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HP Media Vault mv2010

David Murphy — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:00:10 -0500

HP’s Media Vault is like a clumsy, fat version of HP’s star-quarterbacking, marathon-running, leather-jacket-wearing MediaSmart Home Server. And that’s saying something, considering the MediaSmart EX475 is something of a middling performer. We can’t fault HP for trying to make a cheaper, simpler alternative to the Windows Home Server-based MediaSmart, but we’re certainly ready to take the company to task for releasing a product that doesn’t work as advertised.

The Media Vault should be called the Molasses Vault, as network transfers are akin to a sticky liquid traveling down an incline on a cold winter day. We’ve tested worse-performing NAS devices, but the Media Vault’s transfer speeds are nowhere near those of the top-performing QNAP TS-109 Pro. This makes the Media Vault a poor choice for backup scenarios, which could very well take more than 12 hours for a full 300GB drive.

The Media Vault comes in 300GB, 500GB, and 1TB models. HP sent us the smallest Media Vault for our review, and it simply isn’t large enough for a network-based device. You can increase its capacity by adding an additional drive to the device’s hot-swap drive bay. That’s if you don’t mind adding to your total purchase price, of course.

It’s possible for a product to balance sluggish speeds with jaw-dropping features, and the Media Vault comes close. Its built-in NTI backup software should become a staple of every external storage device created from this point forward—it’s just that straightforward an app, and it simplifies the process of backing up specific files and entire hard drives.

Setting up the Media Vault is as easy as transferring various bits and pieces of media to the device—a simple drag-and-drop in Windows Explorer. You don’t have to go network hunting to find the Media Vault since the included software maps the Media Vault’s various volumes as network drives. This is a far cry from other NAS devices we’ve tested, which practically require one to acquire a map, a parrot, and a sailing vessel to find shared folders.

As for its streaming capabilities, the Media Vault is incompatible with Windows Media Player 11 and the Xbox 360. And we’re not sure who to point our finger at—the Media Vault’s streaming technology is based on UPnP A/V. An Xbox 360 should be able to see the Media Vault on the network as if it were a normal Vista machine and play media files accordingly. It doesn’t. Neither does Windows Media Player 11, which, according to HP is a Media Player issue. HP offers a fix, but it is just a way to set up monitored folders, not a means of accessing the device as if it were a networked computer’s library.

The TS-109 Pro and other NAS devices we’ve tested are fully compatible with WMP 11 and the Xbox 360, so we’re not asking for the impossible when it comes to streaming compatibility. However, it’s not as if the Media Vault is completely incapable of streaming media—you can still browse and watch your media via Windows Explorer, which is a small consolation, we suppose. (See this month’s In the Lab for more on this issue.)

We remain at a loss as to what to do with a media server that doesn’t stream. We’d be consoled if the Media Vault were awesome for file backups, but its amazing software simply can’t compensate for the device’s subpar speeds. One can only hope that subsequent iterations in the Media Vault line address the issues of this good-on-paper, subpar-in-practice device.

Netgear Digital Entertainer HD EVA8000

Michael Brown — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:44:32 -0500

We like Netgear’s EVA8000—a lot. Its industrial design fits in with the rest of our AV gear, its user interface is as elegant and polished as it is easy to use, it supports resolutions up to 1080p with an HDMI port, and that’s just the beginning. But if you buy one, make sure it has the latest firmware update before you do anything else. We couldn’t configure our review unit at all until we updated the software. With that housekeeping accomplished, we were on our way to streaming bliss. Although the EVA8000 has dual antennas, it’s still limited to 802.11g speeds and cannot reliably stream high-definition video content without a wire, but it delivered excellent image and audio quality.

Like MediaGate’s product, the EVA8000 can act as a USB host, but its port is conveniently located right up front. And unlike the MG-350HD, Netgear’s box can stream digital photos and digital music at the same time (it loaded images much faster, too). In addition to support for all the usual audio, photo, and video formats, the box can also stream and decode FLAC and even audio encrypted with Windows Media DRM (rendering it compatible with subscription music services such as Yahoo, Urge, and Napster). It won’t work with Rhapsody, however, because that service uses a DRM scheme all its own. It doesn’t support WMA Lossless either.

The EVA8000’s excellent user interface makes streaming content from the Internet stupid-simple, with direct links to (and great search tools for) movies and TV shows on BitTorrent’s retail site, digital photo collections on Flickr, and every video on YouTube. (But if you find low-res videos hard to watch on a computer monitor, wait until you see them scaled up to 1080p on a big-screen TV—not good.)

Zvox 325

Michael Brown — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 17:13:47 -0600

Zvox president Tom Hannaher first amazed us with big sound in a small package way back when this magazine was known as boot. Tom was with Cambridge Soundworks at the time, and we published the very first review of the Microworks 2.1-channel speaker system.

The Zvox 325 is just as remarkable—we’re amazed at the room-filling sound it delivers. The self-powered system is perfect for environments where it’s inconvenient or impossible to deploy a conventional surround-sound array. The sturdy, magnetically shielded cabinet will easily support an LCD monitor for near-field listening, too.

There are three 3.25-inch main speakers, a 4x6-inch long-throw subwoofer, and a three-channel amplifier inside the 17-inch-wide box, but the Zvox 325 projects an amazingly wide sound stage thanks to technology dubbed PhaseCue. The bi-amplified system takes a standard stereo input (left + right), mixes it, and feeds it to the center, monaural speaker. This same signal is routed through a second amp channel (and a crossover) for the subwoofer.

The third amp channel is used for the left and right speakers, and this is where it gets strange: Zvox wires these speakers out of phase. This would normally result in a very hollow, localized sound; but it has the exact opposite effect in the Zvox 325, thanks to the center speaker and a plastic tube connecting the left and right speakers. Out-of-phase right-channel audio from the left speaker is mixed with “normal” left-channel audio, and the same phenomenon occurs in the right channel. Close your eyes and you’d swear you were hearing a pair of speakers standing six feet apart.

The Zvox 325 doesn’t have a decoder for DTS or Dolby Digital, nor does it have six discrete analog inputs for decoded 5.1-channel surround sound, so it’s not very effective at fooling your ears into perceiving audio events as originating behind your head. Yamaha’s YSP-800 is far better on that score, but it costs more than twice as much and needs to be supplemented by a subwoofer. The Zvox 325 delivers great performance with movies, and it sounds even better with music.

Month Reviewed: December 2006
Verdict: 9
kickass=yes
URL: www.zvoxaudio.com