I preordered my Vulkano direct from Monsoon, after a few delays I received it August 23rd. The first day I hooked it up to my TV via Composite connections and couldnt get a picture. I called tech support and they said that Composite is not enabled right now and would be in a later firmware release.I then used a networked PC to set it up given that the TV setup wouldnt work. Within a few hour's of trying it out I now have this laundry list of issue's.
1/ Composite Video out is not enabled and this is the only input available on my TV.
2/ Overscan lines visible on Desktop player.
3/ Cannot stream while recording to the Vulkano's memory.
4/ Audio/Video not in sync on recording's.
5/ Cannot stream to more than one device on local network at same time unlike hava's
6/ EPG sometimes decides to stop recognizing my US Zip code.
The first time I called tech support I was told the new firmware would fix the Composite out issue, a few days later still no firmware update so I called back and asked for an RMA (their policy is that you can return it for ANY reason within 30 days which they kept touting when people would say its unproven.. "try it, and if you dont like it send it back" (paraphrased).
Well I was told I couldnt have an RMA because that had to go to another department (this is after arguing with the tech support that I didnt want it even if there was a firmware fix). I have still not heard from the RMA dept and I get stalled everytime I call and told the RMA people are working on it.....
I've been using the Monsoon Titanium WiFi for DVR and placeshifting purposes for more than a year now and it was a pretty good product. Overall the Vulkano line is a good upgrade from the Titanium WiFi with the following notes:
** Why you should upgrade:
1. The Vulkano now has an HDMI built-in so you can use it to play back recordings to your 1080p HDTV I was impressed with the playback quality, even though the recordings were done over a composite feed.
2. The Vulkano local streaming works very well the picture quality appears to be much better when viewing on the PC application. I have not tested this on an iPhone or other mobile app but assume it will be pretty good on the smaller screen.
3. The Vulkano setup is pretty much the same process as the Titanium in fact aside from color and font changes the screens and process will look very familiar. The one problem I ran into was setting Port Forwarding to enable place shifting and remote viewing of recorded video. The user guide was helpful in pointing to a website to find the TCP and UDP port numbers and clues to how to manually add these to your WiFi router to make it all work. The Vulkano setup process only tells you it encountered a problem and wasn't much help. See additional notes below on this issue.
4. As other reviewers have indicated the Vulkano like the Titanium does not charge anything extra to support remote viewing. No annual service fees.
5. Over time, my Titanium's video quality degraded as the device warms up. For the first 5-10 mins the remote video and recordings look like the first day I bought it. Then it gets what appears to be snow or horizontal interference dashes. So far the Vulkano is working great will find out how long this lasts.
6. Video capture is the same as the Titanium via composite or component inputs and output.
** Things you should know before buying/upgrading
1. The Titanium allows you to plug any USB memory stick or external disk drive into the device's USB port and it is ready for use for recording no formatting or anything. I used to do recordings on a 2.5" Solid State Disk (SSD) drive and then took it with me on road trips and played the video on my laptop or saved the recording in a media archive. The Vulkano requires any USB device to be formatted to something that a PC will not recognize. This means you have to dedicate a Memory stick/SDMC/Ext Disk to the Vulkano and leave it plugged in. This is the biggest negative aspect of the product really kills making your recordings portable. So I ended up dedicating a 1Tb hard drive for DVR.
2. Here on Amazon and on the Vulkano websites there are 3 models you can buy Platinum (lowest cost); Delux, and Delux Pro. I would recommend buying the Platinum and get a much cheaper USB/SDMC and disk drive from Amazon.com than spending $100+ on the bundled versions.
3. Port Forwarding configuration the old Titanium worked right out of the box and didn't need me to fiddle with my router. What you need to do is find out the UDP (place shifting) and TCP ports the Vulkano is trying to use it will show up during the setup process. If both the default and after enabling UPnP fails you will need to write these port numbers down and log into your WiFi router's administrator application often it is a website at . Look for advance administration and "Port Forwarding". Add the ports the Vulkano is trying to use to the UDP and TCP look up you will also need to know the IP address assigned to the Vulkano device.
4. The Vulkano advertise being able to automatically locate UPnP media devices/PCs on the network to share video and images no indication this actually works. The YouTube widget seems to be the only thing available. I haven't yet found documentation about this and how to get it to work.
Hope this is helpful I'll update when I figure out how to get media sharing working... by the way Monsoon is having a sale on these devices through 1/23/2011.
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Overall I really love it and promote it amongst my friends. We used it to stream to a laptop (connected to projector)to watch a baseball game on the patio and it worked great for that purpose.Everything else I tested (recording on PC or built-in SD, streaming via iPhone using WiFi, watching YouTube) worked fine. Some improvements in regards of usability would be nice, but again it works. And I knew that some of the other features might not be there yet before I bought, but only because i looked into the forum and reviews.
I agree the cables/remote delivered with the product are on the lower end of quality at least from look and feel, but other devices don't even include cables...
Support was responsive/helpful (and friendly ;-) when I sent a questions via email and got back to me within a day.
So why just 3 out of 5 stars:
1 star off for not having all the features they advertise (pictures on TV via UPNP from NAS is not available with the current firmware, Oct 2010, no blackberry support yet,no 3G support for iPhone...)
1 star off for releasing too early and forcing customers to be beta testers for some of the features
Clearly the product has high potential, if monsoon gets the missing features out soon and improves the software a little, I'll be more than happy to chage my review to 5 stars.
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After 365 Days of waiting for the product to be released. I Have requested an RMA yesterday.The Product looks and sounded like the "god box" it has been touted to be. Instead it is a fancy, flat, faux sho' only box.
On your wifi it streams decent video. + for Ipad owners who would want a extra portable TV.
Anyone on 4.0.2 or higher iOS don't bother on wifi the app closes after 20 seconds. If your on 3G despite what the website, reviews, and box says no connection.
This is supposed to be a DVR right? Wrong, you can schedule recordings and they appear to be waiting for you to transfer however they never do transfer, and I suspect they never recorded since my e-sata hard drive free space never changed before and after recording.
All in all I very much wanted this product to work as advertised and chalked up the wait time (originally announced for release same time as ipad) as extra Q&A testing. Not so, The Beta testers were me and everyone else who
pre-ordered through monsoon.
All that said if they actually get working all the things that I and other posted are wrong (they have a great forum from myvulkano dotcom) Then I would purchase again.
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I have 2 Slingboxes,the Pro and Pro HD. I loved the Slingboxes but when a problem happens, if it's after the 90 days of support, then it's $30 per call not even per incident. That was so annoying that when I had a problem, I looked for an alternative and found the Vulkano, they have lifetime free support. I found the Vulkano to be frustrating to set up but support was so good and easy to get, I made a good decision to go with Vulkano. Works well to placeshift. I like the Slingbox player interface a little better but I was told down the pipeline they would address some issues I have. I would also like to, like Tivo, pause and reverse live tv, supposedly that too is coming. Like Tivo, Vulkano records well. There is room for more improvement and I believe they will come. The product as it is now is terrific, I love it.
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