Re: [ukha_d] Maplin USB cage with tv out - £40

["Chris Miles" <chrismiles@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

After getting my drive partitioned, and converted one partition to
FAT32 i =
have got the device
up and running and I have some more gripes (lol).

Firstly... The main menu has a "video" "music"
"pictures" and "file" - When=
browing by video it
just shows a page full of thumbnails with no titles or anything - not
exact=
ly good for knowing
what exactly you want to watch (erm... good thinking??). When browsing
musi=
c as soon as
you select the file it starts to play straight away so you cant even
browse=
through the rest
of the tracks while listening to one.

Secondly... Sync problems... This may have performed well in the lab but I
=
just stuck a few
AVIs on there (new stargate episode) and it is playing about a second out
a=
t the moment.

Lastly... DVD video.. As some of you probably know DVD is authored at a
muc=
h lower level
and is then amplified by the equipment - well the device does not amplify
t=
he audio at all even
though it says it support VOB - surely this is something that could have
be=
en done very easily.

:( Overall I am not best impressed and hope my review can be usefull to
any=
one else who=20
might have been thinking about getting the unit - best sticking with a
chea=
p PC with a video
out I think!

My only saving grace is I read that the firmware is updatable.... seems
lik=
e a good option to=20
develop my own better user interface for it.

Chris

----- Original Message -----=20
From: Chris Miles=20
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx=20
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 9:17 PM
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Maplin USB cage with tv out - =A340


haha... in all seriousness though.... the sunday thing is still confusing=
me :/

Ok first gripes about the device.

It is forcing me to use FAT32 so its secondary use as a "storage
device" =
already has a pretty
serious drawback as I have been backing all my DVDs up as ISO files for u=
se in my forthcoming
home theatre system. So I am going to need to partition the drive down th=
e middle: half to be
used for the media centre device's use, and half for storage of files lar=
ger than 4GB (even if its
just the temporary use while I unpack my ISOs into folder structured DVDs=
.

Second gripe is that the media centre and hard drive mode are not operabl=
e at the same time,
and to activate hard drive mode I actually need to walk to my server cupb=
oard and manually plug
in the USB cable, and vice versa when wanting to goto media centre mode. =
It would be so much
easier to sit on my couch, switch to hd mode, copy some new videos onto t=
he drive and then
start watching them. Possible I can figure a way on the server to disable=
the USB port on the
machine manually possibly causing the device to fire into media centre mo=
de. I will investigate
this in the next few days as well.

Chris

----- Original Message -----=20
From: Keith Doxey=20
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx=20
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 8:24 PM
Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Maplin USB cage with tv out - =A340


> I was wakened from my sunday hangover slumber by royal mail=20
> delivering mine.....=20
> since when did royal mail do sundays??=20

They dont. You drank more than you thought and this is actually MONDAY =
:)


=20=20=20=20=20

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