Today’s Show:
Nixeus Fusion HD (MSRP $220)
The Nixeus Fusion HD is not unlike many other players. It plays music, video, photo slide shows, and content off the web. With DLNA and UPnP support its easy to set up and enjoy. It took us about 10 minutes before we had video playing on our TV.
Features:
- Full HD 1080 Playback up to 1080p60hz
- Wireless 802.11n
- DLNA 1.5 Certified and UPnP 1.0 Compliant
- DTS 2.0 Digital Out and Dolby Digital Certified
- Real-time Weather and Clock
- Online Entertainment – YouTube, Fusion Channel, RSS, Flickr, Live 365, and SHOUTcast
- Web Browser – Built-in Web Browser allows you to surf the Internet (Google, Yahoo)
- BitTorrent – Built-in BitTorrent Client allows you to download your latest torrent files
- USB 2.0 Host and Client Support
- Supports Serial ATA (SATA II/3G up to 2 TB) hard drives
Setup
We litterally took the unit out of the box, connected power, HDMI to the TV and joined the wifi network in about 10 min. Shortly after that it found all the DLNA servers and networked drives. The Fusion HD ships without an internal drive but it has space for a 3.5″ SATA HDD. We also plugged a USB stick and external USB drive to the front of the unit. Over all setup was easy.
Performance
The Fusion HD played everything we through at it. In fact the Fusion HD supports almost all known media formats. The full list of media support is listed on their site under the tech specs tab. Videos looked good. The device didn’t adversely affect the content. The bottom line is the quality of what you see is dependent on the quality of what you give it. Music sounded no different than if we were playing it in iTunes or any other player. Over all the unit does what it is supposed to do.
There is also Internet connectivity with support of Youtube, Flikr, Live 365, and BitTorrent.
There is also a browser so you can check in with Facebook and Twitter. We did not find those functions that appealing to use on the device. They were probably thrown in just because. Youtube worked fine but the interface was pretty basic. In fact was one of our biggest complaints of the entire experience. The GUI looks like something you’d see in devices built in the 90’s. There was just no excitement about using it.
It does have a BitTorrent client if you are into that sort of thing.
Conclusion
The Nixeus Fusion HD is yet another device vying for a spot in your media room. Its does what it says it does albeit with an uninspired user interface. At $220 its going to be a tough sell unless you are really into BitTorrent.