Manufacturer : Sony
Model : SMPN100
ASIN : B0042SDDXM
Price : 99.99$
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Product Description
Enjoy a variety of entertainment with the Sony SMPN100 Network WiFi Media Player. Wirelessly stream movies, TV episodes, videos, and music from Netflix®, YouTube™, Pandora®, Slacker®, and more. Easily access your music, videos and photos in up to Full HD 1080p by connecting a USB drive or wirelessly streaming them over home network using your PC.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
256 of 275 people found the following review helpful:
could be better.
This review is from: Sony SMP-N100 Streaming Player with Wi-Fi (Electronics)
This is a review as well as a comparison with other similar products out there.
I've done extensive research in digital media players and have tried the following models:
a) Roku XDS, b) WD V Live Plus, c) Sony network media player SMP N100, 4) Apple TV and Boxee software on the laptop.
I really wanted to like Roku and was super excited to set is up and have it connected to the internet and was installing apps within minutes. After few days I realized that the hassle of entering a code for every app and then registering on the app providers is too much of a hassle. Even if I wanted to play the content thru USB, it was a hassle with private channels. Another issue with this is that Roku is not DLNA certified so it doesn't work with your other machines on the network. You would need to jump thru the hoops of creating private channels or some elaborate setup to achieve that. If you install too many apps, it runs out of memory and you'd need to uninstall some.
Apple TV has the best interface and the most intuitive one. The only issue is that it only streams via iTunes so sharing thru anything else is a problem. Some people have installed Boxee on AppleTV sort of expands its capabilities in terms of the network support.
WD TV Live Plus is the best so far in my research and trials. It pretty much plays any content you throw at it and it recognizes the formats. There are not a lot of widgets (compared to Roku and Boxee) so you might feel limited in terms of what can be achieved, but if you install a TVersity server on one of the machines on your network then you can pretty much stream any content to the box. Installing TVersity is a snap (and free). This is also a DLNA certified device so it sees all the other windows devices on your network and you can play them on the box wirelessly. I've streamed 1080p thru a wireless laptop on the device and it worked without any hitch. This also support "Play to" in the media player according to the book, but I've not had success with it. I had my 1TB external USB drive connected to it and it was a sweet set up in terms of access to all my media. Since it's a DLNA device, I could also access my external 1TB disk on the network to copy/move data around and it didn't need a computer to do it.
Boxee software on the laptop works great but I haven't tried the hardware box as it's around the double the price of its compititiors. There are just too many apps on it so it becomes difficult to find what you want to play and then it has memory limitation as well. The interface is user configurable so you can get skins downloaded for your preferences.
Sony network media player is also a DLNA certified device but I came across the following issues: a) when I connect a external usb drive which has two partitions, it only recognizes the first partition and doesn't show the second one. While WD TV Live Plus shows both as hard disks. b) It recognizes the Windows 7 machine quickly as a media repository but only sees the directories which are marked as 'Library' in the Windows Media Player on the machine. You would have to add more directories to the library if you want its content to show up on the Sony device. WD TV Live Plus also recognizes the device as a network share so you are free to browse all the folders. You just need to set the 'source' in the settings as the root level folder then everything is visible. c) 'Play To' from the windows machine of Windows Media Player tries to contact the Sony device but always gives an error of "unsupported format" even though the same file plays fine directly from the Sony device. Never been able to use "Play To" successfully. d) For some widgets like Hulu/Netflix etc you would need to register at a sony url from the computer before you can use it. e) The on-screen keyboard is like a 'phone keypad' where the alphabets on keys 0-9 so you would either need to press the same button multiple times to enter a character or use the arraw buttons to go the right key, in which case it's easy to overshoot. Would have been nice to have a full screen keyboard like WD TV Live plus.. although Boxee device has a complete keyboard on the remote which would be even better to enter the words for search etc. f) It won't see many file formats since the support is not as wide as WD TV Live Plus. g) on the positive side, the dolby/dts sound from the device sounds much better than others, but if you are directing the HDMI thru a receiver then you don't care about it. h) also has composite and component out which makes it more flexible compared to hdmi only.
Overall, if you are interested in just using the online services like Hulu Plus, Netflix, or Amazon VoD then you can get Apple TV for the easiest interface. But if your inner 'geek' wants to make it a central device where you can add your own hard disks with it or stream content from any device in your home or stream any content from the internet using TVersity etc or play any format of audio or video, then get the WD TV Live Plus.
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
Works Great
This review is from: Sony SMP-N100 Streaming Player with Wi-Fi (Electronics)
I have no idea why some rate this unit so low. It's no harder to setup than a roku. But seems to elude some.
Purchased this box 2 months ago, and it always works great. Using it wireless with a Zyxel X-550 and I can stream 20M from my pc full hd and 5:1 dolby from a dvd I converted for testing the DLNA support. Video and music from windows 7 works great. Just need to setup the videos and music in windows media player and they all show up on the SMP-N100.
Internet video works flawless also. I use it with Netflix and Huluplus. I have a 15M cable connection so bandwith isn't an issue. I canceled my cable after getting this working. I can get news, etc over the air, everything else over the internet.
I also picked up a Roku XD/S. The Roku is much easier/nicer to fast forward and rewind. I like the Netflix browse list on the Sony over the Roku, it shows 18 selections rather than the 5 on the Roku. The interface is quite a bit better for Hulu with the Roku, the Sony is pretty crude. There are other small advantages in one interface over another.
As for the hardware, there is no question which one is on top. The Sony is much better built, with a full component, composite, optical audio and hdmi jacks. The Roku you need to buy there cable for component support which is a pretty low grade cable. I need component support cause I'm not ready to give up my DLP tv. I like the projection screen rather than looking into a light bulb. The HDMI connections work well on both units when connected to my LCD tv.
The remote for the sony is excellent. Put the code in for the tv and it runs both the box and tv great.
The video quality on both units is very nice. Better than what I use to get on cable.
The main reason I gave it 4 stars is the lack of software updates and I suspect it won't get much if any attention in the future.
68 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
Great for Internet content, falls short as music player
This review is from: Sony SMP-N100 Streaming Player with Wi-Fi (Electronics)
It's an impressive device for accessing Internet content (movies, music, etc.), seems to work flawlessly over my wired network, and it was easy to set up. Pandora and Slacker Internet Radio and On-demand Internet videos from Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, and many others work great. For those functions it meets or exceeds my expectations.
However, I also bought the SMP-N100 to play music from my home library stored on a Windows Vista PC and it's disappointing in that area. It did not recognize Windows Media Player 11 or Tversity as valid DLNA servers. I had to buy Twonky for it to recognize my home library through DLNA. But the worst shortcoming is that when you attempt to play a group of music files (based on artist, album, genre, etc.), you can only play them in alphabetical order. There is no shuffle. And there is also no concept of a play queue. So you cannot play songs from one artist and then add songs from another. These are very basic features needed for audio playback and hopefully will be added by Sony with the next firmware upgrade. Otherwise, it's not really usable as a digital audio player.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
If you want a reliable internet media experience....
....go elsewhere.
I wanted to trust Sony to provide a conduit to streaming media from my favorite providers - Netflix, Pandora and Amazon. by Brian Williams
Good for DLNA video streaming... audio/photos so-so
If you are looking for a player that will stream Pandora, Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon on your HDTV, this unit is a champ and you will be very happy with that feature set. by BuyerOfThings
Good Device No Issues or Problems
I bought this player a few months back instead of the Roku player. It was on sale at Best Buy. Let me say it has not disappointed me. by warrior_princess1980
Great Product
Very easy to connect to Netflix, which is my primary purpose for purchasing. Easy to set up and use, I use it every day. by Harold D Weston
my sony stream player
This is my first stream player and it was easily installed.It has been fun since then. No problem until now. by Alberto
I like it
Neat little piece of tech, lets u play just about anything, it can be controlled with your Ipod touch or Iphone, by Eric L. Porter
Don't use it outside the US
I bought this unit really cheap on fryes in the US. The good things about it are covered plenty on the other reviews, so let me talk about the bad stuff:
- It does play... by Manuel Diaz Morales
Avoid This
I bought this because it was cheaper than the high end Roku but with all the same features. It isn't user friendly and very cumbersome to get it set up. by jcorrales
Better than Expected -- Some DLNA streaming Limitations
My Setup:
CenturyTel 7Mbps DSL service --> TP-Link TD-8616 ADSL2+ Modem --> Linksys WRT-54g router running Tomato firmware --> wireless WPA2 connection to Sony N-100... by linuxuser
I love this little black box!!!!
This was my first purchase of a streaming player and decided to get a Sony due to the features, reviews and the Sony tablet I own. by Game King |
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