MediaGate MG-450HD: Media streamer with expandable storage

The MediaGate MG-450HD lets you add your own hard drive.

(Credit: MediaGate)

The problem: You've got a ton of digital music, photos, and video on your computer's hard drive, but you want to enjoy all that media on the big TV and stereo system in your living room--not hunched over the laptop screen. If you've got a network connection and one of the latest game consoles (an Xbox 360, a PlayStation 3, or--when paired with the free Orb software--even a Nintendo Wii), you may not need any new hardware--each of them can stream a wide variety of audio, video, and photo formats from your PC to your TV over your home network. However, if you're not a gamer, or you need a more robust solution--more file support, for instance--there are alternatives, such as the MediaGate MG-450HD.

The MG-450HD is a triple threat: it can stream digital media from the hard drive of a networked computer; from an attached USB device (camera or flash drive); or from its optional internal hard drive (just drop in your own SATA hard disk if you want multigigabytes of on-board storage). The unit boasts the same full range of AV outputs you would see on a top-tier DVD player--HDMI, component, S-Video, composite, analog stereo, plus digital optical and coaxial. Network access is via wired Ethernet or 802.11g wireless--that's a bit of a disappointment, compared with the faster 802.11n found on the Apple TV. No word yet on the exact file support, but you can assume it's at least as good as its predecessor, the MG-350HD.

The MG-450HD should be available soon in North America for $250, but it's already been reviewed at PC World Australia. If the capability to add your own internal hard drive is appealing, also check out the very similar Mvix MX760HD.

[andydroid]

MviX 760HD Is OLD NEWS!

This is very old news. The Mvix 760HD was originally released well over a year ago (as was the Mediagate equal). This year (2008)the MviX 780HD was announced at CES with a much updated feature list ... all identical to the newest Mediagate offering. The Mvix 780HD became available in the USA in early Feburary. Although these devices are very capable (I know because I own a Mvix 760HD myself), the Mediagate and Mvix offerings are actually one an the same (both made by Unicorn). The only real difference is their interface.

[brianbuys]

Good article but but needs updating since there's been many firmware releases that have fixed these problems. Since this came out the MG-450HD (SATA hard drive support) and the MG-800HD (SATA with wireless N) have also been released. Just out recently is the newest type of Mediagate, the MG-M2TV which does not have a hard drive inside much like the similiar Western Digital WD TV Media Player. From what I hear it?s very mature and been in development for a long time. Will play many more files compared to others like the WD TV and even has RealVideo 10 RMVB support for those who like to play asian videos. Looks to be in stock and on sale now at xpcgear.com : http://www.xpcgear.com/mediagate-mg-m2tv-korean-rmvb-player-hdmi.html for just $109.99