Modix HD-3510: The USB hard drive box becomes a DVD player

[87wrangler]

Just came across this article on Tom's Hardware - looks pretty slick...

http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20050106/index.html

-87W

[EvilWizardGlick]

How does it connect to the tv? For 1080i doesn't it need Component/DVI/HDMi?

[Bronx]

Beautiful!!

[87wrangler]

More info -

http://www.modix-hd.com/

[samuraijack]

That is so cool! I like the concept. I went to check out the site and it didnt have a whole lot going on. Even the message board had no content, but I would be willing to spring for something like this if it proves dependable.

[tmaxwell2435]

http://www.cooldrives.com/hdmohdpousb2.html

[canadateck]

Same kinda thing But Lower Price. 209.99 Canadian.
http://onlybestrated.com/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/32?osCsid=73e0deb0bc509c...b120858d6b7beb

[hudsonf]

I think I see a new toy in my future. They should of made it so the hard drive was on a removable tray so you could swap hard drives.

[satviewer2000]

The main problem with the "MediaGate MG-25 portable HDTV DivX HD based player" is that it uses the much more expensive 2.5" drives. If they could make a version which uses cheap 3.5" drives, then I would consider buying it.

[odyssius98]

The marketing guy for this product should be fired.

How do you guys transfer your video and audio into this box? Bring the box to your PC, connect the power and connect the USB to your PC then start transferring data? After data transferred, bring the box to your TV and hook up the power, audio/video line?

Come one...With a little additon of networking ability, it could make this a perfect product.

I suggest you guys think about what I said before you buy it. I have an XBOX which can do everything that box can do plus more. A 200G hd, samba server/client, media center....

[satviewer2000]

I agree with the XBMC being the best and most versatile box around (I have one too), but it cannot handle HDTV video, which apparently these boxes can. Of course the XBMC has the advantage of being a computer in disguise, so codecs are not a problem, as they can be easily programmed in.

I think the point of this "mobile" box is that it can be taken from one house to another, or even into the car, where you can display your movies, pictures, etc. Of course in the real world, how often one would actually do this is probably extremely low.

Perhaps in Korea, where the box is being developed, it is a popular thing to take your movie collection to your friend's house to view them, but in N America, I don't think anyone would do such a thing. And as well, perhaps in Korea, networking an entire house is not popular, whereas in N America pretty well every new house being built is being CAT5 wired.

[87wrangler]

Here's another one from a better known name...

http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/01/10/silverscreen/index.php

[tmaxwell2435]

So does anyone have one of these yet? Just curious as to what all it will play and how the interface is.

Thanks!

[Bronx]

IMPORTANT NEWS
4 February 2005




NEW:
Rapsody RSH-100
Due to unpredictable incidents - after limited availability for a short time in some European countries - we are not able anymore to sell the Harddisk Multimedia Player called "Modix HD-3510" in Europe (which is our business as we are a company located in Europe). We put a lot of efforts in this homepage and the product and we're very sorry that we have to tell you now this news. We thank you very much for all your interests, questions and suggestions. If you were able to get HD-3510 you can still get the most actual firmware version here.

But we have also VERY GOOD NEWS for you! We did immediately start a worldwide search for a similar product and luckily we are now able to offer a even better solution also based on a chipset from Sigma Designs: The Rapsody RSH-100! It offers all the features of HD-3510 and additional it supports USB Host OTG (On The Go, so you can connect almost any USB Flash Drive or USB HDD directly to RSH-100, no PC required). Also the OSD menu speed of RSH-100 is much faster than HD-3510.

Swiss BULL-IT will release this product in March. Besides this Swiss BULL-IT carries a broad range of quality multimedia products such as MP3 Players, USB Flash Drives, Mobile Harddisks and soon also Portable Video Players (with integrated color display).

Convince yourself of Rapsody RSH-100 with a live presentation: Visit us at CeBIT in Hannover 10 - 16 March 2005, Hall 16 Booth C14!

Thanks for your understanding and your patience.

I wonder what where the unpredictable incidents......

[BJ_M]

the hard drives kept crapping out was one of the reasons

[plenty]

Used the Modix for a month now and like it except for ripped DVD files. It plays VOB/IFO files but I can't get any audio. Plays other formats just fine but I'm not abt to convert my huge (500GB) DVD library to MP4! Support? Firmware upgrades? Sure - if you know Korean! I'm hoping someone can straighten me out on DVD files - then I'd be happy with Modix.

[plenty]

YES! Got it! Just had to tweak the Audio defaults in the Settings. Now my video/mp3/jpgs are available and portable w/o a pc. All for less then the cost of an iPod - not to mention being able to change HDDs. Now if DTO just makes an English web site...

[RabidDog]

I'm quite interested in these Boxes .. AFAIK the modix and the rapsody are based on the same design.. same chipset. specs etc. just the rapsody has some(1?) additional functions. I have heard reports that these things are quite noisy tho.. also none of them come with a native scart .. they also seem to overcharge for the hard disks eg 80gb model plus seperate 400gb hard drive costs less than 200gb model

[its95]

I got mine in black from divxtech.com about a month ago at very good price. If their Hard Disk price was reasonable, I would have bought it from them but I got it from tigerdirect.com (250 GB for $99.99). I think this is the greatest thing since sliced bread. My conservative brother just got one also after seeing my unit. He got it in white. If I had to buy it over again, I would buy it in white. Black looks cool at first but its a dust magnet. You could see every speck of dust and fingerprints on it. I thought about getting the smaller unit that uses the notebook hard drive but notebook hard drives are just to expensive. I didn't have any problem with my unit except that it couldn't play some of my video files and did not have DTS decoder. I use it mostly for archiving my digital photos and home movies. Great device.

[RabidDog]

Now if it could record Tv as well...

[its95]

Did anybody try DivX 6 on the Modix HD-3510?

[sammie]

I've been very happy with my Modix. If you update the firmware it handles DiVX 6 fine.

HD out requires a proprietary cable that I've never been able to find, although it looks just like the Sony combo audio/video cable with a 3 part miniplug. I have one of those, but I've never tried it except to confirm that yes it does fit(kind of afraid too actually). It has an optical audio out that definitely works great.

My only complaints were that the company that sold (sells) it set up dozens of different websites (different names, different looking store fronts) for no obvious honest reason. It also took a while to get one, get them to explain what was going on, etc. I was pretty worried for a while I'd been ripped off. The cooling fan is also a bit cheesy/noisy.

[its95]

I think I have the latest firmware so I'll try the DivX 6 movie that I downloaded from www.divx.com.

I wouldn't mess with proprietary cable. Just get the component cable from www.divxtech.com. They have been very responsive when I got my unit. Got it in 4 days.

I had the same experience as you did. I sent in emails to these companies and no response. So I moved on. I think they were external hard drive case resellers and come to think of it, those web sites are very similar (cooldrives, usbmax, usbgear, etc.).

I haven’t experienced any problems with the cooling fan (now I am conscious of it and constantly checking it for abnormality).

[its95]

Regarding the DivX 6 play on the MODIX, it doesn't work for me.

I have updated my MODIX to firmware version V.5.10.10 from http://www.divxtech.com.

Downloaded movie file called "Revelations" from http://panicstruckpro.com/revelations/revelations_movie.html. By the way, this is free. It shows the features of DivX 6.

If anybody else knows for sure that it suppose to work or not, I would appreciate it.

[sammie]

I'll check and see what firmware version I'm using. All my DiVX 6 stuff is home encoded. I have a few commercial things, but I don't think they are 6.........although to be honest I'm going more on timing of when I got them than actually knowing. It looks like the actual Modex site is gone so I have no idea if any, much less further firmware updates will be available. (edit: the DiVXtech site mentioned above has firmware updates, although it lookes like 5.10 is the current one).

@its95, thanks for the tip on the cable. Yes, the companies were all re-sellers. I finally got the guy on the phone because my credit card was charged and I wasn't getting the device or any response to the e-mails. He admitted all the companies where really the same. Refused to explain further, but I did finally get the box.

The fan works fine. It's just one of those cheap noisy bearing jobs.

[sammie]

Downloaded movie file called "Revelations" from http://panicstruckpro.com/revelations/revelations_movie.html. By the way, this is free. It shows the features of DivX 6.

Just noticed this. Do you mean all the DVD like navigation, menu, multisound track, etc. features from DiVX 6? If so, I'm not sure much of anyting supports that yet. The authoring software from DiVX for all that is still in beta, so it will be a while before any hardware devices offer support for those features.

[Gregg]

What about a mini-ITX system like one of these for example:

http://www.logicsupply.com/product_info.php/cPath/29/products_id/113

[its95]

Yea....DivX 6 looks cool...

DivX 6 seems reletively new. I couldn't find any other contents with this format other than "Revelations". Not even DivX certified DVD players are compatible with DivX 6. Hope this catches on.

[Gregg]

What do you think about this one:

http://www.inoi.com/English/hv670.asp

Available here:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16882133001

The price looks much more reasonable to me.

[its95]

Inoi looks nice but you can’t take it with you.

I like my portability option. I take my MODIX everywhere (vacation, move to different TV, business trips, keeps the kids quiet in the car).