It’s really barely a draft

Mvix Ultio: My new “Special Retirement payout (SP)” funded media center (English)

July 14th, 2009 Posted in gadgets, wishlist

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Every since my friend Daniel and just get the WD TV I have been contemplating whether I should get that one as well or wait for the Mvix Ultio, which seems to be exactly the same as the WD TV, except it also supports wifi, works as a Bittorrent client and  (more importantly) has internal storage on the unit. It seems like the dream device and only costs 169 USD(~900 DKK)  excl. the hard drive. I have an old SATA drive lying around the house I can stuff in the unit, so it will work out great! While the unit is wifi compatible, it does require an additional wifi dongle unit that MVix also makes (other dongles would probably also work though), which I also got so I can stream video from all over the apartment (either locally stored on the computers around the house or from the internet) to the TV. All of it is currently on it’s way from thinkgeek.com’s offices.

Why from thinkgeek you ask? Well, I did have an initial problem ordering the unit from mvixusa.com’s own website unfortunately! I wanted to pay wiht my American Express Card because it carries an additional product insurance against theft and accidents for 90 days after the purchase, but the site kept saying the card was refused. I called up American Express who informed me that it had been processed correctly….3 TIMES – so I had to call up the store where I bought to ensure they only billed me, and sent, one unit my way.  I really admire the MVix customer service, who responded very quickly, within a few hours and informed me honestly about their situation. Their answer can be seen below in its entirety (bold added for emphasis on honesty).

While launch of a new product brings excitement, we also learnt how inept we were in dealing with the volume of visitors and customers.

We are overwhelmed with the interest in our new product: Mvix Ultio, – but we certainly regret the inconvenience to a valued customers whose orders were declined due to our site’s incapability in handling the large order volume.

I am writing to express our regret. We would very much like to have your business and serve you.

At this time, may I invite you to reprocess your order on our site. While our credit card processing system is overloaded, we are continuously processing orders via Paypal.

If you wish, we can also process your order manually over Google Checkout. Our Sales staff will send you a Google Checkout Invoice and you can pay via your credit card through Google.

For INTERNATIONAL customers, we strongly recommend using GOOGLE or PAYPAL. In the next few minutes, I will send you a Google Checkout Invoice for payment via Google

Again, we sincerely regret the inconvenience. Kindly feel free to contact us if we can be of any assistance

In one of the other emails they wrote me, they said I could also buy it from thinkgeek.com who had the unit in stock which I did and it is currently in the mail heading my way. I think I am looking as much forward to it as my girlfriend is not looking forward to it (she knows this means that I will spend even more time nursing my gadget/computer hobby addiction. She did say to me when I mentioned I had bought it that “you paid for the thing from our joint checking account right? because will be both benefit from it”. Naturally I didn’t, as my addiction shouldn’t be funded by her, but by me alone (this has NOTHING (…) to do with me not wanting to fund her addiction…clothes from asos.com )

Be sure to follow the blog for a review when I get the device hooked up! One of the things I’m really looking forward to is to setup either boxee, TVersity or PlayOn on one of our computers and stream hulu, cbs, abc, hbo, cnn, shows internet radio etc. through my ivacy VPN connection (the ivacy connection gives me a US IP address so I can access the above sites) on through the MVix Ultio to the TV = getting all TV shows for free when on demand. It will be a nerdgasm for sure, if it works!

You might also be interested in reading:

1. MVix Ultio part 2 – It’s great, but not quite as advertised… (English)
2. Xtreamer Media Player – a good replacement for MVix Ultio with a future (English)
3. Mvix Ultio – part 3: I think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence
4. This just in: HideItMounts.com has world’s best customer service; allround good people