At the beginning of this decade, most of us were still getting starry eyed over the relatively new DVD technology. Around the same time however, there was also a sleepy little enthusiast technology that was being developed to revolutionise our media world. Rooted in Microsoft's MPEG4 codec, a new format called DivX emerged. The DivX codec was the forerunner in a growing trend that allows high quality video to be compressed into incredibly small sizes. However, with no standalone players able to handle anything but DVD at the time DivX proved an impractical method of backup.

Now that there's plenty of compressed video formats available, we need to find a way to bring them into play. Finding a better way to gather people around our computer desks would be impractical and building or buying an HTPC would give us the ability to compressed video files, but can be pretty expensive. What if there was another alternative?

Enter the MG-350HD. The Mediagate MG-350HD is a cross between a multimedia appliance and a network attached storage device with a hefty arsenal of useful and in some cases unexpected features.

The Hardware

The MG-350HD is a pleasant looking little box weighing in at 19.89oz (564g). It stands 2.3 inches wide, 5.9 inches deep and 7.3 inches tall. (57 X 150 X 185 mm) The construction is plastic with a flashy white front bezel that is loosely reminiscent of an iPod. The plastic construction is sturdy enough to give the impression that it is not flimsy and the buttons have a sharp feel with no sponginess.

The MG-350HD has a very small footprint (about the size of a stack of three DVD cases) and could easily be placed incognito on a shelf in your entertainment center next to your DVD collection.

The MG-350HD has an eight-button navigation system on the front bezel allowing the user to perform some basic navigation within its interface without using the remote. The main button set consists of four directional navigational buttons and an enter button. The three lower buttons handle power, play/pause and stop. The stop button also serves to return the interface to the primary mode selection screen (home screen).

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