D-Link DSM-330: Finally, a media streamer worth owning?

AnonymousTue 23 October, 2007 1:08pm

"there's support for WMA and WMV, but these must be transcoded by your computer before they can be played. "

I was under the impression that the computer just plays them, and sends only a DivX formatted stream of the video signal to the TV. So there is no extra step of converting formats. Isn't this right?

Ian Morris (cnet.co.uk)Tue 23 October, 2007 7:22pm

Hi there. Yes, you've got it pretty much right, the transcoding is done without any user involvement, and is transparent. The only issue you'll encounter is if you PC isn't fast enough to convert HD WMV video to DivX on the fly. But we'll test all that when we review this product.

Michael TaylorWed 24 October, 2007 10:29am

Hi, I store my music as WMA files on a NAS (Thecus N5200). The NAS has media server software running on it called Mediabolic, and with my XP and Vista PC's I'm able to play the music files on the NAS using Windows Media Player 11. Will the DSN-330 also be able to play those WMA's on the NAS? If the PS3 could do it, that might tempt me to get one despite the expense!
Thanks.
Mike

AnonymousTue 4 December, 2007 12:03pm

so many choices!! I'm confused ...

D-Link DSM-330 and DSM-520 (DSM-750 is due in Q2 08), KiSS 1600, Netgear 8000, ...

I've Googled quite a bit but didn't find much convincing information about which one is a better buy ...

ANYONE specific experience or knowledge on which device is better than others?????

e.g.:
- how likely is it that the PC can't cope with the fact that the DSM-330 has to convert everything to DivX?
- can the 330 play mpeg 1-2-3-4 files? (on the fly converted/ recoded I suppose)
- I understand the 330 is not compatible with Windows Media Server. How bad is that? does it mean it as to convert/ recode Windows Media file, or that it simply can't play these?
- anything else I should be aware of for making the right decision?

many thanks

Paul

davidThu 13 December, 2007 12:41pm

"Do you remember Apple TV"

I would agree with some of your comments in the review IF THIS THING ACTUALLY WORKED WITH APPLE MACS!!

I have looked at all the specs, all very good, a useful product, but I can ONLY see the word WINDOWS mentioned. Why compare it with Apple products when it does not even support that platform?

AnonymousTue 18 December, 2007 1:23pm

After a lot of research, I bought the DSM-330 because the reviews were good, it's open source but most of all, at £129 in the UK including an HDMI cable worth £60 .. it's stunning value. I installed DivX Connected on an XP Pro 1.8GHz Intel System. I set it up and had it working in minutes. At first, I couldn't get wireless working so I changed to Ethernet Over Power(EOP). I have the Devolo 85Mbs Adapters and they just work. I was streaming AVI movies in minutes at 576i .. (the setting chosen by DivX Connected. There are Demo DivX-HD movies available online and these stuttered and stopped at 720i and above. I had decided to upgrade to Devolo AV 200MBs adapters when I decided to try Wi-Fi one more time. It found my server and connected at a displayed quality of 67%. I had not changed the device settings back from HDMI but the menu structure responded much better and the DivX movie selected started and played perfectly at 720i. I then pushed it to 1080i and again it played effortlessley. My music collection (all MP3) - plays perfectly and if album art is available, this is automatically displayed. The GUI is beutiful and truly pleasing to the eye. The ONLY negative - (and I'm being picky here) - is that the blue network activity LED on the front panel flashes in use and this can be distracting. You can't 'hide' this as the Infra Red window is also at the front. In sumary, this is a fabulous device that has a host of features .. Stage 6, games etc. for weeks of fun. If you need an HDMI cable (and even if you don't) buy it!

AnonymousTue 1 April, 2008 6:50am

Is it possible to use DSM without a PC? I have a Network Drive (NAS) and I want it to connect to folders shared on it and use DivX files directly, like what it does with USB disks.

AnonymousWed 2 April, 2008 11:45pm

I wondered the same thing, but I understand it can't play video by itself so you must have the computer turned on. Personally I would rather just want to use it with external storage so I could leave the computer turned off. But in contrary to what the website says, the USB on front is only for service so you can't connect hard drives to it!

As for Macs I'm stuck on as PPC Mac myself and it seems to require an Intel Mac. And even then you have to run Windows or Parallels as there is not OSX version of the software that needs to be running on the computer in order to stream videos to the DSM-330.

AnonymousMon 5 May, 2008 8:11am

I can only play one music album at a time. Is there any way of making playlists and playing multiple albums?

AnonymousSun 18 May, 2008 10:45pm

I would agree with the comment that a media streamer box like this should be able to "play" the video itself, not have a PC 'play' it and the box 'render' it. I have a NAS storage box (actually 2 QNAP TS-109s - great boxes) with original format MPEG-2 rips of my DVDs, and want a box that can stream the files from the NAS and play them on my TV without needing he PC switched on. The DSM obviously doesn't seem to be able to do that, and I've not found anything else yet that does!!!