Fast forward to today, and Slimdevices/Logitech just announced their updated version of the concept. Not too imaginatively called the Squeezebox Boom. It’s basically the old style Squeezebox with an amplifier, a pair of speakers and a few buttons that makes it more like a normal radio. This means it streams audio (mp3, wav, you-name-it) from a PC running the excellent Squeezecenter music software or straight from the internet, using wifi or ethernet. The Boom also has Line In, for attaching other music sources like a CD player or an MP3 player of your choice, and a headphone plug that also can be used to attach a sub. It also has a seven-day alarm clock built in, so you can wake to your favourite playlist, internet radio station or just Metallica on repeat. You can even pick something different for each day of the week.

And it plays nice with your existing Squeezebox system if any, including the fancy Squeezebox Duet remote. Although it also comes with its own plain, 10-button, LCD-lacking remote as well.

Apparently, Logitech has gone to great lengths to make sure the sound is as good as it gets from a set of loudspeakers this size. Which is on par with something Bose would want you to put in your kitchen. Cheesy promotional picture included to show you the actual size. Sorry about that, but it was the only image I could find that showed it in relation to anything at all.

Downsides? Well, the minor one is that it needs a power cord to work. Which is perfectly okay if you want to use it in the bedroom, kitchen, workroom or any other place indoors you need a beat but don’t want a full stereo. Any respectable home will have a mains plug nearby. But forget taking it into the yard without an extension cord. Presumably, Slimdevices figured it was very few places you could bring your Boom that had wifi/ethernet but no electricity. And I tend to agree, although it would have been nice to have the option. Not that I have a yard, yet.

Here is a quick graphic showing how Slimdevices would want you to use their new Boom.

So, would I buy one? Well, I already have the Logitech Duet for the living room stereo, an existing stereo mini-system for the kitchen and the radio alarm clocks in the bedroom. And that’s about covers the audio needs we have in the apartment. However, when we move to a house this is definitely one piece of equipment going into one or more of the additional rooms we then get. As I’ve already mentioned in the Logitech Duet review, this instant access to your ripped audio selection is a great way of connecting with your music again. Get the Logitech 930-000054 Squeezebox Boom All-In-One Network Music Player with Integrated Speakers (phew) at Amazon.

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My new toy is a Mvix MX-760HD Media Player. Like the Apple TV and so many other similar devices out these days, it simply lets your media collection talk to your TV in the easiest manner possible. It groks both wired and wireless, and from unpacking to viewing something from my server on my TV took all of 10 minutes. And that includes the time spent actually reading the manual to figure out how to get it to talk DVI out. Your mileage may vary depending on infrastructure and skill though, but it does seem like one of the better items in this regard.

 The good parts are plentiful. The documentation and the web site is a bit divided on whether or not it will read and display 1080p HD or just 1080i. I have only tried 720p because that is the native resolution of my TV but I will nvestigate further. It claims to understand most known formats out there, both video and audio. It even knows OGG, most likely due to the device being Linux-based.

It has space for a normal ide hard-disk inside, and installing one is as easy as installing one in your desktop PC. You can’t upload stuff to the hard disk over the net though, for that you have to disconnect the device from your TV and use an USB cable to connect it to your PC. The hard drive will then show up as a drive on your PC and you can dump stuff on it that way. A bit cumbersome, but once you’ve loaded up a couple of films it makes an ideal device to take with you to a remote place that has a TV but little more. You can also attach an USB drive to the device if you don’t want an internal hard drive making noise all the time. Or you can stream all the content from your server. The only time you really need local storage on the device is when/if you need to perform firmware upgrades.

The menu system is quick and easy, and traversing even very large directories take refreshingly little time. Output options are excellent, the only thing missing is a HDMI port. But DVI+audio works almost as well. And in addition to this, it has component, composite, svideo and digital audio. Not bad for a tiny box like this.

 So what’s keeping it from being the best media player in the world? Well, quite a few things really. The two major ones are incomplete codecs and sub-par picture manipulation. Even though the glossy brochures claim support for DivX 3/4/5, Xvid, WMV, WMV-9 and a whole host of other formats including VOB, it’s a hit and miss on what videos it will play and which will just give you an "unknown format" error. Even though they’re all technically supported. As for picture manipulation, no matter how much I tell the player to stay away from scaling the picture it will still stretch and crop the video as it sees fit. And that generally means you’re missing an inch or two of picture on one or more sides when it’s satisfied.

I’ve filed both those as bugs, along with about 10-15 other smaller problems or request for enhancements. Everything else feels quite raw, and it doesn’t take a lot of fiddling about with the remote before the device just plain stops working. There is a "jukebox"-feature for playing songs in various manners, but it’s not very good. What the device is good at is really just playing one thing at the time and then go on to the next, be it video or audio. Firmware updates seem to be frequent however, so hopefully they are eager and willing to improve this otherwise rather impressive product.

 All in all, it’s actually not bad. Once the firmware stabilises and the codecs improve slightly I think we have a real winner, at least for a little while until the next generation of players come out.

It’s being sold by MvixUSA and a few other select sites. Or you can help me out and purchase it on Amazon by clicking on the picture of the Mvix above. But if you’re not in the US, then eBay is your friend in need.

 For lots and lots of additional information, see my Mvix Page.
 

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