Envizage 500GB Cyclone External Hard Drive Multi media Player
Product Description
Sumvision Cyclone 500GB Hard Drive Media Player
Built with 500GB 7200rpm SATA external hard drive
Just add your Sata hard drive (Up to 1000gb – Hitachi brand not supported) and connect to your PC, add music files, pictures or videos and then play them direct through your TV – NO computer required! This comes complete with remote control.
The drive has many uses including:
* Storage of music.
* Storage of DVDs.
* Storage of MP3s.
All of these can then be played back through your PC or TV.
Besides this, the unit can also be used to store and backup your PC’s data.
Specification:
* Supports audio files in MP3 & WMA formats.
* Video media supports AVI, VOB, DVD, MPEG 4, XVID, DIVX3.X, DIVX4.X, DIVX5.X
* Support for subtitling.
* NTSC / PAL60 / PAL.
* Works with Windows 98 2nd edition / ME / 2000 / XP / Vista, MAC.
* Clear and easy to use TV menu system.
* On screen library system providing full access to all files.
* Language support for: English, Japanese, Korean, French, German, Spanish & Russian.
What will I get?
*500GB 7200rpm external hard drive media centre with shock & data protection.
* USB2 A-B Lead (also works with USB1).
* Power supply with plug.
* Driver CD (not required for XP).
* Remote Control
* Batteries.
* AV output cables (Yellow / red / white phonos).
* Lifetime technical support via email or our local rate 0845 299 0393 number from a titanium registred powerseller company.
Compatability:
This drive works fine on laptops and desktops with the following operating systems:
* Windows 98SE / 2000 / Me / XP Home / XP Pro / Media Centre / Vista.
* MAC OS & OSX.
- Supports video formats MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG 4(AVI,divx,XVID)
- Video Support: VOB(DVD fille), MPEG ,MPEG4( AVI..)
- Avi format supports: XVID, DIVX 3.11,4,5
- Audio support:MP3,WMA. PHOTO support: Jpeg
- Built in 500gb SATA Hard Drive
Envizage 500GB Cyclone External Hard Drive Multi media Player
Bought this device as a replacement to my (rather modified) XBOX which I had running as a media centre when it’s network card died. As soon as I turned it on I knew I was in for disappointment after coming from something skinned as Windows Media Centre.
The interface is very plain, but I could live with that if it was functional. Nope, it wasn’t that either. You can do nothing in terms of manipulating your files within the OS, it all has to be done via the USB cable attached to your PC. Ok, again fair enough I thought, keeps it simple, so perhaps this minimalism would bring stability? Again no, and this part really frustrated me. Scroll too fast through your files, either one at a time or a page at a time and the whole thing would freeze and require a restart. I thought that perhaps a firmware update would resolve this so I went to Sumvisions website and downloaded the latest version. Again I was frustrated as the instructions stated to place the update file on the root of the machines disk and apply it from there but whenever I tried it couldn’t see it. In the end the only way I could get this to work was to remove all other files and folders from the devices disk, leaving only the update .bin file, then it worked but meant I had to copy everything back onto it again from scratch. Did it fix the freezing issue, or enhance the OS in any way? No.
The device is slow to start, stop or skip files, has the above mentioned freezing problem, has a very plain interface, is limited in functionality and severely lacking in support as there have been no further firmware updates to it since I bought it and that was ages ago. Not only this but with the XBOX I could play pretty much any file I threw at it. This struggles occasionally with what I would consider to be pretty standard stuff…certain files that have nothing unusual about them simply refuse to play on this thing and I have no idea why. Additionally the filenames have to be quite short and uncomplicated otherwise it can’t see the file at all.
The sound quality is dull, and due to the device only having RCA outputs, the picture quality is not brilliant either.
Would I recommend this device to anyone looking for a media player? Not really. Even though it is cheap and quite compact you get what you pay for and this thing is only for those who really are on a budget and /or want something really simple (and aren’t bothered about reliability). I bought mine in a hurry and will now be giving it away in favour of something better.
Rating: 1 / 5
I was actually looking for a unit to do nothing more that store all my music CD’s in lossless format. I wanted to connect it directly to my HiFi unit and replace my CD player. Having read some really bad reviews about the units noisy HDD I bought the Cyclone enclosure minus the standard HDD. I then bought and installed a 596GB Western Digital Caviar (Black) HDD. This HDD is almost silent and probably one of the best HDD’s on the market. I tried for two weeks to get this thing to work and eventually e-mailed Envizage customer services who told me to format the HDD to NTFS and not FAT32 as stated in the instructions, this solved the problem with the menu’s not appearing on screen but to date I still can’t get a sound from this unit. Apparently it is possible to use the unit through a HiFi but you have to connect the yellow phono lead to a TV and use the TV to navigate the menu’s, the red and white lead connects to your HiFi amp. The instruction booklet for this unit is appalling, its badly translated from chinese and just plain wrong in certain areas. It clearly states that the LED light should show blue, orange or red dependant on the units status but Envizage tell me this is not a function of this unit; I’m not sure if they’re trying to fob me off but I still can’t get the unit to work and am now demanding that they take it back for exchange. For the money this could be great if I ever get it to work!
Update… I eventually got this unit to work by doing as Envizage suggested; i removed the WMA files and swapped them for MP3 files; it plays the mp3 files ok but with the loss in sound quality I’d expect from mp3. I only did this to prove a point and have now asked for an exchange or my money back. I bought this unit for playing lossless music files and as it turns out, it doesn’t do exactly what it says on the tin!
Rating: 2 / 5
Does what it says on the box, didn,t have any proplems downloading files from my pc(Xvid,DivX) plays well on my tv no freezing at all.Battries for remote didn,t work thats the only fault i can find so far.Looks good as well.
Rating: 4 / 5