Well, After afew month on their waiting list i got my tvngo machine. Its a nice Media Center device based on an actual micro pc fitted into a sat like box. The idea is that it displays ads on your tvscreen in exchange. The nice thing is that that box gives ya the ability to view the TV output thru the TVnGO box onto an old Sony 17inch LCD monitor used as a tv using DVI output .

Anyhow, About the system itself. The box is based on Windows so everything is pretty much plug and play when it comes to keyboard and mouse. Although its pretty much useless because all of the actions can be done using the remote control provided with the box. The UI is based on Flash, Al tough its abit bulky and too much space is used for the sake of Gradients and not giving the important things the proper stage they need . I personally try to avoid the first screen with the embedded tv inside because its just crowded and makes ya wanna run away to a sub menu. The menus themselves are very nice, Everything is smooth and full of flash fade effects . But i would still give more space for the menus themselves other then putting a Huge clock on the top. Its nice but i can handle a 14px Font also.

As far as the features its REALLY nice, You can connect the system using Wifi Adaptor (Like they provided also for my wifi home network) and view movies from your regular pc on the tv with a nice browser thru the tv.
Its equipped with all the proper Codecs’s like DivX and etc. Al tough the Network setup was impossible for me, For some reason they Decided that Only a network work group named MSHOME can be viewed under the System , and many other weird parameters that i could setup and eventually gave up on trying to view movies over the LAN.
You can also view your picture album using the same method but it didn’t work for me either because of the complicated network setup. Why don’t they provide a PC Client install like Other Media pc’s vendors do? even if its just for setting a proper share.

They lack alot of features that are almost a crime not to put in. Like an RSS Reader overlaying the video to view RSS feeds of your choice from techcrunch and etc. And what about some nice Email client to read my emails? A Notification even? Where is the Flickr Button to view my online pictures!? that’s plain convergence .

You already penetrated my living room. You really need to keep up if ya want to stay there. What about a nice Pandora button to listen to my stations with a click on my 5.1 system? or an ITunes to buy some music? , There are more issues that need to be handled. For example ,The system needs to find the right combination like Sat box’s do with the volume issue. TV’s that got volume control use their own remote. Those who don’t use the box’s internal volume.
In that case I HAVE A FRIGGIN DISPLAY OF THE VOLUME ON SCREEN! , It drives me nuts that i need to use my Exceptional Hearing ability’s to tell the difference if the volume went up or down. Fix that crap.

Anyhow, Enough with my Rattling about the bugs. At the end its a nice box. Although for the beta stage there is Nothing to see there except porn (And pretty good job they did with the movies…) and afew trailers and links to google video. I mainly use it for the convert to the LCD display i use but it has a few nice features.
It works flawlessly without crashing. It doesn’t heat up , Its a tad noisy and i rather see a Pipe Cooling System or a nice Fan that doesn’t make that much of anoise like it does. Its not a fan noise. its some weird “zZzzZzzzZZZAiiZZzzZIzizZzzz” sound .

And the Solution they did with the external power AC its nice but they should give more Cord between the Power Box to the box itself , It always hangs in mid air threatening to tear the Plug out of the Box or actually lifting the box abit. And FORGOD SAKE ! Give me a Headphone output and not RCA’s in the back. If you give mic in you should give Headphone out. Its really simple and useful.

To summ things up, here are a few items i’d like to see in the next Version (If i would see it after this review:) ):

* A Rss reader

* A Flickr Setup button to view my online pictures

* A Pandora Station section

* A Email client to view my emails ,Only view , Ya dont even have to mass around with virtual keyboards.

* A Decent PC Client to setup the pc to communicate with the box like TiVO does .

* A slicker menu with less animation and more space for content.

* A Volume Display like Logitech Keyboards Effectivly do.

* A Open API for outside companys to intergrate content inside the Box or Embedding Widgets into it.

* Some kind of bug report system or contact the Support crew when i find a bug. It toke me a few minutes to find the card that the installer left to report a bug. Hey if im a beta tester should i be given some Beta reporting tool?
Thats it.

I like it but the company should really look into getting the internet in the livingroom with web services intergration and open api for outside companys.

Well im off to continue fiddle around with the box and figure out how to connect it to my network.
http://www.tvngo.com

   

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