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Date: May 21st, 2009
Article by: Jackie Mueller (Hardware Reviewer)
Edited By: Nathan Glentworth (Owner / Head Editor)
Product was submitted by: VIZO
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PRODUCT PICTORIAL AND WALKTHROUGH

The remote control has a fairly straightforward layout with a red power button at the top and numeric buttons taking up the top half. The directional navigation buttons with the “OK” button in the middle will probably see the most use, and they are conveniently located right in the center. The manual goes through what each button does in case you have any questions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRODUCT INSTALLATION AND TESTING

Installing a drive inside the Milano is simple, but it does require a screwdriver. The first step is to remove the metal bracket from the inside and attach it to the drive with the included screws. Remember to make sure the drive has been formatted before installing it.

The next step is to take the drive (with the bracket attached) and plug in the power and IDE cables. It's much easier to attach the cables before inserting the drive all the way into the enclosure. After the drive is in place screw in four more screws, replace the cover and you're ready to go.

For use as an enclosure, the Milano requires no drivers unless you're using Windows 98. Simply plug in the unit using the USB cable, power it on, and the operating system will do the rest. You are now ready to transfer files. Let's see how it performs when transferring an .ISO file from the PC to the enclosure and back again:

4.35 GB File Transfer (USB 2.0)

The file was transferred between an internal SATA drive in my test PC and the Milano. Your results may vary, but this gives a general idea of what to expect. Transfer times weren't bad at all considering there's an old IDE drive inside the Milano.

Now that we've used the Milano as an external enclosure, let's see what it can do as a media player.