Comments on: MVix Ultio part 2 – It’s great, but not quite as advertised… (English)

By: jjdoctor

jjdoctor — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 07:01:46 +0000

Well u all can see the unboxing video I made..

I am quite satisfied witht he device… the functions it has is more important that its looks and interface and GUI stuff….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGUY0M80Ass

i wud rate this product 9/10

By: Dave U

Dave U — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:11:40 +0000

Thanks for your review / post purchase experience. I have had very similar experiences:
1. The USB wireless ‘dongle’ / ‘nubbin’ thing is not supported by the Ultio. They have to develop or obtain a driver. They seem to have prioritised driver development for MACOSX but it can’t be a huge leap to the linux driver they need.
2. I can’t add a torrent through the HTTP interface and the issue has been referred to the devteam. I wonder if its just me.

The key, it seems to me, is learning how to diagnose / manage the device via telnet which requires some experience. Hopefully a wiki will appear with notes on that. I’m disappointed to find the Mvix community seems fragmented.

Thanks again for your review and the other helpful comments people have posted.

Dave in Sydney

By: Jeff

Jeff — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:02:13 +0000

I have the Ultio and the previous model (mx-780HD) and it’s clear that mvix listened to their customers in providing the Ultio. It has everything I need and then some. They removed the built in wi-fi but it makes more sense for them to leave the wi-fi to companies that know it best and concentrate on codecs/networking/etc.

The author has clearly been “lemming-ized” by Apple. One of the main reasons I’ve stuck with Mvix products is because they are NOT Apple. Open source AND upgrade-able are a technophiles dream and the Ultio does just that. People buy this for its functionality first and interface second. If you want the opposite then buy a piece of fruit. This is NOT aimed at the mass market. Being able to upgrade the software proves this.

Bottom Line: This unit is meant for the technophile/hacker/enthusiast … don’t expect to find it at the bargin bin at walmart catering to the uneducated masses

By: Sunil

Sunil — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 14:37:18 +0000

Thank you for this detailed review. I was thinking of switching from my HTPC to a simpler box, and this box has been standout on features, but rather conspicuous in the lack of reviews from users.

By: leek

leek — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:50:04 +0000

The article is wrong about one thing: The Ultio DOES have active cooling — namely a side fan. It can be noticeable if nothing else is going on. You can unplug the fan to prevent it from running, but then you probably need to use only external hard drives. Some people have been able to craft eSata ports from the internal cable (which is interesting in itself — something like 20 gauge electrical wires for eSata .

The Codec support, while broad, still has gotchas. About 1/3 of my .FLV files do not play (“invalid file” or something). FLV support is the main differentiator among HTPCs and media devices these days. “To Flash or not to Flash? That is the question.”

I like the Mvix’s ability for you to log in and easily hack with its Linux OS (BTW they removed telnet access in their 1.2 firmware updatae, but this can be reenabled by hacking the samba startup scripts).

Ultimately, I think I might have to dive in and build my own HTPC. The GMC AVC S7 case plus a Gigabyte GA-E7AUM-DS2H motherboard seems the way to go — an Atom 330 w/ION chipset is compelling on paper, but doesn’t seem to hold up in the most demanding of conditions.

By: satnav4

satnav4 — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 11:52:39 +0000

It gets better: Mivx wants me to pay return shipping for a unit that never worked, and they want to repair it–not replace it. If you want this product, buy from a reputable reseller. Stay clear of Mivx. I have never paid return shipping on a product that arrived defective.

By: satnav4

satnav4 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:07:58 +0000

Well mine arrived dead. It starts on the menu, but the remote operates nothing, and the “up-down” buttons and the power button on the box do nothing. I have sent in a support request.

By: Really??

Really?? — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 10:26:31 +0000

If you cannot get the wireless-g adapter work… then its probably something to do with your unit and/or your network.
I have a wireless-g adapter which has the RTL8187b and it works flawlessly. I bought it from ebay. Its a no-brand – but clearly identifies itself with the realtek chipset.
Good luck

By: pmcd

pmcd — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 10:01:09 +0000

There is a fan in the Ultio. At least mine has one. While it’s not that loud, it was loud enough for me to disable it and I used an external fanless USB drive. The Ultio really nice. Thank you for the nice review.

pmcd

By: barelyadraft

barelyadraft — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:10:50 +0000

Zato, you can safely assume that techgirl is a spammer. Researching various blogs and my own website logs, I believe someone has paid some people to write messages such as techgirl & music_gaga’s on blogs around the net to give a positive impression that everything works and is great. One person has even plagiarized some of the text from my post on another blog.

To answer your question,the MVix nubbin does NOT work on the Ultio currently I have been told by MVixUSA’s support. They cannot guarantee it will work and are in the process of launching an new dongle that works with the Ultio.

MVisUSA support has said that only 802.11G dongles based on the Realtek RTL8187b works currently. I tried this with the Netgear WG111v3, but it didn’t work on mine (firmware v1.1).