Nixeus Fusion HD Review
by Ganesh T S on March 4, 2011 3:26 PM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Media Streamer
- Gadgets
The home screen on the Nixeus Fusion HD is pleasing.
However, things start going downhill once you start navigating the internal menus or try to pull up options when playing media files. Don't mistake me, the UI is completely functional, but the fonts and the appearance are like what graphics used to be on DOS machines in the 1990s. Some of examples of the rudimentary UI during file playback are given below:
I am probably spoilt after seeing the UI of the WDTV Live Hub, the NTV 550 and the Boxee Box in this area, but I really feel Nixeus must improve upon this in their future products.
A gallery of the UI pictures is provided below:
As can be seen in a couple of the gallery pictures, the Fusion HD has a host of online services such as YouTube, iMedia (Fusion Web Channel) etc. These services are a hit or a miss (like in many other media players which have YouTube access). There is also support for Flickr, Shoutcast and Live365, which definitely work better than the video services.
The other special selling point for the Nixeus Fusion HD is the web browser. This is not usually implemented by other SMP 865x based media streamers.
AnandTech.com on the Nixeus Fusion HD Web Browser
Unfortunately, visiting any Flash website causes the browser to crash. In fact, I wouldn't advise using the browser unless it is just plain text and pictures on the website you plan to visit. The SMP 8655 platform is not powerful enough for Adobe Flash implementation or running a full featured browser. Unless Nixeus moves away from the Sigma Designs platforms, they should not implement web browsers in their future products.
There is also BitTorrent support, but, frankly, how many users are going to download their copy of Ubuntu using the Fusion HD? That said, I find BitTorrent clients on many media streamers. There must be a market for this feature and consumers must be demanding this probably. Another aspect I liked about the Fusion HD is the extensive support for keyboard and mice (even wireless!) through the USB 2.0 host port. Network setup and shared folder access (both SMB and NFS) were quite straightforward and proceeded without a hitch.
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3DoubleD - Friday, March 4, 2011 - link
"There is also BitTorrent support, but, frankly, how many users are going to download their copy of Ubuntu using the Fusion HD? That said, I find BitTorrent clients on many media streamers. There must be a market for this feature and consumers must be demanding this probably."I might just attribute this to the author trying to be clever and just assume you are joking. Thanks for the article, helping the Friday afternoon go by!
ganeshts - Friday, March 4, 2011 - link
Anything to keep the readers entertained and happy :)Btw, the geeky pirates have better avenues than P2P (BitTorrent / DC++ etc.) to satisfy their needs.... ;)
fbking - Friday, March 11, 2011 - link
you can get it from fookbuy.com for $184.95 with free shippinggoyuix - Friday, March 4, 2011 - link
It is great that you can use it as a hard disk, but what file systems does it support? FAT32 is usually not acceptable in these scenarios that need to accommodate large files, and ext2/3/4 is not widely deployed and used on Windows computers. I would love to see a nod to supported and default file systems in future reviews!ganeshts - Friday, March 4, 2011 - link
Ah! I should have mentioned it :) The hard drive in the system was formatted in NTFS, which is the default. Though ext file systems may have better features than NTFS in most scenarios, for media streamers in a Windows heavy environment (which is what most households are), NTFS is the best choice.As you rightly note, FAT32 is no longer useful because most of the ISOs and MKVs are greater than the 4 GB limitation that FAT32 has.
Milleman - Saturday, March 5, 2011 - link
The 100 Mbps is also a dealbreaker...Azethoth - Friday, March 4, 2011 - link
I am curious about the security implications of using these NAS appliances. Are they secure, or are they gaping security holes? The whole HBGary thing has confirmed what I suspected about many security firms: not secure at all. Does that extend to our routers, NASes, modems?I am using a Netgear Ultra 6 Plus NAS for my streaming needs. It also has BitTorrent support but I do not use it. I prefer to rip CDs using dBpoweramp.
ganeshts - Friday, March 4, 2011 - link
Comment intended for another article? :)vol7ron - Friday, March 4, 2011 - link
When is this price point ever going to have a tuner (read: CableCARD)? The advantage of having an HD dock in the device would be amplified if you could actually record to it.Discombobulated28 - Friday, March 4, 2011 - link
Hmmm... I never noticed that... most media players in the USA don't have tuners in them... I know they're very popular outside of the USA...