DViCo TViX M3600 Slim S1 Mediaplayer w/o harddisk

I bought this to replace my MVIX 5000U media player, not because there was anything wrong with it but I wanted one with a better GUI and an HDMI output. The S1 is a smart looking player, piano black with silver top. The most used control buttons are on the top in case you lose the remote down the back of the settee! The HDD can be replaced in seconds thanks to a quick release lever on the side of the unit and the HDD carrier comes out; drop a drive in, slide the carrier back and close the lever - simple as that! I bought a Samsung 2TB HDD also from Amazon to use with this. The TVIX came form Germany and arrived within 48 hours, the drive came from Milton Keynes and took another week! See my separate review on the drive.

While we are on the subject of the hard drive here is an important tip when installing a new unformatted drive and connecting to your laptop or PC: Under later versions of windows (I have Win 7) the PC does NOT recognise the drive when you plug it into the PC's USB port. Bizzarly you have to connect it up to your TV and go through the motions of setting it up. The TVIX also doesn't see the drive UNTIL you select the MOVIES function - now it sees the drive and asks if you want to format it - say yes and you are in business. This is NOT explained in the manual and many others have gone through this hassle according to the MPC Club web site (very useful forum for media players). I also recommend logging into the TVIX site and downloading the latest F/W. Copy this to the hard drive and chose upgrade from the set up menu.

So once you have the drive formatted, plug it into your PC and download your media. If I remember rightly the TVIX creates the required folders as part of the formatting process, if not make sure you use the right folder names.

The S1 can have external drives plugged in via e-Sata or USB. It has a LAN connection and a wireless LAN capability if you plug in a wireless dongle. I don't use this but it can give you access to a pile of media from the internet. Boot time is a finger tapping minute or more but the wait is worth it. Lovely HD menu where you can select your media type by scrolling left/right or just pressing the appropriate button on the remote. There are 4 different ways of viewing the content including cover art (one of my reasons for purchase) which is really cool. I could go on and on.........

Two "cons" for me is the very dull LCD display (though you shouldn't need to use this much) and the fact that many of my photos (which now look absolutely stunning via the HDMI to HD ready TV) are dispayed lying on their side - these are pics taken in Portrait mode and turned through 90 degrees by me using S/W like paint. I have found a "fix" for this which is too long to go into here but if anyone wants to know leave me a comment and I'll reply.

I very much like this kit and highly recommend if you are in the market for a media player.

Edit 2nd July 2011:

I have since bought a wireless dongle (Be careful if you do as not all are compatible with this player!). I set it up to work with my home network which was fairly straight forward. Used it at first to see what was available from the internet but have to say that was somewhat dissapointing. However, I found a new use for it this week when I loaded some media player software on my new laptop and set up the library to stream from the TVIX. It took a while to update the library (I have nearly 10,000 tracks!) but now it works like a dream. The software I'm using is Media Player 14 which is a free download and much better than Windows Media Player as it can rip and play FLAC audio files.

I've made a long review of the media-player market out there, considering more expensive players (like hdi dune prime/base or PCH C-200) or less expensive (mede8er med500x or ntr iamm novatron line). This one represents the best value/money ratio. for 200e you get player capable of playing nearly all formats accessible to human beings, easy to use, very well looking - brushed aluminium top with glassy front with LCD 2-line display - and SILENT ! plus support for up to 2TB internal drive and 2 USB ports, 1 eSata, possibility to add the TV tuner.... the list just goes on and on and on... and it can stream assuming you'll get the wi fi antenna dongle, or just simply hook it up with RJ45 internet cable...
hooking up took like a minute - just plug in HDMi cable and voila!
last weekend i took it to my friend and forgot the remote - no problem either way as i used buttons on top of unit, very user friendly.
if your eon market for a media player in the range of 200e - this is unbeatable.
check mpc club website for more detailed reviews and comparison.

One of the best media players I have owned. Good menu, great funcionality and plays everything. Its worth spending a few pound extra to buy one of these