Conclusion
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: mediagate, mg, 350hd
7. Conclusion
I have to admit, in theory the Mediagate MG-350HD is a neat little device. It's compact, multifunctional, and it can play file formats on your television that would otherwise require an expensive HTPC setup. Someone looking to play a few family videos on the big screen periodically might find the MG-350HD useful. On the other hand, anybody looking to use this device as a day-to-day media player will most likely be disappointed in it. The wait times alone would frustrate even the most patient of people.
Setting the MG-350HD up was not difficult enough to require a degree in "geek", but it was definitely beyond the skill level of a novice user. The manual will not help the novice much either. Its instructions assume that the user has a basic knowledge regarding networking, computers and electronics. People who are intimidated by programming their VCR will likely be completely baffled by the setup instructions.
If you're interested in the MG-350HD because you're not quite ready to jump into a home theater PC, I'd hesitate to recommend it to you. Even if you're looking primarily for a single HDD NAS with wireless functionality, the cost of the MG-350HD should be considered (It was available without a HDD for about $250 at the time of this review) Considering that a quick google search brought up a Dlink multiple drive NAS with 802.11g and Gigabit for $156, the MG-350HD comes up short of a bargain.
Personally, I would not consider purchasing the MG-350HD, nor would I recommend it to others. There are just too many flaws to overcome before you can really sit back and enjoy the video playback functions. The cost is a little high for my taste as well. After all, I could be almost halfway to a functional HTPC with that $250.
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this is a neat device with some flaws.
the GUI is slow, but is much better if you upgrade to the latest firmware. A lot of GUI probs are fixed.
One (big) flaw remains : i found out that some movies dont play well, they have choppy playback. About 1 out of 10 movies fails to play properly, which is way to high for my liking. An xbox1 will play everything just fine.
I emailed freecom about it: they say new (and better) software that deals with the codecs wont be in any future firmware. The decoding is in the hardware, so the 'flaw' will never be fixed.
I stick with my xbox1
Good article but but needs updating since there's been many firmware releases that have fixed these problems. Since this came out the MG-450HD (SATA hard drive support) and the MG-800HD (SATA with wireless N) have also been released. Just out recently is the newest type of Mediagate, the MG-M2TV which does not have a hard drive inside much like the similiar Western Digital WD TV Media Player. From what I hear it’s very mature and been in development for a long time. Will play many more files compared to others like the WD TV and even has RealVideo 10 RMVB support for those who like to play asian videos. Looks to be in stock and on sale now at xpcgear.com : http://www.xpcgear.com/mediagate-m [...] -hdmi.html for just $109.99