 Manufacturer : Roku Model : R1000 ASIN : B000BIFY6Q Price : 399.99$ See Special Offers   Amazon.com ReviewAmazon.com Review Like its smaller cousins, the Roku M1000 and M500 network music players, Roku's SoundBridge Radio is designed liberate your digital music from your computer and let you crank up Internet radio stations and your unprotected digital music files in the room of your choice. But unlike those products, the SoundBridge Radio doesn't require a hi-fi system because the SoundBridge Radio is the hi-fi system. And not a bad one at that.
As a complete Wi-Fi music system that can stream your MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, and AIFF music files in high-performance sound; play AM, FM and Internet radio; automatically update the time via atomic transmission; and wake you up to a variety of ascending alarm sounds or your favorite Internet station or digital music, the SoundBridge has clear aspirations to be your bedside radio of choice. Without needing any special software for your computer (PC or Mac), within a few minutes of breaking this five-pound radio out of its packaging you can be browsing through the music you have stored in your Apple's iTunes, Real Networks' Rhapsody, Windows Media Connect or Windows Media 10 music players. All you need is a wireless network with a broadband connection, and your digital music is yours for the asking. (However, because Apple doesn't license its digital rights management code, SoundBridge -- like most other non-Apple network media players -- can't play protected songs from the iTunes Music Store.) In our test we set up an iMac G5 on our network running Apple's iTunes. The radio, which is configured with Wi-Fi 802.11b but is 802.11g compatible, immediately recognized the network but took several tries before it successfully connected. (If your network is locked, the SoundBridge will ask for a password. And if you have access to more than one wireless network, the SoundBridge will give you the option of choosing which network to connect to.) Once online, the radio automatically updated the Roku software and was officially ready to perform. And for the remainder of our test over several days, we never once had another connection problem. Diving straight into our iTunes folders, it didn't take long for us to recognize the several play features that put the SoundBridge head and shoulders above many of its competitors. For starters, unlike other network players we've tested, the radio recognized our iTunes playlists, and a neat "song queue" feature let us easily create our own playlists with the radio's remote. And as a huge brownie point, the SoundBridge not only categorized our songs by genre, title, artist and album (as most networks players do), it also queued up each song in the same order as they were originally placed their respective albums. Astoundingly, not all Wi-Fi players can make that claim.
The strongest criticism of SoundBridge concerns its remote capabilities and navigation. The features of the SoundBridge are designed to be accessed both through the large, easy-to-access buttons on the radio itself, and via its basic 5.5 x 2-inch remote. Unfortunately, the remote works for some features, but not for others, and less-than-intuitive navigation makes things unnecessarily complicated. The most glaring example of this problem is with the SoundBridge's highly convenient "source" button located behind the radio's conveniently huge snooze button. You hit the source button until you reach -- you guessed it! -- the music source of your choice. If you want AM radio, you tap the button until "AM Radio" appears on the radio's display. Pretty simple, and just how it should be. However, if you are using the remote you must hit the "home" button, which then leads you to a navigation level that's dependent upon the level you're starting at. If you're listening to AM radio, for example, and you want Internet Radio, the remote requires that you click several times through two additional navigation levels to make the switch. And there are other similar problems with the remote configuration and navigation. Call us spoiled, but this can be a drag. Is it a deal breaker? Not by a long shot. The SoundBridge Radio is the first dedicated Wi-Fi radio that has the ability to serve your digital music collection, and it does it with a performance and convenience that should please most listeners. But at this price, and with thousands of examples of well-designed remote appliances to draw from, we would have liked these issues not to have been issues. Pros:
The unit's superior audio quality stems from the precision-engineered sound system and the patented Linear Magnetic Drive stereo speakers and subwoofer. Each full-range speaker is outfitted with its own tuned acoustic enclosure and built-in 20-watt 3G digital amplifier, while the sub offers a proprietary Delta Tunnel-tuned acoustic enclosure and a 30-watt 3G amp. Together, the speakers deliver a full-bodied audio performance that far surpasses most tabletop radios, all in a package that's only 11 by 6 by 6.5 inches (W x H x D). In addition, Roku has outfitted the SoundBridge with a super-fast, 400 MHz Blackfin DSP processor and 16 MB of DRAM memory, giving it more than enough headroom to handle future software updates. Other features include a traditional AM/FM tuner; a full-function clock radio (tuned to the U.S. atomic clock) that wakes to digital music, Internet radio, AM/FM stations, iTunes playlists, podcasts, or selectable alarm tones; a gradual volume ramp mode for listeners who like to wake up slowly; a headphone jack for private listening; and a built-in light sensor that automatically dims the display in the evening. The R1000 system weighs 4 pounds and 15 ounces and is backed by a one-year warranty on parts and labor. What's in the Box  94 of 96 people found the following review helpful: If you love radio, you will find it hard not to love the SoundBridge Radio This review is from: Roku SoundBridge R1000 Radio Network Music System (Electronics) Update: After two years, my SoundBridge radio began to die with a constant crackling of static, regardless of volume setting. Apparently, I am not the only customer to experience this problem, but the warranty coverage is one year, regardless. That is a disappointment, because this product is not cheap. I know that things break, but when a problem is common, it is a design flaw and I hope for manufacturers to take better care of their customers. So, I am not changing my rating - it was a great product while it lasted - but two years of life from a $300 product is not good enough for me to buy another, even at the low, low RMA price of $200. Original review: I have wished for a radio that could play Internet radio stations ever since stations began to stream on-line. Sure, I can use my computer, but I hate to leave the noisy, power-sucking thing on 24 hours a day. Over the last couple years, a few devices have popped up that could play Internet radio, but that lacked the ability to tune in regular AM and FM radio. At long last, the SoundBridge Radio has arrived with the ability to play both Internet and regular radio. The SoundBridge is great. It is the best thing of any kind that I have purchased in several years. That said, it is not perfect. Internet Radio The SoundBridge delivers Internet radio every bit as well as a computer. Once you have your favorite stations programmed in, it is easy to switch between them - just press the preset button and you're streaming. The downside is that it is a bit laborious to enter those stations. To add new stations to the presets, you need to log in to the web interface of the radio, using your web browser. No big deal if you are computer savvy, but it would be nice if there were a way to program the presets from the radio itself. AM/FM Radio The SoundBridge closed the deal with me just by offering regular AM and FM radio in addition to Internet radio. This was a feature I required and SoundBridge Radio delivers. However, that is as much praise as I will give it for the standard radio features. There are several annoyances. You cannot scan stations manually. To select a station, you must select it from a list. A tuning dial would be much, much more useful. The reception is poor. This is probably due to the internal AC power supply. Don't expect to pick up weak, remote stations with the SoundBridge. The radio does provide AM and FM antenna ports, so you can improve on the poor reception by adding a quality antenna. Radio Controls There are four ways to control the radio - the physical controls, the remote control, the web interface, and the command line interface. This provides a great degree of flexibility if you are willing to learn them all. It could also be confusing. The biggest problem with the SoundBridge Radio is that each of these four control sets works differently and does not allow you to control the full set of features. If I had designed the SoundBridge Radio, I would have made sure you could manipulate every feature from every interface. Sadly, this is not the case. The physical radio controls allow you to do almost everything you will need to do once the wireless network is set up and your presets are programmed. However, you need to use the remote control for setup. The web interface allows only very basic control of the radio, but is necessary for manipulating presets. You can program the presets for Internet radio stations simply by pasting in the URL. The command line interface can be accessed by Telnet. I have only done basic tinkering, but it appears you can control most of the radio functions from the command line. You can also do interesting things, such as rewriting the radio display. Sound The sound is fine. You're listening to the radio - how good do you expect it to be? Voices are clear and well balanced. Music sounds fine, though a bit heavy on the bass for my tastes. If you crank the volume while playing music, you will overload the speakers - they aren't very big. This is a table-top radio. You probably won't be blowing the windows out with your clock radio and you won't be with the SoundBridge either. I have no complaints. If you want better sound, there is a port for headphones. Security? The SoundBridge Radio is a computer, running Linux - it just looks like a Radio. It checks in regularly with Roku for software updates, but you should think of this little box as a computer before you plug it in to your network. I haven't tried to hack it, but just about any computer can be hacked if you try hard enough. You wouldn't connect your PC to the Internet without some kind of firewall and I wouldn't recommend that you connect the SoundBridge Radio to the Internet without some protection of its own. Overall I have been using the SoundBridge Radio for a week. I love it. Sure, there are a number of annoyances in the design, but they are far outweighed by the positives. Most of the irritations come during setup. Once you have the radio set up, you just punch your presets and listen to the radio. 18 of 18 people found the following review helpful: All I can say is WOW! This review is from: Roku SoundBridge R1000 Radio Network Music System (Electronics) Expect to be amazed. I'm now a born again radio listener with Internet radio. No commercials, it's free, and a ton of choices - what else do you want? I bought this (from Fry's $249) after I read a New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/09/business/09pogue.html). Arrived in 2 days. Opened the box. Popped the batteries into the remote. Plugged the radio to the AC outlet.The display in the front panel asked a few questions so that the radio can get connected to your wifi network. Fairly easy even if you are using WEP security and you know how to hook up a wireless device. But if you are using WPA security, you may have to start up with WEP, upgrade the firmware, then move to WPA. The unit I got had version 2.5 and the current version is 3.0. WPA is supported starting from version 2.7. Once you have the radio hooked up to wifi, there's really nothing else much to do but start selecting your stations. I suggest that you go directly to Radioroku.com. This site helps you find internet radio stations and listen to them on your PC or on your Soundbridge with a click of a button. Believe me radioroku will make things a lot easier for you. If you want to control and monitor the radio remotely from your PC, you can also download Roku Radio Snooper (http://www.rokulabs.com/support_sb_dwnld_radiosnoop.php). You can easily command the radio to play audio files on your PC or store URLs of radio stations using the snooper. The real value from this (and any) Internet Radio is the amount of content you can get for FREE and at your own leisure without annoying commercials. Remember this radio does NOT need a PC (or MAC) to download music or to run. All it needs is a wireless broadband internet connection. Finally, the sound coming out of this small radio is truly phenomenal (within reasonable expectations). I'm buying another one soon. 16 of 16 people found the following review helpful: Good idea in theory, but bad power supply kills it This review is from: Roku SoundBridge R1000 Radio Network Music System (Electronics) After a great deal of research I settled on the Roku Soundbridge. I bought it and loved it until a week later, on moving it to a different room and plugging it in, it failed to work. Research on the forums for this product on the Roku website reveals that this product has a common defect--a power supply that usually fails within the warrenty period. I returned it to Amazon, but I have not got a replacement, as the Roku is the only one with an Atomic clock based alarm, a concept I like very much. I am waiting for the new model whenever that comes, hopefully with a better powersupply in it this time. A great idea/concept, but badly flawed by the low quality power supply.  Unit Dead after 15 months I have been very happy with this unit - I waited for this unit thinking they had solved the power supply problems witht this later unit. It failed about 2 days ago. by Jonathan Mcdonnell Should you buy a Roku SoundBridge Radio? Perhaps. The Roku SoundBridge and SoundBridge Radio were vanguards; they were among the first Internet receivers on the market, about six years ago. by Lew Miller biggest turkey in history Poor compatibility with some shoutcasts. I try not to hold that against them, but it prevented me from getting any serious use out of this during the ~20 month life expectancy. by Matthew Gambrell Good Ideas, Bad Execution, Even Worse Customer Service. The only thing wrong with this RADIO is it is made by ROKU! Just remember the old saying,"You Pays Your Money and You Takes Your Chances. by NYBill Roku Soundbridge R1000 Do not - I repeat - do not buy that thing. The power unit died after one year and Roku wrote me that they don't have replacement units any more. by jsleeckx wonderful radio with a horrible design flaw in the power supply I bought my Soundbridge Radio well over a year ago. I love radio and this immediately became my most favorite gadget. I kept it next to my bed. by Curt Elsbernd The worst support ever... BEWARE! I rarely weigh in on these reviews but I have to tell people this: ROKU internet radios are nice when they work, but if you ever need technical support FORGET IT. by Steve Kellar Discontinued - Customer Support Non-Existent I am an experienced technical user and own three Roku Soundbridge units and a Roku Netflix player. I ordered this from Roku when I saw the price cut to under US$200. by Zzyzx Oh Power supplies do not last During my second year of ownership, the power supply stopped functioning. I found that many other owners of this radio have experienced the same problem. by Lynn S. Burger Two FAILED Units in Three Years My SECOND Roku unit failed 14 months after the first one. When the first one failed, I went 15 rounds with their "Customer Service" reps who disowned the problem. by Sam McNair |
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Roku SoundBridge R1000 Radio Network Music System
Hauppauge MediaMVP Digital Media Receiver (Model 1000)
Manufacturer : HAUPPAUGE Model : 1000 ASIN : B0000C4DX1 Price : 129$ Last Price : 65$(Discount 49.6124031007752% See Special Offers  Product DescriptionThe MediaMVP (short for Media decoder for Music Video and Pictures) is a Digital Media Receiver that bridges the home PC with TV sets and A/V equipment via home networks. 19 of 19 people found the following review helpful: Great concept, software is horrible. This review is from: Hauppauge MediaMVP Digital Media Receiver (Model 1000) (Personal Computers) What a great concept: Play the media that resides on my pc (music, videos, digital pictures, webcast radio) from anywhere and as many locations as I have wired network access. The MediaMVP hardware appears very well conceived and implemented (see the Hauppauge site for specifications). Sound and video quality of streamed content are entirely satisfactory (providing your recordings are of good quality). Yep. Hardware appears to be Hauppauge's forte. Their software, however, which manifests itself most noticeably as the user interface, is unforgiveably crude. File system navigation and remote control key mapping are noticeably misprogrammed. Even the most rudimentary MP3 playing capabilities are missing or broken. I would compare the display with the old Commodore 64 but that would be an insult to my C64. Sad to say, Hauppauge does not appear to be interested in fixing any of these deficiencies as they have persisted for at least the last 3 software releases and are still present in the current Beta release. Service is a mixed bag. If you call them, they will replace defective hardware well enough. But don't expect much more support than what you can do for yourself by reading the FAQ on their website. And don't bother emailing a question to support. With the exception of the automated reply, they never answer email. The good news is that there is a large, vocal user forum for this and other Hauppauge products (hey, I said their hardware is pretty good) and, if you don't mind wading through web forums, you can get a lot of answers there. I want to love this product but I can't. I purchased it primarily to play MP3 music throughout my house and this is certainly the thing it does worst of all (did I mention the LOUD inter-track popping?). So my dissatisfaction should be taken in that context. Certainly its webcast radio (which I use often and enjoy), picture slideshow, and video playback capabilities suffer much less from the UI's lack of sophistication. And people who use the MediaMVP as a front-end for their Hauppauge based PVR systems (personal video recorder - think Tivo only no service charge) love these things. One hope I hold out for my MediaMVP is the global community of private software developers that are hacking away, rewriting its software. I have no doubt they will eventually do what Hauppauge won't. But until they do this is a seriously crippled product. This review is from: Hauppauge MediaMVP Digital Media Receiver (Model 1000) (Personal Computers) If you own a ReplayTV then this is the thin client you've been waiting for. Out of the box this unit is able to play native ReplayTV videos when they are copied to a PC (I own a 5040 unit, so I'm not certain this would be true for owners of 4xxx units). To get things rolling, here's what you need.1. A ReplayTV unit connected to a home Ethernet network. Once DVArchive is installed, you need to configure it to download recorded shows from the Replay; a simple task that can be scheduled periodically. You then plug the MediaMVP in (power, network, and TV connections), install the software on your PC, and then set it up to point to the directory used by DVArchive to download the videos. The MediaMVP will find all MPG video files in the DVArchive download directory and present them on a menu on the TV. Pick the video and you're off and running. I have tested both Medium and High quality recordings and they play flawlessly almost 100% of the time. The few minor glitches I noticed were apparent 'stutters' in video playback. The only thing I miss on the MediaMVP (that is available on the ReplayTV) is commercial advance, variable speed FF/Rewind (only 2x is currently implemented), and 29 second skip ahead. But for the price, it can't be beat. Check back in a few days if the product is shown Out Of Stock as Amazon/Office Depot seem to keep a low inventory. 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful: Great idea but needs work This review is from: Hauppauge MediaMVP Digital Media Receiver (Model 1000) (Personal Computers) This product is in what I would call beta stage but will hopefully get better as Hauppauge releases new firmware and software for it. It is missing vital features: 1) It does not have the ability to fast forward and rewind MP3s. 2) It will play an entire folder of MP3s or one MP3 at a time but it is missing is the ability to pick and choose MP3s you want to play. You have to go to the computer and create play lists, then the MVP will play those playlists. Bugs I have found: 1) The MVP server software that runs on the computer and allows access to shared media has to be restarted once a week or more before the MVP will find the server. 2) When playing videos (mpg, avi, etc) you can fast forward and rewind but often after doing so the audio gets out of sync with the video. Conclusion: Good, fair-priced device (under a hundred dollars) but it definitely needs some improvement. Also, be wary of wireless "Media Receivers." I have done some research on them and their biggest complaint is that they only work well when wired. That is why I bought the MVP, it is wired (only) so you are not paying for the wireless feature. MediaMVP for Vista 64 Review Purchased hoping it would work with Vista 64 bit system. It does quite well. You can use the Hauppauge beta drivers that state are only for 32 bit vista but they work anyway... by G. Andis caution for Vista 64 bit Does not work with Vista 64 bit - no drivers, at least from the OEM. You'd better have a 32 bit Vista or XP around. by Bumblomatic Ditch the VCR and DVD Player I own about 7x of them devices since 2004 no problems so far. But they'll keep you entertain for hours. by tipstir Great Hardware, best Used with 3rd Party Software Hauppauge has long been known for putting out very good hardware and bundling it with awful software. The MVP is no exception. by Shawn Kilgore Great Buy I in joy all my download movies on my big screen and i don't need to plug my pc or laptop to the TV just this BOX. ITS COOL!!!! by Aaron R. Thompson Really slow The software was not written well for the device at all. When you click on a media file sometimes you see a little circle populating to let you know the file is being read... by Phillip C. Armstrong Love the concept - Dislike this product In a nutshell, this product is a complete waste of money. I have purchased an MVIX760HD that I absolutely love. Pros: Can't really think of any. by J. Roseboom Low cost and flexible - ideal for home grown media servers To start with, let me point out I don't use the provided software. My media server is based on MythTV and so I use this device with the MVPMC image. by Ian D. Pitt Wonderful product! My background with this type of product: I built myself a HTPC which I have been using for almost a year. by C. Tyrrell For the price, this is the best I use my PC to record TV shows, but had no easy way to watch them on my TV (without constantly burning DVDs). by Kuehnast |
Friday, February 10, 2012
Sezmi DMR-1000 All-in-One Personal TV Service, Black
Manufacturer : Sezmi Corporation Model : DMR-1000 ASIN : B00400NU5S Price : 149.99$ See Special Offers  Product DescriptionThis personal TV entertainment system gives you access to your favorite local and cable channels, as well as on-demand movies, TV shows and more via its unique over-the-air antenna and broadband Internet connection. 29 of 32 people found the following review helpful: A viable alternative to high-priced cable/satellite This review is from: Sezmi DMR-1000 All-in-One Personal TV Service, Black (Electronics) We took part in the Sezmi Beta testing program earlier this year, trying out the service and box for about 4 months before signing up for it officially. Initially the box performed rather poorly, with the operating system and DVR software obviously still going through revisions and testing, but that was to be expected - we were Beta Testers after all. This improved with software updates, and the latest version performs much better, but not without some bugs still. Tuning took some experimentation and adjustment of the antenna with repeat scans to get a decent signal. Initially we were on the first floor of our apartment building and reception was a little iffy for some stations, but after we moved up to the second floor where there were fewer obstructions the reception improved considerably. I actually found I was able to get further signal improvement by connecting an old passive single pole antenna that came with an Elgato TV unit into the coax socket at the back of the Sezmi antenna converter box. Sezmi do offer a second antenna that uses their proprietary connectors, but the coax connector allows you to use pretty much any third party antenna as well. Most local stations come in at a decent signal level. We have been long-time Tivo subscribers - we bought one of the first generation Tivo units and have pretty much evangelized Tivo ever since. However, Tivo's contractual disputes with DirecTV meant that we could no longer get the combo unit and we were forced to use DirecTV's own HD DVR, which was slow, not to mention the gross expense of the service. We had been keeping an old Tivo unit running just for loyalty, but didn't want to pay the cost of Cable TV to use it, so when we heard about Sezmi it seemed the perfect alternative. There are obvious similarities between Tivo and Sezmi, but where Sezmi primarily differs is in allowing viewers/users to create their own customized 'zones' which learns their own viewing habits and records their own shows independent of other users. A user's own interface is customizable by setting a color scheme to differentiate it from other users, and each is accessed via a color-coded button on the remote, which all works quite well, albeit the switch between users can be rather slow (more on speed issues further on). This is a nice feature as it allows separation of content for families or multi-viewer homes, where peoples viewing tastes may differ (husband: science and sci-fi, wife: reality and home/garden, kids: cartoons and music) etc. The choice of channels for the price is impressive. For the basic $4.99 a month you get all the local networks in HD, but for $19.99 a month you can add a good selection of "cable" networks which would normally only be available through a local Cable or Satellite provider. We found the choices available to be a good cross section of the main channels we used to watch on Satellite, such as Discovery, TLC, Science Channel, SyFy, Planet Green (one of my wife's favorites), VH1, amongst others. All of these additional channels are received via the antenna alongside the regular local networks. They're obviously encrypted so that you can't view them if you only have the basic package. The local networks are all received in HD and are picked up from the regular over the air transmissions that you would get if you just hooked up an antenna direct to your TV - what you're paying the $5 a month for is the DVR, Guide, and on-demand services at that point. The higher priced package allows you to receive the other channels which are decrypted by the DVR. The downside to all the additional channels is that they're not in HD, only SD, and the quality is, at times, barely SD. Getting decent reception for these extra channels is fairly hit or miss and depends a lot on where you live and your proximity to transmitters. We are in the middle of Los Angeles and we had continual problems with picture and sound breaking up and delays in the channel changing while it found and decrypted the transmission. One thing to note about Sezmi is that it really isn't geared towards being a "Live TV" system - something that becomes obvious when you realize that there is actually no "STOP" button on the remote. In order to watch "Live TV" one must go to the Guide and select the channel and show one wants to switch to. Live is not the default state. It is really designed to be a system that is used to pre-record pretty much everything to be watched later. This is one of the reasons behind having the massive storage capability - it allows the system to record a LOT of content! The DVR software, although competent, and providing for a LOT of storage capacity, has a lot of difficulty dealing with poor/broken signals. A lot of the time, if there is any kind of signal degradation during a recording, then that show becomes unwatchable on playback. The image breaks up, the sound stutters, and probably about 75% of the time the DVR functions become unusable because the scrubber cannot determine time codes and gets completely confused as to where it is supposed to jump to. Fast forward and Rewind functions lock up, skipping ahead sometimes works, and sometimes the show will just restart right back at the beginning, but when you reach the troubled area again it just goes haywire. This is something that really needs to be fixed - some kind of check in the playback functions that looks for loss of integrity in the signal and unmatched time codes and attempts to jump over the problem area rather than try and play it. The system has some other anomalies that should be dealt with sooner rather than later - it has a tendency to be somewhat overzealous when deleting shows by itself. On several occasions I went to watch one of about two dozen saved episodes of a show only to find that about half of them had been deleted by the system, but they did not then appear in the Deleted Items folder for me to recover. Shows that are manually deleted by the user go there, but shows deleted by the system (I assume to free up space or because it felt they had expired) do not. There have been a few other niggles with the system that should be noted, and while not deal-breakers, they do cause some usability issues that can make the system less than ideal. When using the Guide, it is dreadfully slow - taking between 5 and 20 seconds to refresh the current channel listing EVERY time you move the channel selector up and down, which can be painfully tedious - how on earth this couldn't be cached is beyond me. This is an often repeated function and the user should not have to wait repeatedly every time for the guide to refresh. It becomes incredibly annoying and makes the system cumbersome to use. Even DirecTV's dreadful on-screen Guide works faster than this. Additionally, popup message windows, show info, confirmations etc take rather too long to disappear. Another annoyance is a bug that causes paused shows to automatically start playing again when you switch back and forth between users, meaning you have to remember to hit Pause again as soon as the switch is complete. Speed of the system overall is definitely a major issue - the response of the device to button presses on the remote is probably only at about 85%, seemingly a result of the system being busy doing something else to react immediately to the remote, so responses are cached, however the lack of feedback means that one tends to try pressing the same or other buttons several times and when all those cached responses are then suddenly executed you end up with undesirable results. Speed of the system appears to be related to the number of saved recordings - the more shows you have saved, the slower the system gets. When you compare the speed of Sezmi to a TiVo, it's like comparing night and day. If you have used TiVo and you know how fast the on-screen guide responds to navigation and how quick it is to set up Season Passes and delete content, you will be extremely frustrated by the sluggishness of Sezmi. Sezmi is certainly new, and it is certainly innovative - it has a LOT of potential, but it also still needs a LOT of work to make it truly usable on a day to day basis without being frustrating. The DVR software, Guide and Navigation overall need to be optimized to speed them up and make the user experience less cumbersome. If you're willing to put up with some bugs and work around some of the issues, then Sezmi is a great alternative to the much higher priced cable and satellite services. It's not a full-on replacement for those... yet, but it could be. If the additional non-local "cable" channels delivered were in HD and there was a wider selection, then even an extra tier at, say, $30/month, would be cheaper than basic cable or satellite. Combine that with a better UI and DVR software that works more effectively, and Sezmi will certainly give the big names a run for their money. This review is from: Sezmi DMR-1000 All-in-One Personal TV Service, Black (Electronics) I've had Sezmi since they rolled out in Southern California in 2009. I had Verizon FIOs for few years and was so tired of paying $100 per month for TV service. Once I got Sezmi and started paying $20.00 per month for HDTV and SD cable channels, I was hooked. The customization features are great and the cable channels are all you need. The equipment was a snap to set up and the Sezmi customer service people are the best I've seen. The DVR is awesome and you can program shows months in advance. Everyone in the house can have their own set-up and record all of their favorite shows using their own home screen. The pay-per-view movies are exactly what Verizon and Amazon offer with the convenience of not having to switch boxes. The only negative is the mostly slow response of the remote control. Also, sometimes the PPV movies take a long time before you can play the movie you order. 5 stars when those issues are fixed. Not a big deal to me, but it would be nice if the cable channels were in HD as well. Overall, I am extremely pleased with the service and price. I won't ever go back to overpriced cable again. ______________________________________________________________ UPDATE: March 27, 2011 Unfortunately, we ended up cancelling our Sezmi service for the following reasons: 1. The company did away with the SD cable channels. Although SD looks bad on an HDTV, it was nice to be able to watch shows we would not have otherwise been able to view. They lowered the price from $20.00 per month to $5.00, but we were left with channels that we could grab over the air with our rooftop antenna. 2. So, we now had a DVR and PPV services with the Sezmi box for $5 per month. Here's what lead us to finally cancel: The Sezmi DVR is painstakingly slow. The response from the remote took many, many pushes on the buttons and sometimes the DVR responded and sometimes not. We waited and waited for Sezmi to correct the problems and after many, many months...nothing. They knew their DVR's were an issue but did not fix the problem. The recordings of the shows we wanted to watch were plagued by studders in the video and sound drops every few seconds. Sometimes the video would speed up for no reason and resume playing at normal speeds. It was terrible to have a favorite program have so many interruptions. The PPV movies took up to 15-20 minutes to download and play. I have Verizon FIOS internet so my connection is blazing fast. We had high hopes for Sezmi and ended up being very disappointed. I can't recommend the service. I ended up buying a Tivo DVR and using my Roku box for Hulu Plus, Amazon On Demand, and Netflix streaming. My Bluray player has Vudu for instant watching of movies. So sad because Sezmi weaned me off of cable and their game plan was awesome. Their engineering and product just fell way short of the mark. 14 of 18 people found the following review helpful: Sezmi is NO LONGER. Don't buy! This review is from: Sezmi DMR-1000 All-in-One Personal TV Service, Black (Electronics) UPDATE: 9/23/11 Sezmi emails customers at 6pm Friday saying the service will not be available come Monday. Poor customer service that didn't allow their loyal customers any time to find a tv alternative. What a cluster.Sezmi is fantastic, HD + DVR of over-the-air network channels for $4.99/month. I opted in for the cable channels ($20/month) and most of them show up in HD-like quality. However I am considering dropping to the $4.99 plan due to my TV habits. Pros: -- HD-DVR for over-the-air channels for $4.99/month! You pay DirecTv $7/month for the DVR, $10/month for HD plus the programming package. Cable companies, you pay $17/month for HD DVR capabilities, plus the programming rates. -- DVR acts as a media player so you get YouTube, etc. on your TV. -- Weeds was an on-demand programming option. Wasn't expecting to see a Showtime show available. Note: it is the only cable-type show available. Sezmi if you are reading this, would love to see more Showtime shows. -- HD quality is better than satellite and cable -- "Cable" channels are better quality than expected. Some come in HD-like quality, others are standard. -- Very simple on-screen menu -- Fast-forwarding of recorded shows works so much better than DTV or the cable company DVRs. -- Customer service has been fantastic when I have called and they are located in the US. No struggle to understand the technicians. Cons: -- Remote is a little tricky at first, but as with any remote you get used to it. -- A lot of Sezmi branding on the on-screen menus. -- There is a slight delay when changing channels. Not terribly annoying. -- Setup takes about 45 minutes, so don't expect to plug it in and watch immediately as they download the latest updates the minute you plug into the Internet. I am in love with the value of Sezmi. I was so frustrated paying DTV or the cable companies $50+/month for the lowest programming package when all I really wanted was the DVR for the network channels. Now I have it for $4.99/month. When I look at how much I was paying the other companies, it paid for itself in 3 months. Sezmi Rocks! Product is End of Life I'm surprised to still see this listed, given that it no longer functions. Directly from their website: [... by David Service ended as of Monday 9/26/11 I was with the service from the time of the pilot. When it started it offered a selection of cable channels over the air through the Sezmi Plus service, and even promised that... by Steven L. Kusnitz Nice concept, but I don't have faith that the company will last. I bought a Sezmi in early January, after they had announced that the Sezmi Plus package would be eliminated. by John Stagaman So far, doing great We've been trying to figure out a way to "cut the cable" for a couple of months. Most of what we watch is network tv anyway, so it wasn't a huge leap, except for a few live... by stonehenge03 Product is good no customer service Pros: Great picture, play back good, has two tuners, allows external antenna, lots of storage, good selection of on-demand. by viper222a Better Alternatives I haven't tried this unit so this is not really a review but i wanted to give you people a viable alternative. by TimTime I am returning it. Never got it to work! No stars I know about ethernet cables. The instructions were extremely easy to follow, online and with the quick start guide included in the box. by William J Lyons Best things in the life are almost free lol I cant believe how amazing this product is, i can record as many things as i want surf web, take advantage of ondemand, I look forward to see the cable channel in this product. by Carmen Choppy picture, clunky interface, poor implementation I love the idea of the Sezmi, their customer support was great - but the implementation is having major growing pains. by Average Joe Good Product I recieved my Sezmi Last week. I bought it because I wanted to see if it would actually work where I am currently living, even though my location is not on their list... by Mary Cappello |
VIZIO VBR210 Blu-Ray Player with Wireless Internet Application, Black
Manufacturer : Vizio, Inc. Model : VBR210 ASIN : B003M4JXN6 Price : 139.99$ Last Price : 145$(Discount -3.57882705907564% See Special Offers  Product DescriptionVIZIO VBR210 - Blu-ray disc player - Netflix, Pandora, Picasa, Vudu, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter - Wi-Fi Get the ultimate high definition experience with the VBR210 Blu-ray Disc (BD) player with wireless Internet applications! The integrated 802.11n wireless networking allows you to easily connect to the Internet to access thousands of high definition titles using VUDU or Netflix. Listen to your favorite personalized music stations at no cost through Pandora! The VBR210 offers Full 1080p High Definition video playback with built-in Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD, sure to provide the ambiance any home theater enthusiast is looking for!
29 of 33 people found the following review helpful: Works Just Great This review is from: VIZIO VBR210 Blu-Ray Player with Wireless Internet Application, Black (Electronics) I purchased this Blue-Ray player from Target 2 weeks ago and love it. I read the reviews on the 220 model after my in store purchase and was really concerned at first but have not experienced any of the issues mentioned in those reviews. I am glad though I purchased the Target 2-year $19.99 replacement warranty just in case. The Blue-Ray player comes with a set of composite cables included in the box which I used while I was waiting for my HDMI cables. The picture even with just composite cables was great. The Vizio 210 has one HDMI port, one composite video/audio port or one component video/audio port (cannot use composite if using component), one digital coaxial, one usb and one ethernet port. Wireless setup was a snap and I was connected in 30 seconds. The only annoying thing is that the wireless adapter on the back of the Vizio unit has a red light which flashes continuously. No dropped wireless connections like reported with the 220 model. Vizio recommends using their router but this is no doubt a marketing ploy as any wireless router will work. The upconverting works really well. We got the new Bruce Springsteen dvd/cd set which includes some really old video concert footage. It looked really dark and hard to see on the regular dvd player but looks much, much better on the Blue-Ray player. Had no issues playing Blue-Ray movies and while it does take about 10-15 seconds to load the Blue-Ray disc I did not find this unexpected as the Blue-Ray disc contains a lot more data than a regular dvd. Also had no issues stopping and restarting a movie as it remembered where I stopped the disc. This was reported as an issue on the 220 model. It also gave the option to continue from the stopping point in the movie or restart from the beginning of the movie which I like. There is a usb port on the Blue-Ray. It will play video and audio files contained on an inserted usb thumb drive and will also upconvert those videos files. I have not tried hooking up my laptop via usb yet but will provide an update. I use a 16GB usb thumb drive and the Blue-Ray player displays the usb drive folder structures and file names on the tv so it is easy to find stored media. I have only used Pandora so far and that has worked really well. I will update this review after I have tried Netflix and BD-Live. The only odd thing I noticed when I tested this player with hdmi, component and composite cables was that when I use component video/audio cables the zoom settings on my tv did not work correctly even though they worked fine with hdmi and composite cable. In all fairness this could be a tv issue and be unrelated to the Vizio. UPDATE 1/19/11: Netflix works great and streams very quickly. However there have been a few incidents where the VBR210 froze either during streaming or at movie commencement and had to be powered down and restarted. There were also two incidents where there was severe pixelation and both incidents were resolved by powering down the VBR210 and restarting it after a few minutes. Overall in relation to the number of movies streamed these have not been significant issues and were quickly resolved. Still no issues playing either Blu-Ray or regular DVDs. It does appear though that because this unit does not have internal memory that the USB drive is critical for streaming to work properly. I use a 16GB thumb drive which is approximately 50% full. Also my Cisco-Linksys WRT54GS Wireless-G Broadband Router with SpeedBooster has worked flawlessly with this VBR210. 15 of 17 people found the following review helpful: Great inexpensive Blu Ray player for a bedroom This review is from: VIZIO VBR210 Blu-Ray Player with Wireless Internet Application, Black (Electronics) I was looking to purchase a Roku XDS to stream Netflix to my bedroom. For just a few more bucks I realized I could get a decent blu ray player which gives me the added advantage of watching my blu ray rentals as well so I went ahead and purchased this. Let me just begin by saying that I have a PS3 and XBox 360 in my living room and I get all of the streaming and blu ray content I could want between those two. The PS3 does have the best Netflix implementation so if you want the best, get a PS3. If you want to save some money and don't play games on your small bedroom tv, this is perfect. The Netflix interface is actually the old PS3 interface so it's OK. The quality is fine. I must say that the negative reviews on this thing perplex me. In fact, most negative reviews regarding wifi ready blu ray players always talk about network issues. I set this up in under a minute by selecting my wifi network and punching in my password. No connectivity issues whatsoever since then. Yeah the remote buttons are not as easy to press as other remotes but you would have to be extremely weak to not be able to push the buttons. All in all this is a great way to bring a little bit of the internet to your bedroom TV. Viewing Flickr photos is great. I wouldn't personally recommend this player for your living room. Like I said, the PS3 Netflix is far superior and the Pandora implementation is even better on that (higher audio quality). The only drawback for this versus other players is lack of DLNA support but I really don't need that. I just wanted blu ray, Netflix and Pandora really. The rest is pudding. So if all you are looking for is all that I was looking for, then this is a great player. 4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: bought 2- both returned in 3 days!!! VBR210 = JUNK!!! This review is from: VIZIO VBR210 Blu-Ray Player with Wireless Internet Application, Black (Electronics) Well- bought the first vizio vbr210 at target- brought it home, set it all up with netflix and all- put a blu ray dvd in and started to watch it... 20 minutes into the movie the screen went black! then the unit kept rebooting! Brought the unit bact to target and got another one thinking maybe I had the "bad apple" of the bunch... nope! The second one STB one day later!!! This time just a blue screen and the movie kept freezing! I called customer service, they opened a claim then put me on hold for 20 minutes- I just hung up because I was tired of holding... Never again will I buy a POS VIZIO (which is made by sony corp in the USA by the way....) so much for supporting the domestic market- went out and bought a samsung- and love it!!! Worst Blu-Ray player ever Bought from Costco due to low price and built in Wireless. First one would not even turn on. Returned. by PurpleFly VBR210.... DO NOT UPDATE FIRMWARE!!!!! This is a "long term" review. I purchased my visio Blu-ray on 12/26/10, and I must say, I put up with it for this long but I wish I spent the extra $20 bucks on a panasonic. by saywhat Decent Blu-ray Player, but has issues Overall I like this Blu-Ray player. Price is decent, but you get what you pay for. Pay a little more and get a more robust unit. by Ahmad Sheikh Mos frustrating DVD player ! i bought this DVD player about 6 months ago and i have finally decided to get rid of it . Although picture quality is good and out of the box wireless features acceptable, what... by GadgetGuy VIZIO Makes awesome TV's But Crappy BLU-RAY Players I originally purchased this item at a Big Name competitors Department Store for approximately $120 Bones for me and my Wife to put into our our Bedroom, My wife wanted and Blu-Ray... by John M. Keller You get what you pay for. It does not remember where you stopped and if you pause for a while it just turns off and you have to find your place. by L. Haft Don't know what everybody's problem is I purchased this blu ray player from Target to stream Wrestlemania from my brother's lap top to our HDTV. by J. A. Washington Very disappointed!!! I bought This Vizio Blu ray player at walmart and installed it right away when I got home. I was really excited to finally a have blu ray player! by wscotg RUN AWAY AND DON'T LOOK BACK!!! I got this model as a X-mas gift and it worked fine till 3/29/11 when I bought the newest disney blu-ray only to find it froze the player. by The Hunter took me only 10 mins to hook it all up Hello, I bought this and took it home thinking I could play hd and hdx but found my internet connection only allowed for sd at 1.5 mb/s [needed 2.0 for hd and 4. by C. Mcn |
Monday, February 6, 2012
Belkin Surf N300 Wireless N Router
Manufacturer : Belkin Components Model : F7D6301q ASIN : B0045U9V5G Price : 44.99$ Last Price : 25$(Discount 44.4320960213381% See Special Offers  Product DescriptionBelkin Surf N300 Wireless N Router 12 of 14 people found the following review helpful: Good router, make sure you get the one in the orange/white box (F7D6301) This review is from: Belkin Surf N300 Wireless N Router (Personal Computers) A lot of people have complained about the Belkin Surf F7D230 - the older version of this router sold in a blue/white box. I got the revised version F7D6301, which seems to work just fine for me. I am replacing my good-ole Linksys WRT54G v1.0 with the Belkin Surf N300 F7D6301. Here are my comments: * I bought it for $29 at Walmart on Black Friday, otherwise it sells for about $45. * I did not use the Setup CD that would install a 95MB setup/monitoring program. * If you have Windows 7, the setup is easy enough, just connect the power cable, hook up the router to the modem and you are set. The only other thing you need to do is to enter the preset password located on a small card on the side of the router. You can later access the router settings by entering http://192.168.2.1/ in your browser and set up a more convenient WPA/WPA2 under "Security" located in the left hand side navigation area. * If you are not tech savvy, run the setup CD, it pretty much does it all for you. I then ran a network test on speedtest.net and Belkin Surf outperformed my old router in download speeds Linksys 12 Mbps vs. Belkin Surf 20 Mbps. Upload speeds were exactly the same 1.85 Mbps. Please note that speeds will vary due to your provider and what type of plan you have. Then I tested the range performance. I walked outside with my laptop, about 150 feet and after connecting to one and the other, I noticed that the signal strength was "fair" for my old router and "good" for the Belkin. Also, the speeds have dropped significantly for both routers, but the Belkin still outperformed the old Linksys; 2-4 Mbps for the Linksys vs. 6-8 Mbps for the Belkin. Pros: + Over all, the router is a great choice for the $price$. + No dropped connection issues, signal strength is good all over the house. + I can surf the web even 150 ft. away from the router. + The internet speed is improved. Cons: - Not that it matters, but the router feels like it is made out of cheap plastic. For those who like good looking/feeling things, this is definitely not the best choice. However, if you don't care about visual appeal, tuck this thing away from the view and let it do it's job. The rest is up to you... 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful: Superb product This review is from: Belkin Surf N300 Wireless N Router (Personal Computers) I bought this router to replace an aging wired only router as I now require a wireless router, (I still required a 4-port wired switch built in too which this unit has so it seemed ideal.) The model I was shipped is the F7D6301 V1. There is a supplied CD containing a simple to follow wizard to install the router and easily change the most common settings, but instead I just set up the router through my web-browser, (the router defaulted to a local IP address of 192.168.2.1 when plugged in so could be easily administered through a web browser). After checking all the settings, (most were set to my requirements already, I just changed the SSID to something more specific to me to differentiate my network from a couple of Belkin wireless networks within range that had similar names, increased the amount of characters in the WPA/WPA2 key significantly for additional security, added a password to access the router configuration, and enabled MAC Address Filtering so as to further protect against any unauthorized attempts to log-on from machines not within my network.) I'm quite astounded by the quality of the wireless signal - even on different floors of the building the signal never drops below the maximum five bars, and the connectivity hasn't cut once - I have an XP Desktop PC, connected via the 4-port wired switch, an old laptop running Ubuntu 11.04 with a cheap USB1 wireless adapter, a Vista laptop and a Windows 7 laptop connected to the router via their built-in wireless capability as I write, (with the wireless secured using WPA/WPA2. A previous reviewer expressed problems setting up WPA2, I've no idea why, it works perfectly.) I am very impressed with the ease and flexibility in setting up this router. The speed, security options and reliability are all excellent too. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to people based on my experience, especially for the price. This review is from: Belkin Surf N300 Wireless N Router (Personal Computers) 1. No Priority Settings 2. Universal Plug and Play Option is Useless Lets start with the positives. Setting up was pretty simple for me, took maybe 15 minutes. The signal WAS consistently strong for the first month or so. Thats about it for the positive. Now the biggest problem I had with this router is its completely useless for gaming, worse, it prevents it. I hooked it up to my XBox and tried to play some CoD. However I couldn't connect to any games because my NAT settings were automatically set to STRICT. I looked up the problem online and found that I need to change the NAT settings on the router. Attempt 1. The problem? This router doesn't have a NAT setting option. Attempt 2. I then saw that it had a Universal Plug and Play option. However, even enabling UPnP did NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING to help with the NAT settings. Attempt 3. I saw that the router at least had an DMZ setting option. So I manually assigned the XBox's IP address through the DMZ and finally the NAT setting changed from Strict to Moderate. Now I'm able to connect to games, however, it takes several time-consuming attempts on the XBox's part. Now the NAT setting should not affect the quality of the game play, however, I get One Red Bar for my signal strength. (NOTE: No other computers are connected to the router at this time.) You gamers know what one bar means; it means you lag so bad by the time you see an enemy on the screen you've already been shot up and then respawned. This is a router problem and separate from the NAT settings. So I gave up, unplugged the Ethernet cable from the router and connected directly to the XBox. Now I get the NAT settings to be OPEN and 4 Green Bars. Smooth play, with the Beklin Surf N300 out of the network. I actually wish this router did nothing, instead it destroys my XBox connection. I have been getting so frustrated with this router that I'm going to buy a new router, of course from a different company. I lost the receipt so I can't return it and I was considering selling it online but I know it will just cause another person pain. Also this router doesn't have priority or the option of capping bandwidth. So one computer can hog the internet (sister streaming from Netflix) while you struggle to view your emails. Lately now its dropping connections, even as I type this review. So I'm copying this review and praying that when I press the "Preview your review" it will go through. One thing they don't tell you to fix your issues I had a review written saying that this was an okay router. I was wrong. It finally, after a month, decided to fail on me again and again and again. by NickJ Unreliable at best I bought this particular router because I thought a cheap one would give me what I payed for. This one wasn't high-end, but it wasn't bottom shelf. Well, it should have been. by J'ean "JUNK" Junk, junk, junk . Oh, did i mention junk.This thing would lose connection at least 3 times a day. It would change it's own password.Please stay away from this "JUNK". by David disconnects all the time [update 10/17/2011] The dropping connection problem went away. I guess I own Belkin an apology. I am changing the rating to a 4 star. by JFang DO NOT BUY! This router is a bad choice! i have this router and use it for xbox live and another desktop pc. the xbox is not even a room away and the signal constantly drops. by Discover Not worth the mess I bought the belkin router n300 about two months ago and twice I've had interruptions in my internet service because it has malfunctioned. by chha HORRIBLE Plain and simple....this router SUCKS!!! I purchased it to replace my 7 year old Belkin Wireless G. Tried to play some COD on XBox 360 and got nothing but constant lag. by Damon F Belkin N300 wireless router I bought the Belkin router a couple months ago to go with my new i Mac. The salesman picked it out for me with no discussion of other options. by Marilyn C. Martin wasted money I purchased this to replace my seven year old Lynksys Wireless-G. I set it up and was dumbfounded when I saw the wireless range was only eight feet. EIGHT FEET!! by davemo Horrible router. Disconnect all the time. I've had this router for about 4 months. It's horrible. Like other reviewers have said, it disconnects itself constantly throughout the day. by I luv puppies |
Vulkano Pro 010410VP All-In-One Media Placeshifter Includes 500 GB eSATA Hard Disk, Black
Manufacturer : Monsoon Multimedia Model : 010410VP ASIN : B003YC1KY6 Price : 349$ See Special Offers  Product DescriptionMonsoon Multimedia Vulkano Deluxe Pro 010410VP Digital Video Recorder 010410VP Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) 22 of 23 people found the following review helpful: Best placeshifter/streamer in the market + free mobile players This review is from: Vulkano Pro 010410VP All-In-One Media Placeshifter Includes 500 GB eSATA Hard Disk, Black (Personal Computers) So far I've only tested this as a remote streaming device and have not experimented much with the DVR. I will update as soon as I've done more. Streaming quality is the best out there. I've been through the original Slingbox, the Slingbox Solo, the Pro-HD and the various HAVA boxes, and this thing is simply outstanding. I've tested in-house streaming and remote streaming to my laptop on WiFi and 3G and my smartphone on 3G. In all cases, the video quality is almost as good as watching a locally stored video file. The price appears to be high, but when you compare it with the $261 for a Slingbox PRO-HD, it is a bargain. The Sling lacks DVR, local TV watching, internal storage, placeshifting and more. Sling also charges $30 for their mobile clients, while the Vulkano mobile players are free. There are a few bugs in the setup process, but this thing is just out, so I'll cut them some slack to get those sorted out. If you do not need a lot of DVR storage, stick with the cheaper version of this box. PROS: Can use as a full (single tuner) DVR Can control for live TV and DVR on a mobile device Free mobile players Amazing streaming quality CONS: No internal tuner Single DVR channel only Does not appear to support network storage Requires EXT3 formatted harddrive for video storage, with no "format drive" option to enable use of your own drives 10 of 10 people found the following review helpful: Currently, the Vulkano is your only reliable solution.... This review is from: Vulkano Pro 010410VP All-In-One Media Placeshifter Includes 500 GB eSATA Hard Disk, Black (Personal Computers) Take my word for it. Until Sling fixes the capacitor issue, from their current models, pass on them. Sling is using the failure rate to generate more income from support calls. All you have to do to verify this is to Google it. As far as Vulkano's reliability, only time will tell. But so far, I am super happy. A quick overview of my setup: The Vulkano hook up is: Network: Wired and segmented 100mb cat5 To TV: HDMI From DVR: Component Storage: 500gb eSATA drive The Vulkano setup went without a hitch except for what is listed below. Vulkano found the network and grabbed an IP address with no problems. Vulkano includes all the cables for a complete setup, so no searching or shopping for last minute connections. The only issue I ran into was setting up the IR Blaster with my Verizon FiOS HD DVR. It is a Motorola QIP 7216-1, which was not a choice available. Instead I chose the 6416 which works perfectly. Once the Vulkano was up and running, I watched a few channels to make sure we were all set. Now for the clients. I will start with the Apple client, first. I tested the Apple app on a Iphone 3g (wifi only) and a Touch 4g. Both clients installed and setup went perfectly. Both devices were connected onto a 54mb (G) network at Barnes and Noble. With the strongest signal, quality was exceptional on all channels. Even sports channels looked fantastic without a trace of smearing or blocking. Bitrate was between 600-900K starting out. It topped out at 2500K and was optimized on-the-fly. Sound was superb with no dropouts. Channel changes went smoothly with a 5 second (approx.) buffering after the change. I felt the channel changes were timely and precise. I would have to say that on wifi, the Apple client for the Vulkano, is a win. The pc client was updated the last night, or so. So, I have not had the time to go over all of the settings. Install went well on a Windows 7 x64 laptop. I will not go over all of the features but talk about quality, instead. This is for the previous client Vulkano_V1.8.3.52. At first I was getting some stuttering, but no dropouts. I also noticed that when stuttering it was while trying to optimize the stream. So I reduced the stream limit from 2000K to 1000K. this took care of the stuttering and never had a hiccup after that. The newer client is supposed to recover from optimizing much quicker. But once the steam was reduced I did not have any more problems. On a 17 inch laptop screen the quality looked excellent. Of course, on a larger screen I am sure it would be more noticeable. I would give the pc client a A+ also. Now for the Android client. The client installed without a hitch. When getting a strong signal the client optimized quickly and had excellent results. Remote control was timely without to much delay. All functions seemed to work including scheduling recordings as well as viewing the EPG. Even when the signal dropped to two bars the picture was great. The picture did suffer when the signal dropped to an unsteady one bar, though. Streaming speed was variable from 66K to 100K. Sound was steady but picture was a tad rough. How rough, you may ask...Sports playing (football action) was hard to watch due to smearing. But you could still figure it out. In a pinch it would due, but it would not be my favorite way to watch. Now regular shows (Jay Leno) were quite good. Very watchable...And the whole time the sound never dropped. The only issue that happened once, was while switching channels. After the switch I had no sound. So I typed the same channel number in again and the channel refreshed restoring sound. I would give the Android client an A+, also. The client is sound and seems to work very well on Verizon's network. So, that's my little review. Remember, you might get different mileage due to all of the variables that are involved. But, I am very, very pleased with the Vulkano. Granted, I have not had the time to check every feature available. But it does what I purchaed the unit for. It streams live (or recorded FiOS) programming to my clients with clarity and reliable accuracy. Good bye Slingbox...Hello Vulkano! 13 of 14 people found the following review helpful: Better than Slingbox and SO EASY TO USE!!! This review is from: Vulkano Pro 010410VP All-In-One Media Placeshifter Includes 500 GB eSATA Hard Disk, Black (Personal Computers) I want to start by saying I am more of an expert than a general user so I am coming at this from that point of view. I replaced my Slingbox Solo (which had composite inputs but Sling then disabled HD in the software and charged me for a Windows Phone APP to boot) with a Hava Monsoon Titanium HD. That product worked well everywhere but my Droid phone. I just upgraded to the Hava Vulkano Deluxe Pro (with the 500GB eSATA Hard Drive). The installation was very easy hardware wise. I love it that it has HDMI out now. The software setup worked flawlessly. I have downloaded and installed the player on my Droid, and 3 Windows 7 Laptops, and 1 Windows 7 Desktop at work. In all cases, the player easily picked and played my Vulkano without a hitch. I would highly recommend this to anyone considering a Sling or Hava product. The ONLY CON: At high resolution (2560x1600) the picture is a little "soft". can't recommend this device - run away i am sorry to say that i cannot recommend the vulkano pro. i have owned a slingbox for over two years that i have had no problems with. by thenoser WOrks! I had the Hava Titanium before. Video quality is somewhat comparable but the price is a little high. It works for now. by Ray Works very well as placeshifting device! Using the Vulkano Pro in addition to SlingBox HD, SlingBox Pro and EyeTV HD and Hybrid. In comparison, the Vulkano has worked extremely well and has been very... by J. U. Don't Touch This Final update. Yes, I hate spending money on an upgrade to find it not ready for market. I own the original Hava HD Wireless device and it does function as the... by Veteran II Works like a charm First a bit about me. I travel a lot. But I also pay quite a bit for various premium/sports programs on DirecTV. So when I travel, I like watch these programs on the road. by M. E. Cummings Many bugs, doesnt work reliably I wish I had read the New York Post review (google it) before I bought it, I work on a Catastrophe Response team, and am away from home often for long periods and many hotels have... by K. Hensley Poor excuse for a DVR or placeshifter I have had the vulkano for three months now and have had nothing but continual problems with it. It misdirects DVR commands and records the wrong channel routinely or doesn't... by Tony It Works! Bought the unit 2 weeks ago and had some problems setting up the unit. Since my router is too far a way from the Vulkano unit, it only worked intermittently. by Loc X Pham Vulkano Pro 010410VP Placeshifter with 500 GB HD Excellent product with only one downside---the compression is excessive and HD streams are compressed down to about 2 to 2. by cthefox 4.5 stars UNLESS you have ANDROID OS Setup was a breeze, the guy that rated it 2 stars due to networking/verizon - you need to realize you are asking the Vulkano person to go where he should have refused - YOUR... by J. Laflamme |
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