DViCO TViX N1

The Dvico Tvix N1 is a network gateway that looks great on paper. It has the same interface as the Tvix 6632N, an SDHC card reader and networking functions, all for an RRP of around £130. Could it be a must-have media centre?

Handling: a good user interface

The Tvix N1 is a compact media centre that stands out from the crowd with a cylindrical design that I actually quite like. The casing is a nice combination of plastic and brushed aluminium, but as there's no control screen, you have to connect it to a TV to navigate through your files.


The N1 is supplied with the same remote control as other Dvico products. It's pleasant to handle and the buttons are well laid out, but it's a bit of a shame they're phosphorescent rather than actively backlit.


The interface is similar to that of the Tvix 6632N, and to be honest, it's pretty much faultless. It can display thumbnails of your photos and, thanks to the community-created Tvixie utility, you can make your own video jukebox with custom pages for each film. Navigation is nice and quick, and the different menus make it easy to get the hang of quickly.


The only real drawback is the N1's management of audio content, which is still not perfect in my opinion. Although it can display a page of album covers to help you choose what to listen to, all such features vanish into thin air as soon as you press play. This means that once the album starts to play, the cover is no longer displayed, irrespective of whether it's integrated into the music file or separately stored. Track information (tags) is pretty sparse too, so you'll have to make do with just the track title and artist. There's still some room for improvement then — Dvico take note!

Compatibility: watch out for videos with hefty bitrates!

The Tvix N1's decoder chip (Realtek RTD1073) is slower than that found in the Tvix 6632N (RTD1283). They both recognise the same number of audio, video and photo files, but the N1 has real trouble playing videos with hefty bitrates. You'll notice the problem in our multimedia centre face-off.

For MKV container files, you have to make sure that peaks in bitrate don't exceed 24 Mb/s. For M2TS (Blu-ray rip files) and MTS (footage from an HD camcorder), peaks in bitrate can't go higher than 55 Mb/s.

Does it matter? Not really I suppose, as there are not that many videos around with bitrates that high. What is strange though, is that other devices with the same chip are able to decode videos with higher bitrates with no problems at all, and therefore offer better all-round performances than the Dvico. So given that the problem must come from Dvico, I thought I'd drop them a line to try and find out more. They weren't actually aware of this limited bitrate but they assured me they'd look into it.


Ripped Blu-ray and DVD files are accepted but BR files will lose their menus and subtitles. In terms of audio, there's nothing to complain about really, as the N1 can both decode and bitstream Dolby Digital and DTS (PCM). A stereo downmix mode also allows you to convert 5.1 (or higher) audio to stereo to play through your TV.

A last few quick points: there's a 24p mode which starts up automatically; subtitles can be moved backwards and forwards in time; and the time required to flick from one photo to another is within the average of 2 to 3 seconds.

Connections: HDMI, network and SDHC

A/V outputs are sufficiently catered for with HDMI and component connections for HD TVs, and a composite connection for SD TVs. There's also an optical audio output for sending the audio signal to an external amplifier without an HDMI entry.

USB flash drives and external hard drives can be hooked up to one of the three USB Host ports. One port is located on the top of the device (or on the side, depending whether you stand it horizontally or vertically) and just next to that there's an SDHC memory card reader that's handy for viewing your latest photos or home movies.

It's worth noting, however, that the Dvico USB driver isn't quite up to scratch and limits data transfer speeds to just 5.9 MB/s. It is, however, possible to copy files from one USB peripheral (including SDHC cards) to another. The network connection is a 100 Mb/s Ethernet port and Wi-Fi compatibility can be added with an optional USB wireless adapter.