Savit's Rapsody RSH-100
By Ryan Block 
posted Jun 20th 2005 11:15AM
posted Jun 20th 2005 11:15AM
Ok, so we're about ready to declare DivX/media playing drive enclosures the new hotness, so feast your hungry eyes
on Savit's Rapsody RSH-100 (not to be confused with the other
Rhapsody), which transforms that plain jane
3.5-inch desktop drive into a media-player extraodinaire supporting 720p and 1080i HD , DVI, component, S-Video and
composite outs, and codec such as DivX 3, 4, 5, XviD, Qpel, MPG, VOB, IFO, DAT, MPEG-4, MP3, WMA, OGG. Oh, not to
mention DTS 5.1 audio, and USB On-The-Go. Um, that's a lot (and thank you, Savit). Any takers for American
distribution?
[Via Akihabara News]
Two big weakpoints that I can see so far:
1. Limited to USB 2.0 for transfer of data to and from device.
2. Looks to support only ATA-class drives with no SATA support.
Had they built in a firewire 800 port and SATA support this would have been nice indeed. But, without those I could'nt see investing more than $200 for something like this. Especially since it is possible to build a nice SFF system that will do all this and more for around $600.
Have you read the website for this thing? And I quote:
"Rapsody RSH-100 Inside air flows is excellent in the plan which considers an inside heat and a pan sound arresting. To lower that sound arresting pan configuration and a pan operation RPM in condition of optimum and in order there not to be bother to watching movie.When you watching movie it is noisy? From now on Don't bear and forbear."
Fact is, I have always hated bearing and forbearing.
The US distributor is www.accomplishments.com.
the only thing it's really missing is Ethernet!
any one know a UK One? (distrubutor)
1. how is usb 2.0 not fast enough for you?
2. whats the big deal with sata? yeah it pulls less power, easier to cable but, data moves faster from buffer to controller, but from disk to buffer its the same as ata. right???
3. this thing looks great but needs wireless
I like this thing. It plays MPG as well! That's really nice because I have a crapload of music videos in VCD/SVCD/XVCD format and I don't want to have to convert them all.
I wonder how much it weighs?! Does it come with a remote?!
Side note: I had the MegaView 566 from MSI and I was converting all my music videos to DiVx to view on the unit. Dr. DiVx is very slow!!! I used TMPEG (or Virtual DUB -- sorry I always get those two apps confused.. it's one of the two) to encode and it was much faster.
I have a Lacie Silverscreen that's pretty similiar to this device, but uses a laptop drive and so fits in my palm and costs ~US$100 more. I really like the Silverscreen, but am holding out on upgrading until one of these comes out with 1.) network support, and 2.) the ability to stream net radio. The Mediagate comes close, but I haven't seen it available yet in the States, and I don't know if it does net radio (http://www.mediagate.co.kr/english/prod_mg35.htm)
oooh wow, big whup. Xbox + Xbmc. Done.
Jon-- Actually, I looked at the modded-xbox route (via Friendtech) and just decided the cost of the mod (xbox, chip/dongle, HD, remote), just wasn't worth the extra US$100-200 over a dedicated media device, especially since I don't play video games, and so wouldn't be able to take advantage of the rest of the system. Also, I can take my silverscreen to friend's houses and on trips, which I couldn't do with a clunky xbox.
DAMN!! This company seems to have it all going on!! The products they advertise on their website show that this company has invested in some brains and creativity in the design and engineering departments! In fact, there was only one product on their list that I wouldn't consider buying myself. Why, oh why, can't some of the larger, better known names in this business put stuff out there like this? Can't wait to see their product line stateside, and surely they are working on a wireless version, too....
Modix has a very similar device that has been out for quite a while. I have a 400gb drive in mine but lack the extra composite inputs on my DLP to hook it up for the HD video. It has a remote and came with a carrying bag. Another cool feature is the ability to rip DVD files into a folder and access the menus and everything.
http://www.tomshardware.com/consumer/20050106/
tracy (post #6),
1. How is usb 2.0 not fast enough for you?
For starters, USB 2.0 is a shared bus so any other USB device that is on that controller shares the same bandwith which Firewire does not have the same problem and you get full speed to all ports. In order to get the full speed you would need to have a dedicated USB 2.0 controller.
Then, once you get past that hurdle you still have the 480Mbps maximum thruput which Firewire 800 easily surpasses. For the average user this would be okay but for anyone looking to use these in a HTPC situation they're really not that great IMHO.
2. Whats the big deal with sata? yeah it pulls less power, easier to cable but, data moves faster from buffer to controller, but from disk to buffer its the same as ata. right???
Well, you pretty much nailed all the points I had. An additional one is that the larger capacity drives are starting to come out only in SATA configurations. Once ATA goes the way of the dodo you've got something that can only handle say a 300 or 400 Gig drive versus the 500 Gig + drives some makers are already hinting at here soon.
In regards to wireless, it would be a waste on something like this. There are a few broadcast boxes that have wireless but they were slammed for being way too slow to stream video even with 802.11g. Gigabit ethernet on the other hand would be perfect since just about everyone has one and the technology is now pretty inexpensive compared to a wireless setup. To say nothing of the other issues wireless suffers.
This product has been mentioned several times in past comments about other HDD based media players. It looks so nice, but the US distributer so far has not returned emails or voice calls regarding this product and I am now exceptionally leary about placing an order through them. There is a British distributer called Digitall UK located at http://digitalall.co.uk and they do have this product ion stock (actually, they have for several months). More info can also be found at http://www.swissbull-it.com/ including a full ist of European distributors.
Yes, firewire would be nice, as would SATA, but still this is a pretty sweet product in a very portable form. I hope the US distributor gets his head out of his ass.
I just got a Modix 3510 a week ago and I love it. It's a nice looking box with a slight bit of art deco design to it ( I think it looks better than this one ).
I bought it instead of the other brands because it also has a lcd display on the front of the unit, which allows you to control it even without a TV. So far no problems and it has played everything I have thrown at it.
Also, USB2 is plenty fast for me, and it's nice to put a device on another bus, as the firewire is a bit crowded at this point. In addition, just about everyone has some sort of USB, so it's a good single device to carry with you for file transfers.
How does it do when the movie file, say divx, has associated subtitles? Not the DVD built in stuff, I mean srt files, and others that FFDSHOW currently handles for me in windows.
Also, I shied away from something like this for fear that its library of playable formats would lag behind the ever-changing encoders out there, eg ogg, mfv, divx-of-the-month.
So can an owner share some non-Engrish facts...
Subtitles?
Updateable codecs?
I got one of these a month ago. With the latest firmware it handles most subtitle formats.
I'm really happy with most of the features only weak point is the lack of playlist support,but that is supposed to be fixed in a later firmware relase.
Does anyone know if this can function as a standalone audio player?
as in without any TV, only attached to speakers?
and will the built in screen show your file information then? (title, artist, album...)
and do you have full file navigation controls? (searching, playlists, etc...)
if there was a device like this with all those functions i'd definitely buy it....
Hi,
I'm currently testing this unit at home and, regarding its standalone audio player functionalities, i can tell you that :
- you can attach the rsh 100 only to speakers and use the built in screen (4 lines) to navigate
- in the current firmaware version, you do not see any ID3 tags, just the filename
- navigation control is basic as you can only navigate in teh directory structure (no search)
However, so far I've seen that firmwares versions are issued regurlarly and I really expect a new version that will really enhance MP3 management.
I had one of these arrive today and fitted my own 300 gig drive.
Its does not support most of my downloads episodes or play all my mp3s.
I see no reason for this as its firmware upgrade which is updatable online is the latest version.
Really looked forward to running my coolection off this direct to tv without having to organise and burn dvd.
So its a return or an answer reqd to as its probs.
It has ntsc and pal settings but not matter waht most attempts return the screen.
Media not compatable - which is crappy as my dvd divx player from Lidl plays everything I throw at it....this looks like it just needs throwing.