MvixBOX media server: 2TB of web-enabled, media streaming goodness
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Oct 28th 2008 10:56AM
posted Oct 28th 2008 10:56AM
It looks like Mvix USA, a company known for their media streamers, has really pulled out all the stops with their new NAS. The MvixBOX has two drive bays (1.5TB SATA HDDs not included), Windows file sharing, an RSS client, a Bit Torrent client, telnet and secure SMTP. If that isn't enough, it's also an FTP server, an Apache web server (with MySQL, SQlife and PHP pre-installed) and features Mvix's RapidBox functionality (their version of RapidShare file hosting). This all might be a bit much for the typical consumer, but for the small business (or hardcore torrent-head) the device could replace an entire server. Just expect a sharp decline in productivity when your SQL programmer realizes he can watch Battlestar Galactica on the thing.
Its probably expensive (read = more then $150)
Just checked their site and its listed for $300
You're better off building your own then.
For completely web enabled, it is actually a very good price.
A 1 or 2 TB network enable storage drive is more than that.
You're right. This also doesn't come with any drives.
I totally agree, overpriced.
Really? Too expensive? Can you spec me something that does this out of the box for $150?
Costs? :D
Can you use this (or something similar) to transcode video like TVersity or Orb?
I'm trying to workout if I canuse a NAS rather thana full blown server to host and streammy media to XBMC/Wii and a couple of laptops. I'm fed up with having to split and duplicate my media across every machine. I would rather hold it allinone place and access as and when.
The wii is the only thing that really needs the box to be able to transcode.
Why waste the time transcoding it everytime you want to watch it...
Find the most restricted system, I'm assuming there is an Xbox 360 in your setup somewhere, because XBMC can play anything. Encode all of your videos specifically for the 360 and you wont need any cpu power to transcode make a NAS the perfect solution.
Bobby,
The reason for transcoding, is that the wii, in my living room,requires video to be FLV. I think that this is an awful format and would rather keep my files as AVIs, which every other piece of kit can run fine.
At the moment in our living room we just have the wii and a small sony freeview box. I'm reluctant to add anything else so watching movies through opera is the dream. Then I just need Wii DVD playback.
You'll save yourself a lot of trouble by adding a Popcorn Hour or similar media player. Or what about a Dell Studio Hybrid PC? It's small and looks pretty, if that's your concern.
I never quite understand why they spent so much time and money to develope something special instead of just a linux or xp based box which has more use...
I for one welcome our new NAS overlords... Ok seriously though, I wonder what the power consumption of this thing is vs my Linux file server. You might scoff at $300 and say "I can build that for free using spare parts" but how long before the extra electricity bills turn your "free" server into a huge money drain?
@runny yolk
My "free" home server is configured with pretty aggressive power management settings. No need for those hard drives to be spinning 24/7. The network card will wake it up whenever I need to access content. All that minus the $300 price tag.
Hi Carpet, I use a QNAP TS-109 NAS which host's all my data ranging from iTunes Music ( network shared and iTunes Server { itunes picks up the servers }) DLNA to Playstation 3 Xbox 360 etc , Pictures for photoshop elements .. all for my 3 laptops and 2 workstations
The Qnap TS-109 has 14 different applications built in the new firmware update's and more to come
completely agree. Their support forum is not too bad either. I have TimeMachine backup over AFP on my QNAP 109. It comes with Twonky server, which I actually watched 720p BSG via PS3 streamed over wifi. It also has DDNS (I have it on no-ip) support. If the price of this MvixBOX is anywhere near a qnap-209, I know which I would prefer.
Can you point me in the direction of something (NAS) that i can store all my xvid's & music etc on and i will be able to pick it up with my XBOX 360 and stream them over my Wifi in the house to my televisionator?
But this MX780 outputs video through HDMI as well!
Wouldn't really need a PS3/X360 to do that anymore. On top of which it streams media across your network.
A xp or linux box uses more power ( electric ) than what the Qnap ts-109 can ( 14w )
The atom based system doesn't use that much power. I was planning to get a DLink 323 and then I realized I can get a WIND BOX barebone for $150, plus $30-40 of ram you are looking at a system that's 100 cheaper than the the NAS solution.
It's thinner so if I want to glue it to the back of my LCD TV I can do that. And its OSX competible too.
Tino,
I just bought a DNS-323 for $159 from BeachCamera/Buydig. Also, the price of this device is inline with the QNAP & Synology boxes that have the same features. Should NAS boxes with these features cost so much? I personally don't think so.
For all of you that say, 'I can just build my own for less.' That's true if you have spare parts or can get them for free. Also, you have to think about your OS. If your a true computer geek, than you can use FreeNAS or your own Linux distro. But, you're the minority anyway and this box does not truly cater to you.
wow! nice to be hosted from this Company but it seems very expensive. yap, why should they need to develop something special. A lot of people to choose the cheap linux or xp based box than this something expensive.
Cool i may have found my new NAS to hookup to my mac mini.
Looks pretty cool - but I'll stick with Synology NAS. It looks to have the same capabilities for a fraction of the cost.
i need a usenet client with nzb support.
Why does a simple hard drive have to be so ugly, why?
How Naive.
Any good sql programmer wortht their salt will have already seen all the BSG episodes.
So 1.5 x 2 = 2 these days? Honestly I'd rather have 4 bays and redundancy. Anyway the HP MediaSmart Server is better for my needs than this for $150 more and the only place it is worse is in power consumption. But being infinitely expandable and capable of running software Windows can run is just money. The backing up all home PCs nightly is just icing on the cake.
take a look around people... it is selling all over the place for $250 or so.
This place has it for $239 ! - looks well priced for sure
http://www.thenerds.net/MVIX_USA.Ultra_High_Performance_Server.MVIXBOX.html