Here is my brief look at two new toys; the Hauppauge MediaMVP and the Canon Digital Rebel. The sponsor of this review is my good friend Erick, the local man-of-many-toys. He has more Xbox games than most Wal-Marts.
First, the MediaMVP. Hauppauge is well known for their wide line of tv tuner & video capture cards and lately, their PVR solutions. I’ve never owned any of their stuff personally, but I’ve heard good things. The MediaMVP is a small box, about the size of a DSL router. For input/output it has video out (composite and S-Video), audio out (stereo), and RJ-45 in. After installing a small server component on your desktop PC and hooking the unit up, you are able to browse the data on your PC from the MediaMVP, and select media files to play. It supports a decent list of file types for pictures (GIF, JPG), video (MPEG-1 and 2) and audio (MP3). I’m told the software is being updated frequently…it would be nice to view PNGs and listen to OGGs (or even better some of the newer multi-channel formats) and watch MPEG-4 DIVXs. P.S. It runs Linux. Maybe we’ll see some third-party hacking. *grin*
Anyways, the interface is a little on the simplistic side but functional. There are a couple of quirks that I’d like to see ironed out. For example, if you browse 8 levels deep to find a particular folder of pictures to add to your playlist; once you click the Add button it pops you back to the root. Very annoying. The remote control is ok, nothing special. Some buttons are unused or generic because its the same remote that Hauppauge ships with some of their other TV products, so there’s confusion sometimes when trying to find the right button for something. For example, it took me a while to find the page down button, turns out it’s the “next track” button, which is way at the bottom and not convenient to the “down” button.
Aside from those negatives, the thing is just plain COOL. Of course the picture quality when showing stills is godawful compared to any digicam on the market, but there is actually some value in doing a slideshow on the TV. Say you have friends or family over and you wanted to show them some family pictures–doing so in the living room beats trying to fit everyone into your office around the smaller monitor. The MP3 feature is a great way to move your music to the home stereo, and since everything is stored in one place (your computer), there is no manipulation of multiple sets of data or playlists. Video playback was flawless and better looking than I expected. I can’t quote stats to you, but watching a “medium quality” MPG looked just fine on my buddy’s TV.
Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to play much with the Canon Digital Rebel. But I saw enough to say this–and it means A LOT:
It’s a TTL (through-the-lens) SLR (single-lens-reflex) 6MP camera. Note I didn’t use the word digital. That would imply somehow that this camera, while cool, is simply a lower-class cousin of the conventional SLRs that the pros use. Not so. It looks, feels, and functions like an SLR. It has a hotshoe for the external flash, it accepts EOS lenses, the same format that all of the other Canon’s use, you focus and zoom on the lens barrel, and what-you-see-is-what-you-get when you look through the lens. On a lot of digicams (and film cameras), the eyepiece you sight through is worthless. On an SLR, the eyepiece is showing you exactly what the film will receive. You know what is being focused, and you know how the apeture will affect your focal length.
Needless to say, I’m jealous.
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