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[steje]

Hi there all,

I was wondering if anyone is familiar with the Happauge MediaMVP network based media playback device. It's a unit that connects to your home theater and television for playback of media stored on your computer which you can browse from your television using the included remote control. It attaches to a "server" application that you install and run on your PC, and there are several projects out there on various forums to extend the functionality of the unit by modifying things as simple as html pages on the PC to alter the menu you look at on your TV, all the way to modifying the firmware of the unit and/or replacing the application that streams the media from your PC.

I'm not sure of the mechanics or feasibility of integrating the unit with Media Center, but I've trialed MC a few times over the years, and it keeps getting better and better and I think I'm about ready to buy it. I'd like to see if anyone is interested in starting an MC/MVP integration project... maybe we can get some folks at JRiver to let us know if they think it's plausible . There some nice projects out there that I've just begun tinkering with, but since I plan on buying MC now, I'd rather concentrate on trying to use this device with MC instead of the various applications the current projects out there on the internet are focused at...

[steje]

Schnikes... I just realized that Rusell posted a similar generic question not too long ago. The Administrator responded that there is basically no native support for devices like the MediaMVP, though he mentioned a Sony device as being supported... the Sony Roomlink. Don't know much about it, but I posted a mtnion of my question regarding the Happauge device in that thread also... I've done a good bit of research on network media devices and the MediaMVP is the most bang for the buck and seems to provide pretty good quality playback... woof.

[Rob L]

Hm... I've not tried the MVP, but I have to say that in all the reviews I've seen, the Media MVP always came bottom of the heap by a long way...

[steje]

Well, couple of comments... the reviews I've seen seemed to think well of the MediaMVP overall playback quality, but did focus more on the overall bang for buck value since it's a sub $100 device that plays back music, video, AND pictures as well as promising additional support for other media with software/firmware upgrades (the unit I just got shows internet radio support).

HOWEVER, I seem to have jumped the gun a bit with this post. I just got my MVP unit in the mail the other day and hooked it up a few hours ago and so far, I am sadly unimpressed with the playback quality of my mp3's. I rip at 320 kbps with Exact Audio Copy and Lame. When I playback through my headphones I get really decent sound even without messing around with EQ settings. I've also tried my buddies M-Audio Audiophile USB sound card from my laptop to my stereo and gotten noticeably better playback of the same mp3's. There are some posts on other forums about hacking the MVP hardware to solder an optical TOSLink connector onto the unit, and the authors and followers of the threads have reported what they consider to be vastly improved audio quality, but the M-Audio device also uses standard RCA audio output just like the MVP and proved far superiorto the MVP as far as audio playback quality was concerned.

So, I'm kind of bummed at this point and don't think I'll be putting any development effort into the MVP... so screw this thread . I saw your reply to my other post in Rusells topic about your using the Phillips Streamium, so I'll carry on with you there.