Micca Slim-HD: 1080p In Your Pocket
by Vivek Gowri on November 23, 2010 1:40 AM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Micca
- Slim-HD
- Media Player
Micca Slim-HD - User Interface
The UI is another place where the Slim-HD feels cheap. It’s kind of unfortunate, the visual and physical interfaces are both kind of off, which kinda ruins the whole deal. The UI is clean and intuitive, a very straightforward menu system. The home screen is black, with 5 buttons - Videos, Music, Photos, Files, and Settings.
Files and folders are listed by alphabetical order, again just white text on a black background. It’s just a basic, boring, functional UI. Compared to the WDTV Live Hub, the interface lacks polish. I’m not much of a home theater guy, but here’s the kind of difference that I’m talking about: go look at an Android phone, dig down into the settings and menus. Compare it to the same menus in an iPhone or a Windows Phone 7 device. There’s a distinct cohesiveness and style to the iOS and WP7 interfaces that simply isn’t found in Android.
That’s kind of the feeling I get with the Micca UI, except even more so. It’s kind of jarring, it feels like a thrown together UI. It’s just plain, and in comparison to the much more visually jazzed WDTV Live Hub UI, somewhat ugly. If you look at the WDTV screens from our review, you’ll note that it’s basically the same menus, the same options. These aren’t radical UIs, there’s only so many functions for them to serve. But I think providing something more visually engaging than just a plain black screen is really a must, especially for a device that will spend much of its time plugged into large HD displays.
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Shadowmaster625 - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
Why dont you create a media player since you have all those test files? lol. Anyway, one important thing to me in a media player is how fast it can navigate through a directory with over 100 files. Also, can the usb port be used to stream video off a flash drive, without a hard drive installed?jack@micca - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
Hi,There is no delay in navigating the folders of a drive. The simple interface means navigation overhead is very low. However, for the sake of being able to find a file easily, it's not recommended that you keep over 100 files in the same folder - you'll have to do a lot of scrolling.
The USB port can be used to play videos from a flash drive or an external USB hard drive, up to 2TB in size. And the flash card reader can be used to play videos from a SD/SDHC card.
You do not need to install a hard drive in this player. Many of our customers buy one to keep in their car (there is a car power adapter available) and use it with their in-car video systems to play videos/cartoons from a flash drive.
Jack
Sufo - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
In its defence, 60fps 1080p h.264 would give even reasonably fast processors a run for their money. It's a pretty uncommon configuration outside of the 3D world, and personally, I wouldn't hold the fact that it struggles with it against a device like this. :3chomlee - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
I dont know about anyone else but the no iso support is a deal breaker for me. It is just so much easier to be able to rip dvds into one file. The other thing is that this device really doesn't offer much that isn't already out there. I have a Patriot Box Office which allows room for a notebook drive and it plays anything you throw at it, and is on sale at newegg from time to time for 59.00 with rebate. The UI on the PBO is probably similar to the Micca but also offers network support so you can stream from a home server.Personally, I would wait for the Boxee Box to come down in price and iron out their bugs before I get anything else.
therealnickdanger - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
True, but the Boxee Box doesn't fit in your pocket.jack@micca - Tuesday, November 23, 2010 - link
You can rip DVDs into one file using something like MakeMKV. You would not have any of the DVD menus or extras, but you would have a smaller file and retain all of the original audio tracks, chapters, subtitles, and etc.Full size players like the Pariot Box Office are great if portability is not a concern. The Slim-HD is idea for those that would like to be able to take the player with them. Many people have a portable USB hard drive anyway, why not have one that also plays 1080p videos?
Jack
Milleman - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
Saw that Amazon is selling the unit for $79, which is really a good price for a portable harddisk container that also will play HD movies, music and photos as a bonus. I've actually been waiting for something like this!The0ne - Monday, November 29, 2010 - link
Someone like me that takes his media everywhere :) My family loves it as we can watch anything at any time without any hassle. Same when we travel and stay at relatives home.But I can see this not being so attractive to someone that doesn't have/enjoy the things I have. Good price too.
Shadowmaster625 - Wednesday, November 24, 2010 - link
I do like ISOs, but if you're going to rip it into an ISO, why not go the extra step and convert it to something less than 4-20GB?jack@micca - Thursday, November 25, 2010 - link
That's very true. I know you'll loose some quality, but you can get a very good conversion into H.264 and get a movie down to 1/3 or even 1/4 its original size.Jack