TizzBird F30: Full Review
Network is disastrous
The wired Gigabit Ethernet network interface is supposed to offer high speeds (sending files to the device or playback of HD videos without jumpiness). This is the case in theory, but in practice, what you get is truly mediocre.
Firstly, although the embedded processor is a 1 GHz ARM - and therefore high performance – file copying (from a computer via Samba sharing) hardly exceeds 7 MB/s. This might be better than the entry level products currently on the market but it falls a good way short of what might have been expected.
If you’re looking to fill this media centre’s hard drive, it’s best to use the USB 3.0 ‘type B’ port (for linking up to a computer, not to play what’s on peripherals). Using this USB 3.0 port, throughput is higher than 100 MB/s, though it depends on what hard drive you're using. In our case, with an HDD to HDD transfer we managed an average of 130 MB/s.
The most annoying thing is when you try to playback videos using the network. As there’s no network browser, you have to link a shared network to the device manually. This is a slightly complex manipulation for newbies and also only one network player can be added to the centre. If you have an NAS and a computer with files shared between them, you’ll have to make a choice.
Still on the subject of full-HD videos, anything over 18 Mbps and you get a jumpy image. This may be an issue with high throughput MKV videos or moderate Blu-ray backups.
Our litany of complaints ends with the fact that you can’t access the centre from a computer. Only a link up in the other direction (described above) is allowed.
