TECIC's "Movie-Spot": Summary and Review

26-07-2007, 10:27 AM

Movie-Spot Plug in. Watch. Enjoy.

Movie-Spot, the new name of the previous TV-Disk, is a multimedia player developed by TECIC that can display/play media files from your computer onto your TV. This article will give a summary of Movie-Spot’s features. Please note that this product is still under development and is subject to change.

The Hardware:
http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/1.JPG
Fig 1: Movie-Spot (Lime-green version)

Movie-Spot, a 13cm*11.5cm*3cm 200gram media box, has two USB and one mini-USB ports in which you can connect storage devices to play files from. The storage devices include, but are not limited to: flash drives, memory cards (SD, MMC, miniSD, CompactFlash, MemoryStick, etc.), portable hard drives, cameras, pen-drives, etc.

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/2.JPG
Fig 2: Memory card reader connected to one of Movie-Spot’s two USB ports.

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/3.JPG
Fig 3: Portable hard-drive connected to one of Movie-Spot’s two USB ports.

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/4.JPG
Fig 4: Movie-Spot playing a movie from a portable hard-drive

From these storage drives Movie-Spot can play the following file formats:

Video: AVI, DivX, XviD, WMV9, TS, VOB, MPG
Audio: WAV, MP3, AAC, WMA, AC3
Picture: JPEG, BMP
(As Movie-Spot continues to develop, more and more formats will be supported)

Movie-Spot is very flexible when it comes to connecting it to your TV. Supporting both NTSC and PAL, it can connect using Composite Video (A/V), S-Video, or Component Video, able to display video resolutions up to 1080p. Audio can be presented in Mono, Stereo, or 5.1 surround using the included coaxial plug. The rear of the device consists of four holes: one for power, two for video, and one for audio.

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/15.JPG
Fig 5: The rear of Movie-Spot (Black version)

The cables have been “condensed” into a single cable to make everything nice and clean, or nicer and cleaner, at the back of your TV and your Movie-Spot. For example, A/V and S-Video have been combined into one cable, and that cable fits into the “Video” port at the back of Movie-Spot.

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/5.JPG
Fig 6: The “Video” Cable: On the right are the S-Video and Composite Video plugs, on the left is the Movie-Spot plug

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/6.JPG
Fig 7: The “Y/Pb/Pr” Cable: On the right are the Component Video plugs, on the left is the Movie-Spot plug

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/7.JPG
Fig 8: The “Audio” cable: On the right are the coaxial and A/V audio plugs, on the left is the Movie-Spot plug

This condensing makes installation incredibly quick, clean, and easy.

The Menu
The menu system for Movie-Spot is very straightforward:

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/8.JPG
Fig 9: Main Menu of Movie-Spot

You have a choice of three tabs: “Music”, “Video”, and “Pictures”. Unfortunately technological limitations don’t allow us to just combine the three into just one category, but this is easy enough isn’t it? After selecting one of the tabs, you are presented with a submenu. The submenus for each of the tabs are identical, differing only in what kind of files they display (i.e. videos will not appear in the “Music” submenu).

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/9.JPG
Fig 10: Sub-menu of Movie-Spot

To the left of the submenu is a list of options and on the right is the directory list, a list of files and folders found on your storage device. Clicking the return button brings you back to the Main Menu, allowing you to restart your search in case you get lost looking for a media file. To start looking for a file, click the name of your storage device, and keep clicking until you find the file in the place where you saved it on your computer/camera. Then click the Play/Enter button, wait about three seconds, you’re good to go. It really is that simple.

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/10.JPG
Fig 11: Playing a music file

Switching storage devices is easy. First make sure you’re at the Main Menu, then swap devices, and you’re good to go. However, if you want to switch cards in a memory card reader (i.e. switch an SD card for a MemoryStick) you have to press the REFLASH button on the remote so that Movie-Spot can search for new memory cards.

Most storage devices use the device it’s plugged into to draw power. But some of those devices draw a lot more power than the others, and this causes a small problem with Movie-Spot. If there is not enough power to run the storage device normally, you have two options. The first is to plug that device into the USB1 port, or the USB port on the way left. If that doesn’t work, then you have to swap the original USB cord with a USB cord that has two USB plugs on one end. Put those USB plugs into both of Movie-Spot’s USB port and hopefully it turns on this time. If it doesn’t, then you have one heck of a power-eating storage device.
The Settings Menu
The settings menu is where you adjust video and audio settings for Movie-Spot. Once again, it’s a very straightforward menu.

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/11.JPG
Fig 12: Audio Settings

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/12.JPG
Fig 13: Video settings

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/13.JPG
Fig 14: Initial settings

Setting them is just a matter of pressing the navigation buttons and the Play/Enter key.

http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/14.JPG
Fig 15: Choosing a setting

Movie-Spot is a very promising product, quick to deliver what you want to see from your computer to your TV. Unfortunately it cannot play copyrighted file formats (MOV, RM, etc), but it makes up for this by being able to play in 1080p video quality and 5.1 surround sound. Movie-Spot packs a whole lot of features under its plastic cover and, selling for $100, makes itself more attractive over similar products with higher price tags. If you really want to watch media files in your computer on your TV without compromising video or audio quality, then Movie-Spot is for you.

What do you guys think about Movie-Spot? Will this product sell?
(Am I allowed to post stuff like this by the way?)

View Poll Results: Will Movie-Spot sell?
Yes	1	100.00%
No	0	0%
Voters: 1. You may not vote on this poll

26-07-2007, 10:27 AM	#1
lolilulla Guest Posts: n/a	TECIC's "Movie-Spot": Summary and Review Advertisement Want to Advertise? Movie-Spot Plug in. Watch. Enjoy. Movie-Spot, the new name of the previous TV-Disk, is a multimedia player developed by TECIC that can display/play media files from your computer onto your TV. This article will give a summary of Movie-Spot’s features. Please note that this product is still under development and is subject to change. The Hardware: http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/1.JPG Fig 1: Movie-Spot (Lime-green version) Movie-Spot, a 13cm11.5cm3cm 200gram media box, has two USB and one mini-USB ports in which you can connect storage devices to play files from. The storage devices include, but are not limited to: flash drives, memory cards (SD, MMC, miniSD, CompactFlash, MemoryStick, etc.), portable hard drives, cameras, pen-drives, etc. http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/2.JPG Fig 2: Memory card reader connected to one of Movie-Spot’s two USB ports. http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/3.JPG Fig 3: Portable hard-drive connected to one of Movie-Spot’s two USB ports. http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/4.JPG Fig 4: Movie-Spot playing a movie from a portable hard-drive From these storage drives Movie-Spot can play the following file formats: Video: AVI, DivX, XviD, WMV9, TS, VOB, MPG Audio: WAV, MP3, AAC, WMA, AC3 Picture: JPEG, BMP (As Movie-Spot continues to develop, more and more formats will be supported) Movie-Spot is very flexible when it comes to connecting it to your TV. Supporting both NTSC and PAL, it can connect using Composite Video (A/V), S-Video, or Component Video, able to display video resolutions up to 1080p. Audio can be presented in Mono, Stereo, or 5.1 surround using the included coaxial plug. The rear of the device consists of four holes: one for power, two for video, and one for audio. http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/15.JPG Fig 5: The rear of Movie-Spot (Black version) The cables have been “condensed” into a single cable to make everything nice and clean, or nicer and cleaner, at the back of your TV and your Movie-Spot. For example, A/V and S-Video have been combined into one cable, and that cable fits into the “Video” port at the back of Movie-Spot. http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/5.JPG Fig 6: The “Video” Cable: On the right are the S-Video and Composite Video plugs, on the left is the Movie-Spot plug http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/6.JPG Fig 7: The “Y/Pb/Pr” Cable: On the right are the Component Video plugs, on the left is the Movie-Spot plug http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/7.JPG Fig 8: The “Audio” cable: On the right are the coaxial and A/V audio plugs, on the left is the Movie-Spot plug This condensing makes installation incredibly quick, clean, and easy. The Menu The menu system for Movie-Spot is very straightforward: http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/8.JPG Fig 9: Main Menu of Movie-Spot You have a choice of three tabs: “Music”, “Video”, and “Pictures”. Unfortunately technological limitations don’t allow us to just combine the three into just one category, but this is easy enough isn’t it? After selecting one of the tabs, you are presented with a submenu. The submenus for each of the tabs are identical, differing only in what kind of files they display (i.e. videos will not appear in the “Music” submenu). http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/9.JPG Fig 10: Sub-menu of Movie-Spot To the left of the submenu is a list of options and on the right is the directory list, a list of files and folders found on your storage device. Clicking the return button brings you back to the Main Menu, allowing you to restart your search in case you get lost looking for a media file. To start looking for a file, click the name of your storage device, and keep clicking until you find the file in the place where you saved it on your computer/camera. Then click the Play/Enter button, wait about three seconds, you’re good to go. It really is that simple. http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/10.JPG Fig 11: Playing a music file Switching storage devices is easy. First make sure you’re at the Main Menu, then swap devices, and you’re good to go. However, if you want to switch cards in a memory card reader (i.e. switch an SD card for a MemoryStick) you have to press the REFLASH button on the remote so that Movie-Spot can search for new memory cards. Most storage devices use the device it’s plugged into to draw power. But some of those devices draw a lot more power than the others, and this causes a small problem with Movie-Spot. If there is not enough power to run the storage device normally, you have two options. The first is to plug that device into the USB1 port, or the USB port on the way left. If that doesn’t work, then you have to swap the original USB cord with a USB cord that has two USB plugs on one end. Put those USB plugs into both of Movie-Spot’s USB port and hopefully it turns on this time. If it doesn’t, then you have one heck of a power-eating storage device. The Settings Menu The settings menu is where you adjust video and audio settings for Movie-Spot. Once again, it’s a very straightforward menu. http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/11.JPG Fig 12: Audio Settings http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/12.JPG Fig 13: Video settings http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/13.JPG Fig 14: Initial settings Setting them is just a matter of pressing the navigation buttons and the Play/Enter key. http://www.tecic.com.tw/wayne1984228/kevin/14.JPG Fig 15: Choosing a setting Movie-Spot is a very promising product, quick to deliver what you want to see from your computer to your TV. Unfortunately it cannot play copyrighted file formats (MOV, RM, etc), but it makes up for this by being able to play in 1080p video quality and 5.1 surround sound. Movie-Spot packs a whole lot of features under its plastic cover and, selling for $100, makes itself more attractive over similar products with higher price tags. If you really want to watch media files in your computer on your TV without compromising video or audio quality, then Movie-Spot is for you. What do you guys think about Movie-Spot? Will this product sell? (Am I allowed to post stuff like this by the way?)
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