VIZO MiLano HDD Enclosure and Media Player Conclusion

Supported Formats

The MiLano’s media player supports many file formats but as I found out it does not support all media formats. Some high resolution JPG photos will not display and you get an error message stating “Not enough memory”. The photos that cause the error were 2592x1944 resolution shot with a 5.1 Mega pixel camera. The manual claims that the player will recognize photos up to 8 Mega pixel, but that is just not true. I reduced the images to 1024x768 and the displayed just fine and on a standard television you can not see the difference in the lower resolution images anyway.

I also found that some types of AVI video formats are not supported. Some older AVI clips that I have would not display and generated an error message stating “File format not supported”. These AVI files were made with the standard DV-AVI codec and all of the ones using this codec would not play. In addition some WAV formats are not supported. High definition WAV files will not play, these files were 24-bit 48kHz WAV files. Other WAV files recorded at 16-bit 44kHz played just fine.

The supported video file formats are:

• MPEG-1, MPEG-2, IFO/ISO, MPEG-4, DivX 3.11, DivX 4xx, DivX 5xx, Windows AVI, XVid, VOD, VOB

The supported sub-title formats are:

• SRT, SUB, SMI, IFO

The supported audio file formats are:

• MP3, MP2, WAV, WMA, AC3, AAC, OGG, VORBIS, DTS pass through

The supported photo file formats are:

• JPG/JPEG (claims up to 8 Mega pixel baseline and progressive – this is not true because my 5.1 MP photos would not display and had to be reduced in order to display them with the device)

Supported languages include English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. The enclosure dimensions are 202.5mm X 115mm X 36.5mm (roughly the size of a bedside bible at most hotels).

VIZO MiLano standing	VIZO MiLano - taken apart

Issues with the MiLano

There is one major issue that consequently causes other issues, and that main issue is heat. It took me a while to figure it out but the problems that were occurring directly stemmed from the drive getting hot. The drive does not get so hot that it could damage the drive but the chips inside the enclosure get hot and when they get hot, the media player will not function. Sometimes I have to wait an hour after shutting it off before I can turn it on again. This only happens with the media player, you can still plug it into your computer and use it as an external drive, but the media function will not start when the device is hot.

If I start the player when it is cool, it will play continuously for hours and hours, but shut it down and it will not start again until it cools sufficiently. It happens every time and I have come to terms with it. When the device is hot it will power on and you can sometimes even turn it on with the remote control, but after it turns on it just sits there and you can not even turn it off with the remote. You must at this point shut it down by pushing the power button on the device. It is a frustrating issue and one that should be addressed by the manufacturer before the next version release but it is not a deal breaker considering that there are so many benefits of owning this thing.

Another problem I had (which is probably an isolated incident with this particular enclosure) was one of the screws used to secure the top cover of the enclosure would not screw in place. All the others screwed in just fine. It just so happens that I had two of these enclosures on hand and was able to confirm the problem by successfully securing the other top cover to the enclosure with no problem at all. I am not in the habit of ordering two of the same product just to keep spare parts handy, but this could be the case with the MiLano. Both of the enclosures had their own problems.

The first enclosure stopped responding during a file transfer 24-hours after I received it. I heard the familiar Windows chime announcing that the drive had been disconnected from the USB port, but it was still plugged in and in the middle of transferring a video file. I never did get it to connect again after about 20 tries on five different computers. VIZO was very graceful and sent a replacement immediately; their customer service is outstanding and I received the new enclosure in less than a week from reporting the failure. The hard drive suffered no ill effects and I installed the same hard drive in the new enclosure. It has worked very well since with the exception of the issues listed above.

VIZO MiLano HDD Enclosure and Media Player

I really like this product. For the price, it does a lot and it opens media doors for travel and sharing media without the need of a bunch of devices and peripherals to carry around. I would love to give it the highest rating I possibly could because I like the device that much; however, being realistic I have to consider the problems I had and the issues the device still suffers under to be an accurate and honest reviewer.

With that said, I would recommend the device to consumers but I strongly suggest using it very hard for the first couple weeks (like at least run the media player for four to five hours a day – even if you aren’t watching/listening to it) to see if you are going to have heat problems or any failure of any kind. I have to rate the product accordingly and so I can only give it three and a half stars, but if the one I have dies I will probably get another one… yes, I do like it that much.

Pros: Versatile media device that plays on any TV or stereo.

Cons: No SATA support, quality control issues need addressing.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

www.vizo.com.tw