VIZO MiLano HDD Enclosure and Media Player

The VIZO MiLano is an external USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure that, like other hard drive enclosures, can be used for backing up your computer or carrying your data with you. What sets it apart from any other hard drive enclosure? It allows you to plug the drive into any standard television and play your media from the drive right to the TV. It is a really cool device that bridges the gap between the world of the PC, the television and the home stereo. You can rip your CDs and DVD movies to the hard drive and play them anywhere you have access to a television without the need for a computer, DVD player, CD player or MP3 player.

You can even play MP3 audio without a television. All you need is AC power and a stereo cable to plug it into a stereo or any audio device with a stereo line-in. There are small buttons on the front for playing MP3 music without needing a screen to browse from. It will automatically scan the drive for all MP3 music and start playing them in turn or at random depending on how you set the player up. The VIZO MiLano promises to do it all, and without breaking the bank. Let's take a close look to see whether it delivers.

Design

The device is sleek and slim, about the size of a small hardback book and it comes with a small plastic stand that holds it in place very well. The stand does not secure the device so you can not rely on it to keep it from being knocked over or off of a desktop, but it holds the device upright for easy access and usability. It comes with a standard USB cable that is not very long (about three feet total) but should be adequate for connecting to a PC or Mac if placed on the desk with the computer. The hard drive must be formatted with FAT32 or NTFS for use with a PC and HFS+ for Mac computers. I formatted a 750GB drive with NTFS because if I were using FAT32 I would have to partition the drive into 250GB partitions.

The MiLano only supports PATA (IDE/EIDE) hard drives. The enclosure uses a Linux based core program installed into the firmware to run the media player and it is an outstanding idea. Unfortunately it does have some quirks that I have become accustomed to dealing with on a daily basis.

In the Box

The items that come with the MiLano are:

• 5 Case screws and 5 rubber hole plugs (1 extra of each)
• 5 drive rail screws (1 extra)
• Standard USB cable
• AC power adapter and cable
• S-Video cable
• Progressive scan component video cable
• Remote controller
• 2 AAA batteries
• User manual
  

VIZO MiLano Box	VIZO MiLano Box Contents	VIZO MiLano Rear View

Installation

Installing a hard drive into the enclosure is pretty easy and takes about three minutes. The top of the MiLano is not screwed together when you open the box and the cover pops off fairly easy. You screw the hard drive to the rail attachment using the provided rail screws. Next, plug in the EIDE cable and Molex power cable, then lay the drive down flat inside the enclosure. Now replace the top cover and screw it together. Last, you plug the screw holes on the enclose cover panel with the provided rubber plugs.

When you plug the drive into the computer with the USB cable and turn on the power, Windows XP/2000/2003/Vista will automatically detect the drive and load the necessary drivers in seconds. Mac computers should also detect the drive quickly and load any needed software automatically. The enclosure does not come with any software or driver discs but they should not be necessary with any modern computer.

Uses of the MiLano

If you have as many DVDs as I do, you can’t take your MP3 player, your DVD player and your entire DVD collection with you when you travel. I can’t even fit all my MP3s on a single player; they just don’t make one big enough yet for my entire collection. You can, however, take the MiLano with you anywhere you go and have all of this at your fingertips. The MiLano can play DVD folders (VIDEO_TS folders) and .VOB files as well as .ISO files. If you have a large enough hard drive installed in the MiLano, you can fit a many of DVDs on it with your entire MP3 collection.

I put a 750GB drive in the MiLano and I have my entire MP3 collection (over 300GB of music) on it along with over 30 hours of DVD movies. Aside from MP3 and DVD movies, the device can also play video files and display photos. So you can fill the drive with photos, music, videos, and DVD images; and still keep regular data files stored as well. The media player menu only shows the media files on the drive when you browse the folders. The remote control works very well and allows you to browse the contents of the drive by folder and media type.

The MiLano comes with a ¼” jack cable that splits to three cables for RGB that plugs into compatible televisions. It also comes with ¼” jack cable that splits into a standard RCA video cable and red and white (left and right) stereo cables. There is also an S-Video cable that you can use separately from the stereo cables. There is also an optical output for sending the audio though an optical interface (really good for DVD playback with digital surround sound). These allow you to plug into almost any modern television or TV/stereo combination and play your media wherever you happen to be.