As many other reviewers have said, the TV interface is basic, the remote is more complicated than it needs to be, the unit doesn't support Windows XP Internet Connection Firewall, and the email support, in my experience, is completely incompetent.

I also have problems with the software that runs on the PC. I have about 18,000 MP3s + JPEGs. When my machine reboots, the WMA11B's XWPCHostService.exe consumes 99% of my CPU for the first 10 minutes after boot. It also consumes over 100MB of memory.

Finally, XWPCHostService.exe watches for new files. When a new file appears, such as a new JPEG, it opens it to do some kind of cataloging. This unfortunately interferes with a photo downloading program I have that downloads an image and then rotates it if necessary.

I just contacted the Linksys technical support chat and they confirmed that you can't do it. The box in which the adapter comes provides no warning, and the installation instructions mention the firewall problem way back on page 35 in Appendix A.

One would be justified in wondering whether the product is technically smart and whether the packaging and instructions might not be more transparent.

Also, the software that goes onto your PC that shares the music and pictures is by far the worst software I have ever seen from a reputable company. The software will crash on a regular basis and whenever you start it up again you will have to reload all of your media which takes a fair few minutes - the idea you can just start playing music anytime you like just doesn't work.

In other words the wind has to be blowing in the right direction with the planets in alignment before anything will even work at all.

Having said that when it does work it does the job ok although you can only play MP3s/WMAs and not stream any other type of audio (for example internet radio).

It just isn't worth the money or the time you have to spend messing with it make it do what you would expect it to do immediately.

Warning though: it does not work with newer computers. Turns out it doesn't support the latest Microsoft Windows updates.

The problem is connection, there it's a little shaky. I'm running on a laptop under W2K, using an Ad-Hoc network to a non-LinkSys card. Most of my music is stored on a portable hard-drive that is most of the time not connected. The problems I've found are:-

1)You cannot go into Standby, a little message says that the host program can't do this. So I have to completely shut-down to turn off.
2)Every re-boot the host program then spends 10 minutes catalogue my files on the portable.
3)Over 110Mb of thumbnails are secretly created for my 1.77Gb of pictures. This is still a significant amount of space.
4)I am prevented from removing my portable hard-drive while it contains media files associated with the host. So I have to de-catalogue each time I unplug it and re-catalogue when I plug it in. All takes time.
5)So far I have been unable to get a WEP connection to work.

Connection is a bit of a gamble really. I generally get frustrated at the `Waiting for Host' message. Waiting for what? The TV doesn't tell me, the host doesn't say anything, so I have to wait. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Once connected though everything is perfect. I often stream all daylong without any clitches. It is reliable.

All in all, if you're tolerant and don't mind a few workarounds, then this is a step into the new media world. I have devised scripts to shut-down the host service when not in use, that way allowing me to standby. And with that I am content with this product.

I have to install .NET 1.0...WHY?!?! What does that have to do with transmitting an mp3 over the airwaves just like my router transmits files over the airwaves?

YUCK YUCK YUCK! What year is it? 2004? MP3 players, software, and home devices have been out for years and Linksys (who I love for other products) can't get it right?!

No firmware OR driver updates since Sept 2003. Again, what year is it now?!

Tech support DOES NOT answer phone OR email...again, I usually love Linksys for other networking products but this plain stinks. $175 (or even $50) is a complete waste of money and time.

This is being returned faster than Britney Spears can get divorced! Seriously!

Bottom line: You must have a TV connected into the adapter for user access and operation :-( .

Pay close attention to the install rules. If you're not running WinXP, think twice. If you're not using XP's "zero configuration wireless" feature, you must attach the device wired for setup, then configure it for wireless.

It's a typical first-generation product. Does a great job at the two things it's good at -- displaying your pictures and playing your songs. The interfaces suck, both for the media manager utility (non-intuitive error messages that don't tell you what's wrong, it doesn't like dashes in filenames or directories, weird stuff like that) and for the unit itself (convoluted menus, could be much simpler and more intuitive, and lacks a few features I would have included in the first generation, such as fancy fades or wipes between pictures in slideshow mode, option of flashing the song title as the song changes if you're watching a slide show at the time, etc.) Actually that wish-list helps me to realize that the unit already does more than I expected. I set the "music" side to play "all songs" in "shuffle" mode, then I switch over to the "pictures" side and start a slide show. I didn't expect the music to keep playing, and was pleasantly surprised when it did. Music and pictures. Yay. The damn thing is now an emotion factory. I expect that future revisions will have more features and better interfaces. I'll be optimistic.

It's all about expectations, folks.

The problems came for me when trying to add music. My "My Music" directory could not be added, using the utility to do so resulted in an error. Sub directories of my music could also not be added. LinkSys tech support suggested moving all my files in to a directory that I could see; not practical, but so be it.

Then I added new music to my collection, in the directory the device could see. Of the 20 files added, it only saw 5.

So I have a device that will not see the music I have, and will see only some of the music I add.

LinkSys tech support tells me there's nothing that can be done about this... Too bad. I am returning this product.

The on-screen user interface is fair. It's easy to use but it's not flexible. For example, to find the 400th artist, you have to 'page-down' endlessly through the artists listed alphabetically above the one you want.

Worse, it occassionally issues the helpful message, "error" on startup and then fails to work. Re-installing the software fixes it but that's ridiculous.

There are no on-device or even software controls, so you are 100% dependent on their flimsy remote control.

Wait for version two (or three, or four...) before considering the Linksys. Eventually, they'll get it right. Hopefully. If they do, I hopt they don't leave us Ginea Pigs without an inexpensive upgrade.

My only complaint is the response time of the remote control commands, and the lettering on the remote is too small for my 40-something eyes.

Very simply, this product hooks into your wireless network and then plays mp3s on your stereo/tv and displays photo images on your television set. Nothing more, nothing less.

Setup was quite easy as far as installing network devices go... If you have already set up a wireless router in your house, you can handle this with no problem. I have found with other Linksys products that their technical support is fantastic, so if you really get in a bind, don't hesitate to call them.

The method of choosing music and pictures is very basic as many have mentioned, I have found that creating playlists on my PC is the best way to queue up music.

I'm sure in a couple of years that there will be much better products on the market, but for now, if you want to show your friends and family pictures, there's no better place to show them than on your big screen TV while sitting on the couch instead of your relatively small computer screen. And if you're going to listen to your mp3 collection, why not use your stereo instead of your wimpy little computer speakers.

The fantasy is that this product should be the ultimate entertainment product. The reality is that this product gets you out of your computer room and into your living room when listening to your music and looking at your digital pictures.

Usage - Very nice and intuitive. It uses the TV screen to present either Music or Picture selections - you can browse by artist (and albums for each artist), genre, playlist, and folder. The selection is very intuitive. I personally like the TV interface for this type of device... The display is simple - album/artist/title - there is great room for advancement here - i.e. cover art, playing time, etc, but it is functional as is. The use of a tv monitor - makes great sense as it is usually the central device in a media room, and the size makes it easy to see from across the room (as contrasted to an audiotron for instance, which has great functionality, but is really hard to see from the sofa). I would like to see a list of songs in the queue as an option howerver, instead of just the currently playing song.

Picture display - very nice - select a folder, and see the thumbnails - you can then play a slideshow of those, zoom,etc.
Very usable, as long as you have a logical folder structure for your pics... Only thing here - when picture folders are added - the folder manager app is slow, as it apparently is making thumbnails of each image.... Only needs to do this once though...

Negatives:
All interface items -
1. Not possible to queue up songs/albums - if one is playing and you select another, the first one stops and then new one selected plays immediately... lineup a few albums to be played.
2. Not able to browse albums as a top level option - only under the artist.
3. Not able to select by either artist or album under genre. i.e. In my case, if you select rock, you can either individually pick from the several thousand entries, or select all... Would be nice to have a select within genre on artist or album...

I'm sure that there will be more and more of these types of products with new features coming to market eventually - as of now, for $... I am satisfied with this.

My setup is cable modem upstairs, with Linksys wireless router plugged into modem. 4 computers in house run off of wireless network. The Media Adapter is downstairs on my main TV, about 40 feet through walls and floor, and I get 92% signal strength (as reported by device).

A little install trouble. Couldn't get it to recognize my wireless access point. In order to install, I had to plug network cable directly from router into the device and use their program to set the wireless settings, but then the installation went smoothly. I then took the device downstairs to my TV, plugged it in, and voila!

I have had no problems with this device. It responds reasonably fast to the remote (1-2 seconds max), and handles my large collection of WMA and MP3 files just fine. It basically works exactly like Windows Media Player on your PC, but using your TV instead. I love the "Folders" heirarchy that allows me to find music in the folder structure I put together (rather than just by "Artist, Album, Genre...). I also love that it will handle any playlist I put together - I use it to put together 6 hour playlists for our parties, something I can't do with CDs (it even has a "randomize" feature).

A couple of missing features would make this product perfect. The ability to select file attributes to display on the TV (other than title, artist, album as it does now) would be very nice. In particular, some indicator of song length and progress would be very useful.

All in all a very decent first release for Linksys at a reasonable price.

Works great - very pleased.

Until a media adapter supports something as simple as a network drive or share, it will not be of any use to me.