BuhBoo.com

Ok, so my latest geek quest is to find a good wireless media player. What I want is something that can stream media from my “server” (that has all my videos, music, pictures, etc..) to the TV in the living room in HD.

I had a setup using SageTV and a media extender, but it wasn’t HD, was a bit buggy and kind of slow.
After looking around a bit it came down to the Dlink DSM 520 and the Netgear EVA8000… I tried them both..

This review will be of the DSM 520.

Here are some of the things I’m looking for in one of these devices:

• Have both Ethernet and Wifi built in
• Be able to stream some HD video
• Be able to view pictures, and play my MP3s from the server
• Be fast and easy to use (important for the W.A.F.)
• A bonus would be some online content such as podcasts, youtube, RSS, etc…

Being a Dlink fanboy, I first tried out the DSM 520.

I brought the box home with very high hopes, most of the network hardware (wired and wireless) in the house is Dlink stuff and I’ve been VERY happy with it.
The setup was a breeze, I had the thing ready to go in about 5 minutes.
It requires the install of a media server, which it comes with, but you can use something like TVersity as well.

The device recognized my PC (once the software was installed) no problem and I was able to access all my media.
Actually, I should say I was able to browse all my media.

One of the things I was psyched about this product is that they were going to add support for YouTube and other online media sites on October 4th.
When I set up the device (on October 7th) I didn’t have those options so I checked for an update, and guess what.. there was one available!

I downloaded the update and anxiously looked for the online media… still not there.
Apparently the sales department and technical department don’t talk much at Dlink because they recently changed the date for these services from 10/4/2007 t0 “coming soon”.

The GUI on this thing is horrible. It’s almost like they slapped something together really quickly before shipping the unit.
I messed with the device for a few hours and it locked up at least 3 times.

Of the media it found, I was able to play some of it.

One of the selling points for me is that it plays MP4 directly, which my camera records in, so I didn’t have to convert any of my home videos.
This was hit and miss playing these. Same camera, same settings and some files played and some didn’t.
Some of the other videos I have from MPG to Divx / Xvid were hit and miss as well.. although they’re supposed to be supported.

Another HUGE problem (in my opinion) with the video is when you stop the video, then go back into it it doesn’t remember where you left off.. very bad for watching movies (especially with a 19 month old in the house).

Pulling up pictures worked well, but was REALLY slow.

I have no complaints about the music player portion, it worked really well.
It did take a little longer than I would have expected to load the initial song, but after that it was good.

That’s about as far as I got with the device.
I got so fed up with it that I unhooked it, boxed it up and got it ready to return to the store.

Now keep in mind this was over 802.11G, so if you have it hard wired it may be a little faster.. but compared to the Netgear EVA 8000 (I’ll post that review tomorrow), it was MUCH slower over the same connection.

If you’re thinking $200 is cheap for a media player like this then there’s a reason for it.
If you can get it on sale, or use some gift money or something for $100 it might be worth getting, but I wouldn’t spend any more money than that on it.