Pixel Magic HD MediaBox MB100 review

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Verdict:

NETWORK Ethernet OUTPUTS Composite video, S-Video, HDMI, VGA, Composite Audio, Coax Digital Audio, Optical Digital Audio FORMATS MPEG 1/2/4, WMV, WMV HD, DivX, XviD, MP3, AAC, WAV, WMA, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG SIZE 105 x 228 x 200mm

Review Date: 18 Aug 2006

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Reviewed By: US

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

The Pixel Magic HD MediaBox plugs into an HD ready TV and allows you to watch video content that's stored on any networked device in your home.

Unfortunately, it doesn't come with any built-in wireless networking capabilities, nor does it have a built-in hard drive. In order to give the box access to your video files, you must connect it to your PC using a network cable or install a hard disk yourself, to which you then copy your video files. We felt that a home entertainment device of this type ought to have been wireless.

The MediaBox features virtually every type of audio and video interface you'd need, so it can be connected to an analogue TV, hi-fi and a computer monitor. It also comes with an HDMI port for outputting to an HD ready TV.

Once connected to your TV, the MediaBox can be operated easily with the remote control supplied. It's easy to set up, too. You don't have to install any server software on your PC - you simply share the folder containing your movie files with the other devices on your network. The TV interface is easy to understand and to operate using the remote control. HD playback quality is excellent, but only if you play HD content from a hard disk you install yourself. The Media Box's network connection isn't currently fast enough to support HD streaming, which is something of a limitation, but PixelMagic expects to overcome this problem shortly. The other problem is that there's a dearth of HD content at the moment, beyond the odd movie trailer. The Media Box can upscale DVD movies to HD resolution, but this won't actually increase their image quality and ripping DVDs to the device's hard disk in the first place is against the law.

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