Mvix Ultio "It Plays All" HD media streamer debuts in the U.S. July 6 for $179 - Page 8

Can the Ultio pass-through DTS-MA and Tru-HD to a compatible receiver?

Maybe they are having the same issues as the Xtreamer product where some fans are louder than others? I can hear it from 6 or 7 feet and it drives me crazy.

Odd that the hard drives I tried internally all got pretty hot. When I run it without an internal hard drive both the top and bottom of the case are just slightly warm after hours of use. This is without the fan. This suggests that the heat sink is working. I assume you haven't disabled the fan? Basically I seem to be getting the same temperature on the bottom as you are with the fan (warm).

The support people at mvixusa made it clear that the fan was not required if you didn't have an internal drive. I don't know if using an external esata drive would increase the power drain enough to cause overheating. I doubt it.

I am a bit baffled that putting the case on cools off the cpu.

In any case this is somewhat worrisome. Is there software to measure temperature for Linux?

philip

It doesn't. The heatsink is hot with or without the case. The fact that the case is only slightly warm while the heatsink itself is very hot means that the heat is not being transferred from inside to outside. This is the real problem. I'll have to dig through my parts boxes and see if I can't find a larger heatsink that will still fit. If it comes to it, I could always cut a hole in the bottom of the case and extend the feet to accommodate an active chipset cooler. Though the Ultio doesn't use them, there are two holes at opposite corners of the chip that I am hoping will line up with standard heatsink fasteners. While this will probably solve the problem, it is far from a desirable solution to a problem that shouldn't exist in the first place.

I have not disabled the fan. I know it's spinning because I can hear it if I am close enough and I can see it when the case is off. The problem is that the fan only cools the hard drive. No airflow reaches the processor heatsink. The drive I am using probably just runs cooler than some others, which is why the drive is only slightly warm and the fan doesn't spin fast.

I notice that the fan pulls air into the case. Since the case has quite a bit of vent holes, I would think that it would do a better job of cooling by blowing out, and thereby pulling air through the opposing vents and across the drive. Am I mistaken?

Hmm..this is disturbing. Could it be just an issue with your unit? Perhaps the heatsink is not on properly although your explanation that the heat is not being transferred out of the unit would seem to make that unlikely. My Apple TV gets very warm and I thought that was something to be concerned about, but I guess it's doing its job in moving the heat out. I've never had an issue with it (the ATV).

Did your Ultio act strange from the start? Mine has been working 5 or 6 hours a day (and transfers overnight) for almost 2 weeks and it still works great. By the sounds of it I should not get too attached if in fact there is a design issue. I really don't want to get into water cooling the unit

mvixusa has been very responsive to my questions so hopefully they stand behind their products. I really know very little about these smaller media player companies. It's beginning to have overtones of the days when there were a zillion different types of sound cards in PC's and then they just all went away...Hope that is not what is happening with all these various media boxes popping up.

philip

My fan is completely quiet. I cannot hear it even from 2 feet away. I have not noticed any pausing or overheating, but I have not used it for more than 3 hours a session. I'll try more.

I've noticed that the power off takes a bit to cycle down. Also, if you push the power off on the remote and the mvix screen saver is on, then the unit won't turn off. You have to hit the power button twice. Hitting it once will just turn off the screen saver.

-WZ

Fan noise is a bit subjective and of course fans vary from unit to unit. It does appear as though it doesn't bother most users. I'm not saying it's really outrageous, just that I prefer silent computing, silent video environments, etc...I'd rather have a slower computer than a noisy one. There are many people who spend a lot of mind to get rid of noise. While I'm not quite there, I'm close! Keep in mind that the fan+ internal hard drive will drive up the noise, especially if it's a 3.5" fast drive. The idea someone had of using a SSD drive is nice, though pricey. Perhaps a 2.5" notebook drive could be cool enough to disable the fan.

I am really surprised you can't hear the fan from 2'. Are you sure it's on?

I haven't noticed the overheating and my Ultio is on a lot ( 6 hours+). It's a great little unit (except for the fan ).

Once I get my Harmony working with it it'll be really ideal. Picture quality is great and support for subtitles (especially idx/sub) is excellent.

I don't really see too many other units that can match it at this point (given the price and codec support).

philip

When adding a new shortcut, it says to highlight "My Shortcuts" and press the option buttion to Add, Modify or Delete. But when i press the option button it takes me back to the home page.

Can anyone tell me how to delete a shortcut?

Also how to tell the FW version installed.

It sounds to me as though you are at 1.1 (the latest) as that upgrade made the option button return you to home (the main menu) which is great. In order to delete files/folders you need to press play to get the menu where you can delete them. Perhaps the play button will also delete a shortcut. I suspect play has become option.

philip

Ok, I ran the Ultio for hours on end. Took it apart and touched the heatsink. It was warm but not overly hot. Perhaps it's your unit.

philip

That did it, I went through and tried pressing every button on the remote but i guess i didn't wait long enough for it to come up. I wish Mvix would publish the changes made in the FW updates. However, this unit came with the latest FW, I never did an update to it.

Thanks for the help
Al

Following up on the heat/file loading problems I was having; I removed the internal drive from the ultio and also removed the ultio from its case and positioned it so the heatsink is face-up (upside down from normal position). I connected a usb drive and ran 1080p content for two days. I haven't had any more problems, and the heatsink never got hot. I'm convinced that if the heat sink ever does get hot, it is either related to having a hot hard drive installed, or it is related to the cpu being on the underside of the board (in normal operating position).

Next I will try a "green" 2.5" hard drive installed internally. I may also try some sort of vertical stand with the ultio so that the cpu gets more airflow, or at least the heat from it can rise more easily.

As an aside, mvixusa is apparently now offering a low end htpc. I made a post to the htpc forum with the details.

What kind of adapter (2.5" to 3.5") will work? The two holes at the bottom have to line up with the drive or adapter.

You could also use an external esata drive or an SSD. The SSD would require an adapter like your notebook approach.

I've gone the esata solution and no internal and the heat sink is fine.

pmcd

I thought about using esata. Does the ultio power down an esata drive that is independently powered? If it doesn't, I could tap the ultio's hdd power connector to power the external esata.

I was thinking of just using velcro or foam adhesive tape to mount a 2.5" drive inside the ultio, but I may hold off in doing so because I read a post on the mpcclub forums regarding mvixusa offering to exchange first-lot units for a new version that does dts downmix.

I tried the same thing, and it still crapped out after a couple hours with the heat sink very hot. It's starting to look like I have a bum unit.

It doesn't power down my esata drive.

philip

Can you please take a photo of the heatsink so that we can compare it with the Xtreamer which has overheating issues?

You can see it here.

The heatsink is so TINY!

And you guys are sure that that thing does not get hot at all?


This is the heatsink of the Xtreamer which uses the Realtek 1283 chip and the machine gets extremely hot:

http://picasaweb.google.hu/bitlisz/2...07937654378418
http://picasaweb.google.hu/bitlisz/2...07900063182450

Interesting. Does the Xtreamer have a lot of vent slits and/or a 25mm fan like the ultio? Does anybody have a pic of the Ryan's heatsink?

The heatsink on my Ultio gets warm, but not hot, after ages of use. I can easily touch it without any discomfort. I don't have an internal drive and I've disabled the fan which isn't going to affect the heatsink in any case (it's mainly for dealing with the heat generated by an internal hard drive).

The Xtreamer is a much smaller unit so it's not surprising it would get hotter. On the other hand the heatsink looks to be a lot larger than that on the Ultio which is fairly small.

My Apple TV gets hotter than my Ultio.

pmcd

Why haven't you requested an exchange? You seem to have had nothing but bad experiences from the start. My experience with mvixusa support has been very positive. There is a year warranty on the unit.

philip

Why would they position the board so the heatsink is facing down. Doesn't heat rise in the Pacific Rim?

"I removed the internal drive from the ultio and also removed the ultio from its case and positioned it so the heatsink is face-up (upside down from normal position)."

No vent slits, but a 25mm fan.
The fan is on the bottom though....


Inside the Xtreamer:
http://picasaweb.google.hu/bitlisz/2...07916560669522

A lot more photos:
http://picasaweb.google.hu/bitlisz/2...5Xtreamer_0km#

Does anyone know if the Ultio will have support to be able to read the new 2TB drives, through a future firmware upgrade?

I also wish they would document the changes. Have you been able to play a DVD (say an ISO) and get to the DVD menu? Play won't take me there and option takes me to the main Ultio home.

philip

I was about to ask you the same question. If the DVD is designed to start with the menu I get the menu. But once I start playing the movie there is now way to get back to it without stopping the movie and starting over. I have tried every button on the remote.

One problem I'm having is if I'm using the Ultio and turn it off, and then I press a button on my remote for my cable box (Comcast Motorola) it turns the Ultio back on. And it's not just one button it's almost any button on the cable remote, even the numbers. I have to unplug the Ultio. This is getting frustrating. I have no idea how i'm going to get around this.

Note:
OK, this is getting weird. If i turn off the Ultio and wait about 20 minutes before pressing any buttons on the cable remote it "doesn't" turn it on. I'll have to experiment and see exactly how long i have to wait.

So far I really like the Ultio with a few exceptions:

1. When i turn it off i have to wait at least 8.5 minutes before pressing any buttons on my Comcast cable remote or it will turn the it back on. I did some testing and 8.5 minutes is the lowest i can go.

2. There is no way i can find to get back to the Menu on a DVD file once i start playing the movie.

3. The HD playback over my network is limited to a bit rate of 9 mbps. ANY thing over that makes it stutter. This is over a 1000 gigabit cat6 network. I don't know why they used a 100 network adapter in the unit. Even though my PH 100 has one and it plays my files that are over 9 mbps fine.

4. Another feature that some people may not use is the lack of a sleep function. I used this often when watching a movie in the bedroom on my 760 and 780.

I don't know if these problems can be corrected with a FW upgrade but other than that i am very happy with the A/V of the unit.

After a couple weeks of intermittent lockups, my Ultio has completely **** the bed. It now refuses to recognize the hard drive at all and has a constant loud crackling in the (analog) audio. I'm sending Mvix USA an email now to RMA my unit. I'll keep you updated with their responses. I really hope this doesn't take too long to resolve.

Hmmm, that doesn't sound very promising. I'm wondering whether packing a hard drive into the Ultio is even worth it, or if a WDTV is just as good (with the hacked firmware that allows networking). The WDTV is quieter (since it doesn't use a fan), but the Ultio does convert a few more formats...Still, the fan noise issue is keeping me from getting the Ultio...What to do, what to do?