Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware
If there is one thing that UEBO consistently gets right, it is their industrial design. While the UEBO M50 and M100 are both considered 'decent' at the very least, the M400 is safely a league ahead. In my personal opinion, it is simply brilliant in every way. I know I have said similar things in my QNAP NMP-1000 review last year, but if you put UEBO's finest next to it, the M400 stands out like a beauty pageant in a group of McDonald's enthusiasts. Measuring in at 21.5cm width, 6.1cm height, and 14.3cm depth (Excluding the rear antenna), the M400's footprint is actually slightly smaller than the QNAP NMP-1000, too. The exquisitely clean design is made possible with a brushed aluminum bottom half, and a very shiny black plastic cover on top to form an incredibly sleek overall appearance. A single line LCD display resides behind the darkly tinted plastic in front, where the IR remote sensor is also located. With UEBO's logo in the center, and the usual array of home theater certifications near the bottom left corner, the M400 can call any place in your living room 'home'. On the right is an SD card reader, two USB 2.0 host ports, and a USB 3.0 device port to connect the media player to your computer. Unfortunately, sleekness comes at a price of functionality; the UEBO M400 has no physical buttons anywhere -- not even a power button. In other words, all user interaction has to be done on the remote control only. Also, the black shiny plastic is a fingerprint magnet, not to mention it is incredibly scratch prone; so watch out for that.
A full array of both analog and digital connectors are present at the back of the device. To ensure no one is left out in the cold, we have composite and component on the left, followed by an HDMI port, Gigabit Ethernet, S/PDIF optical, and S/PDIF coaxial. Adjacent to it on the right is a 12V power input, 40mm cooling fan, and a hard reset button. The antenna -- where the direction can be adjusted by the end user -- picks up the signal for its built-in Wireless-N adapter. Generally speaking, pretty much everything from the last decade or so is present (Other than S-Video, but I am not sure if anyone still uses that, haha) on the UEBO M400. In addition to the SD card slot, two USB 2.0 host ports, and USB 3.0 device port on the right side of the digital media player, I don't think anyone can reasonably ask for anything more. My only complaint is the cooling fan is more audible than necessary during normal operation. I am not saying it is loud if you are sitting away far enough, but something quieter and smoother running will definitely be appreciated.
UEBO's included remote control is generally intuitive to use. It is not the same one found with M50 and M100, and that is a good thing. The M400's remote control is more conventionally sized, and it features a lot more at the same time. For most people, trying out a new device with its remote control usually involves logical trial and error, rather than digging through the manual -- having something that makes sense goes a long way. From my experience, I have had little problems operating the UEBO M400 right out of the box -- the remote control functions are generally logical in implementation with regards to their respective on screen function. For a more objective assessment, I gave the UEBO M400 to operate to a base of users who are less technology inclined, and they had little issues with it either. To be honest, I really didn't need to use every button on the remote to get the M400 going; mainly, the D-pad and the usual play/pause/stop/skip are what I used 90% of the time. While I have experienced little to no significant problems using the remote control with UEBO's M400 network media player, there were some special functions on screen that required me to press a certain button on the remote, but the labels are not entirely clear or fully corresponding at all times -- sending me into a daze of "where's the fridge" (Abbreviate the phrase if you don't know what I am talking about) for about a minute. That said, the remote control is nicely organized and all, making it a pleasure to use for the most part.
When is the last time you have taken a close look at a product's bottom? Once it is set up and running, I don't; and UEBO wisely reduced some manufacturing costs in this area. A metal plate is attached to the bottom of the M400 network media player, with four rubber risers to dampen out some vibration, and to ensure that the device stays in place. If you want to take a peek inside the M400, there are no warranty stickers to bypass, either. The reason is because UEBO actually expects you to go through this process; the M400 is built to accommodate one 3.5" SATA internal hard drive. As you can see in our photo above, all you need to do is attach a disk to the metal plate, connect the power and data cables, and you are good to go. What can you do with an internal hard drive installed? Well, besides storing media locally, the M400 can also act as a network attached storage device, just like the QNAP NMP-1000. We will see about its usability and performance later on in this review. My only complaint is the interior metal frame is comprised of some really, really soft metal, and I am not a big fan of that.
The electronics that make the UEBO M400 is intrinsically simple. If you take a closer look, a relatively compact PCB does pretty much all the dirty lifting; a secondary board perpendicular to the first is used to handle the front LCD, remote control signal, and so forth. Of course, most of you are probably more interested in the components on the main board, and so are we. Our close up examination reveals a Realtek RTD1185DD 500MHz system on chip digital media processor. Two NT5TU64M16GG-AC ICs provide a total of 256MB onboard memory, and a Toshiba TC58NVG 128MB flash chip stores the onboard operating system. For the USB 3.0 device port, UEBO implements a JMicron JMS551 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 to SATA 3Gb/s bridge controller. Meanwhile, Gigabit LAN is provided by a Realtek RTL8211D integrated circuit, and Wireless-N via a Realtek RTL8188CE mini-PCIe single antenna card. The 40mm fan is a Doceng FD124010-SS1. All in all, the UEBO M400 is pretty much identical to the AC Ryan PlayOn!HD2 with a much better exterior design.
Plugging the UEBO M400 in and setting it up for first use was totally effortless. I simply attached the power cable, network cable, HDMI cable to the TV, and optical audio cable to my receiver, and we were good to go. It is rather unfortunate neither cable is included out of the box, but thankfully, I got a few extras lying around. The UEBO M400 fits very nicely next to my LCD HDTV in my living room, as it incorporates simply excellent modern industrial design for a distinct, yet sleek and clean look. The M400 is a home entertainment device, and it is certainly designed to look like one that is done right in every respect. After a quick boot up, I can safely say there are no remote control issues that my colleagues Devin and Jeremy reported with their M50 and M100, respectively; where their remote control only works when pointed directly at the IR receiver. The M400's remote works with reasonably large deviation angles from the normal plane. My only complaint is the fan is more audible than necessary during normal operation, as it is not temperature sensitive.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware
3. A Closer Look - Software
4. Performance and Conclusion
