Home > Consumer Reviews > MediaGate MG-450HD Digital Media Adapter with 802.11 G Wireless Network Connection

Bad: the remote control is weak, when you exit in middle of a movie and turn it off, you have to look for the chapter manually later. I would like to have the option to play movies that are in a folder, like several concerts without intervention.

Good: Play ISO, VOB, MP3 and other formats. It's wireless and HD. You can use and internal or USB Hard drive as a source. In general is a good option.

For the time being, Amazon seems to have a big confusion in its inventory with the two latest products from MediaGate. If you look for (or buy) MG-450HD (a wireless digital media adapter) at Amazon, what they will send you is actually MG-45 (a wired NDAS priced almost at half of the cost of MG-450HD). I purchased MG-450HD at Amazon and I've received MG-45's twice after going through the same number of exchanges!

Unfortunately I haven't been able to use this product because of this problem in Amazon's inventory. I've been a big fan and user of Amazon... I hope they fix this issue shortly... otherwise, nobody will be able to give MG-450HD a try! (The one star raiting goes to Amazon in this case... I hope I'll be able to update my review later :) ).

UPDATE: After Amazon fixed its issue shipping MG-450HD's (see my previous post), I was able to play with this device. I own a DLink DNS-323 (NAS) where I keep my data, accessing it from MG-450HD via wireless. After using it for 3 weeks, these were my main impressions:

GOOD
* After upgrading its firmware to the latest available (v1.1.11), the device is pretty stable most of the time (I've run into a few bugs/crashes, but they have been minor).
* I had read bad reviews about its remote control that I was afraid I would hate it. However, I don't find it as bad as others described, even during the wireless-password setup. It's been actually responsive and useful.
* The device plays correctly most of the advertised formats and playlists (I'm keeping mine in m3u format with no problem). Fortunately all my songs are in mp3 format (thanks to Amazon's MP3 download), so I don't miss its lack of iTunes-support. I've only had issues with a few AVIs, which the device won't play for some unknown reason (it actually crashes while playing one of them).
* I had also read about some issues with the size of photos on slideshows, but they work fine for me.
* I was able to access my multimedia content in both my NAS and my desktop with no problem.
* I was picturing accessing the multimedia content in my NAS via UPNP, but accessing them via SAMBA works notably faster while listing the content available (it might be a performance issue with my DNS-323's UPNP server). I ended up sticking with SAMBA and I don't think I'm missing UPNP's way of accessing that content.
* All its multimedia ports (s-video, composite, A/V) work fine for me. I haven't tried its HDMI port yet though. However, its lack of support for the MKV format is certainly a big miss when thinking about that port.
* Its user-interface is pretty simple to learn and navigate.

NOT SO GOOD
* In general, I don't think this is a device ready for everybody to setup. I hold several years of IT experience and I still had issues while getting the device to connect to my wireless router successfully (it wasn't about entering the password... that part took 30 secs, but the device just wouldn't connect. It took me several attempts to get it finally connected. I can't picture my mom going through this process, even if she ends up calling tech-support). After it connected, I haven't had any wireless-related issues with this device though.
* I wish the boot-stage of the device was faster. It takes about 30 secs to boot it up and another 10 secs to connect to my NAS from it.
* I tested its USB port with an external DVD unit I own. It works fine playing home-made DVDs. The only detail to have in mind in this case is that this device will not play commercial/regioned DVDs/CDs. I think you need to copy them to the internal HDD to be able to watch them, but I haven't tried that. Playing DVDs wirelessly is not a good idea (performance is unacceptable to watch).
* This device won't display any cover art while playing a song (even if it is in the same folder). I personally hated not seeing that feature.
* According to the docs, the only way to get this device to play background music while watching a photo-slideshow seems to be by placing it on a "music" folder in the internal HDD. I haven't tested that, but I was expecting an easier way to do that, with just the songs I've got in my NAS.
* iRadio works fine, but you can only customize its stations with a file you need to create in a special folder of the internal HDD.
* Even though the user-interface is simple, one wishes it was more capable (e.g. not requiring you to do tricks on its internal HDD to customize some of its behaviors).

In general, I think the MG-450HD met my basic expectations, enabling me to get access to the multimedia content in my NAS from everywhere in my network. That is enough for me to be reasonably happy. However, none of its features really WOW'ed me... so I think this device is missing that "last mile" of polishing in order to deserve a 5 stars review. I give it 3.5 stars (too bad I can't update my original stars grade in amazon after this update).

This is the most worthless pieces of junk I have ever bought. This thing simply does not work....it does not play any movie file...vob,vts,bup, mpeg, nothing....I will not ever buy another product from MediaGate their products suck...

I purchased this item last October, 2008. I installed a 1TB drive in it. It has worked well up until March, 2009. The unit was always off unless I was copying files to it or playing movies. Around March, 2009 it would freeze up. I contacted Mediagate and followed their diagnostics and corrections. I contacted Mediagate USA relating to my concerns. They were very receptive. They acknowledged a problems with my MG-450HD and offered a replacement to said device. I am pleased with their great customer service and would recommend Mediagate USA for anyone interested in their product line.

Hands down, after many media play purchases this is by far the best. I own 4 of them and have given 2 away as gifts. The picture quality across the scale is excellent and the audio is just as good. Many video connections to chose from. Whether it be standard RCA or HDMI. If your seeking a portable video player to have all your music & movies on one hand held unit, this is the one. I take this unit on every vacation we go on and have 1000's of files on it. The only down fall is your limited to installing a 1TB hard drive which I currently have installed. I keep changing files by transfering the old stuff to an external HD that comes along for the ride when I need the whole collection. Fire wire also people. The wireless streaming has dropped on me a few times, however, I run alot of entertainment equiptment I contribute that to. I haven't tried streaming with all my RF & misc. equiptment turned off. In anycase, I have never ran into a problem except transfering corrupted files to play that ended up freezing the unit. I still recommend this unit to family & friends. For the price, you can't beat it. Another perc is, you can set a private folder on your main computer labeled "private" then transfer all of it's content like adult content to it. Once transfered you can make this folder hidden or viewed on the On screen menu. Also add a password so children can't access that hidden folder while you're not around. Overall a beautiful machine........ Two thumbs up & 5 stars from me.

PS. If you own it, download the newer version patch so you have control over deleting and other options available once installed..