My first internet order! The MG-25 MediaGate

If you're wondering why the hiatus then it's because I have been busy playing with my new toy: the Mediagate MG-25. This thing is awesome, especially for the price. It is a portable harddrive that plays diVX, MPGs, & virtually every other file format you can think of on a TV or Home Cinema. Supports Dolby Digital Surround Sound too. The hard drive for the MG-25 can be purchased separately and is a basic 2.5" laptop hard drive. In my case I bought a Hitachi 80GB hard drive and installed it with no worries despite knowing little to nothing about what goes on inside a computer (or any kind of technology for that matter!)!

Picture quality is pretty good as well but obviously relies on the quality of the movie you're playing. Some of the poor quality divx's I downloaded came out in pretty shocking quality on screen. If someone has overcompressed the sound you will definitely hear it over your home's sound system. However, a couple of 24 episodes recorded from HDTV came out in DVD quality with all the requisite sound effects!

The lack of a 'on-panel' control system for controlling functions of the hddrive is a bit annoying as well. I'm not complaining though as instead of a panel, the MG-25 has a REMOTE!! It seems to have a pretty big range too! Whilst I'd rather have a remote than a panel, having both would have been nice.

As for it's other features: MP3 facility seems to be top notch, better than my DVD/MP3 player anyway. The picture facility is a little less top notch. Whilst I don't doubt it can display pictures it has very finite limits on the pictures it can display. MediaGate effectively froze whilst trying to preview my 2MB photos. It flashed with all sorts of 'low memory' warnings when I tried to open them. Since most people with digital cameras don't really compress their images this could be a problem. Could also be a problem for those who were planning on transferring their pictures directly to MediaGate.

I also note with a sense of irony that the only video format the MG-25 doesn't support is *.wmv, Microsoft's supposedly 'universal' format! :)

This purchase was notable for one other reason: it marks my first real foray into the realm of internet shopping. I have spent money on the net only once before and that was with EasyJet. However, I don't really count that as real internet order. In the case of EasyJet I needed to get from Barcelona to London somehow. The prices were (and are still) so ridiculously cheap on Europe's budget airlines that it made almost no sense to purchase flights in Europe through traditional travel agents.

However, in this case, the MediaGate wasn't an essential item. I was definitely looking for some storage space but I didn't need one that supported divx and had a video out! So, I guess this marks my entry into the world of e-commerce. After all, you can only tell that you're an internet shopper if you feel so safe that you'll fork out $500 over it for something you really don't need!