 Manufacturer : Roku Model : M500 ASIN : B000B5UJ5A Price : 149.99$ See Special Offers   Amazon.com Product DescriptionAmazon.com Product Description Winner of the CES 2004 Innovations Award, Roku's SoundBridge M500 digital music receiver employs WiFi technology to broadcast media files from your Mac or PC to just about anywhere in the house. You no longer have to be sitting at your computer to hear your music, nor do you need to burn your Internet-sourced audio to CDs to import it to the living room. Just plug the M500 into your integrated amplifier or surround receiver and you can listen to all your digital music on your stereo or multichannel speaker system. The M500 includes a built-in 802.11b WiFi card slot (with card) for wireless use and an RJ-45/Cat5 Ethernet port for hard-wired connections.
PC owners, meanwhile, will delight in the SoundBridge's built-in Windows Media Connect, Windows Media Player 10, and Rhapsody support. The device also works with any music service using Windows Media DRM 10, such as Napster, MusicMatch, and Walmart.com. All told, the M500 is the most compatible music player around.
The SoundBridge offers Internet radio access, too, bringing you a selection of free music and talk-radio stations (with up to 10 station presets). Roku's Fast Browse feature lets you browse huge music collections by album, artist, genre, or composer (providing your files are properly encoded with said details). You can also play your stored iTunes playlists or use the keyword search to find the title you seek. Beyond its WiFi and RJ-45 interfaces, the M500 offers straight-ahead audio connections: a gold-plated line-level RCA output and S/PDIF coaxial and optical Toslink digital outputs (one each) for those that want a pure digital connection with a surround receiver or a CD or minidisc recorder. In addition, Roku has outfitted the SoundBridge with a super-fast, 400 MHz Blackfin DSP and 16 MB of DRAM memory, giving it more than enough headroom to handle future software updates. Finally, the SoundBridge's sleek industrial design looks comfortable anywhere of the house, and even fits conveniently on the wall or under a shelf or cabinet using Roku's optional mounting accessory. The M500 measures 10 inches wide by 2.37 inches in diameter and is backed by a one-year warranty. What's in the Box  14 of 14 people found the following review helpful: Buyers better have their ducks in a row-compatability issues This review is from: Roku SoundBridge M500 Network Music System (Electronics) Roku's Soundbridge units don't work with all routers, so before you think wireless music is within your sites, do your homework. To Roku's credit, they offer a list of, and rate compatability factors for, most of the common routers consumers are using at home. CHECK THIS LIST CAREFULLY before you buy this product or you might end up with some expensive audio equipment that only works if you go WIRED. Also, Roku has a nice discussion board forum on their site, and you can get a realistic idea about issues concerning the pros and cons of their products. If you do buy something that doesn't work, they do offer a 30 day-no-questions-asked return policy. Bottom line is CHECK OUT THEIR SITE b4 u buy anywhere else. [...] 13 of 13 people found the following review helpful: Very Cool, works well, Works with napster service! This review is from: Roku SoundBridge M500 Network Music System (Electronics) Received this unit last night. Had it set up in minutes! Instructions were simple, configured to my wi-fi with encryption, no problem. Found my computer, no problem, didn't find my napster library - added the folder with my music to the shared folder, then worked no problem. Internet radio station no problem. It will drive headphones directly if you want, has volume control on remote. Would be great driving computer speakers. Even shows time and date when off. With napster it is really great. I can load up my computer with thousands of tunes and then put the M500 anywhere in the house and have access to all the tunes. One of the few devices that can do this with "rented" music. I highly recommend this device. The 500 has all the features of the bigger brothers but not the slicker display. However the LCD is plenty readable. The VU meters are a bit slow (not a big deal). It comes with the Wi-Fi card (which you install - used to be an option I guess) so it is really ready to go out of the box. If you have napster, rapsody, yahoo music or a lot of your CD's ripped to MP3, WMA or AAC than you should consider this. What you can't do (maybe true of all "streaming" devices) is fast forward or rewind inside a track. This can be problematic with long tracks if you want to hear a section again. Finally I have napster to go and an Iriver player. On the Iriver the gaps between tracks are long while the player loads the next track, this can be annoying on classical or spoken word works. The Soundbridge doesn't have this problem. I think because the computer can stream the next track faster than the portable Iriver could. (this is a DRM WMA issue, for the Iriver and not an issue with MP3's). 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: Works flawlessly. Can't expect more. This review is from: Roku SoundBridge M500 Network Music System (Electronics) Within 20 seconds of plugging it in I was playing music from my iTunes music library on my Powerbook. Simply could not have been any easier. Excellent sound quality. Streams internet radio stations (including any in the iTunes Radio tuner and tons more) -- it more than replaces XM or Sirius anywhere you have internet access. Minor downsides: Remote could be designed better, and would be nice if it used 802.11g instead of b (since tests have shown that one "b" device slows down the whole "g" network), but these are minor complaints in relation to how well the SoundBridge works and how easy it is to use.  A Music Lover's Must Have Everything the other reviewers claim is true. It was easy to set up, was found instantly by my wireless router and is reliable and responsive. by Warren Mells Great device An excellent unit, sounds great, great design. I stream over wireless many hours a day, with almost never a drop. by Koeeaddi Just the best ... This Roku SoundBridge M500 is a great deal. It's easy to configure, very stylish and supports mostly all streaming formats. by Amy Shoe Love it except for a few exceptions Finally bought after several weeks on research. It works well; easy to connect to ITunes and Rhapsody (my two favorite music servers). by David L. Crouch |
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Roku SoundBridge M500 Network Music System
Logitech 930-000012 Transporter Network Music Player (Silver)
Manufacturer : Logitech Model : 930-000012 ASIN : B00175SW20 Price : 1999.99$ See Special Offers  Product DescriptionExperience pure audio delight. Designed to please the most discriminating audiophiles and music lovers, Logitech Transporter offers sound quality that surpasses even the most exotic CD players. 15 of 15 people found the following review helpful: Took a bit to setup, RTMD! There is some very knowledgable info about the Transformer at wikipedia.org, the Logitech site is useful for basic system software and a few FAQ's. Do yourself a favor and write down all ip settings for future reference. The use groups at wikipedia are where you'll find the fun stuff. Start a folder on your PC and save all links to it. Confused by what I've just written, than you'll need a trusted friend with a bit above average computer skills and a free afternoon, or be prepaired to pay someone to do your setup for you. If either of these is going to be the case than you might want to reconsider purchasing this unit. This system is not designed for the impatient. As with most all high-end gear, source is very important (GIGO). I've noticed nuances unheard before in a number of my chosen reference recordings, as well as previously unnoticed distortions. Audio listening being subjective makes one wonder if hearing such is due to the critical listening of the moment or the new gear. Or could it be that we desire to hear new subtleties after dropping a decent chunk of change on a new toy. Is it a combination of these things or none of them. From where I sit I'm going with the new box and a bit higher resolution included therein. It makes the fun, funner, the good, gooder and the hey! I never noticed Coltrane bumping the mic stand on that or was that a squeek from Charlie Byrd's chair. To me its akin to putting a new stylus on your favorite cartridge. The Transformer runs on an open source platform and some of the the tweaks written by use group members are nice additions to the unit. My wife really enjoys having the local weather data available at a glance. Before you get into the tweaks have the overall system operation down pretty well. I've found it best to backup the PC settings before doing any tweaking to be able to undo easily. The remote that comes with the Transformer does not have a display and is line of sight only. This can be annoying for general listening. After a few weeks I went ahead and bought a Squeezebox Duet system to gain a remote with display and non line of sight control. I put the Duet receiver out in my workshop. This really allows you to do some cool stuff, you can sync the music on the players or have them run independently. This also allows you to use the remote controller as a third unit via it's 1/8" headphone jack or with adapter cables to plug it into another system as well. It can also be in sync. with the other units or independent of them. The Transformer remote takes standard batteries, the Squeezebox remote is rechargable with station include. The Squeezebox remote is also very customizable in both function and appearance. Adding the Squeezebox unit did cost more money, however the ability to program and operate the Transformer was greatly increased with this upgrade to the system. It is also possible to program many system settings of the Transporter via your computer, your offered plenty of built in redundancy. You have your choice of using the front panel buttons, the remote control or the computer interface. It is possible to program and control music via computer, plus compatability with WinAmp. There is a Java based software emulator that some may like also. The unit auto updates it's own firmware, software seems to be updated on a regular basis too. I'm really not going to get into the web audio streaming functions. There are limitless choices here both free and pay to play. Your dealing with low bit-rate streams in most cases, there is quite a good world wide station search function to use. I've used the optical line in feature to do a bit of A/B testing between CD's and Lossless streams and really have heard no discernable difference in sound quality between them. There are also options that will connect you to web based music databases, Amazon.com, and also Bio and Discog search abilities plus plenty more bells and whistles to boot. It is very hard to not go on and on about the Transporter, as mentioned it is a piece of gear that demands patience. Being somewhat past the half-century mark I may not fully utilize some of the available functions offered herein. I do however thoroughly appreciate having those choices made available. To be able to either Set It and Forget It, or to be transported into an entirely new audio adventure. Steve S. Fort Worth, Tx 12 of 15 people found the following review helpful: Excellent, but a bit pricy This review is from: Logitech 930-000012 Transporter Network Music Player (Silver) (Electronics) This unit works very well to send music to a quality stereo system via a high speed home wireless network. I recommend buying and using a different software like Easy CD-DA extractor to convert your cds to hard drive files into formats like FLAC or m4a or mp3. Then the transporter can be linked to your music files on the hard drive and you can play them via your computer. This unit does come with a squeeze center software that allows you to link to iTunes if you already have that set up and also it allows different playlists. It can also take downloaded higher quality 24 bit/96khz files and play them in addition to the 16 bit/44 khz cd quality files or mp3's. Be sure to back up your files as it takes a long time to build up a hard drive with good music files and you do not want to lose them. The sound of the cds when converted to FLAC files are as good as from a very high end cd player. Of course with mp3's it is a little less quality, but that is no fault of this unit. There are some other more expensive units like from Naim, etc, and compared to them this is a good value. If you want something for less, and don't need the higher quality, the regular squeeze box is worth a look. Logitech Transporter I have had this for a few weeks and so far it is great and the sound quality is much better then I expected. by Ken Goldsberry Transporter Music Player This product is right on. It gets some great music off the Web to your stereo system in a quality way. You will like the results, it's worth the money. by P. Eversole Audiophile quality meets iPod convenience The Transporter isn't cheap, but its fairly priced for all it does. The server software it relies on integrates cleanly with iTunes if desired, but is perfectly capable of... by David Claussen Had it for over a year i still love it! I'm a bit of an audiophile tech geek and I love this thing. It's actually easy to set up and for the geeks of us out there, the DAC sounds great, easily the best DAC in the price... by Christopher Watson |
Sunday, April 29, 2012
iTV iPazzPort - 3 in 1 Mini Wireless Keyboard and Touch Pad with Internet TV Portal - FREE INTERNET TV STREAMING!
Manufacturer : iTV iPazzPort Model : ASIN : B0049IHVQK Price : $ See Special Offers  Product DescriptionThe iPazzPort is a multifunctional, handheld device designed to maximize productivity and convenience. Simply plug and play. Its Qwerty style keyboard allows the user to type and navigate function keys easily and quickly. The touch pad replaces your existing mouse and sits perfectly atop the keyboard without causing any interference while typing. The iTv model of the iPazzPort introduces a new way to approach Internet TV the way it was mean to - FREELY. Instantly watch internet TV on your PC compatible TV, (via PC with active Internet connectivity) like NBC, ABC, FOX, SPIKE, CNN and iTV for FREE. Just connect your TV to a personal computer and you can download and view Internet content, including most broadcast TV from around the world. No additional hardware or proprietary software required. Other Internet TV products and services are extremely costly and usually charged on a monthly basis. iPazzPort 's iTv software and service is 100% FREE. iPazzPort lets you select your viewing pleasures without walking to your computer to change channels or scroll through options when using the iTV handheld PC keyboard and mouse touchpad. Its Wireless operating range is 33 feet from PC to the iPazzPort. Includes: * 1 iPazzPort * 1 iPazzPort USB Transceiver * 1 iPazzPort USB Charging Cable * 1 iPazzPort iTV Software Installation CD This product is sold exclusively from Super Deal and Ships from NY *This is the upgraded model of the original iPazzPort with iTv. *All trademarked/copyrighted names are the property of their rightful owners. iTV iPazzport This review is from: iTV iPazzPort - 3 in 1 Mini Wireless Keyboard and Touch Pad with Internet TV Portal - FREE INTERNET TV STREAMING! (Electronics) Although this might work for some I received a defective unit. Backlight does not work. Not user friendly. Instructions leave alot to be desired. No instructions on 90% of what the keys do. I could never find the up and down arrow keys. Not sure if this keyboard even has them. When you use the touch mouse pad it starts to play a movie you didn't even choose to watch. For example I had 7 movies to choose from on my screen when I tried to select the one I wanted to watch he started playing one I never even chose. I wasn't even near the movie it started playing with the arrow. More frustrating than its worth. I am returning this item asap. I ordered this based on the reviews on the product. Kinda struct me as odd only 2 previous reviews given with 5 stars. I give the product 2 stars because it had no problem connecting to my laptop but every think else goes downhill from there. awesome product! This review is from: iTV iPazzPort - 3 in 1 Mini Wireless Keyboard and Touch Pad with Internet TV Portal - FREE INTERNET TV STREAMING! (Electronics) I love this little wireless keyboard! Its almost as big as the Blackberry world, and is a fully functional keyboard. I have in my nightstand, and having a full keyboard was not an option. It has pretty good range, the track pad is very accurate and if you use blackberries, you can use this keyboard with no problem. The backlight is bright orange, so no problems in the dark. I love it! iTV make this a must have This review is from: iTV iPazzPort - 3 in 1 Mini Wireless Keyboard and Touch Pad with Internet TV Portal - FREE INTERNET TV STREAMING! (Electronics) There is no set up for this device. Just plug it in and it works. It is large enough to be useful but small enough not to be a burden. I use this to control my laptop while reclining comfortably. A great feature is the iTV button While connected to my internet TV I just have to click the iTV button and it opens a website that has all the channels I watch. This is much easier than having to type them in by hand. Just click the icon and go, it is just that easy. They have hundreds of these really easy and cool icons. It really makes my internet TV much easier to use. |
HP MV2020 Media Vault 500 GB External Hard Drive
Manufacturer : Hewlett Packard Model : MV2020 ASIN : B000IMYIA8 Price : 399.99$ See Special Offers  Product DescriptionDoes your family store, swap, and enjoy lots of digital photos, music, videos, and documents on your home computer network? HP Media Vault mv2020?expandable home network storage?lets you easily manage, share, and store everything. How much can it store? Up to 232,000 photos, 116,000 songs, or 145 hours of DVD-quality video. Also use MediaVault to back-up your main drive. It's the drive for your home network. Access up to three printers from PCs or laptops on your home network Use with wired- and wireless-networked computers in your home by connecting to your router via Ethernet cable Create automatic backups that can be set up to run weekly, daily, or continuously with the included software Protect your data with the RAID 1 capability Restore your PC in one step in the event of a hard drive failure, virus, or spyware infection Watch TV shows recorded with your Media Center PC on other PCs in your home Watch movies Increase capacity up to 1.2 terabytes with the empty expansion bay (enough to hold up to 500,000 photos, 16,000 hours of music, or 340 hours of DVD-quality video Compatibility - Windows, Mac-, and Linux-based computers HP Warranty - hardware, one-year limited; software, 90 days 102 of 111 people found the following review helpful: Serious shortcomings regarding the mediavault This review is from: HP MV2020 Media Vault 500 GB External Hard Drive (Personal Computers) The hp mediavault 500GB version was delivered to me yesterday. Because of the following, I'm going to return it: 1. No Mac Support - yes, hp says this product works with mac os x. What they don't tell you (until after you buy it) is that they don't *support* macs. I opened the box and saw the installation cd. I popped it in my mac only to notice that all of the files seemed to be windows files. I rechecked the box for the mac drivers. I scoured the disk, looking for the mac folder. Nothing. I found on one of HP's support pages how you can do a standard "connect to server" to at least see the drive. Big deal. I could do that with samba for any drive on the network! However, where's the whole "back up your whole hard drive" option? Assuming I must have missed something obvious, I finally called HP. To my shock, the tech person told me, "We don't support mac". He said it as if I should *obviously* know that macs aren't supported. When I read him both amazon's and hp's website indicating that it says, "works with both windows and mac", he said, "oh, it works with mac, we just won't support it." (!!!) I tried to explain to him that that is what's called "deceptive advertising". I have no problem rsyncing my data. However, it would have gone a LONG way in my decision regarding whether or not to buy this product. If I have to rsync the data myself, why shouldn't I just get an old beat up machine, stick two 500GB drives in them and rsync to that? 2. You don't really have access to the second drive - When I opened the box, the first thing I was curious about was what kind of drive was included with the media vault? Is it western digital, segate/maxtor, or their own drive? So I tried opening the door only to see that I couldn't. Only one door opens; the other is a false door. So when I spoke to the HP tech person, I brought this to his attention. If the extra drive I bought fails, I can replace it. I asked, what happens if the drive that comes with the unit fails? "Oh, just return it to HP and we'll put a new drive in and return it to you." I was more specific. "What happens if the drive fails beyond the warranty?" I was told that in that case, I have to pay. So if you thought you could just pop out the failed drive and stick in a replacement, you can, with one MAJOR caveat. As long as the failed drive is the additional one you bought, you can. If it's the one that comes with the unit, you'll have to ship it back to HP and pay whatever they feel like charging you. Along these lines... 3. You can't pop the drive out yourself and replace it. Well technically you could take the drive out with screwdrivers just like you could any hard drive in any computer. However, the little mini-operating system used to do the mirroring isn't on a ROM chip; it's on the drive that comes with the unit. Furthermore, that mini-os (I think the tech guy said it's a modified linux variant) doesn't get mirrored to the second drive in raid 1. So when the first drive fails, which has the os on it, you have a very heavy paperweight!!! Again, you are forced to go through HP to fix this. HP uses their own os and they don't provide it on their site so you can't just download it, install it on a new drive and pop it in the machine. Once you buy this product, you're married to HP. I don't like that at all!!! If the problem was just the first point, I would have gladly given this product five stars (assuming everything else worked over at least a couple of months time). But the whole purpose of me having mirrored data in a raid 1 configuration is that if ANY of the drives fail, I pop it out and put in a new one. YOU DON'T REALLY HAVE THAT OPTION WITH THIS, ALTHOUGH THAT'S NOT MENTIONED ANYWHERE!!! I'm going to return everything I bought and just put together my own machine dedicated to backing up the network. You've been warned. 36 of 40 people found the following review helpful: Simply amazing! This review is from: HP MV2020 Media Vault 500 GB External Hard Drive (Personal Computers) I received the HP MediaVault yesterday and was just amazed at the speed and ease with which I could put this to good use. Simply hook up the Ethernet cable and the power cable and switch it on. Then browse to "HPMediaVault" in your browser and "wham" your talking to the built-in web server of the device (the only setting you really need to change there is the "workgroup name"; make it the same as the settings on all of your PCs). Or go to "\\hpmediavault\fileshare" and you're already looking at one of the pre-programmed shared directories (you can easily permanently attach a drive letter to those directories through Windows file manager). Creating additional root directories and even opening up one of them to be an FTP server is dead-easy. And the most amazing thing is the "\\hpmediavault\mediashare" directory. I have a Roku SoundBridge and it immediately recognized that directory as an available media server without changing any setting on the Roku or on the HP MediaVault. Isn't it wonderful when technology just works? The HP MediaVault is also blazingly fast and has 1-Gb Ethernet support. I will soon try to capture DV video directly to the device, and have good faith it will do that without dropping a single frame. 27 of 31 people found the following review helpful: this product has problems This review is from: HP MV2020 Media Vault 500 GB External Hard Drive (Personal Computers) The operating system for the media vault is a unique proprietary linux variation which only hp uses for this particular product, nothing else. The implications of this are as follows: Within two days of receiving this product, the filesystem of the hard drive became corrupt. What that means is that there was nothing wrong with the hardware, only the software. Unfortunately this software cannot be fixed. Hp's solution is to send you a new hard drive because the original hard drive was useless. If you have any data on the original hard drive, it is lost. You do not get any tools to rescue it, to restore it, to recover it. None. HP can't help you. The product comes with software to restore your own computer's hard drive but nothing to restore the harddrive of the media vault. Even more absurd, the media vault allows you to install a second hard drive. However if you put the original media vault hard drive into the second slot and then install a new hp hard drive into the first slot, the device still will not be able to read the data from the original drive. This product does not meet the reasonable expectations of its customers. It cannot do what computers have been able to do for twenty years, namely use rescue tools on disks, like fdisk for windows and fsck for linux. No tools work on the hp drives. And both windows and linux computers allow you to put a corrupted hard drive as a slave in your computer in order to read the data. You cannot do this with a media vault. You cannot even put the media vault hard drive in a linux computer to read the data. It won't work because of the proprietary nature of the operating system for the media vault. For the first time in using computers for twenty years, I have lost data. I am very upset at hp for the very short sighted design of this product. You are warned. Beware of power bumps -- data difficult to recover After a power bump the MV2020 which we'd had for 3 years died. Called a tech -- he could not recover the data! Called HP, and they can't do it either. by RossDave Works well despite noisy fan I purchased one of these in late 2007. Within a year or two it became quite noisy and I assumed that the hard drive was about to fail, so I backed it up. by Mark Murphy Mine Failed - Out of Warranty Loyal HP customer no more. While I love this device's features and ease of use, mine failed just out of warranty. by R. S. Welker You will loose your Data, Period I have used the MV2020 for 13-months. Suddenly, it started making a "screetching" loud sound coming from inside the unit. by G. Boutros Slow Access I like the idea of accessing my file from any computer on the network. I also liked adding my printer into the network. by D. M. Smith No Support and limited compatibility Let's see. I can't use it to restore an IBM laptop and there is no software support for the Mac I'm using to replace the $2000 paperweight that is a brand-new T61P (did I mention... by Jeffrey Abbott Savage HP Media Vault is UNRELIABLE My HP Media Vault has been unreliable from day one. For starters the drive that shipped with my unit had areas of corruption. by Matthew J. Thomas Good basic NAS system While this NAS doesn't have all the bells and whistles of some systems, it is a good basic unit. One benefit I liked was the ability to RAID at the partition level rather than... by P. Roddick Save your money... I purchased a media vault today, thinking what a great product it would be. I plugged it in and was amazed how cool it worked and how easy it was to setup. by T. Bailey Excellant Product!! Excellant NAS. Fast by comparison to Argosy and other NAS that I've used. I wish it had Bittorrent client built in! Security is sometimes confusing on the device. by M. Patel |
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Roku SoundBridge M1000/M1001 Network Music System
Manufacturer : Roku Model : M1001 ASIN : B000BI6AH8 Price : 199.99$ See Special Offers  Product DescriptionFinally, a network music player that looks as good as it sounds! Roku SoundBridge plays your PC or Mac digital music files anywhere in the house - connecting your stereo or powered speakers to your computer's digital music library. Or, listen to a variety of Internet Radio stations, without even turning on your computer. WMA, MP3, AAC, AIFF and WAV music formats are supported - and it's network ready with wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi.Amazon.com Product DescriptionWinner of the CES 2004 Innovations Award and a Wired editor's pick, Roku's SoundBridge M1000 digital music receiver employs WiFi technology to broadcast media files from your Mac or PC to just about anywhere in the house. You no longer have to be sitting at your computer to hear your music, nor do you need to burn your Internet-sourced audio to CDs to import it to the living room. Just plug the M1000 into your integrated amplifier or surround receiver and you can listen to all your digital music on your stereo or multichannel speaker system. The M1000 includes built-in 802.11b WiFi for wireless use but also offers a RJ-45/Cat5 Ethernet port for hard-wired connections.
PC owners, meanwhile, will delight in the SoundBridge's built-in Windows Media Connect, Windows Media Player 10, and Rhapsody support. The device also works with any music service using Windows Media DRM 10, such as Napster, MusicMatch, and Walmart.com. All told, the M1000 is the most compatible music player around.
The SoundBridge offers Internet radio access, too, bringing you a selection of free music and talk-radio stations (with up to 10 station presets). Roku's Fast Browse feature lets you browse huge music collections by album, artist, genre, or composer (providing your files are properly encoded with said details). You can also play your stored iTunes playlists or use the keyword search to find the title you seek. Beyond its WiFi and RJ-45 interfaces, the M1000 offers straight-ahead audio connections: an S/PDIF coaxial digital output and an optical Toslink output (one each) for those that want a pure digital connection with a surround receiver or a CD or minidisc recorder. The unit also comes with a stereo RCA-to-minijack connector that hooks directly into a set of powered computer speakers to create a stylish and minimalist compact stereo system. In addition, Roku has outfitted the SoundBridge with a super-fast, 400 MHz Blackfin DSP and 16 MB of DRAM memory, giving it more than enough headroom to handle future software updates. Finally, the SoundBridge's sleek industrial design looks comfortable anywhere of the house, and even fits conveniently on the wall or under a shelf or cabinet using Roku's optional mounting accessory. The M1000 measures 10 inches wide by 2.37 inches in diameter and is backed by a one-year warranty. What's in the Box 52 of 53 people found the following review helpful: An MP3 Player With Wired and Wireless Network Interfaces This review is from: Roku SoundBridge M1000/M1001 Network Music System (Electronics) Note that there is no functional difference between M1000 and M1001. Also, both devices are equipped with 802.11b which is perfectly adequate, so not having 802.11g is probably irrelevant. The following are some observations: Pros: 1. Intuitive UI design for browsing. 2. Attractive industrial design. 3. Able to play internet radio without the computer on. 4. Natively supported by Media Player 11. No additional software needs to be installed. 5. Good sound quality. Optical port is a plus. 6. Painless firmware upgrade. It is done directly over the network. No need to disconnect or reconnect anything. 7. Reasonably priced. Cons: 1. Does not support double byte languages. 2. Could have given better diagnostic messages when media server is not found. 3. LED of the optical port is always on, even in standby mode. I wonder if it will wear out. 4. Standby mode still draw 3 watts of power. Most of my other gadgets draw only 1 watt of power at standby. You need some knowledge of wireless network setup and firewalls to get this device working. Yeah, it is still a 5 stars product. Despite imperfections, it is still more fun than chore. That is a lot more than I can say about a lot of other hi-tech toys I own. This review is from: Roku SoundBridge M1000/M1001 Network Music System (Electronics) I bought a Roku SoundBridge M1000 last month with two objectives: Firstly, I wanted to listen to the MP3s on the stereo in the living room (without resorting to CD-R), and secondly, I wanted a to turn my PC into a "media center" and get out of the business of trying to find a CD in a cupboard of hundreds of non-alphabetized CDs. The Roku SoundBridge achieved both goals, though not without difficulty. The SoundBridge appears to be solidly built and looks stylish on the sideboard. No need to hide this one away! Initial set up was straight forward. It worked with both Netgear and Linksys wireless routers with WEP, and within about 30 minutes I had achieved objective #1. Sound quality is very good, and herein lies the problem - MP3s that are great through PC speakers, sound lack-luster through a good stereo. The problem is inherent with MP3. I needed loss-less compression. SoundBridge, in conjunction with the excellent and free FireFly media server, can play FLAC format and sounds absolutely spectacular when it does - every bit as good as the original CD. Unfortunately, the configuration is not straight forward. It took me several days to figure it out and maybe beyond someone less technically savvy. Roku should add native support for FLAC and remove this burden from their customers. Another gripe - the WiFi is "b" and not "g", was not robust enough to run from one side of the house to the other, especially with high bandwidth material e.g., loss-less WAV and would "rebuffer". I gave up on wireless and ran a wire and plugged it in. With CD's ripped as FLAC and a wired connection - I achieved objective #2. This review is from: Roku SoundBridge M1000/M1001 Network Music System (Electronics) Being able to play the music in my PC anywhere in the house is killer. My CD collection is in the basement and that's where it's going to stay. In the past I'd connected my mp3 players to my home system, which worked well, but they had to be loaded and recharged, and they couldn't carry ALL of the music stored on my PC, which made them somewhat limiting. All of that is over. With a wireless network music player, I can listen to EVERYTHING, whenever I want, anywhere within the range of my network. The Roku Soundbridge is a great addition to my collection of gadgets. It was easy to set up and connect to my PC. I initially connected it through Itunes, which allows any Itunes radio station to by played through it in addition to all COMPATIBLE format music files. I have also installed Windows Media Connect in my PC, which also works very well for sharing files on a wireless network (which the Soundbridge is connected to). Media Connect starts with the PC startup and runs in the backround, and it doesn't eat a ton of memory like ITUNES does. So if you don't have or don't like ITUNES, that won't stop you from using the Soundbridge. But I haven't spent any time yet trying to get internet radio through Windows Media Connect, so I can't tell you how accessible internet radio is. For now, when I want to listen to internet radio, I start ITunes, then shut it down when I've finished, even though my PC can easily handle Itunes in the backround. I just don't like to keep it running when I'm not using it (just a personal preference). Wiring the unit to the stereo system is very easy. Browsing the Soundbridge is fairly easy, and it has a great sound. You'd never know it's wireless. The adjustable volume feature is KEY, because you don't have to keep the volume control for the reciever handy. Just keep the receiver set at the loudest you want it to get (with the Soundbridge at 100%), then control the volume with the Soundbridge. It has a cool, compact look and bright (dimmable) display, which allows it to be either the center of attention, unobtrusive, or hidden, depending on your preference. I like gadgets, so mine will be very noticable. JUST DON'T LOSE THE REMOTE!! So much potential wasted I want to like this device, but sadly I can't. It is just too frustrating. First, the good: - Responsive and cool UI which doesn't require a TV to display... by K. Farlow Unsupported; doesn't see all songs on my server After my media collection on my home media server (HP Media Vault) grew past about 5000 songs, this device would fail to recognize songs in albums. by Xaprb I see dead Rokus My M1000 had been a reliable music streamer for several years, until we came home from vacation last week to find the display dark and the SoundBridge completely unresponsive... by Shilshole Great Device... no longer supported I bought one of these great little devices when they came out. Attach a pair of powered speakers to it, or plug it into your stereo and you have expanded your digital music... by Thomas Battley Roku Soundbridge M1001 The Roku Soundbridge does what it was made to do. Play music from your computer on any stereo system you plug it into, and play Internet radio. by Sloper Dude Truly pathetic customer support I bought this for one purpose: to hook it up to my stereo system and listen to Internet radio stations around the world. by Rafael Sirocco Awesome bang for the buck I was waffling between this and a Logitech Slim device. The price point won me over, and it's been a good addition to my home theater. by Carl Perry Perfect !!! First i will say thanks Amazon.com for fast shipment and handling outside USA (Germany). I have searched this device in germany but i found only used devices. by DaChecker Worst Customer Service on the planet Roku seems to basically have abandoned their Soundbridge customers to focus exclusively on their Netflix/Video business. by J. Sonni Way better than wrestling with CDs After about 22 years of collecting Music CDs the physical act of selecting a CD to listen to and cleaning up the clutter the cases created was a huge burden. by P. Thomas |
PopBox Wireless Media Player
Manufacturer : Syabas Tech. Incorporated Model : Syabas popbox Wireless ASIN : B003BYRQO0 Price : 149.99$ See Special Offers  Product DescriptionThe PopBox Wireless makes it simple and affordable to play all the movies, home videos, photos, and music stored on your home PC/network as well as streamed from the Internet on your HDTV! With PopBox Wireless you can finally give your HDTV what its been hungering for - all the best sports, entertainment, movies, videos, and music the Internet has to offer, PLUS an incredibly simple way to play all of your own stored movies, home videos, pictures and music on your HDTV sets and home theater system. Why watch things that were meant for the big screen on a computer monitor when you and your family can enjoy it all in any room of your house on your HDTV? With PopBox connected to your HDTV suddenly everything can go big screen! And we've made sure to make setup automated and simple - just hook the PopBox Wireless up to your Internet connection and it does the rest! 12 of 13 people found the following review helpful: Wow this is so not ready yet! This review is from: PopBox Wireless Media Player (Electronics) Waiting a day and a half for my movies to populate after the last firmware I realize it's not going to happen. Everything was going ok there for a while...now it's useless for me. I think I gave it my best like many others on the forums but it's not worth the effort. I even hooked my WDTVs up just to see if it was something weird with my network but everything was ok with them. I remember the excitement I had putting in my pre-orders on April 30th. It's been a long wait and honestly I do think it will all get sorted...problem is I am ready now. 50+ posts & 42 pages later... It's been fun! I'll probably delete my 4 star review on Amazon as well. I think no review is better than an honest review at this point. Here is my original review posted on Amazon. You can see it started out ok. Friday July 16th 2010 So far so good. I love the way it pulls info from IMDB Yes there are many issues right out of the box. So if you are expecting a hassle fee experience it may be too early at this point. Popbox has already confirmed firmware updates in the next few days. So I have been messing with the 2 Popboxes over the last 24+ hours now. So far so good. I will keep adding to my review as I learn more. But right now I am giving it 4 stars as its doing everything I want it to do. Make sure you read the instructions and insert the included SD card before powering up. I have about 4 tb worth of HD movies all saved as .mkv and I simply added it to the Media Library in the settings and it started to scan the My Book World Edition II. Now the movies are showing up along with cover art all fetched from IMDB. IMDB also determines which are TV shows and will displays those in the right category. Some covers are wrong and you can edit them by searching for the right cover and selecting it. I am streaming 1080p movies with no issues at all. It found my network asked for my key and that was really it. I used to have the exact same setup but with an WDTV live and I would get drop outs constantly. I actually had to change it to wired to keep the connection. Both my router and wireless adapter used were in the accepted list by WD. Shoutcast app does not seem to be working correctly as it keeps resetting the box. But YouTube works along with Twitter and Weatherbug. I do notice my Pioneer VSX-1018AH is no longer displaying DTS and now displays PCM. It used to display DTS with the WDTV Live. I really like it. Overall it looks ok...nothing that blows me away but I do like the way the movies are displayed. Oh yeah there are no instructions besides the quick setup guide. No forum or real support either at this time. Many are complaining on Amazon about their wired versions too. There are no ads as some reported before this thing actually came out. Things I don't like: Some subtitles load up and some don't. Not sure how to actually trigger the subtitle feature yet since there is no subtitle button. Only 2x and 4x search. You can't skip in larger times. There is also no resume. So if you hit stop an hour into the movie its gonna take a while to get to that same spot. So far I have watched 3 movies @ 1080p wireless and all played fine. They do have a lot to work out on this. I am sure many of you can't figure out why I gave it 4 stars since there are so many things wrong...but I am perfectly happy with what it is doing at this time. I also have the patients to wait for the upcoming firmwares. At this point it does feel like I am beta testing. That is cool with me..but I can't see myself doing this longer than 30 days...at that point I will return if not fully functional. UPDATED 7/18/2010 popboxteam: We will be providing multiple firmware releases over the next 2-3 weeks to address the issues reported. The first one (v1.1) will be available on Tue (07/20) afternoon. Some of the fixes in this version will be: * Settings to enable DTS and Dolby Digital * 6x and 8x support for FF/REW * Playback resumes from where it stopped the last time * After exiting a movie, the focus frame is not present and always returns to first movie in library * Media Library fixes for navigation and scrolling in TV category This release will also have a number of other stability fixes not listed above. Once again appreciate your patience and feedback as we work through these issues. Subtitles are not supported in this release. They will be supported in a future release. The formats supported will be: SRT, MicroDVD SUB, SSA, SUB/IDX UPDATED 7/19/10 There are a few users on the AVSForum board that are having a glitch where it is showing a completely different UI with many more features enabled: Capable of sending Dolby TrueHD and DTS-MA bitstream as well as DTS and DD Plus mentions of Netflix: w w w .youtube. com/watch?v=F_hIJpncU4o UPDATED 7/20/10 New Firmware released. Well first thing I tried was FF and it now goes to 2x 4x 8x 16x Sounds good right? Wrong... sure the time increases in fact I was FF to about 10:00 into the movie and noticed the video was not moving that fast. I press play again..or stop..or pause..not sure cause it would not respond well. I got it to play and it was back at 2:35 ! My receiver is now showing DTS. There is now an option for PCM and RAW. I can no longer access that hidden UI.... Movies do not resume I can now access page 2 of TV shows. UPDATED 7/21/10 Here is the list that is going around and collected from the various forums: - Audio: No bitstreaming for DTS-HD MA and TrueHD - Audio: Center channel missing during video playback. Completely random for me - UI: Yes they have their own genres like movies, tv shows but it's all pulled automatically - UI: TV scraping is still horrible - UI: Only lists 8 movies per page. You will see the `loading' icon constantly - UI: Focus is not so good. You really notice it with pop ups when the focus goes back to the main screen behind the pop up ! - Design: This thing gets HOT - Design: Power cable sticks out and is not properly seated - Design: No reset button or power button that actually turns it off. Using the power button puts it into standby mode - Playback: No subtitle button! - Playback: No Audio selection button! - Playback: Info button is bad. There are no indications on how fast you are seeking until you hit the `i' button. Then you have too much information including movie descriptions! Who wants to see that while you are FF or RW - Playback: No resume. You stop it and you have to start over again. That is not easy especially since seeking just sucks - Playback: FF is now up to 16x but when I FF on some movies it indicates for example 10 minutes into the movie but when I press play it actually goes back to say 2:50 There are others but man I am done. You think I am exaggerating ??? Then feel free to check these 2 forums out: avsforum forum.popbox I have never dealt with any electronic device with so many issues right from the start. I can't imagine anyone tested this thing out before it was shipped...In fact it was sent out a few days before the actual release date. Do I think they will fix it...Yes... eventually. I just wish I had the last 5 days of my life back. [...] This review is from: PopBox Wireless Media Player (Electronics) I've been craving something to natively challenge the XBMC and Boxee scene and this device was promised to be such a contender. Unfortunately, amongst delays and near silence from the manufacturer when finally shipped this machine does not match up. UI: I actually prefer the simple, folder-based navigation of my A-100 and A-110 to this archaic system that Syabas has put into place for the popbox. Not only is it overall slower than the aforementioned older models, it somehow manages to be less useful. Yes seeing the cover art (when found) is nice but the delay between paging is about two and a half to three seconds and the buttons do not repeat so you must continually press down. The keyboard layout is a mess, why isn't the on-screen QWERTY? It would be a lot faster. The TV organization is a joke and I didn't even attempt beyond a few minutes, I'll stick to the folder browsing where my manual organization is much more efficient. Nowhere can you see the full filename of an item so if identified wrong you have to play it in order to figure out what it is. If you have two versions of the same movie they are indistinguishable unless you manually alter the title. The in-movie UI is a step down from the older models. I cannot see the filename, codecs, bitrate, or even the actual movie length! Playback: Lovely. Once you survive the UI in navigating to the file you desire playback is a welcome relief. No longer will your TV lose signal in switching modes but only go black momentarily while the cache builds up and playback starts. Every major codec is supported in both the audio and video sector. I didn't have a chance to test any of the exotic subtitle formats as all mine were targeted for the earlier models anyways. I'm slightly disappointed that I cannot cycle subtitles or change the aspect ratio during playback as I used to be able to. Hardware: Again, lovely. Small and crisp the device is a little larger than expected but is still very small. The black is a welcome addition as it blends in better. The blue LED lights is a tad bright and can be distracting when placed in your eyeline. Plastic is noticibly cheap but not to the point where the device doesn't feel solid. This point is also a bit moot since you really should only have to handle the device once during setup. The rear plugs are spaced at relatively equal distances making it much easier to juggle the cables versus the older models. Some heat can be felt with a lot of playback and as there are no vents try to give it as much airflow as possible though I don't think much is needed. In summation this device is a huge letdown. Despite the playback and hardware being rather nice the UI is an absolute dealbreaker. DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE! Even with Syabas' promise of firmware upgrades I do not think they'll be able to polish it enough to be considered enjoyably usable. I recommend getting an A-110 for those only needed a player but if you want something to show you what the popbox should have been buy an Apple TV and load Boxee or just wait for the Boxee Box in November. 8 of 10 people found the following review helpful: Frustrating, unstable, the worst software quality imaginable This review is from: PopBox Wireless Media Player (Electronics) WiFi adapter simply refused to connect to the router. Using a component video (1080i) connection, the device displays a welcome (loading..) screen correctly in 1080i and then switches to 480i and proceeds to display only the upper right quadrant of the screen. Completely unusable... (This after downloading a mandatory update and rebooting.) I have never seen more immature product at release. Product ships with a quick start guide listing a customer support help line. If you call the number 1-877-7POPBOX the voice announces that the number has been disconnected. (What a way to stand behind your product.) SAVE YOUR TIME AND MONEY -- DO NOT BY THIS GARBAGE. My vote for worse product of the year! I've been waiting almost a year for this box to come out. I really, really wanted to like it. After reading the recent positive reviews on the latest firmware, I bought 2. by J. Luu I really wanted to like this product, but it's a dud. I have been a big fan of Syabas having owned one of their popcorn hour A-110 media player units for years. by Douglas L. Dorbuck EXCELLENT NOW!!!! ----- BEST PLAYER FOR THE MONEY I have had this box since launch.....to say it was a piece of crap would be an understatement. Over the last few months they have released some firmware updates and now it is an... by K. Owens Popbox Update Update 12/8/10: New firmware has made this a very good unit for playing movies. Almost all of the problems with movie playback, UI interaction, unit stability have been fixed. by M. Johnston Great Concept, BAD Implementation I decided to give te Popbox a try after seeing it in action in Vegas. Thats about the time all the good in the product went out the door. by C. Blankenship Horrible Did not work. Called tech support and they had no clue what i was talking about. Horrible! Stay away from it..... by Riz Good and getting better I like this product. It really doesn't give me issues except a few bugs. They are working on updates and for the most part I am happy with it. It is really getting better by Gerald W Groat III Early adopter issues Right now there is no subtitle support but thy do plan for it to be implemented. Other than that, they aren't missing much. by Wolfburns Don't even consider paying to be a beta tester! Basic functionality doesn't work. Simple as that. You can look at the popbox forums if you don't believe me. by N G Really frustrating, DOES NOT PLAY WELL WITH MACS After having pre-ordered this thing back in April with all of their promises, delayed ship dates and all, I was immensely disappointed with this product. by Ted Stevens |
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Popcorn Hour A-200 Networked Media Tank (Black)
Manufacturer : Syabas Tech. Incorporated Model : A-200 ASIN : B0036U7WJI Price : 179.99$ See Special Offers  Product DescriptionIt's Time to Unleash Your TV The Popcorn Hour is the world's original Networked Media Tank. It allows you to stream digital video, audio and photos from your PC, storage device, home network or the Internet to your HDTV or home theater setup. The A-200 gives you total control over your digital media experience. 18 of 18 people found the following review helpful: Fantastic This review is from: Popcorn Hour A-200 Networked Media Tank (Black) (Electronics) Pros: I've had the A-200 for 4 days now and so far it works great. It was very easy to setup on my 10/100 wired network and have it access a Buffalo 4TB Linkstation hosting all my backed up DVDs stored as ISO images. The Popcorn Hour has no problems in playing any one of these images. I've tried .VOB and .AVI formats also with success. Navigation to the videos is folder based and is as easy as using Windows Explorer to get to the video you wish to play. The main reason I bought this unit is because of all the different video formats it can play and the rave reviews it has received. My TV is a 55" Samsung 8000 series that has DNLA built into it but its very lame. You can't FF or REV the movie and depending on the video container you can't even pause the movie. The Popcorn Hour A-200 performs all these functions without flaw including "jump to chapter". It also automaticaly sets a bookmark on the movie you are watching when you push the Stop Button. When you select that movie again, it resumes at the bookmark. It will set bookmarks for 10 different movies. The unit does contain a cooling fan but you can't hear it unless you put your ear next to it. At first glance, the remote control looked like a universal remote because of all the buttons on it but its not. All those buttons control different features of the A-200. The reason I gave it a 4 star rating is because it doesn't come with a manual, just a quick start guide and the font is very small. Also if you have any questions, there is no phone # to call but there is support online and also a forum to post your questions. If you are not a techy then this unit is for you, it works right out of the box. If you are techy then you can have lots of fun with this, applying different skins, writing your own skins... I am not disappointed at all with this purchase. Cons: I don't have anything serious to complain about it except: It does get a little warm. It can use some weight. With the amount of cables attached to it, it tends to not lay flat unless you arrange the cables just right. A manual would be good. Update I've had the PCH for 3 months now and the "New Toy Feeling" has worn off. I have loaded 400 movies onto my NAS and every one of them plays beautifully through the Popcorn Hour (PCH). There is one thing that bugs me about it, the IR sensor that picks up signals from the remote is very narrow. If you don't point the remote directly at the unit then it won't pickup the signal. I use a Logitech Harmony 7 remote and all of the devices that it controls responds well even when I point the remote to a white wall behind me but the PCH will not respond unless the remote is pointed directly at it and parallel with it's sensor. A small inconvience considering all of its other features that work very well. 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful: Good product with some flaws This review is from: Popcorn Hour A-200 Networked Media Tank (Black) (Electronics) I believe the a-200 is a very good product. It will pretty much play any file format you throw at it. It will play back both dvd and bluray isos as well as the popular mkv or m2ts format which products like the playstation 3 and xbox 360 will not do. Regarding cons I would first like to point out that I DID NOT notice the loud fan noise everyone here is pointing out. But I did notice that the product does get very hot. The trick is to shut down the system by holding down the power button. Otherwise, by simply hitting the power button once the unit stays in stand by while continually powering the unit which is somewhat of an annoyance. To avoid the heat issue I avoid using an internal hard drive and stick to an external hard drive. I initially installed an internal hard drive but found the device to get very hot. This may be a problem for some as it requires a internal hd to run certain applications. Personally I don't use them. Whether the heat caused by the internal hd would be a problem or not is a question but its not a risk I'm willing to take. I will say that the design of the case is a bit cheap. The biggest thing that concerns me is that the heat vents are on the bottom of the unit and as any average joe knows, heat rises! For anyone wondering there are custom metal cases out there that are of much better quality. The interface is clunking but has an awesome streamlined alternative known as Yet Another Movie Jukebox (YAMJ). YAMJ is very good and is makes browsing collections a snap. As far as the big kicker that got be to purchase the a-200 over products like the wd-live plus is the audio passthrough. The a-200 will bitstream high def audio formats to a receiver such as DTS MA HD audio and Dolby TruHD through backup files. Last I read the WD Live was able to bitstream TruHD but not sure on that. Western Digitial says it will never bitstream DTS MA. Other complaints I have is that the documentation is lousy. When you buy this expect to do a lot of internet searching for usuage. But after a little reading the device is very easy to use. I will say that a plus is that firmware updates are a huge step forward but not always the quickest to come out. But no product is perfect. Overall it has been a great purchase for my families needs. 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: Good unit for the price!! This review is from: Popcorn Hour A-200 Networked Media Tank (Black) (Electronics) I got 2 of the A-200 for the bedrooms in my home. They play all my videos great and I have no problems at all. The people that complain about the fan noise must have sonic ears as I can barly hear it it I put it next to my head. I would recomend this player to anyone who wants a great media player. Stay away from the WDTV Live units as I replaced 2 of them with this and will buy another later on. Great unit for the price!!!! Nifty little streamer I have to admit I've had this tool for some time. A long time. I never reviewed it because I didn't quite understand how to use it. Bad me. by IcartM Perfectly happy. I have two of these networked with my desktop computer and I can stream videos any direction to/from my living room, bedroom, or home office. by Nathan Johnson Just my 2 cents To keep it simple I'm going to use the PROS AN CONS system. PROS The system has played everything I've thrown at it codec wise, Has... by Jared Not Reliable The popcorn hour A-200 was recommended by friends but this unit would lock up and require the power to be removed before it would restart. by DXH Popcorn Hour A200 This is a great product. I have two of them. I also have the C200, the A-100 and the A-110. It plays everything I throw at it except older wmv files. by ranunez Not worth it... I bought this product mainly due to the positive reviews made by other customers on Amazon after carefully considering the ASUS O! by M. Nagll Great Media player, with some drawbacks... The A-200 is a great media player, It has handled everything I throw at it without issue. It handles all the high def audio codecs with ease too. by Chuck Amazing product First of all, super fast delivery (free). Ordered on 4-13-2011, delivered on the 17th (yes, Sunday). by AKW Ingenius! PCH A-200 I love this device! My nephew told me about popcorn hour but I had no idea what he was talking about. by William Grayson The best of the bunch.....but wait for the new 210 I was waiting for the 210, which is the new version of this - but when I talked to Popcorn Hour's Customer Service, I was told it is exactly the same as the 200... by Andrew I. Munro Sr. |
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