Satechi Cyclone Micro 2+ 1080p Portable Media (MKV, AVI, MOV) Player Adapter with SD/SDHC Memory, US

I am very pleased with this little toy after only two days. It does everything I expected it to and does it well. The 1080p upscaling is more than acceptable. The GUI is a little kludgy but it's okay once you figure it out. Keep file names as short as possible to make it easier on yourself. I've successfully used a USB flash drive as well as a 16gb SD card (like you'd use in a digital camera) with no problems at all, although the SD card slot doesn't have a spring load in it... it just kinda slides in and sits there.

The only reason that I gave it 4 stars is that the tiny remote button labels are printed in a fairly dark blue on black and is VERY hard to read unless you are in full light. I'm also less than enthused that it doesn't handle a few very common video containers like MKV, MP4 and MOV. I knew that up front though so it wasn't a surprise. I also see in the setup that you can see what version of the software is installed but the sparse manual and website make absolutely no reference to updating it or if it's even possible. One other minor nag: Subtitles are defaulted to "ON". No biggie... just a push of a button on the remote but still an annoyance. I've also recently noticed that file management does not work correctly. For example, if you delete a file it does indeed disappear from the on-screen list but it does not rebuild the file directory. I deleted several 2gb+ files and when I took the flash drive back to my computer they were gone, but the space they occupied was not available and I had to reformat the drive to reclaim that space.

All in all, as long as you are aware of the shortcomings and they really won't affect your needs, then buy it! It's great so far! I will update my review after 6 months or so.

UPDATE Dec. 27: Didn't take 6 months after all! I am returning this box and dropping my rating from 4 to 3 stars. It still performs great for short usage but it overheats after an hour or so. In turn, it overheats the USB flash drive and then it locks up. The only way around that is to unplug it and give it time to cool down. I did have some success using a short USB extension cable to get the drive away from the box but that is one too many bandaids for me personally. I decided I want to upgrade a bit more and get something that also plays MKV's, MOV's and MP4's so I'm trying out the Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002USAIYS/ref=oss_product

This is a great product for the purpose I wanted. I have a SUV with a built-in DVD system, however most of the movies that I have are in digital format including MKV, MPG and AVI. I had initially though of getting a dvd player and then converting the videos to MPG2 and creating DVDs with it, but that would have been cumbersome and also suffered from loss of quality. Also since I have composite video pins in the SUV just having HDMI output was not an option. At all these level this product fits properly. I have attached a 1 GB external HD powered buy this units USB. I can play all of these videos directly to the car video and the kids have about 60 movies to choose from. I also was able to take this out on vacation and then attached this to the hotels TV thru DVD and watched HD quality movies in the room. Also I found out that it will play all the HD MKV both 1080 and 720 p also thru the composite video. All in all a great product.

Some quirks and nuances: The product natively has been set for PAL. Most HDTVs will see it and you have to change it to be NTSC while connected to the TV, however you have to do this every time you connect it to the HDTV thru HDMI. If you do not connect it thru HDMI, last selection of NTSC will stay. So if I take it out of the car, I change it after using it on the HDMI connected TV.

Remote certainly is very small and not very intuitive, I had a spare learning remote which learned the most basic buttons and I use this. I could not find the digit code for this unit. Since the unit is not functional without a remote guard the remote.

Overall an excellent entertainment product that is priced very right.

Buy Satechi Cyclone Micro 2+ 1080p Portable Media (MKV, AVI, MOV) Player Adapter with SD/SDHC Memory, US Now

Great little media player.

Priced right.

Works great.

Small limitations:

Need remote,

Hard to read remote,

Need good line of sight for remote.

Great set-up options available,

4x3, 16x9, 1080i, 1080p,720,..etc.

Picture options.

It up-reses too, out HDMI

HDMI out,no HDMI cable supplied with, also composite and L/R, with supplied cable.

Remote has volume control.

One Amazon review said it got hot after an hour, must have been a defective one, because mine stays cool.

If this keeps working well for a couple of years, I'll be way pleased.

I already am way, way, pleased.

It functionality is better than the media player on my daughters 40 Samsung LCD.

30$ shipped, can't beat it.

Review re-visited:

Still works great.

I use it often.

Don't lose that remote!

Read Best Reviews of Satechi Cyclone Micro 2+ 1080p Portable Media (MKV, AVI, MOV) Player Adapter with SD/SDHC Memory, US Here

A great product if you are tired of having dvds everywhere. I have converted most of my dvds to smaller avi or mp4 and now store them on a small external drive. I can now have access to all my movies right away. Another great thing about this item is, you can take it anywhere. As it states, it plugs into your HDMI slot.

Want Satechi Cyclone Micro 2+ 1080p Portable Media (MKV, AVI, MOV) Player Adapter with SD/SDHC Memory, US Discount?

If your looking for a DIVX player, this is the one for you. This unit provides a simple, efficient GUI for your videos/music/photos and is easy to navigate, even with my Iomega Prestige 1TB NFTS formatted hard drive hooked up to it. The video is crystal clear and it plays 720p like a champ !!! On the other hand if you are hoping that it will play everyhting you throw at it, you will be disappointed. It supports the formats it says it supports...period, and it does it very well. Great slim player for anyone, especially, those of us who travel alot. I highly recommend it !!!

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