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gadget — Episode 110 – The Monsoon Hava Platinum HD: More Sling for your Box?
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The HAVA Platinum HD is a place-shifting, time-shifting, video streaming device from Monsoon Multimedia. It connects to your Ethernet network and allows you to stream just about any video source to a Windows laptop or desktop, as well as a multitude of mobile devices and compatible media players.
Out of the box the HAVA Platinum comes with everything you need to be up and streaming in just a few minutes. The HAVA comes with all the software, adapters and cords required to hook up your XBOX, PS3, DVD, Satellite Box, Cable box, DVR or other AV device. Monsoon includes two component cables, two standard AV cables, a power adapter, an Ethernet cable and an IR blaster for controlling your Infrared devices. The back of the HAVA is lined with the various input and output ports. Aside from the 9 volt power port, the IR port and the Ethernet port, you get a standard AV input, a component input, a S-Video input and their corresponding passthrough ports so that you can install the HAVA inline: between your entertainment devices and the monitor, allowing you to stream without disrupting your setup. The HAVA Platinum supports input signals from standard 480i to 1080i and will stream that video at 720×480 and 6Mbps. If you input HD signals, the HAVA will display in 16:9 widescreen format and the HAVA client is integrated into Windows Media Center. Installing the HAVA is simple. Connect the power, IR and Ethernet cables, the make all the connections between your HAVA and your entertainment center. — The port strip does make for a less cluttered set of cables, but we felt that this was also the main drawback of the HAVA. Unfortunately using mini-plug to RCA adapters makes the connections very unstable. We found that even a little nudge could disrupt our component signal or add noise into what had been a beautiful picture. Once the software is installed the HAVA client will automatically find and update your HAVA Platinum, then it will ask you to specify the type of device you have so that it can configure the remote control. Monsoon has included an impressive list of manufacturers and devices, meaning that you will most likely not have to use the integrated learning feature to control your media device. The setup will ask you to choose a password for your device, then it will configure the HAVA for remote access, this is crucial if you intend to view your video streams from outside your network… say, on your cell phone or tablet PC. Once the client is launched, you will immediately see the HAVA stream. You also have the ability to play with the client settings, controlling everything from color and brightness, to video input, to recording options, time-shift configurations, audio quality settings and the like. |
In addition to the automatic time-shift controls which will let you playback anything that has been streamed to the HAVA client within the user-configurable buffer time, you can also record the incoming video streams onto your computer in a MPEG-2 format which has excellent quality, but also a pretty hefty size. A test clip of 4 minutes and 45 second used up approximately 292 MB of space. We were able to reduce it further, but you should know that capturing programming with the HAVA is going to require a hefty hard drive.
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Video quality is good, but not always great, mostly owing to the aforementioned sensitive cables at the back of the HAVA. However, there are two standout features of the HAVA stream. First, up to three clients can watch a stream simultaneously. This is a big advantage to anybody who wants to stream the same video and audio to multiple locations. Secondly, there is no lag time in the passthrough ports. That means that the HAVA could be used to record even time-sensitive video streams, like machinima takes or rhythm games.
In all, the HAVA Platinum HD is an incredibly versatile piece of video gear that can be used by couch potatoes, video enthusiasts and content producers alike. It’s clear that Monsoon didn’t want to constrain their product to a single category, so they built as much functionality into the HAVA as possible. Though it has a few rough edges, in the right hands the HAVA Platinum HD is pure gold. |
The HAVA Platinum HD from Monsoon Multimedia is available now. Prices range from $90-$110.
