Replay Plus Viewvox 1000 Digital Media Server Review

I'm a big fan of home theatre convergence products, so I was quite excited when an opportunity came my way to look at the VIEWVOX 1000 digital media server from ReplayPlus. Convergence products help to eliminate the gap between home theatre products and computers. If the word "computer" makes you anxious, don't worry because the VIEWVOX product line-up doesn't require any computer knowledge.

The VIEWVOX 1000 digital media server is designed to bring all digital entertainment right to your living room or home theatre. It allows you to watch and record television programs as well as access digital music, videos and photos stored on its hard drive or a home network. It can also store your entire DVD library which can be accessed from other VIEWVOX equipped rooms in your house. Unlike any computer, the VIEWVOX 1000 has a clean, sophisticated design that matches other home theatre components. Its enclosure is constructed of metal and finished with a solid aluminium front panel (available in silver or black). Two doors in the front hide access to various digital memory slots as well as USB and firewire ports. An LCD display shows basic information such as time and system info when the VIEWVOX is running. The system comes with a Media Center remote control and a wireless keyboard with an integrated touchpad. The remote allows full functionality of the VIEWVOX while the keyboard is intended primarily for text entry.

The VIEWVOX 1000 is powered by an AMD Athlon64 3500+ CPU and contains 1 GB of RAM, a dual-layer CD/DVD recorder and a massive 500 GB hard drive. For more in-depth technical specifications please visit the manufacturer's website. The system is based on the Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system, but don't let this scare you - using it, is not like using Windows at all. The Media Center menu system is incredibly simple to use.

To evaluate the VIEWVOX 1000, I set it up with a Pioneer PDP-4360HD plasma television, a Pioneer Elite VSX-84TXSi A/V receiver and a 5.1 set of Sinclair Audio Brighton Series speakers.

Connecting it was no different from connecting any other piece of audio or video equipment in my home theatre. I used a DVI to HDMI cable to deliver video and an optical audio cable to deliver audio to the Pioneer receiver. Video output can also be connected by analogue VGA (which I also tried), component and S-Video cables. The VIEWVOX also includes a 5.1 set of analogue audio outputs, if you choose to connect it that way. To use these analogue outputs you will need three mini-stereo to RCA cables. For recording TV programs, the VIEWVOX offers an analogue TV cable input as well as an S-video input. I connected an analogue TV cable to the unit. In order for the media server to access high speed internet as well as my home network, I also had to connect a network cable between it and my network router. The media server can also connect wirelessly to a home network, if you have a wireless router. Finally, I connected the supplied RF and IR receivers to the USB ports at the back of the VIEWVOX.

When the VIEWVOX is powered on for the first time, it asks a set of straight forward questions about your home theatre equipment and how it's set up. From this point on, each time I started the VIEWVOX, it went directly to the main menu of the Media Center interface. This menu presented me with choices including Play DVD, My Videos, My Pictures, My TV, My Music and Radio among others.

Before I could enjoy any digital media (such as pictures, videos or music), I had to transfer the media to the VIEWVOX's hard drive or point the VIEWVOX to the media on my home network. Media can be transferred to the VIEWVOX hard drive from digital camera cards, USB flash drives, CDs or DVDs. The VIEWVOX can also be pointed to access files from any shared folders on a home network. I accessed media using both methods and both were surprisingly simple to perform using the supplied remote. The Media Center software has an intuitive and very easy to navigate menu system. This is certainly something that users, computer literate or not, will enjoy. The only step that an average user might have to learn how to perform, is to share folders on their home network computers - which is actually very simple to do.

Once I had some media on the VIEWVOX, I could enjoy it in a whole new light, namely a comfortable couch and 43-inch plasma display. Pictures from my digital camera looked stunning on the big screen in high resolution. Listening to mp3 music on my home theatre speakers instead of small computer speakers made for a completely different audio experience. As the music was playing, I was able to select different visual effects on the screen that changed with the beat and pace of the music. Additional music can be downloaded using Musicmatch software (on a pay-per-song basis) which is part of the Media Center.

The VIEWVOX system offers more functionality than a typical personal video recorder (PVR) and it does so with a more pleasant interface than any PVR that I've ever seen. During the initial setup of the VIEWVOX, a TV programming guide was automatically downloaded based on the TV provider that I was using and my postal code. This guide is a truly wonderful thing and is available for all TV cable and satellite providers. Recording a show was as simple as selecting it from the guide and choosing the option "Record", whether it was currently playing or coming up in the next few days. The simplicity of recording material and watching it later was phenomenally simple on this system. Although you can record high definition programming using the VIEWVOX, it is currently down-converted to 480i. Only over-the-air HD channels can be recorded at full HD resolution. A future upgrade will enable the VIEWVOX systems to record all HD channels at a full HD resolution.

Playing standard DVD movies using the VIEWVOX produced a picture quality equivalent to a picture from a respectable-brand, standalone DVD player (when connected via its DVI output). The up-conversion of standard DVDs to 720p and 1080i via DVI produced a picture with a noticeably improved sharpness and detail. Using the VGA output of the VIEWVOX produced a softer picture, with less accurate colours and lighter blacks than a picture that I'm used to from a typical DVD player. In fact, using the VGA output produced a softer picture in all areas of the Media Center, so I strongly recommend using the DVI output. In addition to DVD-Video, the VIEWVOX can also play multi-channel DVD-Audio music albums - a very welcome feature.

The VIEWVOX can also serve as a library for your entire DVD and CD collection. Each time I inserted a disc, the system presented me with the option to store it on the VIEWVOX.

A synopsis of the DVD, information about the director and actors, and the cover artwork were automatically retrieved from the Internet for each movie that I added to the library. Similar information was also retrieved for music CDs. It took between 2 and 15 minutes to transfer each disc to the VIEWVOX. This process was very straight forward. Once the content was on the VIEWVOX, it was neatly organized and the system allowed me to easily locate and record other similar media based on its online database. The picture and sound quality of CDs and DVDs does not degrade when they are transferred to the VIEWVOX.

Since the VIEWVOX runs the Windows XP operating system, it allows the user to close the Media Center interface and run any PC applications and games from the familiar Windows XP desktop. I didn't get a chance to run any Windows games while I evaluated the system but surfing the web was certainly convenient on my big screen plasma.

The overall performance and speed of the VIEWVOX media server was remarkable. The only thing that I had to wait for was for the system to start up, which takes about a minute. Once the system was running, switching between different tasks such as watching live TV, recorded TV, listening to music or viewing pictures was virtually instantaneous. Navigating the Media Center menus was always fluid, which translated into a very enjoyable entertainment experience.

Even though the VIEWVOX has multiple fans inside its enclosure, it was surprisingly quiet. In fact, it was quieter than other similar systems that I've played with in the past. The occasional hard drive activity noise was the only sound that ever bothered me.

Any of the VIEWVOX media servers can be used in standalone or in multi-room configurations. In a multi-room setup, each VIEWVOX can access digital content stored on any other VIEWVOX system or other computers connected to a home network.

An attractive feature of all VIEWVOX systems (unlike typical audio video equipment) is that they are both software and hardware upgradeable. This means that when new technologies such as HD DVD and Blu-ray emerge, you will be able to upgrade the required components and add additional functionality to your VIEWVOX. Upgrades can be performed by shipping the system to VIEWVOX or by the users themselves, if you're familiar with computer hardware.

The suggested price of $1995 (Canadian) for the entry-level VIEWVOX 1000 includes shipping as well as an initial in-home setup in the Montreal area. ReplayPlus offers a discount to customers that choose to set up the system by themselves. Other VIEWVOX models offer faster performance, a larger storage capacity and other advanced functionality. All systems come with 10 hours (or 30 days) of complementary technical support over the phone to assist with the initial configuration.

The VIEWVOX 1000 digital media server added a brand new level of experience to my home entertainment. The system has a cool, futuristic feel that is simple enough for an average consumer to use - there is no unnecessary complexity here. It may be difficult to draw a conclusion from just reading about the VIEWVOX 1000. To truly appreciate what this system is capable of, you have to see it to believe it.