Storex MediaZapper HD

The Storex MediaZapper HD looks good on paper: support for all the latest HD formats, digital HD tuner, timeshifting and, above all, budget pricing. Is it really reasonable to expect all this from a media centre hundreds of pounds cheaper than the best? Does it do what it says on the tin? Lets check it out.

Design and build: sketchy

The box in itself is quite small and has an average finish. The casing is in metal but the front in a gadgety plastic. When running, it uses very little energy (7.3 W) but it tends to heat up quite quickly: more than 40°C, even though it wasn't positioned with anything around it (not in any TV stand furniture) nor in a hot room. On standby, energy consumption falls to 0.4 W.


Moving on to the remote, which, though it sits well in the hand, isn't particularly well finished. It feels very much like a budget model, no doubt about that. There are plenty of buttons, but it's hard to work out what they're all for. Worse still, most of them aren't assigned. When you hold down the unassigned buttons, an error message is displayed.


The menu is also very sketchy. Although the model common to other Realtek chip models is used here, it is less well implemented (but we we mean much less well!). The menu graphics are clumsy with numerous bugs.

Compatibility: good on paper, in practice...

An Mstar MSD 7828 chip is used for the audio video decoding. This is the first time that we've seen this model and our first impression wasn't the best. Yes, on paper, the list of supported formats is impressive, but in practice it's another story.

First of all, the device claims 1080p 24 Hz output. While this option can indeed be chosen, none of our 1080p films (24 Hz or not) could be played. You have to fall back on 1080i 60 Hz, an interlaced display which can lead to a lack of image precision.

And compatability isn't all that in any case. Several films in our test bank wouldn't play without us being able to work out why. The major fault remains the systematic application of a zoom on videos that aren't standard height (576p, 720p and 1080p). Cinemascope films are stretched vertically, with all proportions deformed. It therefore can't play most films normally!


The chip doesn't do any better on the audio side either - only MP3 and WMA files are recognised. While MP3 tags can be read, don't even think about displaying album covers. No jukebox video with cards for each film either.

The MediaZapper HD does however do better than most when it comes to photos. It takes just 1.2 seconds to move from one photo to the next, which is really excellent.

Connectivity: HDMI, USB and composite

Certain audio and video outs are included but not all. There are of course HDMI and composite connectors as well as a scart and component out. You don't however get an optical or coaxial out for linking the device up to an external audio amp. Here Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital+ stereo downmix is included (the media centre decodes the audio signal and transforms it into stereo sound that it then sends to the speakers) but for DTS and Dolby Digital True HD, you need to switch to HDMI bitstream which means you need an audio amp with an HDMI in.

Lastly, network support is totally lacking and there's just one USB host, situated on the front of the box, for link-up to external hard drives and USB keys. Note however that our 2.5" hard drive wasn't compatible. The USB out doesn't deliver enough power to supply it continuously. Note also that there's nowhere to put an internal hard drive.