| D-Link DSM-320RD Wireless Media Player, PS DVD, 5-in-1 Card Reader, 802.11g, 54Mbps |
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Model: DSM-320RD
Brand: D-Link
Manufacturer: D-Link
Average Rating: 
(submit your review here)
Total Reviews: 27
Form factor: External
Hardware platform: PC
Data link protocol: 802.11g // 802.11b
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| Features: |
An on-screen Wizard guides you step-by-step through the process. With support for Windows Connect Now, configuring the wireless settings is easier than ever before! Simply run the Wireless Network Setup Wizard from Windows XP Service Pack 2 and transfer the wireless settings to the DSM-320RD using a USB thumbdrive
Universal Plug-&-Play AV
Power Source - 110-220 VAC 50/60Hz, 0.5A max
Dimensions - L = 16.75 inches / W = 11.25 inches / H = 1.5 inches
D-Link 1-Year Warranty |
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| Description: |
| The DSM-320RD is a gatway that connects your home entertainment center to an existing network, allowing you to wirelessly stream music, photos and videos from your Windows PC to your television and stereo system, all without running cables through your home. Using 802.11g wireless technology, the DSM-320RD streams media content at a maximum wireless signal rate of up to 54Mbps. You can also stream media content via Ethernet at speeds of up to 100Mbps. The DSM-320RD integrates seamlessly with your existing wired or wireless network. Using progressive scan technology, you can watch your favorite DVDs in high resolution (for high-definition and HD-ready TVs) with theatre-like sound. In addition to DVDs, this DVD Player will also play SVCD, CD-R, CD-RW, CD, and MP3 discs. The DSM-320RD also features a built-in 5-in-1 card reader, which provides a fast and convenient way to view and share digital photos, music, and videos stored on a memory card. Insert the memory card into the card reader and your media content becomes just a click away. Popular memory cards, including XD Card, SD, Memory Stick, SmartMedia, and Compact Flash (Type I and II) are supported. Get access to thousands of songs right from your living room. D-Link has partnered with premium online service providers such as AOL, Napster, and Rhapsody to bring you a large collection of CD-quality, commercial-free radio stations and PC music downloads. And now, with support for Windows Media Connect (WMC), all Windows Media Digital Rights Management (WMDRM) protected files can be seamlessly streamed from your PC to your living room. |
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| User Reviews (27 total): |
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Room for improvement - Infact go back the drawing board., February 6, 2008
By user (Arcadia)
I bought this device in the hope that I wouldn't have to spend the money on the Apple equivalent. (now i'm saving up for one) Unfortunately the DSM 320RD leaves a lot to be desired. It has definite issues with playback and the picture quality is horrible. When watching DVD's or video files you will get frequent white flashes on the screen. Sometimes the video file ends early. And the worst thing to have happen is when playing a DVD sometimes the unit would spontaneously shut itself off. It has no memory function to remember where you leave off and it is difficult if not possible to fast forward or rewind in video files.
Set up of the unit was easy but this is no comfort for lack usability. Save your money to get a unit that has a better design. Do the research. I wish I did.
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Overall Poor Product Does Not Live Up to Potential, January 31, 2008
By user (Alexandria, VA USA)
I have had this product for a year and am now scrapping it. Here are the problems:
- Music - it does play many formats but it is plagued with songs skipping and losing the network periodically
- Pictures - not easy to format pictures so they look good on your TV screen. Music and Photo together never worked and usually hangs the whole machine
- Performance - Machine routinely hangs up and needs to be restarted for example - If a DVD has a problem, is you switch between DVD and music server, if you try to play music and look at pictures at the same time, also at random time for no reason.
- DVD player - an noted above hangs and will not play all DVD for some reason
- Remote is too sensitive and often sends a double hit of the button you press. Has a short range and only works when pointed directly at the device. Few buttons on unit so when remote dies you effectively cannot use the unit.
- SD card slot does not work with 8 gig SD cards
- Software is buggy and has not been updated since I bought the machine.
- Please do not buy this device.
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Not bad for the price, January 15, 2008
By user
I had my review on somewhere else and I think it is good to put it here also.
I got this DSM-320RD about 2~3 weeks and I did spend some time played with it. I original gave it 5 stars on my first review, but the more I play with it the more problems I found. Therefore I took one star off. It has lots of features to play with. It plays CD/SVCD/DVD+-RW, MP3. With the Ethernet connection through both WLAN/LAN, it plays photo slide show, MP3 music, and stream video through the MediaLounge that shared with an ALWAYS ON computer. Besides that, it can plays photo/MP3/videos through the built-in 5 to 1 card reader and also through internet connection to the web (partnered online service providers, AOL & etc...)to listen radios and download music. Be aware, the USB it has is use for the wireless setup ONLY and NOT for read-in photo/MP3/video, which is one thing I feel upset about. Another draw back is that it doesn't able to browse into the network drive or folder directly and it must required an AWAYS ON computer to share the files to play, which mean it can't browse the files on my network drive. In addition, this d-link media player seems not work with other brand router (at least it doesn't work with my newer trendnet Gbit router, but work flawless with my older d-link router both LAN/WLAN...note: all my other d-link wireless card doesn't work with this rendnet router as well). As for the wireless video streaming I don't has much problem on it with 2 rooms in between, however, it does choke a little when lots of people constantly walk in between your router and the the media player. My newer router should be able to get the better signal (indeed, it is the case for my other wireless connection), unfortunately, so far I didn't get it to work with this media player.
good:
1. lots of features.
2. play photo/MP3/video on cd+-RW/svcd/dvd+-RW.
3. has output of composite/s-video/component (come with
composite/s-video cables but not component cables).
4. built-in 5 to 1 card reader.
5. Capable stream video, photo, MP3 through shared MediaLounge.
(LAN/WLAN).
6. Play online mp3/radio through d-link partnered online service
providers.
bad:
1. No USB for read-in photo/mp3/video
2. Can not browse into folders of the network server.
3. It seems not work with other brand router.
4. no HDMI port
If you can live with the bad I mentioned above, then it is a very good toy to buy, otherwise look somewhere else.
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Pretty good product, January 14, 2008
By user (Santa Fe, NM United States)
I bought this product (from a different site) as a replacement for my Tivo Home Media features (stream music from my home computer to my receiver and display slide shows of my photos on my TV). I got it up and running with my 802.11b network and it works pretty well. I was unsure if it would work properly because of all the negative reviews but I think these are unwarranted at least for the music and photos.
OK, so the interface is not the greatest in the world (e.g. it doesn't give you options like genres/album/artist etc for browsing music) but it streams music well, displays all my photos and with less dropouts than my Tivo Series 2 single tuner did. Also, as mentioned the remote is not that great - you can't point it in the general direction and have it respond, and I was frequently hitting the home button instead of the down button. Finally, when the D-Link Media server was trying to download updates it failed (The Device itself did a firmware upgrade just fine).
I cannot comment on the DVD player because I bought the 320-RD instead of the 320 just because the former was on sale. Also, I cannot comment on the videos since I havent tried it.
Finally, upon several people's suggestions I installed TVersity and after much futzing around I managed to get this device to use the TVersity media server.
All in all, I would recommend buying this product when it is on sale
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Great Product, January 12, 2008
By user
At first I was skeptical about this product because I purchased a similar product a couple years back and was disappointed. When I first hooked the system up to my Sharp LCD 720p TV and JVC audio receiver I was not impressed. The picture wasn't sharp and the audio had a lot of distortion. I hooked up the system using the supplied audio and video cables. I packed up the system and never used it for a week thinking I would sell it. However, I decided give the system another shot by hooking it up using component video cables and an optical audio cable to my receiver. After doing that I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with the system. The sound is CD quality with no distortion, the picture on my television is just as it looks on my computer LCD monitor. The interface was very easy to navigate and the overall setup only took about 5 minutes. I highly recommend this system and it does everything it says it should do.
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Does everything is should, December 28, 2007
By user (Sacramento, CA USA)
I just bought this yesterday and so far I am very, very impressed.
First of all it is a client for any Universal Plug-n-Play (UPnP) aware server (like TVersity). In other words using the included DLink server software is not required (I haven't even put the bundled CD into my computer).
Most of my negatives are really minor knit-picks:
- When I first set it up I connected it by Ethernet cable directly to my router. I selected DHCP at the appropriate time and yet it didn't get an IP address. (Granted this could be router but every other device seems to get an IP just fine.) Instead the device defaulted to an invalid 169.x.x.x IP address. It didn't bother telling me it couldn't get a valid IP it just timed out and gave me the defaulted 169, telling me it couldn't find a server on the network. I luckily knew what that was but more explanation would have been nice (as in "no valid IP address found, not on network").
- I did finally get an IP after going to the "My Media" option, then pushing "setup" on the remote. It says "push setup to exit" for some reason but it actually takes you to a useful screen that allows you to search for your media server and adjust network settings. Between that screen and having the unit reboot I got it to work. Just remember, an IP address with 169 is the computer/device trying to tell you "sorry, I couldn't get an IP via DCHP as instructed".
- This thing has actually played every format I have thrown at it. The box mentions xvid as one of the supported formats but it apparently also plays divx just fine and without issue.
- One thing it either can't do or I haven't figured out how to make it do yet is adjusting the screen format. Some UPnP devices that perform the same function over the network (like xbox 360) have a feature that allows you to adjust between screen formats. Like letterbox/full screen/full screen zoom/native/auto. I haven't found a similar option for this device quite yet, resulting in some video podcasts that don't quite fit to my TV screen, but are still watchable.
- One thing it does do which the 360 does not: if you select a video in a folder that has a lot of videos (like episodes of a show) at the end of the video it starts playing the next one. I wish the 360 did that as well.
- The device finding, downloading and applying the latest firmware update auto-magic is fantastic...
Things to keep in mine:
- I have yet to try the music or photo features of it (I have no need for either).
- Nor have I tried the WiFi feature, though being able to transfer the wifi settings from a PC via USB thumb drive seems really cool.
- I have also not tried playing anything via compact flash or SD card.
Over all I am very impressed.
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Not flawless but near close to it, December 23, 2007
By user (Sugar Land, TX, USA)
I almost did not buy this product because of the reviews where people were pretty much describing it as a piece of garbage. Phrases like "wait until the technology gets better" or "...movies lock half way through..." or "...it resets my network every time I watch a movie..." got me thinking that maybe I should buy an xbox 360 instead. I can't speak for what these other people went through, but at least my experience was nothing like theirs. I did have some issues with the key (it ended up being my fault) which I had to call D-Link support for. I did talk to a guy from India but he was very quick to transfer me to second level support once I told him all the things I had done and he determined that I knew my way around a wireless router and knew how to configure different devices to connect to a secured network. What I had to do, if it helps anybody, was to unsecure my network to get it working before I secured it again. This allowed me to see what I had done wrong when the network was secured. After I got it to work with the unsecured network, I proceeded to secure the network, enter the correct key and then it was perfect from there. I have watched three movies I recorded from my PC based TV recorder, I have setup play lists of favorite mp3s from the device itself and have watched fotos while listening to music (nice feature).
Overall, I would say the device performs as advertised. I've seen the xbox UI and yes, it looks better. Not that this UI is not good looking, it's just that the xbox one looks better.
Do not let those people talking about the remote control scare you. It's a remote control people. Colors and buttons don't make a difference. Don't let those talking about their network being reset scare you. Maybe they need to update the firmware of their wireless router before they blame this device.
Awesome device....I love technology that works....
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Excellent overall with minor technical glitches, May 21, 2007
By user (Cairo, Egypt)
It's actually pretty plug and play.
The only hurdle was after I thought I did it all and it wasn't working and I was starting to panic, a simple reboot of the pc made the media player see the newly created media server.
Apart from that, occasionally it doesn't see the media server, so you actually have to walk all the way to your pc (mine is a couple of rooms away but I'm pretty lazy) go to the server window and re-apply it's name (no you don't actually have to change the name, just re-apply it) and voila! the media player sees the server again.
The annoying bit is, you're supposed to have access to online radio stations and the like, right? Well, only if you have a valid windows edition you do. Let me explain...
To access online media, you have to install a software which used to be free but that now microsoft has decided to buncle with Windows Media player 11 which in turn needs a valid windows edition :-(
But again, overall, great product especially since Wowwee has yet to release Scoty :-(((
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Good, but not great, March 31, 2007
By user (Kirkland, WA United States)
It took me about 30 minutes to get this out of the box, set it up, and start playing music. The biggest obstacle was that I forgot to tell Windows Media Player 11 that this device was friendly and could be trusted. Took me a couple of trys before I actually paid attention to the very clear error message, which was something like (device is not yet authorized).
Great! But now come the gotchas, in order from the biggest to the smallest...
(BTW, I am using Windows Media Player 11, rather than the supplied D-Link Media Server software. Windows "Connect Now" technology is included in 11, so no separate download is required.)
1) I had the variable output level (volume) of the DSM 320-RD set to 8 or 9 (out of 10) and the distortion was HORRIBLE! I was ready to take the thing back, but everyone seems to rave about sound quality, so I figured something wasn't right. When I dialed the unit's output back down to 4 or 5, I could crank the volume up to max on the tuner and it was crisp and clear. Whew! Bad sound was a deal-breaker, so disaster avoided.
2) Network settings. Shortly after getting things working, I kept getting "SERVER NOT FOUND". The network settings it picked were bizarre, and in fact I have no idea how it ever worked. I ended up setting a static IP address, and have had zero problems since.
3) It plays songs on an album in alphabetical order, period. Setting ID3 tags had no effect. I had to put things into a playlist (one per album) to get songs to play in the order. Luckily this is easy to do with WMP 11.
4) NO ALBUM ART! COME ON, PEOPLE! ARG!!!!
5) Photo scaling (and D-Link "tech support"). None of the photo scaling and aspect settings have any observable effect on the display: photos are always stretched and distorted. D-Link tech support told me that I should use WMP 11 to control the display settings of the DSM-320RD...which is a ridiculous statement. I was kind and didn't laugh at them, but it was at this point that I decided I was alone in the wilderness on this problem. I eventually solved this by fiddling with the monitor settings.
6) Maybe applicable to all of the above...the DSM-320RD is a much newer device than the original DSM-320, with different firmware, and it appears that the 320RD is behind on some fixes (current version is 1.04, and the current firmware version of the 320 is 1.09). Still, you'd hope that if they fixed something long ago on the 320, it would be reasonably translatable to the 320RD, and that it should follow soon. Doesn't yet seem to be the case.
Overall, I'm glad I bought it, and based on some of these reviews, I expected it would be 2 weeks or more before I had it working reliably. I'm already there, and now dealing with the smaller items.
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Good Idea, bad execution, February 7, 2007
By user (Phoenix, AZ)
The idea behind this product is wonderful, but the product itself is lackluster. The software is terrible, the remote response is slow, and the user friendliness is not there.
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Don't waste your time, February 2, 2007
By user
I couldn't believe my eyes when I found this player for 149.99. It plays just about any file you throw at it. It accepts media through a card reader, a cd/dvd drive, wireless, and 10/100.
Setting up the player is easy. Connect the cables in the back. Install the software on your PC. Select the media folders to share. Turn the unit on. Set up the wireless connection. Update the firmware.
Everything worked great during the first few hours. The unit streamed audio and video without a hiccup. Navigation was simple.
Now for the problems.
1. The remote sucks. You need to point it directly at the media player. It is slow and unresponsive at times.
2. The fast forward feature sucks. It takes a good 20 minutes to fast forward through a movie.
3. The unit sucks. Why? Because it turns itself off whenever it wants. I was watching an XviD movie on an SD card. Half way through, the unit powered off. I had to cycle the power 2 or 3 times. Add that to problem #2 and you get an unacceptable product.
This unit is everything I've ever wanted in a media player. Unfortunately, the software/firmware kills it. Don't make the same mistake I did. Don't buy this product.
*I'd happily pay $100 more if this thing actually worked.
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D-Link DSM-320RD, January 15, 2007
By user
The unit sounds better than it is. I have it connected wirelessly, it may work better connected hardwire. Set-up was relatively easy, it found my media server, but any server interruptions require me to go back and search for the server again - not as user friendly as I hoped. My biggest complaint is the operation of the remote. I am not sure if the remote signal is weak, or if the unit needs to "think" between buttons. Either way, it is frustrating to point the remote pushing buttons with nothing happening.
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Mediocre user interface - incompatible with D-Link Router - Poor Technical Support, January 11, 2007
By user (Silver Spring, MD USA)
I was looking forward to using this device, unfortunately after 3 hours of broken english over intermitent connections to technical support - the best D-Link could offer was to return the unit. The DSM-320RD could not work with the wireless network on a D-Link DI-624 router configured with 128-Bit WEP. I finally did get connected using the ethernet connection, and at that point could download the latest firmware updates (requiring that the unit be unplugged to force a restart when it failed to restart on its own). At that point, the DSM-320RD was able to see my Windows XP Media Center running Media Player 11 / server. Unfortunately, it was never able to read the library. The system would indicate it was connecting, but nothing seemed to happen. After 30 minutes, I had to unplug the DSM-320RD to get the menu back.
I have some complaints about the design of the user interface. There is no way to assess connectivity status from the front panel or the video menu. There is also no way to consistently cancel an operation. Once you beging a task during set-up, there is no way to stop it short of pulling the plug. The remote control is problemmatic - it fails to detect button presses and / or detects a single press as multiple presses. The makes using (and more to the point configuring) the DSM-320RD infuriating! Finally, be aware that the USB port on the back cannot be used for an external hard drive. It appears to be dedicated to use for importing wireless network settings via a thumb drive (it is ONLY a Windows Connect Now Port).
There are better choices out there!
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5 Stars for Value (Update -2 stars for mediocre software), January 5, 2007
By user (Los Altos, CA United States)
Is it perfect? No. However, for just over $200 it's hard for me to complain about this device since it does exactly what I need it to do and integrates a lot of features. It gets my media files off my PC and plays it on my stereo and TV in my living room. It has an integrated DVD player that works quite well and the software works pretty well.
After my first day of use, here are my comments. I'll write a followup in a few days after playing around with it more.
Setup:
Install the server software on your PC FIRST.
I have a D-Link Wireless G router so that may be part of the reason why it was pretty easy for me to setup, but it was pretty straightforward right out of the box. I put the CD in my PC, ran the setup software. Then plugged in the DSM, followed the directions, it found my system and all my stuff and I was done in about 10 minutes. I am using WPA-PSK encryption and that worked just fine as well.
The on-screen navigation was a little odd at times and the remote is rather busy with a myriad of buttons, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get going. Finding music files and such isn't so easy with the limited navigation you can do with a handheld remote and TiVo like TV interface as opposed to a mouse and keyboard. However, that is largely my fault since my media collection is about as well organized as laundry in a duffle bag at the moment. Playlists are key and I'm in the process of getting that all sorted out now. I just wanted to make sure it worked before I went through the trouble of getting organized.
Features:
One of the main reasons why I went with this unit is because it is one of the few Media Players out there that supports WPA-PSK encryption. Because of better security and WEP compatibility issues with other devices on my network, I have to use WPA. I put in my key clicked OK and it connected to my network just fine.
The single disc DVD player actually is really useful for me. I have a 400 disc DVD changer which is great for discs I own, but discs that I borrow or rent and need to take in and out, it's a pain. Now I can just use the DSM to play discs that I have temporarily.
CF and SD card readers are nice, but I'm not sure how often I'll use them since I'll likely dump pictures on my PC server and then get it over the network.
Auto software and firmware updates are nice and when I first power cycled the system it automatically updated itself to the latest firmware.
The server software is a little techy but being an engineer, it was easy for me to deal with. The server software scans the directories on your PC that you want to make accessible to the DSM which reads the scan file when it starts up. Note that if you make changes to your media files, i.e. add new files, change playlists, etc., you have to update the server before you will see the changes on your DSM. A small inconvenience, but I can see that you don't want the DSM using the network all the time checking the files when most of the time things aren't changing.
I can't comment on the progressive scan since I don't have a progressive scan TV (yet).
PROS:
Relatively inexpensive and lots of features
Setup was easy (at least with other D-Link gear)
Nice looking on screen display
CONS:
Does not recognize MOV files
Remote control buttons feel pretty mushy (ok, that's a nitpick)
In summary, I think ease of installation is largely luck of the draw with regards to whatever else is on your network. Sometimes things play well together, sometimes they don't. In my case, they played well together. It's not audiophile/videophile level performance, but if that's what you want, what are you doing buying a $200 gizmo and listening to MP3s anyways? For the price, the performance and value is hard to beat. I'll see how things go over the next few days, but so far so good.
May 5, 2007 Update:
Ok, I'm going to have to take away 2 stars because after using this for some time, the software really keeps this thing from reaching its full potential. Fairly often, when I power it up, it just hangs and I have to restart it. On occasion, several times. Other times, it will just randomly hang in the middle of a song. It doesn't do it very often, but enough that it gets annoying. Also, the audio still does skip every now and then. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to put in a 3-4 second buffer to deal with sporadic network interruptions. Geez, $30 CD players have buffers. Memory is cheap guys.
It pains me to write this since this device really does have some nice features. I like being able to put up slide shows of my family and then go and select from my music collection to play it in the background while it goes through the images.
On a high level, it works and does cool things. It's just some of the finer details of the software robustness and user interface that make me shake my head and say, "Another *almost* great product..."
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Good Media Server, Poor DVD Player, July 18, 2006
By user (Sunnyvale, CA)
Ordered the device after buying the DLink DSM-320. That is a great standalone product.
To its credit the DSM-320RD has a sharp picture. However it locked up on certain DVD's and exhibited strange behaviors. The DVD feature set and menus are sparse offering few features compared to consumer DVD players. The response time to the remote overall feels sluggish. The most disconcerting problem I was while playing certain widescreen movies the player wrongly scaled the picture. This happened on "The Fifth Element" which is considered a reference DVD. Popping back and forth from the menus and stop function movies produced different scaling of the picture from widescreen to squashing the entire picture into 4:3 TV mode rendering the movie unviewable.
Its is regrettable that such a good product is hampered by bad implementation of one of its most mature and used functions: DVD playback.
I'd advise keeping your current DVD player and getting the DLink DSM-320 instead. This product is not ready for prime time.
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Does exactly what it says on the tin!!!, May 23, 2006
By user (Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK)
I'm not usually one to leave reviews, but I think this little system has been getting a lot of bad press, some of which could be justified, but mostly as people could be expecting too much from a piece of kit that costs less than a good night out!
Being the other side of the pond, you can base this on the EU (European) model, although I would think the only difference is the Scart socket for AV connections, and a PAL signal as opposed to NTSC for all you 60Hz fans.
The system is well put together, as good as any other DVD type component this side of $500.00. If you want to be really picky, the remote isn't the best in the world, but it does the job as as long as you don't have big sausage fingers or beat the hell out of it.
I am running a basic home wireless network through a Belkin router. Using Windows Media Connect it worked straight out of the box. I had actually set myself up for a nightmare of a installation, but couldn't believe just how easy it was. I'm no IT expert either, believe me if it can go wrong in my house it normally does. This didn't though, took under 5-mins to be browsing through the contents of my desktops' pics, music and vids from the comfort of my sofa.
Music quality and streaming seem just fine. I have a pretty good home set up using a mix of Arcam and NAD through Mission speakers (no i'm not a audiophile, they just had a sale on at the Hi-Fi store) and well, it sounds pretty damn good to me. For those that are searching for pure listening excellence what are you doing buying one of these anyway? Go get yourself a $10000 turntable mounted in rock, have your home acoustically engineered and sit back and enjoy. Personally for me, I'd rather stick this on for a saturday night and enjoy the rest of my time playing cards and drinking vodka rather than worrying about my sofa affecting the resonance of my room.
Likewise, video seems perfectly acceptable too. Okay, it's not going to win any awards, and it won't become the new benchmark for excellence, but it does work, it is watchable and its a whole lot easier than trying to sit your entire family around a 17" monitor. Same can be said for the picture viewing too, it just works... rather well. Couldn't get the thumbnail funtion to work, but I'm sure that's operator error more than anything else.
DVD player is fine, again, it's not the most feature rich in the world, but it's not going to be is it? It does have progressive scan, the picture is bright and clear,with no noticeable digital artifacts and I'll be honest, I can't tell the difference between the D-Link and my rather more expensive NAD one (sorry NAD it is a lovely DVD player, but I can't.. honestly).
I'm sure as technology moves on so will the wireless media arena. It's early days yet chaps, and for not-much-money D-Link have done a pretty good job at making something which is going to make your already busy lives just a little bit easier.
My advice is go and get one. Okay, we all know in 2-years time something bigger and better with even more blue LED lights will be out and we'll all be rushing off with stars in our eyes, and a lump on our Mastercard to get one, but until then this will do just fine and dandy. It works, it works well, an idiot like me can install it, and its a breeze to use. Ask yourselves, for a few hundred bucks what are you expecting?
Oh, why the 4-stars? Well, it would have been 5* if you could drive the unit from the laptop, and not have to use the remote, but hey ho.. its a minor thing, and I'm sure some bright young whiz-kid out there will write a software patch soon.
There ya go, enjoy and hope you find it as useful as I did.
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Good product and easy setup., May 10, 2006
By user (Manassas, Va)
I was skeptical about buying this product and made sure the return policy would allow me to easily return it if it turned out to be a dud. I have been looking at other products of this type including the DLink DSM-320, DLink DSM-520, Buffalo Technologies LinkTheater PC-P3LWG/DVD.
1) DSM-320: Had many negative reviews and no dvd player.
2) DSM-520: Very new. High Definition player, but no DVD.
3) Buffalo Technologies LinkTheater: Many negative reviews but has HD and a dvd player, also supports wmv and divx.
Initially I had been leaning towards the Buffalo unit. It supports WMV, WMV HD, DivX, DivX HD and had a progressive scan DVD player built in and supported HD output. 2 reasons I did not buy it were 1) the many bad reviews and 2) it was not available to pick up locally and I was worried that if it really did not function properly I would have to go through a lot of hassle to get it returned.
I chose the DSM-320RD mainly because I suspected that my old DVD player (which is really not old, bought it on Black Friday last year) was having trouble playing the discs I burned. I figured I would like a player with an integrated dvd player so I could save some space and have a decent player.
I have a Netgear 802.11g/a wireless router and I actually went ahead and installed the media lounge software that came with the unit onto my Windows XP based PC. When I fired up the unit and followed the configuration steps, I was pleasantly surprised to see I had no issues detecting the network and that it detected the server easily.
One thing that I worried about was wether the unit would support WPA-PSK wireless security as that is what I use on my network. Luckily it did and after using the onscreen keyboard to enter the information it worked fine.
I have it set up to use the component video output (progressive scan) and 16:9 on my HDTV. The picture quality is great. I started off by watching a couple episodes of Supernatural that I had recorded with my TV tuner card on the PC. They played very smoothly except for a few places that caused the video to start stuttering. Since it always seems to do it at the same part, I am not sure if it is a case where the variable bit rate on the videos gets too high and the player is not able to keep up with the decoding or the bandwidth of the wireless connection becomes saturated. The video catches up afterwards though and things move along. I am going to try a wired connection at some point to test wether it is the player or the wireless that causes this.
My one big problem with this player is that the reverse function on streamed videos does not work well at all. You are almost better off starting over from the beginning and fast forwarding (which seems to work ok) to the part you want. Another problem I had was that at one point when I was trying to reverse a video it froze up for a little while at which point I hit "Stop". It then lost connection to the server and was not able to find it again until I restard the PC where the server was running. I am thinking maybe using the Windows Media Connect software that people have mentioned might be a way to avoid this. Also, this only happened once and it has worked fine beyond that.
The DVD player on this thing works great! All those old discs that caused my old player to choke work like a charm on this one. Very happy about that.
This player does not support wmv's which is a disappointment but not a showstopper for me since I am most interested in the DivX support. Overall this player is great and I don't know how I lived without one of these things.
Summary:
Pros:
Wireless Streaming works like a charm.
Very nice full featured remote control.
Easy setup.
Very good dvd player, handles burned discs well.
Progressive Scan output.
Good number of inputs/outputs (composite, S-Video, Component)
Cons:
Seems to choke a little when the bit rate gets high on VBR videos.
No support for WMV.
Really bad at trying to reverse through a streamed video.
Seemed to disconnect from the server at one point and required the PC to be restarted before it found it again.
Beyond that I have not experienced any of the crashing some of the other folks here have mentioned. Perhaps because my player was shipped with a later firmware revision? Overall I would recommend this although I wonder if the Buffalo Technologies LinkTheater would have been a better buy.
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Fantastic, March 29, 2006
By user (Bainbridge Island, WA)
We wanted a DVD player and a way to view our photos and videos from our PC in a small space and without running wires everywhere. THis device is really very good.
Setup took only a few minutes (plugged in the box and turned it on). I decided not to use their software since it support Windows Media Connect. That was available free for download and setup also was easy.
I have a secure wireless network and it connects to it fine (though entering the key took a minute using the on-screen keyboard).
My only disappointments are:
1. Streaming video doesn't work well over 802.11B. I also have 802.11A but the device doesn;t support it. I may try 802.11G, which it does support. Otherwise I will hardwire it to my LAN because the features are so cool.
2. I really wanted a device that would wirelessly transmit video and audio to the TV from various devices so that I would not have had to run wiring for my TV (other than power). While this device doesn;t do that what it does is very cool.
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Promising, January 24, 2006
By user (Miami, Fl USA)
Overall it does what it says it will do. Setup was ok except for the wireless connection. Took forever to detect my network. Once done it connects easily after that.
Cons
1) If you have to return this to DLINK for an exchange for any reason be careful as they jerked me around before crediting back my credit card for the cross shipment. I did not like this at all.
2) To view your photos as a slide show and enjoy your own music, the only way to do it is to create a playlist and then assign the playlist to a memory number like 1. Then when the photos start pressing one plays the music in the playlist. Its crude as I too would like to play music from whatever folder without creating a playlist
3) I hate to see AOL, NAPSTER etc on the main screen. Tech support says they are hard coded in the firmware and cannot be removed. So the only music I stream from the net is live365.com which is quite good
4) Lack of support for wmv.
Anyway its promising and the only reason I got this one it was the only unit with a DVD/CD player and media card reader
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Not Ready for Primetime, December 15, 2005
By user (Jersey City, NJ USA)
After 4 days of intensive testing, sadly I am packing my DSM-320RD and about to return it to the store.
Before I detail my reasons for returning the unit, for all farness I would like to point out that other than the reasons I detail below, the unit performs perfectly as advertised. The quality of picture and sound is excellent and I did not experience any issues with streaming through wireless. The user interface is intuitive and this unit could be a great addition to your system. The DVD player does the work.
Cons
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1. Most and above all... I found a bug in the firmware. When you play your music files in Shuffle mode, everything works fine. however, once you switch to your photos (while the music plays) in order to show off with your fancy slide show, the unit seem to insist replaying the last song that was playing while you switched.... again and again and again...
After hearing numerous "theories" from tech support level 1-2 I finally got to level 3... wow... actually someone who listens to you... anyway.. the guy at level 3 confirmed it may be a bug in the firmware and promissed to forward the issue to the product manager. Unfortunately I only have 30 days to return the unit... so I can't wait for the upgrade to come out.. if ever.
2. Since I'm very technical (work in IT for 14 years) I found level 1-2 of the technical support a waste of time. I got the feeling as if they are rushing to send you away with homeworks. However you may find it sufficient for your needs.
3. The search doesn't seem to work. I assumed that I can search MP3 files by the MP3 tag info but I always either got "Can't Access This folder" or "No results Found". But when played the music it shows the info.
4. Navigation is hard when you have thousands of songs and you want to find a specific artist. Basically you have to scroll (or page down every 8 names at the time) through the names.
5. Same as #4 applies for video
6. You may want to use Windows Media Connect instead of the application shipped with the unit.
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