VLSystems M.Play Blast

Functional software

Because of the poor content of the VLSystems website we were delighted to see the company had already added some functional software to the box. M•Play Blast supports a lot of media players, like Media Center, Windows Media Player, WinAmp and iTunes. When playing content the M•Play Blast is able to display visualization. However this function needs to be set within the software program. For Windows Media Player the software automatically installs the L.I.S WMP10 VIS V2.05 plugin. It's a bit of a shame that when Windows Media Player is minimised, the visualization on the display halts. With Winamp however the program seems to have no problems with minimising. Displaying information on the M•Play Blast only seems to work for Media Center, Windows Media Player and WinAmp. With the other media players the remote control proves to work, but displaying information about the music content seems to be impossible.

M•Play Blast also shows a variety of system information. This function automatically starts whenever there is no media player active. The shown information contains things like time, memory usage, network traffic, logged in users and operating system. The software also makes it quite easy to add user defined rules to this functionality.

The device also is able to control computer fans. A temperature sensor is delivered with the package, that enables connection of a maximum of two coolers. The remote control has many useful buttons. For example Media Center can be controlled fully with the remote. Also it adds the possibility to zap through TV channels and even can be used as a mouse substitute, however we feel the use of a real mouse feels a lot more comofortable. The remote control can be used over a quite good range of five meters.

The screen indications can be adjusted fairly simply, the texts consist of strings like $TITLE for a song title. Users even can add their very own logos. To our surprise the MacOS logo also is available, while VLSystems actually does not deliver any drivers for this operating system.

Conclusion

M•Play Blast is a very nice gadget for your computer. It shows a variety of information about your PC without the need of opening all kinds of software. It still has some faults, like the impossibility to minimise Windows Media Player without crashing the software, but in the end we are positive. This device is a nice addition to your PC.