As more and more of the content we consume becomes digital, devices to migrate that content from our computer screens to our television screens are becoming increasingly necessary.  I’ve been using the Tvix M-4100SH digital media player as a bridge to pass video and audio from my PC to my TV for a few years now.  While the device accomplishes most of what I’d expect given its published specifications,  some aspects of it haven’t proven useful or even functioning.

Dvico, the company that manufactures the Tvix products, is a Korean based company.  In my experience, their customer service, should you need or attempt to use it, is pretty bad.  They offer a question and answer system on their website, but in the few instances I used it I either got responses in broken English that showed a clear lack of understanding of my original question or no response at all.  The user manual that ships with the 4100SH is also written in broken English, which unfortunately is becoming more common these days.

The device itself was one of the first digital media players to offer support for the H.264 video compression codec which has widely become an industry standard for transmitting high definition video at significantly reduced bandwidths than would otherwise be required.  Based on the Sigma EM8623 processor, it can play back both standard and high definition video streams at up to 1080p (over HDMI) in most of the standard file types (AVI, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, XVID, WMV9, H.264, etc).  Available video connections include HDMI, component, S-video, and composite, although S-video and composite are not active during playback over component or HDMI.  Audio connections include digital coax, SPDIF, and composite stereo.  There is an ethernet jack for FTP access, a USB port for direct PC access, and two USB ports for external drive expansion.  

When powered on, the user interface of the device is categorized into Photo, Audio, and Video sections.  The audio category supports MP3 (and playlists), WMA, FLAC playback among many others.  The picture category supports JPG slideshows (kind of) with background music, and the video category obviously will play your movies.  I’ve been happy with the audio file support and the interface is relatively intuitive.  It displays album cover art included in the folder with the album files.   The photo playback is another story.  It is slow and buggy, so much so that it is essentially useless.  Multiple firmware updates by Dvico haven’t fully addressed these issues since they’re relatively low on the company’s priority list in terms of features of the device needing improvement.  I have to admit that I don’t really care if the photo feature works since I’d personally never use the device as a dedicated photo viewing platform, but it highlights Dvico’s mentality that releasing a product with advertised features that don’t actually work is acceptible.

In terms of video playback, the M-4100SH does, for the most part, operate as advertised.  It plays back many formats, including H.264 encoded content, and supports many output resolutions up to 1080p.  Although many other owners have reported playback problems with various formats, I’ve had a great deal of success playing back MPEG2 encoded home movies, ISO encoded DVD rips, and a variety of other supported “clips”.  DVD’s that I rip into an .ISO file play as if I had the disk in a DVD player and all disk features are available.  The fast foward and rewind functionality is a bit buggy for some formats (you can’t rewind while playing MPG2 files, but the 15 second skip buttons work), but there is a convienent “goto” feature that lets you the enter the exact time in the movie you’d like to …. wait for it….go to.  While I had expected to be able to play the .AVI captured video from my Sony miniDV camcorder, I quickly learned that Sony’s proprietary miniDV format is not supported by the Tvix.  Oh well.

Files are loaded onto the device via FTP or USB and organized in a traditional file-folder structure that should be relatively simple for most people to understand.  A few independant UI enhancement projects have been undertaken and do greatly enhance the “look” of interface, but can be time consuming to keep up with if you cycle the content on your device frequently.

To conclude this brief review, I’d say that the Tvix M-4100SH is a powerful digital media player that handles most media playing needs.  If you’re tolerent of the bugs and inconsistencies that are typical of devices on the “cutting edge”, then the M-4100SH may suit you needs.  And since it is a few years old and maintains features still supportive of today’s technology, you may want to pick one up at a discounted price as a first entry into the digital media player market.