Home theater computers are becoming more common place, however it's not always convenient to have a full computer connected to a television in every room. This could be caused by many factors, including layout and cost.
Hauppauge has a low cost solution which can be a replacement for a second computer, or even a way to show media on other televisions. The
Hauppauge MediaMVP is designed to allow you to watch and listen to music, videos, or pictures from a computer or on your TV.
The
Hauppauge MediaMVP connects to your wired local area network and has the ability to view many video formats such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and DivX, as well as several popular audio formats like MP3, WMA and Internet radio. Could this device replace the need for a computer to be connected to your TV? Let's take a look and see if this is a viable option.
Specifications (taken from the Hauppauge website):
Watch and listen to PC music, videos or pictures on your TV set!
» Watch PC based music, videos and pictures on your TV set. Play slide shows with music, too!
» Connects to Ethernet (wired) local area network.
» Play MP3 and WMA music and playlists.
» Play MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and DivX® videos.
» View JPEG and GIF digital pictures.
» New! Listen to Internet radio stations on your TV set.
MediaMVP Features:
» Access digital music, videos or pictures (or Internet radio stations**) from your TV set, over your home network.
» Uses 10Mbit or 100Mbit Ethernet, for the best network performance with any type of digital media. Plays DVD quality videos on your TV set over an Ethernet LAN!
» Composite and S-Video outputs for the best video quality on TV sets, plus stereo audio output to TV sets or home theater systems.
» Watch digital camera pictures (JPEG or GIF) on your TV set. Play slide shows with music, too!
» Plays MP3 music, either individual titles, all the music titles in a directory or M3U, B4S, PLS and ASX playlists.
» Plays MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and DivX recordings made with the Hauppauge WinTV with SoftPVR or WinTV-PVR's. Will also play most other MPEG-1/2 standard video files. Will also play most standard DivX movies. With MediaMVP’s remote control, you can pause, rewin, fast forward or jump through your recorded videos.
» Remote control for easy access to your PC media from your TV set. MediaMVPs remote control allows you to navigate through your PCs disk drives, and displays media names, directories and other information on the TV set. MediaMVPs remote also can control the audio volume and mute of videos and music being played.
MediaMVP Video Decoder Specifications:
» Dedicated hardware decode support for MPEG-2 Transport Stream, MPEG-2 MP@ML, and MPEG-1. Decodes full CCIR601 resolution NTSC and PAL encoded MPEG-2 bit streams in real time, up to and including 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL).
» Hardware audio decoder: MPEG-1 level 2 (MP3) or level 3 (PCM audio not supported at this time).
» Decodes MPEG datarates from 1.5 Mbits/sec to 8 Mbits/sec
»
Video output: composite, S-Video and RGB (Scart equipped models only)
» Upscales half screen resolution video to full screen. For example, MediaMVP will take 320x240 VCD video and play it full screen. It also offers a tunable Anti-Flicker Filter.
» Three level anti-flicker filter
» Outputs NTSC and PAL video, software selectable
MediaMVP Audio Decoder Specifications:
» Dedicated hardware decode support for MPEG-1 level 2 or level 3 audio (MP3 audio).
» Decodes MP3 audio with datarates up to 320 Kbits/sec, variable or fixed
» Decodes mono and stereo. Mono audio sent to both left and right channels.
TV Set Requirements:
» Composite or S-Video input on North America models. Scart input on European models.
» Left and right audio input jacks (or Scart on European models)
