Micca Slim-HD: 1080p In Your Pocket

Micca Slim-HD - Conclusion

And so we arrive at the conclusion. As we said in the conclusion from the WD TV Live Plus, this class of SoC-based media players and streamers lag pretty far behind dedicated HTPCs in both versatility and picture quality. This continues to be true, but we’ll see if that changes when some of the really high end media boxes launch - the Netgear NTV 550, for example. But this portable media drive is quite far from that level.

Micca’s Slim-HD is an interesting proposition. The internal 2.5” drive sets it apart from the Live Plus and the GoFlex, which don’t have internal hard drives but do allow for USB drive connections (as does the Slim-HD, in addition to the internal HDD). The Live Hub is a bit better, but much more costly and does not have the USB host functionality. It’s nice to have your media stored locally, and Micca recognizes that.

Unfortunately, the flip side of this coin is that without a drive or any local media, the Slim-HD is almost useless, while the Live Plus and the GoFlex are both capable as Netflix and Youtube streaming devices. But here’s the most concerning part - both of those are available for less than $100 on the street (Buy.com has the Live Plus for $80), so the price difference is close to negligible. With those, you get a much more polished interface along with the internet streaming capabilities. I’d say that the video compatibility is pretty close - what you gain in absolute versatility with the Slim-HD, you basically give back with the choppiness of the admittedly uncommon high bitrate and frame rate x264 videos.

But really, it all comes down to portability. For the majority of people, I’d say go for one of the media streamers and add a portable USB hard drive. That way you get the HDMI connection and streaming capabilities, along with the portability of your local media (to play off a computer). However, the Micca Slim-HD does nicely fit the bill for people that would like to have a media drive that they can connect via HDMI on the go, which I suppose fulfills its raison d'être. Just don’t expect it to replace your full time HTPC or media streamer and you’ll be happy with it.

Update: Micca has informed us that it will be dropping the price of the Slim-HD to $59.95 on Cyber Monday through the end of the year as a holiday special. This is actually a pretty sweet deal, since it puts the HD only $10 over the price of the regular Slim and really brings price into the equation when compared to the WDTV and the Seagate GoFlex TV. It's a lot easier to recommend the Slim-HD at this reduced price, as it offers an attractive solution for portable 1080p media playback.