Interview With 760HD Media Center Creator MvixUSA

So anyone that is a regular reader of this site knows that we love us some Mvix 760HD Media Center. We have reviewed a bunch of their products ( 760HD and the MV-5000 ) and we are really excited about what they have been doing. We recently were able to conduct an interview with Rich Knitter (marketing director) of Mvix(USA), Inc. to answer a few questions we had.

Check out after the jump to see their answers.

What drew you guys to this market?

Media is going digital. That's a fact. In the past 4-5 years, we have all witnessed an unprecedented clogging of "My Videos", "My Pictures" and "My Music" folders on our PCs. PC users have been collecting and archiving hundreds of videos and photos and yet the concept of being able to easily watch and share that media had never really been implemented. These collections essentially became useless since it was virtually impossible to watch and enjoy them with family and friends. Obviously, huddling around a 17" computer screen is not really "home entertainment" (more like a backache). The convergence of PC and home-theater market was imminent. With this realization, we knew that the market was ready for Mvix Media Centers. Mvix Media Centers provide the flexibility of bringing digital video, audio and other digital media into the living room. The reason media centers are becoming more mainstream has to do with fact that more and more people are discovering that they can actually be in control of their home entertainment. Mvix empowers them to do just that. And, when we hear feedback from our customers like "It's changed my life. I don't know how I survived without my Mvix," that's a huge motivator for us!

What do you think sets your product apart from other offerings like the AppleTV, Netgear, and offerings from Tvix?

While each of these products looks similar, there's a huge difference across their functionality and feature set. The Media Center product category can be sub-divided into two broad categories - a) Hard disk-based Media Center (e.g. Mvix), and b) Non-HDD based "media streamers" (e.g. Netgear, Linksys, etc.) The former category was a natural progression arising from the inefficiencies of the latter. Hard disk based Media Centers like Mvix not only incorporate all the functionalities of simple media streamers, but also provide the added advantage of local storage and jitter-free playback from a local (internal) hard-disk-drive (HDD). Having an internal HDD, Mvix provides portability and flexibility of use. A large number of our customers take their Mvix players (and therefore, entire digital movie libraries) on vacations and road trips. Scalability is key to Mvix. Unlike AppleTV, we allow our users to customize their media storage options. Not to mention, Mvix's features are far superior than AppleTV - for one, we do not restrict our customers' media content to closed, proprietary, and worst of all, expensive formats.

Beyond, the core functionality and features, customer support is the number one thing that sets us apart from our competition. MvixUSA has been built on a solid platform of superior customer support. Our investment towards our customer support infrastructure is more than any other functional area of our business and we're proud of it. Our average customer response time has gone down from nearly 48 to 24 hours in the past year. We are extremely pleased that our concentrated effort toward providing a quality support structure is being recognized by our customers.

Last but not the least, constant development and distribution of new firmware is a huge competitive advantage. The rate at which we launch new firmware updates far exceeds that of our competitors, as well as any industry standards. We are redefining the computer hardware/consumer electronics industry and setting new paradigms of organic product development. People are not just buying Mvix for what it's worth today... but also for what it may be able to do in the coming months. We launched five firmware updates within four months of launch of our flagship Mvix MX-760HD Wireless model. Each update added new features and functionality. Firmware development is an ongoing commitment at MvixUSA and our current launch of the new update for Mvix MV-5000R / 4000U model shows that we continuously strive to support every model we supply to the market. Needless to say, most of these updates are driven by direct customer feedback and suggestions. We listen to our customers - very seriously.

Do you have any new products in the works that we can expect this year or next?

New product development is key to our business. We always have new products in the works. In the next few months, we expect to launch a variation of our fast-moving Mvix MX-760HD model with support for SATA hard drives and a HDMI video-out port. We also look forward to hopefully unveiling a completely new product during CES 2008 at Las Vegas in January! Unfortunately, I cannot disclose the specifics of this new model, but I can guarantee that this will make hi-def enthusiasts quite happy. Mvix has consistently launched a new model every 6-8 months and we will continue to follow this regimen.

Where do you see the streaming media market going in 2, 5, 10 years?

You have to look at where media is headed. Today, the availability of content over the network is starting to explode, starting with audio content and increasingly going to video content. By some estimates, the streaming media market is expected to reach over $7-8 billion in the next five years or so. Unfortunately, the US market and our network infrastructure is still in its infancy as far as handling quality, "streaming" content. At the same time, the market is also moving in the direction of digital distribution (store and download) of media, in contrast to physical distribution. DVD rental businesses like Netflix and Blockbuster are poised for radical changes in their business model. Within the next couple of years, the movie rentals will be via broadband. Since more and more media is available via the Internet, that bodes well for us. The more content that is digitized, the more value our media centers have. Once all movies, music and other media are available for download, the sky is the limit in terms of the development of our product.

What are your thoughts on DRM?

We support the protection of intellectual property rights and discourage any use of content that might lead to copyright infringement. However, the current implementation of DRM is way too rigid and improperly implemented. We all agree that DRM does not stop copyright infringement; it merely limits what customers can actually do with the content that they legally paid for. It's quite frustrating for a lot of customers who are being treated as would-be criminals by current DRM practices. It is silly and nonsensical as it stifles the portability of media content. We see open formats (such as Xvid) as being the only future for digital media, because it will break down a lot of barriers for media providers to distribute their content. Applying DRM in its current form will only hamper the progress of digital media - and creativity, as a whole. It's about time new policies, laws, and technologies are implemented that are both logical and well-thought-out - and that protect both the user and the artist.

Do you support the modifications that have been made to the 760 since its launch?

Officially, we cannot support any "modded" firmware for any of our Media Centers, for warranty reasons. Modded firmware lacks quality control and may not be ideally suited for but the most "hardcore" of our customer base. There are several technical support implications for customers who install modded firmware without enough technical knowledge to fully understand and utilize it. At the same time, active community involvement in product development is a very encouraging sign to us, and we appreciate the involvement of the Mvix community. If Mvix users want to develop their own firmware, they have the right to. Unfortunately, they are on their own as far as support goes, because it is a violation of our warranty. But, we do realize that folks who attempt these firmware modifications are technically sophisticated and can work things out on their own. We'd certainly like to encourage our customers to develop widgets which could be "plugged" into Mvix official core firmware to enhance the player's functionality. Remember, altering the firmware may void the warranty for the reasons above. But one of the really cool things about our media centers is that it's extremely easy to switch back and forth between different versions of software. This enables users to pick and choose widgets as they wish.

What are you thoughts on AppleTV regarding exposing streaming media to the mainstream and its effect on your business?

AppleTV has brought more awareness to the streaming media market, so overall I think it's had a positive effect on our business. AppleTV's launch is an indicator of where our media distribution market is headed. We are, however, surprised at the consumers' lukewarm reaction toward AppleTV since its introduction. Unfortunately, Apple's over-reliance on media streaming from its iTunes library limits the device's performance, but most of all, its application to the majority of users. Honestly, the network infrastructure in Apple's product is not especially well-suited for good quality video streaming. That said, I should also point out that AppleTV and Mvix are in completely different niche segments. AppleTV is targeted toward people who like iTunes and do not mind the restricted collection. For them, the 40GB storage space (AppleTV) is probably sufficient. Mvix is for folks who like flexibility and scalability. There is no restriction of storage capacity or, for most intent and purposes, the type of video format. Unlike AppleTV, Mvix MX-760HD supports dozens of open formats and offers much higher resolution (even 1080p). Mvix does perfect (discreet multi-channel) decoding of surround sound, whereas AppleTV does not. Mvix is able offer all these features since its internal workings are better suited to network streaming, as well as playback from an internal hard drive. While both products may seem to be in the same category, the typical customer of each product is vastly different. Mvix is primarily suited for people who like high definition playback, flexibility in video formats and those who like to customize their media center.

Was the level of success of the 760 completely expected or were you caught off guard a little?

We were actually caught off-guard by the success of the Mvix MX-760HD Wireless model! We had stock-outs within the first month of launching it. In fact, we still have a few days here and there where we cannot keep up with the demand. Since its introduction, we have added several major partners (e.g. Newegg, Tigerdirect, B&H Photo Video etc.), and we continue to add more every month. It has been an incredible run for the past six months, and we intend to keep it going. We have doubled our tech support staff and continue to invest aggressively in brand awareness. The entire Mvix team is highly motivated and it couldn't be a better year so far. We think we have finally figured out how to be on top of the demand, but honestly, we would love to continue to be surprised!

We want to thank Rich and everyone at Mvix for taking the time to answer our questions. We are really excited to see what's next from Mvix as we are sure it will be another step forward in the digital media center world.

July 23, 2007

Interview With 760HD Media Center Creator MvixUSA