DViCO's digital jukeboxes
Korean company DViCO (that's pronounced duh-vee-co) has released two high-definition media players that do double duty as PVRs.
Korean company DViCO (that's pronounced duh-vee-co) have released two high-definition media players that do double duty as PVRs.
The devices act as digital jukeboxes, linking your television and PC and providing a space to store hundreds of gigabytes of multimedia. This means you don't have to move from the couch in order to watch that TV series you downloaded, legally, from a source that doesn't rhyme with "Wit Warrant".
The AU$645 TViX 4130 allows you to watch and record HD digital television courtesy of an inbuilt tuner. It plays H.264 and high-def (1080p) video, and streams content from a networked PC. There's also a USB port for quick hook-up of a digital camera, thumb drive or camcorder. This model is for those who like to tinker -- you'll need to install your own SATA hard drive.
The AU$799 model is the cylindrical TViX 5130, which offers the same specs but resembles a giant battery -- sort of like the Energizer man with his head and limbs ripped off. It also ships with a 320GB hard drive just waiting to be loaded up with music, photos and ripped DVDs.
The good bits? Both players support the MKV container format, which allows you to rip DVDs to the hard drive and navigate through the special features as if you were viewing the disc. They'll also look better next to your TV than a Media Center PC would.
As for the bad stuff, there's just one tuner, so you can't record multiple TV shows at the same time. And as with other streaming media devices we've seen, the text-based browsing interface won't win any awards for cuteness.