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Linksys By Cisco Media Hub Home Entertainment Storage With 1 TB Drive,LCD And Flash Card Reader | 
| Brand: Linksys
Category: CE
List Price: £299.99
Buy New: £252.00
as of 12/3/2010 09:51 CST details
You Save: £47.99 (16%)
New (6) from £252.00
Seller: SuStuu
Rating:  7 reviews
Media: Electronics
Batteries Included: No
Hard Drive Size: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4.4
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 4.4 x 6.6
MPN: NMH410-EU
Model: NMH410-EU
EAN: 4260039348436
ASIN: B001Q3FUUK
Release Date: February 2, 2009
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
Curate's egg November 5, 2009
Graham R. Hill (Ilkley)
The first good point is that it's a lovely looking and solidly built bit of kit. The second is, that for me anyway, it was relatively easy to install. I had a bit of a problem setting up the second and third desktops, but the trick is to let the video at the end of the installation disc run through fully even though you have seen it before. I also haven't yet succeeded in setting up a netbook with no CD drive, but there is probably a way. The back-up software included works fine and seems to have enough options to suit. In other words it works OK as a network server.
The bad points are to do with the custom web-browser based interface. Basically, it's useless. That's useless as in cannot be used. I'm not a techie so I can't tell you what the problem is, but files constantly disappear and reappear from the index (they are definitely still actually there) and anyway can't be properly played in Firefox (or IE half the time come to that. The internet is full of disatisfied users complaining, but Cisco's support website doesn't offer any workable solutions and anyway it's supposed to be plug and play. I suspect that I will give up and access the media via Picassa, WMP or whatever. Which I think means that I've overpaid for what I have ended up with.
 Cisco Media Hub August 19, 2009
S. Thomas (UK)
I am a ready convert to the concept of a hub as a central data store because I often have large volume of videos for editing as well as photographs. A hub thus provides both a `spare room' in which to keep things, accessible from any PC in the house, and a useful drive on which to keep backups. In my case, it has avoided the need to upgrade the hard drive in my PC or go through the tedium of remembering to fish out and plug in a portable hard drive to back up essential documents.
This Cisco hub is small, neat, incredibly quiet and can be plugged into a router and be up and running in a matter of minutes. Connecting other PCs to the hub is also not a problem and once software has been run, it appears as an extra drive in `My PC'.
The device is marketed as a `media hub' to seek and collate media from all PCs in one place and has a fancy Explorer style interface. However, I use it simply as an extra drive in 'My Computer' and as such it works well with little latency. I note that some reviews report greater lags and stalling when watching media from the hub but I have no experience of this because I use it in its simplest form. As such it constitutes a compact central area in which to hold data shared between, or backed up from, PCs.
The hub comes with software to take automatic backups from PCs but again I prefer to simply copy and paste anything I want to back up `as and when'.
If cost is your key criterion, portable hard drives can now provide a terabite for £70 but my experience is that they are noisier, tend to run hot after several hours (because they are not designed to be always on) and sit less neatly alongside a PC base unit. Similarly, PCs can network and share a space on one PC (as long as it is on) or you could use file sharing applications. However, for its price the hub is an elegant and quiet extra space into which several PCs can expand and share and, if you are a media buff, you may get even more out of the device by using the media sharing software. A sweet little unit.
 Looks better than it performs July 29, 2009
Mr. Jon Forster (London, England)
Good things first,
- it is a nice looking product
- it is quiet and can sit in a living room without making a noise
...but it is certainly not perfect.
Uploading content
It is very slow to upload. It takes a LONG time to upload any contant. If you have a large music library then be preapred to leave it for hours. You also need to keep an eye on it as it may refuse to accept soem files until you click 'try again'.
Remote Access - Music
I tried accessing it remotely and accessing to play music is fine. 'Loads' quickly and runs well.
Remote Access - Video
Basically do not bother. Sits for a very long time then after 10 minutes you will just give up.
Remote Access - Overall
You are not clealry advised until you do a bit of googling on it, but the remote access is only free for a year. you are then charged for 'admin'. This will cuase a lot of people to stop using it remotely. I have no idea why you should be charged. It should be possible to just access it remotely without going through Cisco. Feels like a trojan horse to get more money off oyu.
This is my second such product. I also use a QNAP NAS to stream. I thought this would be easier to use as the QNAP is primarily for file storage and FTP access. I was wrong. This is just too slow in everyday use. Even being cabled on the same LAN is far too slow. Overall, should have spent more time on the way it works rather than the way it looks.
Good Quality Product, but Expensive July 22, 2009
The Soft Machine Operator (COVENTRY, WARWICKSHIRE United Kingdom)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Firstly, the build quality of the Mediahub is excellent, as is the design: the top pops off to reveal two slots with easily removable caddies for hard drives - one came with a 1TB hard drive. The box came with all the cables required to start going, and includes four screws to attach an extra hard drive into the empty caddy.
Setting up was simple - just plug the MediaHub into your hub and install the provided software. This installs backup software and a tool to scan your drive and import media to the hub. Beware: this will take time over wireless. Performance through LAN was very good.
The device has a LCD which lets you look at the status of the device and network - simple info such as free space, IP address & a count of the different types of files. There are two USB connectors for copying data from external devices & a card reader. When you insert a device, the screen asks if you want to copy files. They are copied into a "import" folder on the device. It would be nice if the LCD had more use - it seems an extravagent extra that offers little.
The main selling point the MediaHub is its web interface, accessed using a simple URL (//_name of mediahub_) based on the name you have given the device. The device keeps a database of your media files and the web interface allows a user to view files or manage files. I found the web interface sluggish and prone to throwing up random errors if the hub is busy. I also found that copying from an external USB hard drive to the device was very slow. File managing through the web interface is awkward and clunky. There are plenty of configuration screens so you can tweak the device - for instance, giving it a static IP address. The provided setup software creates a mapped network drive - not that difficult in windows.
The backup software supplied is fairly simple. The import software monitors the directories you have chosen and automatically copies new files across.
One important aspect is that the MediaHub supports media streaming and has a server built in. Video/Audio is streamed from the device and can be played through DNLC enabled devices. It worked perfectly with my Popcorn Media player. It also comes with iTunes server, so you can access a centrally stored music library with iTunes.
I also had success using the device with an Apple Mac - the supplied disc had no MAC software, but you can obtain it from CISCO's support website - it's a dual format ISO containing both PC and MAC applications.
Overall, a good quality device, with an excellent capacity. However, the web interface could do with some improvements and the performance of copying from external drives seems somewhat slow. Finally, it would be useful if the LCD was utilised more - it's an addition that you can easily live without.
There are cheaper solutions out there, however.
Mysteriously slow July 21, 2009
Jonesy (London)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Before we start, I run Ubuntu here - the 64 bit version, and it was obvious before the hub arrived, I was going to have to treat the NAS as just a back-up box into which an extra drive(s) could be inserted or hooked up by USB slots on the rear.
A streaming media hub it may well be, but in the fullest sense only for Windows and Mac users.
You do get a Terabyte drive in a nifty-smaller-than-it-looks-in the pix box, into which you can add a second identical drive for RAID 0-1 striping. Access - once the thing is running is via a Flash web page front end to the box, and as Adobe Flash for 64 bit Linux isn't installed by default, that was the first hurdle which took a morning to solve. Once up, the box was accessible on both Linux machines on the network.
What was immediately apparent was the slowness of the data transfer. Reading a 700 Mb file ran at just 9Mb/sec over gigabit Ethernet, which makes me suspect the inbuilt firmware, not the ethernet. Writing the file back was even slower, and I did wonder what the speed would be with a couple of RAID1 SATA drives in there. I think it would be worse.
With most of the multimedia features - including AAC playback seemingly missing under Linux, the true worth of the Hub - a network box which does backups - albeit slowly, is rather less than the elevated retail price might indicate. I did hope for a blistering performer, especially without the encumbrance of Windows client software on the PC, but alas, performance was underwhelming.
You'll have to read the other reviews to see if HD video etc streams properly, but alas, the Media Hub was no quicker than my year old Buffalo Linkstation under Linux, and that's a shame.
Still, if you're looking for one of these, the cheaper version without the LCD, (which is something of a luxury) - might fit the bill, but Linux users should also look at other options like the no-frills NAS boxes available for under £125.00. Many of them also have printer support, too.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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