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Electronics : D-Link DSM-520 MediaLounge Wireless HD Media Player |
- Not real HD player.It will play limited HD files but it will NOT play MKV files or even WMA with HD sound. Due this these limitations I returned this produced and got Popcorn Hour A-100 that plays every media file.
Rating:
- DSM-520 HD Media PlayerI Am using it with a D-Link DNS-321 network server having (2) 1TB drives.
PROS: Well made. Real easy to set up.
CONS: Finicky about how some AVI files are ripped.
I do recommend this product. Works quite well.
Rating:
- OK but expected more...This was easy to setup and connect to the newtwork. There are reqired services in WinXP that are required in order to share media in Windows Media Player, but the docs do not provide the information. Had to search Google for the info.
The player displays the library title not the actual file name so it makes it hard to select the correct movie when watching a series with the same name but different episodes.
Video quality was marginal as was the sound. Honestly, get a better picture and sound when connecting my laptop to the SVGA port on the TV. By no means is it HD quality as it states it is.
The deal breaker for me was the box was unable to read all of my DRM video files even though they were downloaded from the same site using the same license. We download multiple series' from 1 site each week and the idea here is I can use the media player to play all the DRM protected videos. In order to watch one of the series I was required to plug in the laptop. So if I'm going to do it for 1 series (5 shows) then I may as well just use the laptop connected to the TV to watch all the series' and save the added expense.
So hence, I returned the box. The concept is nice but the execution is not great and hopefully Microsoft will make it easier to connect and share media in products from other vendors. Right now it's D-Link and their own XBOX. Too bad.
Rating:
- Must RTFMOK, this is most likely my own fault - I have neglected to read a few key items before I purchased this item. Nevertheless, I think it falls short of expectations (even those set at reasonable levels).
I have a synology box running with all my media, which I can access through DSM-520 without turning on the computer - as intended setup. Problem comes in when I try to access on-line content - no way to do so without turning on your PC and installing D-Link software onto it. Going over wireless is slow and choppy in my experience and you'll need to plug an ethernet cable to get better quality. The AvtiveTV software kept crashing/freezing almost every time I tried using it - had to restart the DSM to gain functionality.
For the simple stuff - listening to mp3, and low quality movies - this has been adequate, yet I still think a better job could be done with the interface... feels toy-ish... wii-mario game-like to me.
Make sure you read all the specs about A/V formats it will play and be ready to keep your PC for online content.
Rating:
- The player is good, the software is getting there.The player works perfectly, but I had to drop a star due to sluggest play back on files with bit rates for 1600kbps for video and the dropped channels and slow support for ActiveTV. It picked up secured wireless with no problems and synced with my computer in less than minute. One word of caution is to let the server software run for a couple minutes if you have a large video library, this ensures that the player sees all of your files instead of some. It also worked with every file format I threw at it including avi(XviD and Divx), mpeg, mpeg2, and mkv. However, some WMV files would not open or had weird audio delays, which was also the same with avi and mkv files are higher bitrates. However telling it to look at my folder from BeyondTV recordings also made it an ideal network DVR solution as well.
ActiveTV is a good concept, but too bad MediaMall is super slow in providing updates for channels which no longer work, are available elsewhere, or are actually newly available. Ex. MTV Overdrive is no longer available under US, but MTVU and Overdrive under UK still work. Also both VHI and Comedy Central are completely out of commission. Finally while some ads say it works with Hulu this is only in certain beta vids and won't be added to the real versions until late this year or early next year if at all, since MediaMall has shifted most of their attention to PlayOn. The good news I heard that the latest versions of PlayOn work on this router, so they may just dump ActiveTV and add the features for PlayOn. Oh well I can't complain too much since it gave me enough content to painlessly rid myself of cable tv.
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