| D-Link DSM-320 Wireless Media Player, Audio/Photo/Video, 802.11g |
|
|
| |
| Features: |
Transfer Speeds Up to 54 Mbps
Supports all popular media formats
Allows you to access digital media content stored on your PC, browse your music files, watch your videos, and display your photos
Connects Wirelessly Using 802.11g or Via Ethernet
Compatible with Windows 98SE, Me, 2000 or XP |
| |
| Description: |
| D-Link DSM-320 Wireless Media Player - The Wireless Media Player from D-Link merges your abundant digital entertainment collection on your PC, with the comfort and convenience of your living room. It's slim design fits into entertainment centers easily, and once attached to your TV, you can wirelessly stream your audio, photo, and video files. Navigation of your content is easy with D-Link's intuitive user interface and included remote control! Audio Compatibility - MP3, WMA, WAV,&Radio AOL Video Compatibility - MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, QuickTime,&XviD Image Compatibility - JPEG, JPEG2000, TIFF, GIF, BMP,&PNG |
| |
| User Reviews (143 total): |
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 of Total 7 Pages
|
Overall good product, March 8, 2007
By John Klabacka
This product is a good choice for a reasonable price. My cons for this product are: Its as wide as a dvd player. I have seen other products out there that are smaller if you are looking for a compact design. The other issue I encountered is every great while a song will skip. This could be due to the fact that there are five wireless networks in range. I have not spent too much time investigating this issue b/c its not that big of a deal. Over I am happy with this purchase.
|
DO NOT PURCHASE FOR ITS XVID/DIVX SUPPORT, February 28, 2007
By RustyLix (Chicago, IL)
The feature that originally sold me on the DSM-320 was its support for the XviD and DivX formats. These, however, are the two formats that are supported the least, and a slow, jerky, framerate should be expected. I at first thought it was a bandwidth issue, and proceeded to hard wire it to my computer using a crossover cable, the framerate improved, but not enough, in my opinion, for this device to even claim support for these file types. If support for these two formats are the selling feature for you, be warned, you should look elsewhere.
|
Underpowered..., February 26, 2007
By SuperChuck
Unfortunately, I picked this unit up with much higher hopes than I should have.
Setup was relatively simple. I know what I'm doing and I have an existing UPnP server on my network, so that made life a little easier. When you power the thing up for the first time, it steps you through network setup, locates UPnP servers, and makes it all go.
However, once I got it running, I lost my optimism. Video was very choppy. It was completely unwatchable. I futzed with the settings on my router and UPnP server and video formats for a week before finally giving up.
|
Stay Away from this Device., February 24, 2007
By M. Moss
I read the other reviews, some glowing, others well.. not so glowing. The price was right, ($149 - 50 rebate) So I thought I would take a chance. I read the other reviews so I have no one else to blame but myself.
First off, I am only interested in playing videos from my computer, so I have no idea how well the image viewing or MP3 playing works.
I also notice other people reviewing this product had all kinds of problems with wireless connections. My house is fully wired with CAT5, therefore I am using this product wired, not wireless.
I was able to get the device connected to my network and reading files from the media server within 10 minutes of opening the carton... so far so good. The first thing I did was check for updates. An update was found and updated successfully.
I then had the DSM-320 look for media servers. It found the tversity server right away and I was able to see the contents listed. This unfortunately is the end of the good news. It's all went downhill from here.
1. Neither server, tversity or the Dlink were smart enough to view a folder of VOB files as a movie. They listed them as VOB_1, VOB2 etc. So for example, I clicked on my Casablanca folder, I would then need to click on VOB_1 to start the movie. When VOB_1 ended after about 20 minutes, it did not go to VOB_2. I needed to use the remote and manually select the next item to play. arrrgghh!! P.O.S. thing.
2. As another review stated, the FF simply does not work properly. Oh, sure if you press FF the movie will fast forward. But there is no way to stop it. If you press play while the movie is FF'wding, the movie starts to play from the beginning of the current VOB. more, arrrrgghh!
This alone is enough of a nuisance to return the device. Which I will be doing first thing in the morning.
My final advice to any prospective buyers: S T A Y A W A Y !!!!
My final advic to D-Link, Great idea, but your product absolutely sucks.
Oh one more thing, Someone mentioned that their tech support was very freindly. Yes the two ladies I spoke to were both very friendly, their English was terrible. (Guess which county you call for tech support... oh come on, just one guess) It also sounded like each of the tech support personnel are sitting shoulder to shoulder to one another. I could hear at least 2 other tech support people communicating with their clients. Which made it very difficult for the lady helping me. She needed to ask me to repeat myself over and over. Sheesh, I must have read my phone number to her at least 4 times before she got it right.
One last interesting tidbit, on the packaging, they mention Nero recode CE. So I went to the nero site to check it out. Nero has a list of Supported Media Players listed. And you know what, D-Link is NOT one of them. I will return this D-Link junk and purchase one the Nero certified product instead.
I bow my head in shame, As I had read the reviews but I bought the product anyway.
|
Not perfect but decent for the price, February 21, 2007
By Matthew Henry (ANN ARBOR, MI USA)
I got this device to view video. I figured at 1/3 the price of the Apple TV, which isn't even out yet, I'd take a chance that this would work for me. I've had this for 2 weeks. I don't get good wifi reception near my TV so I ran an ethernet line to the unit; I didn't attempt to test it with Wifi.
First the bad news. Fast forward and rewind don't work. I tried D-Link's server, the open source TVersity server, upgrading the firmware, different file formats, different settings... it simply doesn't work in any usable way. Accept that and move on with your life. Unlike a Tivo, it does not remember where you were in a video if you switch to another one and switch back. Also, it'd be nice if it showed thumbnails of the videos in the selection screen instead of just the names, but that's probably being too picky.
Ok, that's the bad stuff. Now for the rest of it. I tried DLink's server but the free "TVersity" software (google for it) had better support for different file formats so I switched to that. I tried a few different video formats: .mpeg, divx, ripped DVDs (.vob), .m4v, .mov. I've probably played 5 hours of video on it so far, and it's played everything without a single hiccup. Quality seems good. I got this for my three year old and he mostly likes ancient cartoons like Little Lulu and Betty Boop, and the quality of those isn't exactly great start with; the DLink certainly didn't make it any worse. I tried a modern DVD too and it looked fine. One other minor quirk, it seems to clip off the last few seconds of each video. Haven't had a chance to investigate what the problem is and if it's fixable; it mostly doesn't matter unless you are watching short video files from your digital camera.
I viewed some pictures on it and it was awfully slow to go from picture to picture. I don't much care about viewing pictures so I didn't attempt to investigate what the problem was and if there was a solution. I didn't attempt to play mp3s at all. It also has the capability to views some kinds of streaming internet video but I haven't tried that either.
Bottom line, it has limitations but I am happy with it so far. It's not perfect but it's worth the money. Rip your DVDs to your computer using DVD Decryptor (google for it) and you'll pretty quickly save money by buying this unit instead of letting your toddler scratch all your DVDs.
|
Great for the price - look no further, February 14, 2007
By Happy husband (Denver, CO USA)
After reading many reviews I decided that for the price this was going to suit my needs.
Hopefully I can dispell some of the complaints:
1. There was a lot of skipping and pausing when I got this going (which took about 5 minutes with WEP)...so much that I ordered a wireless repeater....BUT...after the automatic firmware upgrade (turn off and on after network is configured) the skipping has completely gone!!!!! I will be sending back the repeater.
2. The remote is a cheap piece of...I have a harmony which solved this problem pretty easily (the DSM-320 is in the harmony database already)
3. Don't even try the supplied software. It does to your PC what I-Tunes does on windows...makes it run slow. For Windows XP SP2 users just use Windows Media Player 11. Easy to setup for sharing and the playlists created are supported with the latest firmware.
4. This unit is not designed to be a replacement for your computer software where creating playlists are concerned. Just do it on your PC!!!! You cannot expect a remote driven unit to match the ease of use of a full keyboard.
In summary I have no complaints about this unit at all. For the price you really can't go wrong. But if you insist on paying over $300...go ahead...ignore me. BTW...I also got $50 mail in rebate from D-Link...bonus!!
|
Everything I Hoped For, February 7, 2007
By dmp (St. Louis, MO)
Setup was pretty easy. I'm a computer buff, so I understood everything. The interface is wizard driven, and pretty intutitive if you know what's going on. I'll admit that some one who isn't technical may have a difficult time entering the SSID and the WEP key, but I knew what to do. My only complaint with this area is a common WEP issue: If the ASCII key isn't the exact right format, it won't take it....it's best just to use a HEX key.
I setup WMP 11 on a new computer, told it to share itself out, then set the WMP Network Share Service on Autostart in the Services CP. Once that's done, the Media Player found it no problem.
The menuing system is everything I hoped for. Keep in mind, I got just for playing MP3s any where in the house. It has album and Playlist support, and just works. I think the media server has a lot to do with quality. I tried WMP 11 out of the box with WiFi and like it. May do Cat 5 later. Anything after music is just a bonus, and this does have potential. I also love all the outputs on it!
My only complaint so far, the remote is a bit hoaky. I have to aim it just right, or the box doesn't receive it...hopefully my Harmony will take care of that.
|
Works OK, but has limited functionality, January 25, 2007
By Henrik Larsen (Sugar Land, Tx United States)
I am using TVersity and DSM-320 wired. It works OK with my ripped CD collection (except play list as another reviewer has noted). I have been unable to get video feeds to work and I am having hit-and-miss luck with XM Radio using the uXM-shareware.
In the end I paid $160 to and spent several (many) evenings playing with the set-up to try to get video feed and XM radio to work. Still DVD's cannot be played (which I knew, but it shows the limited functionality). So that's $160 to get CD's to play and pictures to show on my TV. D-Link offered a $50 discount 4 days after I ordered my unit, which kind-of sucks but such is life.
Tomorrow I am going to buy a MP3-RCA cable converter ($10-15) and plug the computer sound card directly into my stereo and I am going to get a long monitor cable ($20-35) and plug my front projector into the computer. Hence I will be able to get full functionality: play ripped/downloaded music over the stereo, watch DVD's, watch streaming media, make picture shows, listen to Internet radio etc etc. for a fraction of the cost and less headaches than a media player.
I enjoyed playing with the media player, but it seems like a lot of work for very limited functionality.
|
Good Hardware - Primative UI, January 20, 2007
By Stephen M. Prescott (Minneapolis, Minnesota United States)
We turned our porch into a 4-season sunroom/TV room a year ago. In addition to wiring it with coax, I ran a few ethernet cables in as well just have them. When we were done, we had the perfect place to watch TV on our new 42" plasma. But the ethernet wiring was just sitting there and it began to naw on me. Then I discovered these media devices and my blood went up.
I picked the D-Link because all the devices get iffy reviews and it was the low-cost item. I figured that at that low price I could afford to take a flier.
Now for the product comments: using the ethernet connection with S-video, I was up and running in about an hour. I installed TVersity on the server computer running XP Pro. If your box cannot find the server, reboot your computer and wait for more TVersity installation dialogs then it will work. I tried hooking the box up with component cables but the colors were awful (everything a different shade of green). Also, I tried to use the optical audio and it did not work so I went with composite.
Showing pictures, videos and music from my My Music shared folder is good. The videos are not jerky and the colors and resolution are good. We are currently trying to make Rhapsody work but so far no cigar.
The user interface is functional but that's all. It would have been cutting edge in, say, 1990. The clicker is pretty cheap -- really cheap in fact -- but so is the price of this unit so that's OK. Plasma and CRT TV owners take note: if you leave the UI sit on your screen too long, you stand to get screen burn-in. You have to be careful of that. It would have been nice if D-Link had provided screen saver functionality. In the UI department, there is HUGE, just HUGE, room for improvement in the next version.
I justfify this item to myself as a toy and to others as an essential component to archiving the approx 400 VCR tapes I have made over the years. Once that project is over, we will be able to view our tapes much easier and, although the tapes will continue to degrade, our archives will not.
I think that this is the kind of thing that you learn to like more as time goes by and I am confident that we will find more good things to do with it.
ps: This is an update on the 'greenish cast' issue. If you hook the unit up to your display using the component connection, everything will have an ugly greenish cast and you will think that it doesn't work with those type of cables. But look on your clicker and find the 'Video Out' button. Hook up your unit to the TV with the component cables and then click that button. It will fix the problem for you.
|
Don't waste your money., December 31, 2006
By Gerald G. Williams (Miami Beach, FL United States)
I'm a fairly intelligent early adaptor and I have been completely disappointed with this product. I live on South Beach in Miami in a high rise, so I was not entirely surprised that this would not function wirelessly, but even after I laid down cable and hard-wired it, no luck. Or more precisely, inadequate performance. Lame, lame, lame. A total waste of money. Wait until 2010.
|
|
|
Dump the shipped software and you will be very happy!, November 18, 2006
By scottmcdaniel.org (Georgia)
After a couple of days of no luck with the shipped software, I started reading deeper into these reviews and took the advice of those using TVersity. Within a few minutes of installing and configuring it, I had a perfectly functioning media player!
The shipped software would see the server, but within seconds of clicking a file, would say 'server not found'. TVersity has yet to drop my connection.
Recommendation: if you buy this, go download the free TVerisity product instead of using the DLink media center.
|
DSM 320 Delivers, with perseverence, November 10, 2006
By Corky (Chicago, USA)
I bought this unit after trying another Media Center Extender product by another manufacturer. I spent about 2 hours on the phone with tech support because I could not get the DSM 320 to recognize my playlists. For hours I tried tech support, before they told me I had to buy more software to get it to do that.
That did not make sense to me, so for several hours, I read and re-read the manual, which says it will recognize Windows XP generated playlists, and I searched and searched trying to find where on my computer Windows XP actually stored playlists.
Finally, I figured out where XP stored the playlists, and voila, one problem solved. The DSM 320 recognizes playlists with file extensions of .pls and .m3u and Windows XP does not use that format.
HOWEVER, there is a conversion program that converts to .m3u format! So I solved the problem myself. My computer and the DSM are about 60 feet apart and on different floors, but my videos and music work fine, though once in a while if I power the unit off, it takes a while to find the server. I havent tried video yet, but I bought the unit to stream music and pics to my home stereo and TV, and it does that exactly as I need it to, and I could not beat the price, which was less than a hundred bucks.
So, it does what I wanted it to, I struggled some with the set up but it was worth it, and I think this product a terriffic value. As to the remote, well, I seem to have a dozen remotes, so I plan to reprogram them all into a master remote and not use this one anyway. It will work, but there is a lag, as can be expected with the DSM320 and my PC communicating with each other over a distance. My only comment would relate to my aging eyes, and that would be that I wish they would use bigger and brighter lettering on the buttons!
I plan to get a TV tuner card for my PC, but at my age I can only handle so many innovations in one year, and I am maxed out for now. Look for an update next year!
|
Easy to install but one minor glitch, October 22, 2006
By D. Evans (USA)
I won't add to what is already in the other reviews other than this unit has been able to play every .avi that I have thrown at it so far. Seems that they have added a good number of codecs via the firmware upgrades. (Mine came with version 1.07 installed.)
There was one installation glitch that would be troublesome to the less network savvy. You can't seem to enter the SSID of your network manually, in spite of an option to do so. The on-screen keyboard would not appear. I had to change my router settings to broadcast the SSID before it was detected. Fortunately, that won't compromise your network security if it is also set for WEP encryption.
The rest was no problem.
|
D-Link Wireless Media Player, October 16, 2006
By A. Genov (Bloomington,, IL United States)
Works like a champ! Accesses files you have stored on your computer and plays them on your TV. This particular gadget does not convert your TV into a PC monitor.
|
No problems!, October 2, 2006
By K. Mays (FLORIDA)
I wasn't sure about this unit after reading reviews, but it seemed like the best deal for a wireless media bridge.
It works great!
I ripped my CDs the harddrive as well as photos.
The menus on the unit are easy. I pick my albums and let it go!
Encoding to WMA sounded just as good as a MP3 at 320k!
The remote works from across the room, nothing buggy with that either.
Enjoy!
|
Way easier than I thought to set up, September 30, 2006
By Sean-casey King (Aurora, CO United States)
From the other reviews written here, I thought it would take me days to set this up. After all, it took me forever to set up my wireless network at home to see my laptop computer. I almost did not buy this product because of all of the dire reviews it got. DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM!!! I got this working on the first try, just by selecting my security settings (WPA-PSK [TKIP]) and entering my passphrase (this will display in your router settings). If you have not set up a network ever before, you may have some difficulty, especially if you want to set up a secure network. I use a NetGear Rangemax router instead of D-link, maybe the problems the other users were having was because of their routers and computer hardware.
As far as useability, it does display the files in alphebetical order, but it does let you play by album, artist, etc, and it has a wonderful shuffle feature. I also didn't think the remote was too bad, it worked as it should. Don't let the negative reviews here disuade you from purchasing this product.
Overall, this is a good product for a good price. Surprisingly easy to set up, I had it going in about 15 minutes. (this review refers to the DSM-520 model, which may be an upgrade from the model discussed in the other reviews)
|
Works perfectly! I am delighted with it, September 15, 2006
By rgj21 (Washington, D.C.)
I have been looking for something to play jpgs and music through my TV and stereo since I replaced my TIVO with a cable company PVR. This device performs exactly as adverstised, was a breeze to set up and looks good too.
The setup took me literally 15 minutes. There are three steps.
1. Install the software on your computer. You can install it on any computer on your network that has photo or music files.
The software lets you select the folders on your hard drive that contain the pictures and music. You can always add more folders later.
2. Connect the DSM 320. I have a Linksys Wireless G network, a Yamaha A/V receiver and a Samsung plasma. Attach the included wireless antenna to the back of the DSM 320. Run a Video-S cable (included) from the back of the DSM 320 to the Video-S port on the back of the TV. Run red/white component cables from the back of the DSM 320 to your receiver. I used the AUX-V connection. Plug in the DSM 320. Turn it and your TV on.
3. Run the Setup Wizard. This appears on your TV screen. Input is done through the DSM 320 remote. The device immediately found my wireless network SSID. It allows you to enter the WEP key on screen.
That is all there was to it. If your TV has been set to 16:9 aspect ratio for HDTV, reset it to 4:3 before viewing photos. You can run a slide show of your photos, scroll through your music, play music while you look at photos.
The remote's power might be a little weak--or it could have been the way I had the DSM-320 positioned on my TV stand. I had to get a little close and watch my angle when controlling the device. I am going to try to set it up to work with my Logitech Harmony 880 remote.
I recommend this device quite highly.
|
Wireless connection dropouts, September 10, 2006
By Adam MacBeth (Seattle, WA United States)
When using Wi-Fi for a connection, this device skips frequently when playing back audio. No matter how strong my wireless connection I had this problem. Regardless of any of the other features, this makes the device completely unusable as far as I am concerned.
I've used similar devices that did not have this problem, but had other problems like poor UPnP compatibility (Linksys WMA-11B), so this is clearly not an insurmountable problem in general.
|
Doesnt Play anything, August 28, 2006
By Diego Lopez Mobilia
I installed the system, upgraded to last firmware, installed the PC software, but when I try to play any media file I always get a "Unable to open the file." error message, I cotacted Dlink, but they cant make it work. I can even see my pictures thumbnails, but when I try to see those pictures in full ress, I get the same error.
|
It simply does not work - Read the reviews, August 11, 2006
By PC Tech (Atlanta, GA USA)
I bought the DSM-320 some time ago and have tried everything in an effort to make it work - latest firmware, reset, relocate, etc. etc. I've finally pulled it out of my system after watching it collect dust for several months. I highly recommend against purchasing this POS. In fact I will give mine away to anyone who cares to pay for the shipping...
|
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 of Total 7 Pages
|
|
| Copyright 2001-2007 WiFiReview.com |
|
