MediaGate MG-450HD Digital Media Adapter with 802.11 G Wireless Network Connection

List Price: $269.99 Discount Price: $179.99

Features:

• Wired or optional wireless 11g network connection to a
• Supports high definition media streams
• Contains USB host and slave
• Optional 3.5" hard disk drive available and is user installable
• Enables file surfing from multiple sources on TV using a remote controller including: PC's in network, internal hard disk drive and USB devices attached.

Customer Reviews:

Too Bad No MKV Support [Posted on 2008-07-04]
I have an MG-350 which works very well, but not full HD, no HDMI out and no SATA support. I expect MG-450 to be as good as well with support for all the missing pieces stated above but unfotunately neither offers MKV playability.

I ended up getting a TVix 6500 which is inferior in almost every aspect but supports MKV.

If MKV is not an issue then get the MG-450.

DON'T BUY THIS THING [Posted on 2008-07-25]
I have been buying from Amazon for years. This is the first time I am writing a review because I am just furious about this thing. It's junk if you actually want to get media to it. It's great once it has media on it. The 450-HD does NOT support NDAS. The only way to get media on to it is through the USB port.. aka... you have to connect to it directly and copy stuff to it or through FTP. yes, FTP... they want you to use your internet connection to put files from your PC to your media player. And that's a nightmare in and of itself. Read the posts out there from people who are way more technical than me and you'll see this is not for the faint at heart. So once I got the thing I tried to connect wirelessly to it and it worked. But it does you now good unless you plan to FTP your files over or you want to stream radio in. Looking for the manual? gotta find it and download it cause they don't have one in the box.

Amazon's confusion between MG-45 and MG-450HD [Posted on 2008-08-01]
For the time being, Amazon seems to have a big confusion in its inventory with the two latest products from MediaGate. If you look for (or buy) MG-450HD (a wireless digital media adapter) at Amazon, what they will send you is actually MG-45 (a wired NDAS priced almost at half of the cost of MG-450HD). I purchased MG-450HD at Amazon and I've received MG-45's twice after going through the same number of exchanges!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to use this product because of this problem in Amazon's inventory. I've been a big fan and user of Amazon... I hope they fix this issue shortly... otherwise, nobody will be able to give MG-450HD a try! (The one star raiting goes to Amazon in this case... I hope I'll be able to update my review later :) ).

UPDATE: After Amazon fixed its issue shipping MG-450HD's (see my previous post), I was able to play with this device. I own a DLink DNS-323 (NAS) where I keep my data, accessing it from MG-450HD via wireless. After using it for 3 weeks, these were my main impressions:

GOOD
* After upgrading its firmware to the latest available (v1.1.11), the device is pretty stable most of the time (I've run into a few bugs/crashes, but they have been minor).
* I had read bad reviews about its remote control that I was afraid I would hate it. However, I don't find it as bad as others described, even during the wireless-password setup. It's been actually responsive and useful.
* The device plays correctly most of the advertised formats and playlists (I'm keeping mine in m3u format with no problem). Fortunately all my songs are in mp3 format (thanks to Amazon's MP3 download), so I don't miss its lack of iTunes-support. I've only had issues with a few AVIs, which the device won't play for some unknown reason (it actually crashes while playing one of them).
* I had also read about some issues with the size of photos on slideshows, but they work fine for me.
* I was able to access my multimedia content in both my NAS and my desktop with no problem.
* I was picturing accessing the multimedia content in my NAS via UPNP, but accessing them via SAMBA works notably faster while listing the content available (it might be a performance issue with my DNS-323's UPNP server). I ended up sticking with SAMBA and I don't think I'm missing UPNP's way of accessing that content.
* All its multimedia ports (s-video, composite, A/V) work fine for me. I haven't tried its HDMI port yet though. However, its lack of support for the MKV format is certainly a big miss when thinking about that port.
* Its user-interface is pretty simple to learn and navigate.

NOT SO GOOD
* In general, I don't think this is a device ready for everybody to setup. I hold several years of IT experience and I still had issues while getting the device to connect to my wireless router successfully (it wasn't about entering the password... that part took 30 secs, but the device just wouldn't connect. It took me several attempts to get it finally connected. I can't picture my mom going through this process, even if she ends up calling tech-support). After it connected, I haven't had any wireless-related issues with this device though.
* I wish the boot-stage of the device was faster. It takes about 30 secs to boot it up and another 10 secs to connect to my NAS from it.
* I tested its USB port with an external DVD unit I own. It works fine playing home-made DVDs. The only detail to have in mind in this case is that this device will not play commercial/regioned DVDs/CDs. I think you need to copy them to the internal HDD to be able to watch them, but I haven't tried that. Playing DVDs wirelessly is not a good idea (performance is unacceptable to watch).
* This device won't display any cover art while playing a song (even if it is in the same folder). I personally hated not seeing that feature.
* According to the docs, the only way to get this device to play background music while watching a photo-slideshow seems to be by placing it on a "music" folder in the internal HDD. I haven't tested that, but I was expecting an easier way to do that, with just the songs I've got in my NAS.
* iRadio works fine, but you can only customize its stations with a file you need to create in a special folder of the internal HDD.
* Even though the user-interface is simple, one wishes it was more capable (e.g. not requiring you to do tricks on its internal HDD to customize some of its behaviors).

In general, I think the MG-450HD met my basic expectations, enabling me to get access to the multimedia content in my NAS from everywhere in my network. That is enough for me to be reasonably happy. However, none of its features really WOW'ed me... so I think this device is missing that "last mile" of polishing in order to deserve a 5 stars review. I give it 3.5 stars (too bad I can't update my original stars grade in amazon after this update).

MG-450HD IS NOT THE MG-45 -- FIX THIS PROBLEM! [Posted on 2008-08-02]
Buy the Product MG-450HD Whit Wireless Adapter, but i receive the MG-45 a wired half priced of MG-450HD. THIS IS A AMAZON MISTAKE and i need to be FIX Now!... this buy is my first in amazon, but i have a TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE.

IF YOU LOOK the Product say MG-45, but the description SAY MG-450MG.

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