TVisto Series 3.5'' Multimedia External Hard Drive Enclosure
by Metal Gear
|
Our Price: $99.00 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of TVisto Series 3.5'' Multimedia External Hard Drive Enclosure
Customer Review: a little more info
Summary: 4 Stars
The other review is pretty right on the mark about the TVisto but I have a couple things to add.
1) The case does get warm when using it and there is no fan to cool it. This might be because of the hard drive I have in it but it definetly gets warm. I wouldn't call it hot cause I can still touch it but I'm sure its not good for it.
2) Galaxy claims that the enclosure is firmware upgradeable. Now I did some searching for this and came up with some iteresting finds. Galaxy isn't the only brand/company selling this enclosure, Macpower does as well. Now on Macpower's site they have a lot of information as well as a firmware update that has been worked on and improved a couple times. Galaxy's site has almost nothing. Galaxy's site state to contact your vender to find out about possible firmware updates. After contacting both companies, Macpower said it is only for Macpower branded TVistos not Galaxy's and Galaxy has yet to respond to me about the subject. So I havent tried Macpowers update on my Galaxy branded TVisto. Its a shame, some of the updates in Macpower's release would come in handy, hopefully Galaxy will get on the ball with this.
3) The other reviewer said he couldn't get the SPDIF pass-through to work, I have and it works perfect. What I've done to get this working is go to settings and made sure my sound setting was set for digital and then just hooked it up to the reciever with a mini-tosling to toslink digital optical cable like the one found here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009S5NQO/sr=8-1/qid=1140528529/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6400301-0128702?%5Fencoding=UTF8 DVD isos and Divx/Xvid files with 5.1/6.1 audio sounds as good as if it were being played from any other source.
4) Finally about the HD ablities. I haven't been able to try it yet because you do need the YPbPr Component video cable to take advantage of it, and of course it doesn't come with one. Finding one in the US is proving to be a little hard like the other reviewer stated, but I did find one in the US on ebay so I might pick one up.
Overall this enclosure is pretty good and I would tell anyone who wants to have a easy way to store and enjoy all your media in one easy to use gagdet to get it. I just wish more US retailers who sold this enclosure would carry the accessories and offer more support when it comes to the firmware.
Customer Review: It does the job!
Summary: 4 Stars
TVisto really does what I want it to do: back up my DVDs so that my kids don't destroy them. I agree with a previous review that states that the only format that matters for backing up DVDs is the ISO format. Image quality is great. I do not recommend this product if you are not hardware oriented, even though installation of the hard drive is a breeze it may get a little tricky and I will describe my experience on setting this puppy up next.
I installed the hard drive (HD)as described in the user's manual. The manual says it needs to be installed as a master but I had a problem with this because my PC did not recognize the USB mass storage device once plugged in. So then I went ahead and changed the HD configuration to slave. Now, this setting worked for me. As soon as I plugged the USB cable, my PC detected the mass storage device. The next hoop was that I had to create a primary partition and format the HD to NTFS. The user's manual instructs on using Windows disk manager utility. Well... this didn't work either. My PC runs on a Windows XP Home edition and the Windows disk manager is not available; but this is really not a problem. I used my laptop instead which runs on a Windows XP Pro and only then I was able to create my partition and format the HD. I also recommend using a third party software like Partition Magic or so to do this. So in a nutshell, I had these two small problems fixed with small details but important ones and were not mentioned in the owner's manual. Therefore, I deducted one star rating just becuase of poor documentation. I did not want to get into customer support, because I do not think TVisto has such thing. Customer support is done through the merchant that you buy from and it makes sense since you can think of TVisto just like another HD enclosure that enables you to play movies on your TV. Again, I do not recommend this gadget to anyone not familiar with installing hardware as TVisto is not really a product ready to use; however, it is one of the best choices in the market of multimedia storage, and the best part is its low price.
I noticed that the cable has been purposely slit to allow greater flexibility and ease of HD installation. None of those cuts exposed any wire so it was fine. Some may think that the unit came with a broken EIDE cable, but this is not the case.
Overall I am very pleased with my new gadget.
Customer Review: Great for what it's supposed to do.
Summary: 4 Stars
Just got my Tvisto and set it up. Used a 200gb WD hard drive and everything went together easily. I noticed on the Macpower site (same thing, different brand) that they have several firmware updates. I noticed from another review that Galaxy did not have any updates available on their site, but someone was successful in using the Macpower firmware update on their Galaxy drive. I tried it out and it would not update. I got on Galaxy's site and found out that there is a firmware update available (looks like a recent addition, May 06). Downloaded that and it updated without issue.
I had borrowed a DVD disc with a season's worth of a TV show in avi files on it from a friend. I had copied the avi files to my PC drive and had been watching them using Media Player. When I noticed a write up on the Tvisto in a magazine, I got one. I copied the avi files from my PC onto the Tvisto drive, unhooked it, hooked it up to the TV, and presto! I was able to watch all the avi files on my TV. Very clear picture, excellent sound (I'm not sure how the original recording was made).
To use this you need to be able to:
- open the case (3 small screws) and install hard drive (two cables)
- connect drive to PC (USB or firewire) and format
- create file folders on the new drive and copy media files to the drive
- connect drive to TV and select input
Customer Review: What about use of HD component cable?
Summary: 4 Stars
Im from Italy. I bought TVisto in Italy and then the specific component cable from Amazon. I've got a Pioneer HDReady 43" TV - 100hz. The trouble is that I cannot set the right mode to view in HDTV. Both in 720p and in 1080i, images are worst than in s-video mode! I think the problem is the 100hz frequence of my TV. Is this possible? Anyone has a similar experience and could help me? Thanks. GianniCustomer Review: Works as advertised.
Summary: 4 Stars
Tvisto works exactly as advertised. The setup is straight forward - install IDE hard drive, create folders in the hard drive, then add content to each folder. I only use it to store movies. Tvisto is a great way for you to transport all your and your child's favorite movies when your travelling or just going to grandma's house.