimedia External Hard Drive Enclosure
by Metal Gear
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Our Price: $99.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of TVisto Series 3.5'' Multimedia External Hard Drive Enclosure
Customer Review: User review
Summary: 4 Stars
I am very pleased with this device. All my DVDs have been ripped and are safely stored in a closet, never to be touched by my boys :)
I ordered the component and vga cable from www.span.com, the cables are a little expensive but worth it. I used the vga connection into my Samsung HDTV(only port open). Tvisto runs a 1024x768@75HZ in this configuration. I have not tested the component input yet.
I box does well playing ripped DVD's. The video quality is good, though still not quite as good as my DVD player. The video does stutter on occasion, but not enough to be distracting.
The reason to buy this box over ANY other box is the ability to play ISO images. If you have allot of DVDs, ripping them in any other format will take time. Even on my 4200X2, with raid 0, 2GB ram, etc a rip will take 15 minutes without compression (using DVD Shrink). Recoding or compression of the DVD will take considerably longer.
Playing MP3s is pretty worthless.
Playing photos in slide show is fun, though I have not figured out how to play a directory of directories of photos.
Playing home movies works if you use a codec/format the device recognizes. The device cannot play my HD home videos, no surprise there though, my PC has a hard time playing them as well.
The player is a little touchy setting up. Follow the instructions and everything will work fine. I was a bit surprised the player uses a font copied from MS windows. I used the default font specified, but it might be fun to try something else. If you do not want to read the directions, the player's directory structure can be downloaded from here: http://www.macpower.com.tw/cgi-bin/helpdesk/kb.cgi?view=87&lang=en
I have not upgraded the firmware yet. I downloaded the firmware and followed the upgrade instructions but so far the payer will not recognize the files. Download the firmware here:
http://www.macpower.com.tw/resources/pocketdivxplayer
I installed a 500GB drive. The box does get warm but no different then other external drives I have used. My uncompressed DVD's range from 1.7GB (Veggie Tales) to 6.5GB(Pirates of the Caribbean) so the number of DVD's it can store will vary.
Someone already created a template for the Harmony remote(as a media PC), so integrating it into my environment was a snap.
The only grip I would have is that the remote inputs are sluggish. You have to give the player time between button pushes to respond. This takes getting use to. I am hoping a firmware update may fix the issue. It is worth reading the firmware history (they do add functionality).
Customer Review: Not bad, but be aware of what it can really do...
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently purchased a TVisto. I have small kids who have a habit of destroying DVD's. Rather have them handle our DVD's I figured that this product could be a good way to give them access to movies without physically handling them.
Most descriptions and reviews talking about HD support. However, the AV cable that comes is an S-Video/Composite Video cable. Obviously an S-Video AV cable doesn't provide HD support. I haven't been able to find a source for HD AV cable in the US (only in the UK). So take HD support claims with a grain of salt.
Once received, you need a tiny Philips head screwdriver to gain access to the internal of the drive. Adding the drive is straightforward. I formatted the drive as an ntfs drive. This lets you save files larger than 2Gigs and is probably needed if you want to play DVD .iso files. Your movies, music and pictures must be placed in directories with specific names. That's not a big deal, but if you don't see your files that probably means you miss typed the name of the root directories.
I found the UI both straightforward and quirky. Navigation is easy. You can choose one of Movies, Music, or Pictures. Once you choose a file type, you are allowed to navigate the directories below until you find the file you are look for. This means you can forget your ID3 tags for music. If the file song name isn't in the file name, you'll never find the song.
The other quirky behavior is that you can't do any navigation while a movie or song is playing. You must press stop before any navigation key works. I found that confusing at first (I'm used to my Tivo and it doesn't have such a goofy restriction).
The documentation says that it supports SPDIF pass-through. My MCE machine manages to do this correctly. However, I haven't been able to get the SPDIF coaxial connector to output DTS 5.1 or Dolby 5.1. I don't know what's wrong (possibly user error).
Also, you can't use it as a media device AND as an external drive. Either you boot the TVisto plugged into your computer (which will cause it to act like an external drive) or you can boot it unconnected (and it will act like a media device). This threw me at first, mostly because it never occurred to me there would be such a strange restriction.
However, even with the restrictions and the misrepresentation about HD support, I like the product and will likely keep it.
I've tried DivX movies, DVD iso's, MP3s and JPegs. All have played flawlessly. My kids loved the unit. Hopefully, I will find a US source for the HD cable and I will be a much happier camper.
Customer Review: Almost there...
Summary: 4 Stars
I recently bought the Tvisto and am mostly pleased with it. Mostly, because I am one of those people that believes that when I buy an item it should work as described right from the box. Tvisto MOSTLY does. But not quite. First you have to install the hard drive. No big deal. I put in a 250GB. It installed fine. Next I loaded video, music, and pictures from my system to the Tvisto. That went pretty easy. When hooked up to your system via USB it is essentially an external drive. I had the jumper set to Master. No problem. Hooking it up to the TV and getting it to work as described...that's a different story. My remote would not work at all until I did a hard reboot of the Tvisto a couple times. Suddenly, it worked. Takes a while to boot up and show up on the TV screen. However, the Tvisto would not play many of my video files. I have many movies as .avi files. It would play some, and not others. I don't know enough about the files systems to know why. I only know it would not work. But wait, buried there in the manual was something about Firmware updates. I had to power down the Tvisto, hook it back up to the computer, then hunt for the firmware upgrade. It takes a while to find. [...]
GMG, apparently, is the manufacturer. The upgrade was from November 2006, so it seemed pretty recent. I downloaded the file, unzipped it and put the 3 files in the Firmware directory on the Tvisto drive. Shlepped the whole thing back to the TV (really need 2 power cables), did the Firmware update, as described. It went fine. And voila, the Tvisto would now read all the video files! Since then it pletty much has worked fine. Occaisionally the thing will freeze, in that it will not respond to the romote or to the buttons on the unit. It continues to play, but will not respond. It requires a hard shut-down and reboot to regain remote functionality. This is a kluge that should have been fixed before shipment. Also, it would be nice to have visuals while lsitening to the music files, but this is only a wish. It is nowhere stated it can do this. All in all, it's nice not to have to burn DVDs to watch videos anymore. I now have almost a hundred videos on the drive and it basically plays them all fine (except for the occasional remote nonresponse thing mentioned above).
Worth the money ($...). Hell yeah. No longer need to buy DVD blanks. Could they have done a better job on it. Again, yes. Maybe in a future firmware upgrade.
BTW, the company I bought it from has NEVER once responded to any of my queries. Their price was good, but their customer service stinks. I guess you get what you pay for.
Customer Review: Doesn't play some files but I still like it :)
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the first media enclosure that I've bought and used and I happy to say that I like it. The install instructions could be more clear especially for the hardware challenged ... The enclosure that I bought was the galaxy one and not the MacPower one... so there was next to nothing on Galaxy's site regarding firmware upgrade etc... but MACPower site is chock full of info. I didn't know this before I bought this or I would've gotten the MACPower enclosure. Anyway since Galaxy didn't provided a firmware upgrade I downloaded MACPowers latest 1.4.6.33 Feb 8 update and got on google to see if anyone else had tried this... I was surprised that I couldn't find anything on the subject ... so I start tinkering my self and was able to upgrade galaxy firmware with MACPower 1.4.6.33.
The following procedure worked for me... I take NO responsiblity if you mess up your enclosure doing this..DO THIS AT YOUR OWN PERIL... but this is what I did..
- Downloaded the MAC power firmware upgrade 1.4.6.33, link is provided by a previous reviewer.
- unzipped it to a folder and opened the file 'flash.fuf'
- My previous Galaxy version was 1.4.10.29, so I modified the version in the flash.fuf file to 1.4.10.30 and saved the file.
- I saved the three files Flash.fuf, loader.bin and romfs.bin to the firmware folder on TVisto.
- After unhooking the USB, I powercycled TVisto
- Selection screen came up and I selected the settings and selected Firmware update. and clicked enter on the remote.
- My current Firmware version is displayed on the top and the new upgrade was displayed underneath it and I clicked enter to upgrade and did again to confirm.
- After that the progress bar came up it flashed a few time after that got stuck at less than quater completed for 20 seconds (I really thought at this point that I messed up the thing ;) anyway I waited and then finally the messeage came up that the upgrade was successful and I should powercycle the enclosure.
- After reboot the Galaxy graphics were gone replaced simply by TVisto graphics... I went to the firmware update tab in the setting and the version now displayed the correct MACPower version which was 1.4.6.33 Feb 8... also there was a new Divx Tab available in the settings.
In the end I would like to say ... I am really happy with TVisto... now i put all the kids Dora dvds on it and don't have to go on a scavenger hunt everyday for scratched dvds :)
Customer Review: a little more info
Summary: 4 Stars
The other review is pretty right on the mark about the TVisto but I have a couple things to add.
1) The case does get warm when using it and there is no fan to cool it. This might be because of the hard drive I have in it but it definetly gets warm. I wouldn't call it hot cause I can still touch it but I'm sure its not good for it.
2) Galaxy claims that the enclosure is firmware upgradeable. Now I did some searching for this and came up with some iteresting finds. Galaxy isn't the only brand/company selling this enclosure, Macpower does as well. Now on Macpower's site they have a lot of information as well as a firmware update that has been worked on and improved a couple times. Galaxy's site has almost nothing. Galaxy's site state to contact your vender to find out about possible firmware updates. After contacting both companies, Macpower said it is only for Macpower branded TVistos not Galaxy's and Galaxy has yet to respond to me about the subject. So I havent tried Macpowers update on my Galaxy branded TVisto. Its a shame, some of the updates in Macpower's release would come in handy, hopefully Galaxy will get on the ball with this.
3) The other reviewer said he couldn't get the SPDIF pass-through to work, I have and it works perfect. What I've done to get this working is go to settings and made sure my sound setting was set for digital and then just hooked it up to the reciever with a mini-tosling to toslink digital optical cable like the one found here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009S5NQO/sr=8-1/qid=1140528529/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6400301-0128702?%5Fencoding=UTF8 DVD isos and Divx/Xvid files with 5.1/6.1 audio sounds as good as if it were being played from any other source.
4) Finally about the HD ablities. I haven't been able to try it yet because you do need the YPbPr Component video cable to take advantage of it, and of course it doesn't come with one. Finding one in the US is proving to be a little hard like the other reviewer stated, but I did find one in the US on ebay so I might pick one up.
Overall this enclosure is pretty good and I would tell anyone who wants to have a easy way to store and enjoy all your media in one easy to use gagdet to get it. I just wish more US retailers who sold this enclosure would carry the accessories and offer more support when it comes to the firmware.