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Slingbox isn’t the only game in town when it comes to placeshifting your television and its content. Monsoon Multimedia’s Hava is an alternative. How does it fare in our tests? Keep reading.
What is it?
The Hava Titanium HD from Monsoon Multimedia is a device that allows you to placeshift your television and HD content in your home network and over the Internet to PCs and mobile devices. The device can also be paired with a USB hard drive to make it a DVR. It costs $249.99 on their official website.
What’s in the box
You get the Hava box itself, a CD with the Hava player software, lots of cables, IR blaster, and a USB Wi-Fi adapter.
The Good
The Hava box itself is compact and finding a place for it in your home entertainment center should be very easy. The back panel uses a special minijack to component adapter to connect to a HD source. This keeps the back of the unit relatively neat when compared to the standard component connections. The included cables should get you connected without needing a trip to Radio Shack. The software install is the same process you are used to.
The software itself is very powerful. If you want to record a show on the PC receiving the content, it is no problem. Additionally you can hook up an external hard drive to the Hava unit to make it a DVR. There is a mobile client available for Windows Mobile and soon there will be an iPhone app as well.
The folks at Monsoon are also still working on the Sociable TV website which is a very interesting concept. It will allow you to watch other people’s Hava boxes online through a browser.
Oh, did I mention that multiple people can connect to one Hava unit? Sling won’t let you do this. You could watch one program all over your house without interruption if you choose to do so. In that respect, the Hava acts as a video distribution device.
The Bad
The hardware unit and software player could use a redesign when it comes to looks. The software player is very bulky with large black borders everywhere. The installer appears to be designed by an engineer. It works, but it ain’t pretty. The housing for the device looks like something you would get from a noname vendor. The box could be nicer looking.
Please note that these criticisms are only about design and not function.
The in-betweens
The desktop player software is Windows only for now, so no mixed network environments for you unless you run Windows in a VM or something similar. Since the device used minijack connectors, perhaps the device could have offered more inputs.
The Crux
In a lot of ways, the Hava surpasses the Slingbox in functionality. If you’re looking for a device that can be a DVR and placeshift your HD content, the Hava Titanium HD is a great choice.
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