Use

Using the Vizo Milano is incredibly easy. Simply copy the movies, the audio files or images directly unto the enclosure using USB 2.0. There is no software included nor needed. Once plugged into the TV, it is set up on screen. Simply choose your output and quality - in our case component and 1080i. This is the highest setting the enclosure can handle. I can imagine that the lack of 1080p is more of a "power under the hood" issue than an implementation problem. Even though you can play back HD resolutions, the signal is transfered with analog cable, not via HDMI. Since most high-def TV sets nowadays support HDMI this would be a nice addition to a future version of the Vizo Milano.

Once set up, simply navigate with the arrow buttons just like you would within Internet Explorer to find the file you wish to open. DivX files are played back perfectly, even the ones set at 720p and look stunning. There are no artifacts like squares or miscoloration visible, no matter what DivX file was used. Audio is played back perfectly fine, while images are displayed full screen.

The enclosure does not even get hot after prolonged use, so you can watch that favorite movie over and over as much as you like, or do a Star Wars or Star Trek marathon if you wish.

The remote is quite responsive and loading times are very short - within seconds - even for larger movies.

Performance

The performance of the Milano can be considered average, managing just above 29 MB/s. This is not such a big downside, as the enclosure is not meant to be used as a simple storage device. The CPU utilization of 12% is also not impressive, but once again, you want to watch movies using the Milano, not use it for everyday storage. There are certainly cheaper and faster variants available from Vizo for such purposes.