Hands On With The HAVA Titanium HD WIFI Place-Shifting Streamer Part 1

We have had the HAVA Titanium HD WIFI device in the office for awhile now and we wanted to report back with our thoughts. We have had the HAVA Wireless HD as our main TV-Streamer for a few months and while we have enjoyed it a ton it just never felt as polished as some of its mature competitors. Well now with the Titanium HD we feel that they have broken through their beginning stage and should be considered a serious option for anyone looking to get a place-shifting device for their home. One of the main issues we had with the Wireless HD was it dropped frames a lot so that in our office we sometimes had an issue with streaming over a wireless hop. There would be some jerkiness and a non-smooth stream. The Titanium HD seems to have fixed all of this and the best part is that from the way it was designed it will be getting a lot better,

As with the Hava Wireless HD the setup is very simple. A basic install wizard that you click through. The only part that needs any thought at all is figuring out what the model of your set-top box is and entering it. Once that is done you are ready to start streaming your TV anywhere you want. We had TV streaming to our upstairs with 10 minutes of installing the device.

The first thing we noticed was how smooth the playback was. In the hours that was tested this we didn't see one hiccup or stuffer. You can really tell that the Monsoon really put extra effort into their networking code since this device is leaps and bounds better then the earlier versions. You have two options for connecting this to your network. You can go for the standard wired setup or go with wireless. This is where the Titanium HD really shines. Hooking up to a wireless network is achieved by plugging in a 802.11g antenna via USB. Why this is such a cool aspect is that the current shipping unit comes with the 802.11g antenna, but they will soon be releasing a 802.11n antenna so you can take advantage of the latest in wireless technology. They have redesigned their product to allow new items to be added via USB. This is such a great way to go with their product, they are safe guarding themselves against the rapid pace of technology. Instead of buying a new device to take advantage of faster wireless speeds you can just pick up a new USB dongle and update the firmware.

One feature that the Titanium HD has that the rest of the competition doesn't is that it has an internal buffer so you can pause TV right from the interface. You won't actually pause your TV, just your session on your computer. This is a great addition since with the Titanium you can share one signal amongst many viewers you don't want your bathroom break to pause the signal for everyone. This way you use the hard drive of your computer as the record buffer and you don't have to interrupt anyone else viewing it.

With the setup as easy as it was and the video quality as crisp as it is we have to say that this is at the top of our list of TV-streamers to recommend to people. Just because the people over at Sling have the name recognition does not mean they have the best product. Theirs is good, no doubt, but the Titanium HD has just jumped ahead of them in terms of overall quality and complete functionality. Stay tuned for the second part of the review were we check out some other aspects of this really cool TV-Streamer.

Pick one up at Amazon.

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Posted by David Ficocello at February 21, 2008 9:07 PM

Do you want just a pure media streamer that you can take with you or are you looking for something to allow you to watch UK TV in Thailand? The Titanium HD would be perfect if you just want to steam the content over the Internet. You could also try the Slingbox Solo as that is also a good tv-streamer. The problem with both of these is that they don't have an internal HD.

If you just want to bring a box with you that will let you watch content you already have then I would have to say the Mvix 760HD( http://www.networkingaudiovideo.com/archives/2007/05/mvixusa_760hd_hands_on_review.php )

I have been using that device as my primary movie streamer for awhile now and it has played back everything I have thrown at it. It will let you install an internal HD so that will work fine for you it sounds like.

They just released a new version, the 780HD which we should be getting at the office soon. I'll try and get some info up about that for you.

Let me know if any of this has helped and exactly what you are looking for. We have reviewed a lot of these devices so I'm sure we can figure something out for your trip.

Oh, and I checked out your blog, good luck and watch out for flying round-houses :)

Posted by: David Ficociello at February 22, 2008 4:19 PM

Hi Marc,

So it looks like $299 is about the best you will find for price unless you go through Amazon and some of their 3rd party retailers.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000LLH86W/jaybrewernet29-20

Or you can just go through the Mvix site http://www.mvix.eu/. The European site is pretty terrible with lots of slow flash, but I'm not sure if you can buy it through the US site, mvixusa.com.

Looks like the UK Amazon doesn't sell them. If you go here: http://www.mvixusa.com/wheretobuy.php they list at the bottom some worldwide stores to pick it up.

You'll need a hard drive also, so that will add to the cost, but with 500GB hard drives for $100US you shouldn't have to spend too much to hold all of your favorite shows.

Good luck and let us know if you have any other questions.

Posted by: David Ficociello at February 25, 2008 9:10 AM