Review: Wireless Media Players Need Improvement

This new generation of media players essentially serves as a way to wirelessly receive digital files from a host PC in one part of the home to, say, an LCD TV or sound system in another part, eliminating the need for an additional PC.

Digital Connect Lab engineers reviewed full wireless networking solutions from four vendors: D-Link Systems, Linksys, Netgear and SMC. The goal: to see how their complete gateway solutions performed in a typical home networking/ entertainment environment.

Each vendor was judged on ease of setup; documentation; streaming of media; technology, including wireless range and signal strength; and user interface (UI). Lab engineers used the same setup to test each solution. The testing environment consisted of a two-floor, 1,400-square-foot house. The broadband connection resided on the first floor with the router in the same room. Engineers used an IBM notebook running Windows XP Service Pack 2—situated about 40 feet from the router with a couple of walls separating them—as the established client. Engineers disabled the notebook's built-in wireless functionality and inserted the Cardbus adapter from the vendor whose solution was being tested. After using each card, engineers removed the software and rebooted the system, following the same procedure for the media player proprietary software.

There was one exception—Linksys' setup required Microsoft Media Center Edition 2005. For that, engineers used a Toshiba Qosmio notebook with built-in wireless disabled and notebook Cardbus adapter installed. To gauge the full functionality of each platform, Lab engineers decided to use the media set-top boxes' proprietary software rather than circumventing it with Media Center Edition. Integrators installing these devices may not be thrilled with the software that ships with them, so an upgrade to a Media Center Edition-based system could be a good value-added sale.

For the display, engineers used a 40-inch NEC LCD4000 on the second floor. It was connected to the media player via composite connectors, which established a basic benchmark to successfully stream .mp3, .wma, .tiff, .jpg and MPEG in realtime. D-Link
Of the four solutions tested, D-Link proved the best overall. It included the MediaLounge DSM-320, Xtreme G DI-624 Wireless Router and 802.11g Xtreme G DWL-G650 Cardbus Adapter.

D-Link's router installation and media gateway setup was the easiest, taking only a few minutes. The MediaLounge includes its own software. The UI is straightforward and easy to use. The breakout of folders within a tree structure is simple to navigate and to locate specific media files for transmission. The UI allows for file customization.

Adding and including files is more intuitive than Netgear's solution, for example, and the media player software provides a drop-down menu for whatever files the user wants to include. The software also provides a more diversified selection of file types to transfer. Once the shared folder is selected, the media player software builds a database and compiles all the files.

One gripe about the UI is that it only allows for shared folder inclusions. Most of the UIs from the vendors in the roundup use this method, which calls for adding entire folders instead of individual files. D-Link's software was unable to recognize certain media files such as Windows streaming media files .asf and .wma extensions. As for playing standard MPEG files, which lack the high resolution of today's modern media files, the device played them flawlessly, and all slide photo shows looked good. It was also easy to create a slide show with background music. NetGear
Netgear's solution included Digital Media Player Model MP115, Wireless Firewall Router Model WGU624 and Wireless PC Card Model WG511U. Overall, it was a disappointment. The wireless connectivity was spotty, making the entire user experience a drag. Connecting the media top box to the router took too long and the media player, oddly enough, lacked an on/off switch.

When viewing the wireless connection page, the network showed up as "unconnected." But when engineers brought up Internet Explorer, the wireless connection was enabled, making the connection of the router and media center confusing.

Once the media player and router were connected, the remote control was required to view the multimedia content. Specifically, the Disp Sel button needed to be pressed so the device could cycle through the correct video output setting. A warning: Don't lose the remote. Even if the audio/video cables are connected properly, users will not see a display on the TV without pressing the Disp Sel button.

Through the media player's UI, users can execute an entire search of all the storage drives attached to the PC, and the software is capable of categorizing the media according to its file extensions. After trying several different scans, the software was unable to add video files to the media player. The UI could not distinguish between .mp3 videos and music. Integrators can pick and choose different scans at different intervals; they are not married to the initial settings. Video playback was a big disappointment and proved inept on several occasions. For example, when low-resolution MPEG files were being streamed at different points during the process, the video being shown was repeatedly interrupted by a drop in the wireless connection.SMC
Since SMC was one of the first to market with a media player, one would think the company would have the strongest solution. That's not the case.

The setup included SMCWMR-AG EZ Stream Universal Wireless Multimedia Receiver, SMC2804WBRP Barricade g Broadband High Power Router with Built-in USB Print Server and SMC2835W EZ Connect g Cardbus Adapter. The router software was easy to configure and includes a built-in USB print server.

The problems started once the media gateway was added to the wireless environment. The receiver was unable to locate the SMC media player software on the client PC. Even when connected, it could not play .wma files and low-resolution MPEG video files, which was disheartening since the GUI was the best out of all the solutions. Lab engineers had to consult the documentation on many occasions, and it should be noted that the SMC troubleshooting options guide failed to provide resolutions.

Another noticeable issue was that S-video was not offered as an option. On a good note, the UI was a pleasure to work with but, unfortunately, engineers could not get to enjoy it due to the constant wireless drops. Linksys
The Linksys solution included Dual-Band Wireless A/G Media Center Extender, Dual-Band Wireless A+G Broadband Router and Dual-Band Wireless A+G Notebook Adapter.

Of all the solutions, Linksys proved to be the one that required the most steps to get running. Linksys media software only works on Media Center Edition, and users must update Windows software online with Microsoft .Net framework version 1.1 to connect the media player to the wireless router. Once the software is synced with Microsoft, hibernation and system standby must be switched off for the extender software to connect to the media player. Once these issues were met, the wireless connectivity worked well. Unless the integrator is a guru with Media Center Edition, setup can be tricky. The Media Center Extender documentation wasn't very helpful. Integrators should familiarize themselves with Media Center Edition documentation before integrating the Media Center Extender.

Overall, the market is saturated with premature media player technology, which is very difficult for the typical end user to install. While that does provide some services opportunities for integrators, the boxes ultimately fall short of expectations.

BRAD BAYMACK contributed to this story.