Mede8er MED500X

Mede8er is a little-known brand here. This South African company has however come up with a pretty good product in the MED500X. While this is the nth multimedia hard drive based on the HD Realtek RTD1073 chip, this design brings some good ideas in terms of display of film synopses and music album covers. Does it measure up to the Xtreamers and PopcornHour C-200s?

Sober-looking, the MED500X has a solid matte plastic casing, glossy just at the front. While there are several buttons on the front of the box, there's no screen, while means you can't use it when the TV is off.

You can slot a standard 3.5" (SATA) hard drive inside. There's no limit on maximum capacity as the manufacturer has announced up to 2 TB, which is the current max. The remote that comes with it is the same as with numerous other products, such as the Fantec TV-FHDS. It's made with average quality plastic. We think it lacks a bit of class and looks more like an entry-level object than something you'd expect for Home Cinema. Handling is nevertheless fine and the buttons very well placed.

Moving on to the navigation interface, the graphics are nicely designed with fluid animation. However the system is technically identical to almost all other products based on a Realtek chip. Happily this means you get used to the menus relatively easily and display is rapid overall.

The device is also economical in terms of energy consumption: we took readings of 1.8 watts on standby and between 13 watts and 16 watts when in activity, with an internal hard drive plugged in.

Decoding: high def video, DTS decoding and MKV containers

No surprise when it comes to decoding, the manufacturer has succeeded in managing the Realtek RTD1073 chip well. Compatibility with high def media is excellent and allows you to play almost all video formats.

It supports all current video codecs: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 ASP (DivX, XviD), MPEG-4 AVC (H.264, x264) and VC-1 (WMV). They can all be read in both SD and HD up to 1080p. There is also a 24 Hz mode. Numerous containers - files in which you find a video track, several audio tracks and several subtitles - are also recognised: AVI, DIVX, MP4, MKV, MOV, FLV, MTS, M2TS and WMV work no problem. No problem either for DVDs saved as ISOs or VOBs: the DVD architecture is respected in the menus in both cases, including audio tracks and subtitling.

Audio support is also very good with standard MP3 and WMA but also OGG, FLAC and AAC. Decoding of normal version Dolby Digital and DTS is also supported. There are two modes: downmix stereo - the audio track is decoded by the device and sent on two channels (TV speakers for example) -- or bitstream -- the audio track is sent to an external compatible decoder (amplifier for example) which takes care of decoding the flow. Note that multi-audio support is very well handled and that it is easy to go from one audio track to another.



Most subtitling formats are recognised: SRT, SUB, SSA, SMI and DIX are all displayed and we had no problems with encapsulated subtitles in MKVs or DIVXs. It is also fairly simple to go from one subtitle to another and to move them around in time and space. The following photo formats are accepted: JPEG, GIF, BMP and TIF. No problems with display of high definition photos (21 Mpixels) and you need 2 to 3 seconds to move from one to the next.

Connectivity: HDMI 1.3, SDHC, USB and Wi-Fi optional

The device has full connectivity: HDMI 1.3a and YUV for HD TVs and RCA for SD TVs. Coaxial and optical outs allow you to link the box to speakers or external audio decoders. There is an SDHC card reader which gives rapid access to photos and video from a digital camera.

There are two USB Hosts on the right hand side of the device. While they are better here than at the back, we prefer to have them on the front of the device. Note also that a 1 metre USB extension is supplied to allow you easy access and to link USB keys and external hard drives.

The device is equipped with an Ethernet out (10/100 Mbps) for networking. Wi-Fi is an optional extra, with a USB 802.11n dongle. Web services are limited to radio for now but the device can retrieve UPnP flows, such as Tversity. There's support for Samba, NAS and UPnP network protocols. The NAS feature means you can link the device to your computer like a networked hard drive, which facilitates access and data transfer.