DLink Introduces the Latest Addition to its Multimedia Family The D-Link DSM-320 Wireless Media Player unites your network with your home entertainment center, allowing you to share, access, and enjoy your digital media-whether it is music, videos, or photos-in the comfort of your living room. The DSM-320 supports 802.11g wireless standards with transfer speeds up to 54Mbps*, giving you maximum throughput for your digital media. Setting up the DSM-320 Wireless Media Player is simple, and the sleek design makes it a natural addition to your home entertainment center. Audio Video (AV) jacks on the back panel of the DSM-320 can be plugged directly into your TV, letting you access digital media content stored on your PC, browse your music files, watch your videos, and display your photos. In addition, the DSM-320 lets you access online media contents such as Radio@AOLTM on your TV through an existing broadband Internet connection.
1 Totally Awesome Multimedia Player
I love this thing. It easliy hooks up to my big screen TV and DVD player so that I can view my photos and listen to internet radio over my good surround sound speakers. It's not exactly in surround sound, but it sounds much better than my cheap PC speakers.
The setup was easy and I wouldn't worry about it. It's harder to decide what station to listen to out of the many stations you have to choose from than it is to set this thing up. Just make sure to take the time to include all your media files from your PC to be shared with this device.
2 Awesome
The best Multimedia yet. It's great I didn't use the wireless since I have cat-5 by my TV for the xbox. It's great and works great with Window's Media Connect. Been getting better with each release of firmware.
3 Get Listening to Online Music Today
I also bought this so that I can listen to online radio via my entertainment center. This device works great for that. For all thsoe who are using wireless ... try wired, even if the wire looks bad, just try it, it's much more reliable and has more bandwidth available. It just makes more sense.
I like the user interface even though some things a little confusing. You get over that in about 2 minutes of using it. No biggy. Also make sure to upgrade the firmware if it doesn't automatically. It's a nice feature.
Also make sure all your MP3s have the right ID3 tags. Otherwise you wont know what songs you are about to play.
4 Not ready for Wireless
Installation was very difficult. Printed documents poor. On-line documents not much better. I learned the most from someone's review. A call to the vendor was very helpful. After I finally (6 hours) got it set up, I found that music buffered in mid-song. (Not quite what I was expecting.) My router was less than 20 feet way from the unit on the other side of two sheet rock walls. So I shouldn't have this kind of problem. I returned the unit to Amazon. BTW, Amazon was great - very prompt with the refund.
5 Online Media ROCKS!
I love the Internet and what it can bring to our computers. But this is a cut down version of a computer, so it costs less than a new PC. I can stream live radio over the Internet and out my entertainment system speakers. I can stream my MP3s straight from my desktop PC to my entertainment system speakers. AND my videos straight to my TV and entertainment systems speakers. See the advantage here?
So the setup was rather straight forward and not too complicated. If you read the instructions you will know what you are doing. Getting the files indexed on my PC took a little while because of how many MP3s and media I have stored on my 120GB hard drive. :) And the performance of this media player was rather well considering it's not all high powered and expensive.
Needless to say I greatly enjoy the convenience this provides me and the overall ease of use myself and my family find this product to be. I thank it's makers.
6 Online Media Support is Excellent
I just ordered my second DSM-320.
The first one I bought for the Rhapsody music on demand service and as soon as I hooked it up I was addicted to it. The Rhapsody support (it also supports Radio AOL and Napster) make this thing one of the most 'killer apps' I've seen.
The icing on the cake for me and the reason I decided to buy another unit is that the video support turned out to be so good that I ended up continually moving it from my bedroom (for watching video) and my living room to listen to music.
For video, I have a basic and cheap video capture card in my PC which records in MPEG-1 which the DSM-320 play perfectly and in effect this setup can be used like a subscription-free DVR. Recently I have also been using it to play files orginating from my TiVo which were extracted using the TiVoToGo service.
The Rhapsody service supported by the DSM-320 is something that might not appeal to everyone given the $10 monthly cost of the subscription but to me I find the fact that I can run the Rhapsody service on my laptop in my living room and instantly play just about ANY music I can think of on the DSM-320 something that continually blows me away. This particular use has high 'wife acceptance factor' at least in my house and is one of those services that once you start you quickly begin considering your time before discovering it as the 'dark ages'.
Setting the unit up is no more or less difficult than setting up any other wireless network item although I would recommend a wireless G only network for streaming higher bitrate video.
The user-interface is simple to use, responsive and comprehensive. You can get to your PC based or online media very quickly and intuitively.
One last point: I also have owned a Linksys audio-only wireless media player which burned me badly in terms of media streamers. The DSM-320 is pretty much everything the Linksys unit wasn't, i.e. it delivers on what it promises and at least for me exceeded expectations.
7 Upgrade Your Firmware - It's Automatic (Usually)
I have to say that the best thing I did to make this work the way I want is to upgrade the firmware. This device is supposed to stay up to date by itself, but the first day I plugged it in there was no notice to upgrade the firmware. It wasn't until I was somewhat dissapointed in the product and tuned it off for the night did I remember that it should have an upgraded firmware. So in the morning when I booted it up, it told me there is a new fimrware available and I clicked OK and it upgraded itself.
THEN .. I was able to get everything working correctly. I could fast forward through videos, I could shuffle songs in folders, etc.
Overall I have to say that this product is a wonder product. I never thought I'd see the day when I got to play my movies from my PC onto my entertainment center so easily. I have so many small videos on my PC that I'd like to see full screen, but are just to pixelated when full screen on my 19 inch monitor. But that same video looks much better on my 27 inch TV. It's because of the resolution. I greatly enjoy the radio streams, and playlist features, plus I can't get enough of watching my pictures in slideshow mode. :)
8 A Great Addition to any Home Entertainment Center
With the surround sound capability and s-video connections this thing can really pump out some quality sound and video. I heard new ones will do HD, but I don't even have an HDTV, so whatever.
I'm happy with this device even with its little hang ups. I wont mention them because I really don't come across them often and I think I've read enough about them on the Internet. Everyone is always complaining. Either way this works for what I want it to do. Play music on my *good* speakers, with a remote!
I always liked how my PC could handle all my MP3s and music and playlists and whatnot, but my PC is so far from my entertainment center and TV. Well now I can play my sweet tunes on my surround sound speakers and just crank it up to 11!
Installation was fairly simple, the remote is good enough, a little light for me, but it works. Internet streaming works great, and shuffle works great with the newest firmware. This thing even updates itself. Well almost, you just have to press OK a couple times to confirm that you want to upgrade.
I'd recommend it for those that live alone, otherwise you'd all be fighting for the remote and what streaming station to listen to next. :)
9 I <3 the Radio@AOL Feature!
I don't use this much to view/play my movies or pictures. I stream my MP3s and play the Radio@AOL all the time though.
I can choose from a bunch of channels and it's almost always something new that I haven't heard for weeks. I usually turn this on in the morning while I'm getting ready instead of the news like I used to.
Installation and setup of this device were done pretty quickly if you follow the guide that comes with it. Although it's pretty self explanitory. I wish I didn't have to have another remote to use, but until I can get one big remote for all my junk, err entertainment options, then I wont complain.
The remote is easy to use and you can tune into a Radio@AOL channel with the greatest of ease. Personally I'd recommend this for that reason alone.
10 Not bad for an MP3 streamer
I originally wanted a simple MP3 streamer like the Netgear MP101, but received the DSM-320 as a birthday gift. I don't keep many movies or pictures on my PC as I'm not an avid home video maker and my wife prints all relevent pictures for scrap booking. As solely an MP3 streamer this piece of hardware works excellent. I have it setup on an 11g 128bit WEP signal, using a dynamic IP address and only experience a very minor skip or two every so often, not enough to be a burden or to be even noticed sometimes. When I got married, my wife and I had a combined 500 CD collection not including the doubles, so once I ripped and organized all of our music, I organized everything into genre playlists for my different moods or when we're entertaining guests. I do have some gripes.. .
1.) you have to force a refresh of any shared directory in the server software if you want the player to see new files or added files.
2.)directory browsing is agonizingly slow at times, especially through a 128bit encrypted signal. I patched it directly to my network, which improved browsing performance quite a bit. i spent enough time hiding all of my speaker wire and i have no interest in running and trying to hide a 50 foot CAT 5 running from my den to the family room.
3.)a front panel display would have been nice, much like the Netgear MP101, but you cant have it all. Turning on the TV everytime i want to navigate can be annoying at times.
This kind of hardware can be very usefull in many aspects, especially in a Home Entertainment system. I considered a high volume CD changer before the inception of this kind of technology. Now that I own the DSM-320, entertaining guests with some tunes or relaxing on the couch to some smooth beats is easy especially if you have a vast audio library.
11 I Recommend it to Friends and Family
First I have to say I see where people are coming from when they say not everything works the way it should.
BUT
There is a huge advantage to useing this device than most others. OK the price is right on this, and that's not very argueable since everything else that I saw that can play videos over your home network is priced a lot higher. The big advantage is that it can play video, and does it pretty well. Yes soem videos can't play, but this media player from D-link actually plays more videos than I can on my PC. Yep, this media player has more codecs than my PC. I don't really know where to get codecs or how exactly they work, but I do know this media player can play about 95% of all my videos.
Plus this has surround sound capabilities, easy setup and interface, a nice remote, and the server software isn't THAT bad. The server software is a little laggy sometimes, and I have to restart it on occasion, but it's hardly a burden.
Overall I have to give this device 5 stars because it does work fine for me. I can play streaming radio, all my MP3s, most of my videos, and browse through my pictures with the greatest of ease.
12 Good media server
This is a good little machine to play your digital media on. My wife just did not see the sense in buying a whole new computer for a media server so this was our middle ground. Now that we have it, she loves it. We have every CD in the house burned into MP3s and WMAs and now she can boom them over the home stereo. I do have one piece of advice about this though. Get Windows Media connect and run it instead of the media server that comes with it. The the windows server the browsing is faster and you can use your Window Media Player playlist (otherwise you have to set up play list through the player itself, very painful if you have alot of files). You can also play sercure WMAs using the windows media connect.
13 Good audio; video compatability spotty at best
I read dozens of reviews before purchasing this player so I expected a few gliches and realized that the player wouldn't support some of my files. As a bit of a tech nerd, I thought I could work around many of these issues; and I could. Here are some problems that I (and others) have come across and how I addressed them: First, the player does not support divx and WMV. This is extremely annoying, but I found two sollutions to play divx files. If the file is small, you can convert it to a mpg at about 2x using the free TMPG video encoder. I have a lot of half-hour length TV shows encoded in Divx and was able to convert them in approximately 8 - 10 minutes each. The second option is to use Nero's Media Home server which encodes files on the fly as you play them over your Dlink. This is great for larger files or if you don't want to take the time to re-encode a large library of files. The only downside with this is that it takes considerable CPU resources so if you don't have a ton of memory and want to use your computer at the same time you could be frustrated. Neither of the afore-mentioned fixes will work with WMV files. Dlink will likely resolve this with a future firmware release, but if download video files from places like MLB.tv you'll still have to hook your computer up to your TV to view them. The ability to stream baseball games to my TV without using a computer was one of the main reasons I got the player so I am especially frustrated with this non-feature. The second issue I have come across is the hit and miss playing of some supported movie files (AVI and MPG). I frequently get the "File not supported" error even while the video still plays in the background. I haven't been able to work around this yet, but know it has nothing to do with the files themselves as I am often able to play files seamlessly one day and the next I get the error every five minutes. It is probably that this has something to do with the wireless network. Currently my Dlink is the only device on my network and the wireless router is only 8 feet away streaming at 54 mbps. I refuse to even try to connect it wirelessly as I see this as defeatist. The whole idea with a device like this is that you want to play files on your computer which is likely in your office or den on your home entertainment center in your living room. Devices like this should be used wirelessly. My only problem with audio is that the device doesn't play my lossless WMA files. This wasn't a big deal for me since less than 10% of my files are encoded at this extremely high bitrate and I was able to easilly re-encode them at a still high, but playable rate.
14 Some good, some bad -- I'm enjoying it on balance
There's both bad and good to say about this one.
Ok here are the downsides I have experienced:
1. Crummy reception, weak range. I had to move my router much closer to the unit before I could get clear signal with no dropouts, and the video feeds STILL tend to choke.
2. Miserable onscreen display, finding files is inordinately slow and messy.
3. Cranky remote control. The unit sometimes jams for no discernible reason
4. Tech support -- the guys you call haven't got a clue.
On the other hand --
I enjoy AOL radio and Live365 radio (available with the latest firmware update).
MP3 files from my hard disk play OK, once I can locate them.
This unit will do some useful things for you if you are willing to give it some TLC. It's reasonably priced and looks OK in a stack of sound/video components.
15 Not perfect but fun
I have had my DLink for over a month now. I have enjoyed it and it has passed the wife test. She can just turn the box on and find a video and she is on her way. We listen to music on both the online media and music from my network. Now you know how fun it can be here is the rest of the story.
1. Do not use the wireless. First of all the 2.4 GHz frequency is so over used it is a wonder that any of the equipment runs at all. I have plugged mine direct into my switch.
2. Upgrade the firmware ASAP. This is easy and painless.
3. Be sure you have a stable back end box. I have a dedicated box as I found that if you push the box to hard the content does not arrive at the DLink very well. Is this the fault of DLink, I do not think so but it really was not a big deal for me to build a box but it may be a pain for those not able to do so
4. The media connection software is not the best as anytime you have a new file dumped in the folders it is watching the folder has to be refreshed. You can schedule it but I have found that if you a lot of content the media server become unavailable to the DLink. I got around this by a script.
5. It does not play AVI which is a pain but it is a quirk I have gotten use to. I just convert all the files to mpeg.
6. I enjoy the online media but you need to subscribe to three of the four offered and live365 is not the best. It would be nice if you could listen to any Window media play or Real played enable radio station.
7. It can and does lock up. It has happened twice as my son turned it on then off then on in a short amount of time and it just froze.
All these things said it has been a blast. My media connect server is also my PVR so I just have all files copied to my NAS server which and the media connect server pulls from it. I did not want to thrash my hard drive. Anyway it does need improvement but I people like me did not buy these boxes and send feedback to the vendor the products will not get to the point that the people below will not have anything to complain about. If you are technically inclined and are use to technology not being perfect then I would recommend you purchase this item.
16 This product requires more work from D-Link
An avid D-Link fan I am. Their routers and Wi-Fi equipment are top notch. But the DSM-320 is not as good as I expected. In fact I think it is quite bad. My bet is that you would be dissatisfied with it and return it (as I did). Especially if you have a large amount of music and especially if it is Classical music. After having numerous problems finding a proper location in my house (I experienced a lot of drop-outs) I finally found one but it did not at all agree with where I really wanted it placed. The reception capability is weak and is definitely going to cause you a problem unless your computer is in the same room as the MediaLounge (God forbid!). Now, I have meticulously given my mp3 files proper names, artists, etc. We all know that the tags are often wrong especially on older recordings. But the darn MediaLounge uses the tags to display the music rather than the file name so it becomes a real mess. And, the real killer is - the unit can not display enough characters to allow me to see which movement of a particular piece of music is being played as such information typically is truncated due to the number of character limitation! Enough is enough so I decided to return it despite the expense of paying for re-stocking and return freight. But before I returned it I wrote to D-Link about my experience. They did not bother to answer or offer any encouraging news about updates or anything. Save yourself the agony and wait until something better comes around and be sure to check that whatever new comes out does not have the same limitations and weaknesses I mentioned above.
17 DO NOT BUY IF YOU USE WINDOWS 98SE!!!!!!!!
This product does not support the ID tags for your WMA files in Win98 SE, so you are not able to sort by album, artist or genre. D-link's tech support has no fix for this, and will tell you to run Windows Media Connect, which is not available for Windows 98. Your only option if you have WMA files is to convert them to MP3's.
18 Awesome player
I am totally impressed with the D-Link media player. I use to hook up my laptop to my TV and stereo system to listen to the internet radio or listen to music files from my wireless network, but now it is a thing of the past. Thanks to my media player. The online radio and watching photos is a blast. Watching videos at first was a little choppy at times and some of my videos I couldn't even watch for whatever reason. Since I have downloaded the latest and greatest firmware along with windows media connect software, I'm able to watch all my movies like watching it from my DVD player. For those reading this, I strongly recommend that you download WINDOWS MEDIA CONNECT from the Microsoft website. It enhances the streaming of your videos, music files, and photos with a wireless connection. This digital media player is off the hook. Get it!! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do and my family enjoys it as well.
19 Fantastic potential, poor execution.
I just couldn't wait to get my feet wet in the Wireless Media player arena. I chose the DSM-320 for several reasons. It was inexpensive enough to use as a "proof-of-concept" platform. The idea was to use a LinkSys NSLU2 (with USB harddisk) as an always on media server over my wireless network. For the $150 that the DSM-320 cost me it would be okay if it did not work at all.
To my delight, the DSM-320 has been more than satisfactory in playing Music and Photos. The video has left something to be desired, however, I have found a couple of recipes that permit me to watch DVD quality video (MPEG2) without pauses or skips.
With promises of updated firmware, the DSM-320 may actually reach it's advertised potential. Working with the wireless requires a lot of patience and knowledge of your access point and wireless operations. I have used it with three different routers and it has worked best with the D-Link DI-624 and okay with the Netgear WGR614. I also ended up using an external 7dbi antenna on the DSM-320 to maximize the wireless connection.
Would not recommend this to users who are not familiar with MPEG encoding or wish to use it with a wireless network and do not know how to reconfigure your wireless network parameters.
For the bleeing edge techoids, it can be a very fun toy.
20 Love my Media Lounge! Get It!!
Ok, I did a lot of research before purchasing the DSM-320. There were a number of reviews that complained about a few issues, but after reading Marc Stephens review on Amazon I was confident the device did exactly what I wanted and more.
First off, let me tell you the product is amazing!! I had first thought of the Linksys Media adapter and then decided against it because it was wireless B, while the D-Link media lounge is Wireless G making it a bit faster on wireless G networks and backwards compatible on wireless B, in case you ever upgrade in teh future. It also has very intuitive menus and is extremely easy to navigate. Its a must for anyone with an AOL account...it can connect directly to AOL radio and you can stream tons of radio stations. I love it! Its also very sleek looking and fits nicely with my other entertainment center components. And then the BIGGEST advantage of all...D-Link maintains resources to continue enhancing this product. i.e. there are regular firmware and software updates that are automatically downloaded to improve your media experience. So whatever issues you encounter are sure to be resolved in coming updates.
Ok, so now the minor issues I've encountered.
Yes, the remote sucks. you do have to point directly at the unit to get it to respond. Another reviewer says he's gotten a universal remote to work w/ the unit to get around this, but i havent tried that yet. Quite frankly, its not a deal breaker for me considering the other great features.
Yes, there are unsupported video codecs. I cant stream *.avi files because it says its unsupported. aparently it will recognize some and not others. but everything i took with my canon digital camera is not supported.....YET! I'm hoping the next firmware update will include new supported files.
Ok, I understand there's an issue everyone has with playing a slide show and having their music get stuck on one track and repeating one song the whole time. Well, thats cause your doing it wrong! I found an article in the product's knowledge base (yes, they have a knowledge base...use it!), that explains how to get your playlists to run in the background of your photo slide shows. Create a playlist of the songs you want. then browse to it from your media lounge and hold down a button from 1-9 on the remote for a few seconds. this will set that playlist to a preset (lets say you choose 1). then go to your photo library and start a slide show by playing a folder. When the slide show starts, just press "1". this will start your playlist in the background! It'll play every song in the playlist! Its great..i love it when freinds are over..i can play my whole music and photo library...at the same time!!
21 Robust and Good Features to Price Ratio
Although this device does leave a bit to be desired it shines when it comes to playing your media on the big screen.
First of all this was very easy to setup and get working.
Just plug it into your network via Ethernet cable and TV and go through the setup wizard. Then on the PC running the media server software just point to the folders/directories you want to share with the media player.
I was able to hear my songs great with no hiccups. Same with video, although I did get some files that can't play. But from what I've read D-Link will be providing automatic upgrades to add the new codecs in so the player can read all files.
I also love the Internet radio feature. I can read my napster files on my PC, plus stream AOL radio. AOL radio works great and I've only incountered a couple of hiccups, but I later learned it was because my kids were downloading some big files or something.
Overall this is a nice piece of equipment that works well with what it needs to do. Plus it is priced so much better than all other network media players that can play video. Very nice!
22 It just does not work
Unless you are some kind of computer software engineer or love to build things like train sets or models this unit is a complete piece of junk. You must be ready to troubleshoot the firmware upgrades, installing Windows Media Connect and still spend the entire weekend setting this thing up. I even found a message board online with a community of owners discussing problems, d-link tech support aggrevations and general complaints. The only positive areas are where people have found ways to work around all the problems this thing has.
After all the bad reviews I read, I was still stupid enough to buy the DSM-320 because I really want to stream media from my computer to my home stereo. What a mistake. It is not a plug and play media device!!! I am a music lover and fairly comfortable working my way around the computer, but this thing is a beta model. Now why would I want to buy a product that has known issues and wait for the company to fix them and release the upgrades? I have microsoft for that! D-link should be ashamed of putting this product out to the public. I am returing it today.
So in short, DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT!
23 totally junk !!!!`
wireless doesnt work and ethernet still doesn't work
wasted an hour ... I have tried another $99 similar product from huggcences which works great except it's wired no wireless
24 Great product, plan to spend time setting it up
I really like this device. Once you get past the firmware updates and the media server issues and the wireless signal strength problems, it works well and is an excellent addition to your home entertainment system. I have several gigabytes of digital photos and home videos stored on my PC and this device allows me to view them all on my large TV instead of having relatives crowd around my laptop when they visit or deal with hooking up cameras or finding picture discs, etc. Plays my MP3s as well. Once I figure out playlists, I may use it more for MP3s than anything.
Now, for the technical issues...I had trouble viewing photos properly using the D-Link Media Server software (all pictures were squished horizontally), but Microsoft just released Windows Media Connect that does basically the same things and maintains photo aspect ratios properly. I also had trouble updating the firmware but used a process I found through an online forum to update it from my local PC. I could not view video reliably at all via wireless until I read several articles on wireless signal strength and spent some time reorienting the antenna to pick up my network properly. When the strength is over 50 percent, video streams cleanly even at 8Mbps bit rate. As other folks have said, the remote is clunky and the software problems make you feel like the thing was rushed to market, but for the money I think it's an excellent buy, much cheaper than the new Media PCs and cheaper than the direct competition.
It's not for the faint-of-heart. If you are willing to fight through the setup issues and spend some time on it (I spent more than a couple of hours), it's a great deal IMHO. Otherwise, consider it a product that needs a little more fine-tuning before it's ready for the masses.
25 Great promise, disappointing results
I bought this player so that I could listen to the hours of music that I have stored on my computer in other parts of the house. The initial setup on my wireless network was very easy and straightforward (although the documentation is sparce... which might be a problem who is not somewhat technically savy). Unfortunately, after about an hour of listening pleasure, the music playback started skipping. At first this skipping was slightly annoying but bearable. However, it progressively became worse until the playback stopped completely.
The unit could no longer see my network (although nothing on the network had changed). Or, the unit could see the network, but the signal strength was extremely low. The wireless signal level fluctuated wildly from one moment to the next, even with the unit right next to the wireless router. Power-cycling the unit and rediscovering the network sometimes improved the signal strength, but it soon faded again.
After spending two days fiddling with the wireless network to improve the signal strength (adding a range expander), over an hour with D-Link's technical support, and several hours searching the web, I came to the conclusion that the design of the wireless receiver antenna is faulty. One user forum suggested opening the unit, disconnecting the internal antenna cable and reconnecting it to the AUX connector inside the box. Unfortunately, while this technique apparently works wonders on the wireless signal strength, it also voids the warranty.
After all of this, I decided to return the unit. There was no point in exchanging it for a different unit. The retail channel is full of the current hardware version (A3). I hope that D-Link fixes these hardware problems. When it was working, the DSM-320 provided exactly what I wanted: easy access to my music collection away from my computer. I'll wait for six months and try a new unit (unless some other manufacturer comes out with something better).
26 Windows Media Connect makes the DSM-320 sing!
A lot of the reviewers are dissatisfied by some things that are now remedied. Windows Media Connect(downloadable at the Microsoft web site) replaces the media server provided by D-Link. It now allows playing of media downloaded from online stores supported by Windows Media Connect (alas, not I-tunes). Play order from ripped CD's is now maintained. Some minor glitches still remain, but I'm very satisifed with it.
27 Good product, but a few glitches are worrisome
I was reluctant to buy the DSM-320 given the not-so-glowing reviews here and elsewhere. But as someone who makes a living designing software for similar products, I could not resist the connection options and features or even the price after rebates, etc.
My network setup is all Linksys wired / wireless; a WRT54G with the high-gain antennas, two or three wired systems in the office, and two wireless for the childrens' computers. The media server machine is a homemade P4-2.4ghz machine with 200+ gb of empty space (rebates on hard drives are your friends :-)). Everything runs Win2k and uses WEP 64 bit encryption. The media room is in the same floor as the office but about 30 feet away, mostly walls, staircase, etc. I'm too lazy to go wired there at this time (the wire is there) so I decided to run wireless.
Software installation on the server was easy. Took a few minutes to connect the 320 to the stereo system. I could connect via digital coax or RCA jacks to the Denon receiver; for now I used the RCA jacks. Also connected to the Mitsu 55" HDTV via S-video (too lazy to go out and get component cables and fish them :-)).
The remote was nice but a bit 'lightweight'. Some keys did not make sense (why do you need a dedicated audio out? it's in the menu!) and the color coding for a few keys could be improved.
On power up the unit was good. The wizard found my network's SSID along with a few of my neighbors' SSID's but I was not able to select any from the selection list. I resorted to having to type the SSID manually. The way one moves between fields is not clear at first. Then I specify WEP parameters, the thing tries to connect to the DHCP server and has no luck. Horrors. I go back and try a second time, this time it works. I'm connected to the server!
I try out a few MP3's. It would be nice if the 320 equalized them; I have MP3's of LP's or cassettes I converted to MP3 and the EQ level is not the same as that of ripped CD's. One needs to be careful there. ID3 tag info was there but the system was not smart enough in a few cases to see it was the 'same artist' due to capitalization, etc. (if you have massive collections you need to spend some time with it to clean up ID3's). Music played fine once you selected what you need to play.
Now to showing pictures... I have a few gigabytes of pictures in neatly organized folders. All are 1-2 mb a piece (2 mp camera). None would show the first time, you could select them but they would not show (incorrect media type (JPG, are they kidding?)) BMP also same problem. Go back to media server on PC, re-scan the directories after changing permissions just to be safe. Now I can get thumbnails, but not images. Fumble a bit more, finally pictures work. (I did not change anything, they just work)
I tried video with a few joke AVI or MPG clips, they play OK.
I did not try radio AOL. Would be nice to stream regular Real streams.
It did realize it needs to update its firmware to 1.04. I'll do it next week.
Conclusions:
The 320 seems to work as advertised, with a few glitches. Wireless performance was excellent. The user interface was OK, the wiring connections are there, the features are there.
Suggesions to D-Link:
1. do not abandon the unit (like the AudioTron was dumped).
2. for future, consider adding an AudioTron like 3-4 line display so that we don't kill the romantic mood by running a 55" TV to select songs
3. The player's HMI needs work.
4. Would be nice to integrate GraceNote
5. Provide a server view of what the client sees (i.e. so that you can repair ID3 tags and such)
6. Provide a signal strength meter just in case.
28 easy to install, good performance
I was very excited to receive my new Media Player and reading all the quite negative reviews I was a bit concerned too.
After reading and following the quick installation guide I stucked not realizing that the basic setup is not done on the PC but on the TV. So do read the bigger manual (which I haven't done before). Getting connected to the wireless network was quite easy. Also note the wireless network passcode must be entered in Hexadecimals! Having done so, immediately the connection was confirmed and activated. Photos, music and video are streamed perfectly.
One downside that streaming radio stations on the PC can't be transferred, only RadioAOL can be used (which is not free and limited).
A good thing, all the required cables are included, also a S-Video cable which I recommend to use since it provides better quality.
So please read the manual first. There is a support number where you can get some basic help (for thos not reading the manual).
Within 30 seconds you are able to talk to person.
The Media Player does exactly was it is supposed to do - not more, not less. The installation and setup is quite easy, so read the manual and everybody interested and familiar with computers and wireless network should be able to get it working within 15 minutes. It's a very fair price too.
A note beside, Amazon shipped it faster than they forecasted. It came on the 2nd day after placing the order.
29 Dlink product releases
First of all, I don't own this product. My review is of Dlink, the company, and their release practices. If you read many of the reviews about this product, there are always significant problems, and ongoing firmware releases, which usually fix some problems while sometimes creating others.
I had this same issue with my Dlink Wireless G router (DI-624) last year. I initially had a very serious problem with the router rebooting often. I checked and double checked everything. I loaded the newest firmmare whenever it became available. Dlink tech support sent me on multiple wild goose chases to attempt to resolve the problem.
How was the problem resolved? Well, one of the firmware releases that came out a few months later finally fixed my problem.
It seems that Dlink is more than willing to release products to the public with very buggy firmware. They have no compunction about having their customers help them to debug their products. I strongly suggest that you consider this prior to your purchase of any Dlink product. If you have the strong urge to purchase one of their products, wait until it has been out for a few months or a year, so that the bugs would have been worked out of the product by Dlink with great help by other unsuspecting customers.
30 Disappointing
On reading all the negative reviews here and on other sites, I still decided to go ahead an risk the purchase. What a mistake. The product is unusable in real life. I had envisioned using this to view shows recorded with my pc's tivo like functionality. Here are some points:
1. Some videos worked and some didn't. All the movie files were in the same format. I think size has something to do with it. The ones around an hour didn't work, the ones around 1/2 hours did.
2. Fast forwarding was extremely slow - maybe double normal viewing speed - so 30 sec commercial took 15 secs - useless!
3. I do have to say, when the video did work, it looked really good. I used to burn the shows onto dvd and watch them, and the videos through the DSM looked a LOT better.
4. Many people have complained about the remote. I think the problem in the main unit itself. It doesn't have enough juice/horsepower to process video and respond to remote clicks in a timely manner. SOme videos, I tried to fast forward, and the unit would stop responding - I had to power it off and on again. Before I bought the product, I thought, if its broke, I'll wait for the next software update - not now.
5. WHen viewing pictures - the same song gets repeated over and over and over again. It's horrible. And if you try to switch the track, you loose your position in the slideshow and have to start from the beginning again.
6. I returned the unit within 24 hours.
It's clear to me that no one at Dlink has taken the product home to use themselves. If they had, it would have been a much better product. The product is unusable in everyday life.
PS - if you do buy this product, and you have MAC address filtering turned on on your router, make sure you add the MAC address of the DSM to your allow list - I forgot all about this. Also, I had no problem getting this working over WEP.
31 Good at many things, but new and buggy
I like the feature set of the product it mostly does everything it says it will. It plays MP3s, does good slideshows of images and plays video files located on the PC or on a network drive connected to the PC. The set up was easy and I was up and running in less than 30 minutes. It works with both it's own media server software as well as windows media connect. In general the windows media connect is the better software for the server with the following exception notesd below.
When running the D-link software:
1. The product will not play all video files. I do not mean all formats, I mean all files. I am playing video from two sources, a sony digital video camera and a Hauppage PVR-USB2 video capture device. It will play some of the files from both of these devices, but not all and there is no clear reason for which ones it chooses to play. I spoke with tech support and they indicated this is a known issue on which they are working.
2. When you are playing a group of MP3 files you can switch to a slideshow. As soon as you switch to the slideshow it will continue to play the current song over and over until you manually stop it. If you stay in the audio area it will play the list perfectly. It is only if you go to the slideshow that it does not work. Again, tech support indicates a known issue.
Windows Connect:
1. It will not support content located on a network drive. It must be resident on the machine.
2. It will play all the vidoes that the D-link media server will not (I haven't found one it won't play), but you cannot fast forward or rewind. If you try to fast forward or rewind when you press play to stop it goes back to the beginning of the video. This was really frustrating the first time it happenend becuase I had been watching a show for 15 minutes. I fast forwarded through the commercials and when I pressed play again it took me back to the beginning of the video with no way to get back to where I was except re-watch the 15 minutes. Again, tech support indicated a known issue.
3. It has the same problem with audio and picture slideshows listed above.
Remote:
1. The remote is tricky and not very responsive. Sometimes you can't get it to work and other times it acts like you have pressed the button several times. Kind of annoying, but not a serious problem.
Overall:
1. Good Audio Quality
2. Good Video Quality when it plays
3. Good picture Quality
4. Easy to navigate screens
5. Easy to set up
When they fix the bugs I will give it a 4 to 4.5 stars.
32 Great idea, badly executed in MANY ways.
I really liked the idea of a media server. I thought of building my own but the positive reviews for this product in a couple places convinced me to give it a try.
What a mistake.
First of all, this unit is NOT possible to get to work with Linux. Don't bother trying. I really hate when companies invent yet another proprietary protocol for something that could have been just as easily (or even more easily) using STANDARD protocols that already exist. Bad, bad, bad...
So, then I got it working with an XP box and even then it was very SLOW. I know some people complained that it was slow with large amounts of files. My media library isn't that large yet.
Even beyond that I found it cumbersome to use as I ALWAYS had to have the TV on. A product like this should be useable on it's own with the TV. It should have a small display on it and it should take less than 5 button presses (each with a pause between them) just to play music. I should be able to hit one or two buttons such as PLAY then SHUFFLE and it should just play all my music shuffled. Even though the remote is pretty good there should also be buttons on the box. Even the most basic DVD players have buttons to at least play, stop, pause and skip to next on the panel. I have kids who stash my remotes in places that take me a while to find. In that case this unit is IMPOSSIBLE to use.
After a weekend of messing with it I found it extrememly frustrating and it's going back.
33 RunMan
The server software really stinks. I'll say it agian, the server software really stinks. The remote is slow, small and really stinks.
The only reason for the two stars is the fact the I got the unit up and running in short order..... It then took several hours of additional work to get the video portion of the unit working.
After fighting with this thing all weekend long, I gave up on the unit Sunday and took it back.
34 D-Link is quiet about Firmware updates
How do you know what these firmware updates are fixing, or breaking, when Dlink does not seem to post firmware information on the website?
I've given this product a try before, but I was not waiting for "future" fixes for features that were prominently displayed on the box. If I could see what these firmware updates were doing, I would be more inclined to give this product another shot.
I really hope that Dlink improves the server software. It was a real pain to have to manually force a rescan of the directories whenever a change was made to the file structure, or files were added to the existing directories, and the interface was terrible. I could have written better software and I'm in pharma-research.
35 Perfect Media Center
My Situation: I've been online a while and collected a number of downloads. Xmass pictures from friends and family, video footage from the war in Afghanistan, by own attempts at editing home movies and 1000's of JPG's that I've taken with my digital camera. I have a large CD collection and I've started to copy the songs on to my hard drive so I could use them on my MP3 Player and I've down loaded some songs from the Net as well from some of the smaller independent bands that I know.
The Problem: I wanted to hear my MP3s on my nice new home theater system but I didn't want to have to burn CDs and I wanted to put most of my CDs back into storage. The video I have looks ok on my computer but I wanted to see how well it would play on my "TV." Also my office is always a total mess and hate bring people into it to show them my JPGs.
The Solution: The DSM-320 - Aka The Media Lounge. On my computer, which needs to be running, you just load the Media Server software from DLINK. You find all the files you wan tot view on your TV and the only other thing you need to do is use the "refresh" button if you new media to those files.
Then ON my TV, I installed the DSM-320 connecting it to my Home Theater and my TV. I just have a 20 inch normal TV; I don't know how things would look on a really big Plasma but it looks great on my TV. I view my trip photos as slide shows, the video looks really good and I can here it fine through the theater system. The best thing is the MP3 files. The DSM-320 takes advantage of the playlists that I've created and also allows me to view each folder or by artist, etc. The playlists are created in WinAMP. Not every file I have has all of the data in it that the DSM-320 needs but that does matter much when make my own playlists; I know what songs I'm putting in there.
As an added value the DSM-320 works with AOL Radio, Naspter and other online media. I've used the AOL offering; it works great, sounds great and there is currently a free 6 month trial which I'm making full use of. These ONLINE media work even when your home computer is off as long as your network is on/up.
I've seen some review that said the remote control didn't work well. I just keep fresh batteries in it (Rayovac Rechargable) and it seems to work fine. The only big figure I find missing is some type of wake-up timer/sleep timer so I could use it as an alarm clock and/or fall asleep to it.
36 A lot of potential, but does not meet expectations...
I have had the DSM-320 for six months. It does NOT play DIVX (only some XVIDs with the audio out of sync), but the radio functionality is great!
Firmware updtates are done every fifth to seventh year, so don't buy this mediaplyer in expectation of having a working product in the near future. It has still got more bugs than an African youth hostel. If you need AOL radio it is a great buy, but for anything else it is slooooooow, unreliable and very, very annoying...
Check out this forum before you buy it: //p214.ezboard.com/fdsm320frm13
37 It does SOME things, but not all...
First, a lot of my problems may be solved by an upgrade to the firmware, but I can't GET an upgrade to the firmware because this unit is not, and never will be, connected to the internet. I upgrade firmware on about 6 products on a regular basis and this is the ONLY one that requires an internet connection?? Why??? Nobody knows. It's very poor customer service, though. They should make the firmware download available and fix it so you don't need to hook this unit up to the internet to upgrade the firmware.
As it stands, the only thing that consistently works is viewing photos. I have never been able to get the music to work (other than playing one track at a time, which is a real pain) and the movies work occasionally, but they are always distorted by the screen width.
As for the AOL connection, who cares? Even if I had an internet connection for this unit, I certainly wouldn't hook my computer to allow AOL any access. Spam, spyware and ads are all I ever got from AOL.
Needs a lot of work.
38 My month with the DSM-320...and why I STILL recommend it
OK, I hope you're ready. This will be a heavy duty, hardcore, "music purist", spare no detail, geek review of the Dlink DSM-320, and my month of trials and tribulations getting it to work properly. To give away the ending: Even after all this, I still recommend it.
All right. First the good. I bought the DSM-320 in August 2004. Hardware-wise the device is everything I was looking for. Composite & S-video, optical digital audio, wireless, plays almost all audio and video formats (excluding some avi's, but these codecs can be added by the company later, or else you can convert the avi's to mpgs). I don't care for the remote - it requires double taps to effect most commands, and must be aimed directly at the unit - but since I have a Pronto Universal Learning Remote I programmed the Pronto and it works much better.
Okay. Bought the thing, figuring I could return it if dissatisfied. (Sorry, but reviews aren't allowed to list prices.) Bought the Linksys WRT54G V2 Wireless-G router. (I consider this an incurred cost since many of you are already Wi-Fi, and if you aren't you'll need to buy a wireless-G router anyway. Same reason I shouldn't include your mortgage payment in my calculation. Also: Wireless G is a must; wireless B will not cut it for video streaming.) I'll skip the wifi router setup, except as pertains to the DSM.
So I set up DSM-320. My house is 2700 SF, and of course my PC and home theater system are located in diametrically opposite corners of the house (which is why I needed a wireless media server in the first place). The thing barely found my home wifi net. Signal was about 18 strength (ie, really really bad), and kept getting dropped. Movies and music skipped mercilessly. Also, I kept trying to accept the 1.02 Firmware Upgrade (released 7/30/04), but it kept crashing. Knowing I was at the outside range of my WRT54G router, I temporarily set up the DSM in my home office, ten feet from the router...and got a perfect signal, perfect setup, perfect upgrade, and perfect audio/video play. So I knew now that I had a Wifi range problem. I can understand this - my fridge is notorious for interference with my phones too. So I bought a pair of wifi broadcast-enhancing antennas. These didn't do the job, but before returning them decided to look into wifi rebroadcasting. Let me save you some time (and money) - the cheapest and best wireless repeater is the Linksys WAP54G wireless access point. The wap54g is intended to connect wired hardware to wireless networks, but it also has a Wireless Repeater setting which rebroadcasts wifi, acting as an in-between conduit/booster for your signal. IMPORTANT - BEFORE YOU KNOCK YOURSELF OVER THE HEAD TRYING TO GET THIS TO WORK, visit www.linksys.com and read their online repeater setup directions! THE MAC ADDRESS DIRECTIONS IN THE WAP54G REPEATER HELP FILE ARE ***INCORRECT***. You will waste hours and hours wondering why your repeater can't see your router. The Linksys website instructions are correct, and easy to set up. (Note: The wireless repeater will also solve many of the connectivity problems noted in other reviews, and not just for the unit but your laptop too - these problems and skipping are not the DSM-320's fault, but more likely your house, your refrigerator, your plumbing, etcetera interfering with your wifi network.)
Okay. So now, with my repeater strategically placed in line of sight to both my wifi router and the DSM-320, my connection is much much better. I test video, I test music, and I is happy...until I run into the Firmware 1.02 deficiency of playing only one song at a time from a folder. Now I knew from reviews that this was a problem, but I figured the next firmware upgrade and/or using playlists would take care of it.
[MUSIC PURIST SIDE TANGENT: I am a music purist. This means that while my desk and clothes are a mess, my PC directories and music collection are perfectly organized. I don't have mp3 supermixes of the latest Hot103.5 playlist; every album I own (700 of them) has its own named directory (Trashcan Sinatras--Cake), and every song is numbered in album order (01 - Obscurity Knocks, 02 - Maybe I Should Drive, etc). This is so I can listen to every album exactly the way the scraggly little artist in his LSD-fueled burst of creativity intended me to hear it. So I immediately notice that the DSM does not sort filenames like, oh I don't know, EVERY SINGLE OTHER COMPUTER PRODUCT in the universe - i.e., filename ASCII character order (01 before 02 before 03, A before B before C, etc). Instead it sorts ALPHABETICALLY, BY ID3 TITLE NAME TAG. (ID3 is the encoded MP3 song information, like songname, bandname, albumname, etc.) This means that songs in their directories are not listed in filename or album song order, but in alphabetical order by id3 tag title name. Oh no. CATASTROPHE. Deal breaker. Alphabetical order?? Come on. If I can't listen to my albums in the darn order they were recorded then I don't want to hear them at all.
(Dlink's software designers may be decent geeks, but I doubt they have a single Music Purist among them, because no MP would ever have signed off on such an obvious oversight.)
But wait. The DSM-320 does playlists! Playlists run the songs in the order I want them! So I try using the DSM with playlists, and voila! My albums play in the order they were recorded. Whew. Catastrophe averted.
(There is another considerable advantage to using playlists with the DSM-320. Let's say you have 700 albums, like I do. If I tell the DSM Media Server on my PC to load and share my entire music folder - 8000 songs on 700 albums, let's say - it takes forever and sometimes chokes. Heck, I don't blame it, I'd choke too. Using playlists instead, however, means the DSM server only needs to load 700 files - one for each album. So using playlists allows 1) multi-song listening, 2) listening in intended song order, and 3) cutting your number of shared files by 90% or more. I highly recommend them.)
Last point - MP3 bitrate quality. Way back when, listening in your corner cubicle on headphones or tiny PC speakers, 128KB was the order of the day. It was good enough for Dell speakers, and it had the added bonus of taking one megabyte per minute of music, making storage calculations easy. But now that we're hooking up our PCs to our thousand-dollar surround sound home theaters, 128 KB just does not cut it. You want at least 160, preferably 192. This may involve reripping a lot of your collection, as it did in my case.
End music purist side tangent.]
All right. So now I have a good wifi connection, and I have my playlists (many of which were set up already anyway). I is fairly happy. But now a couple of other problems crop up. One, my 2.4 GHz cordless phones interfere with my wifi router, also at 2.4GHz. This has nothing to do with the DSM-320; if you're going wifi you'll need to go either down to 900MHz or up to the new 5GHz cordless phones. Two, the DSM-320 would work perfectly for several days, and then start hanging every three songs or so (or every ten minutes of video). When it hangs I have to unplug my repeater and plug it back in. (Nice bug recovery side note - the unit picks up exactly where it left off when reconnected after a hang. Small comfort, but better than trying to find your place again in a two hour video.) Three, as I stated above there are many AVI files the DSM-320 simply will not play. This is annoying but also not a dealbreaker, as these can be converted or corrected with future firmware upgrades. (Note To Dlink Programming Team: Call DivX or Microsoft and add these codecs please!)
So the unit is satisfactory, its operation not perfect but good enough for now. Fast forward to yesterday (9/22/04). I turn the unit on and am notified of a new Firmware Upgrade, version 1.03! Woohoo! The Holy Grail, fixing all shortcomings! Widescreen video...Plays consecutive songs from folders...Woohoo again! I happily accept the upgrade, then upgrade my PC to the matching Media Server software, v1.02. I fire it up...
...And have a heart attack! Gahhh! My painstakingly built playlists are now listed and played IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BY ID3 TITLE TAG, just like the folders! My precious playlists are now useless! Argh! I check the website, check the new Setup menu, and see nowhere to change this setting. Argh again! I call tech support. After 15 minutes Jean notifies me that this is a "Known Software Bug", to be fixed in an upcoming firmware release - probably the standard answer they give to all dissatisfied customers! Argh a third and final time! I start computing postage, thinking of returning the darn thing...
And then I relax. Maybe there's a workaround, I think to myself. (I'm a geek, workarounds are my business.) If the DSM-320 is going to insist on sorting my songs by ID3 Title Tag, maybe there's a way to change the actual ID3 song title from Obscurity Knocks to 01--Obscurity Knocks? Then the DSM would put the songs in the order I want! But who's going to sit here and change 8000 song tags by hand in Winamp? Not even me. So I go online and find ID3Tagit, a freeware utility for managing MP3 ID tags. I load it, try it, and voila! I can do batch migrations of File Name to ID3 Song Title on every one of my song files! Do I care if my MP3 title tag says "01--Obscurity Knocks" instead of "Obscurity Knocks"? Heck no. Even if Dlink fixes this bug my songs and playlists will still work the way I need them to, in all of my audio hardware. Heart attack averted.
Which brings us to today. So there you have it. Even after all this, and even knowing it needs further software improvement, I still recommend the DSM-320 as the best buy for what it does. And you might save money if you don't need the extra wifi booster equipment that I did. Hopefully this review will save you some time getting the thing in operating condition! Good luck!
39 Found One that Works!
First, let me say that the entire field of "Networked Media Devices" can be grouped in the "Not Ready for Prime Time" as people often indicate, but IMHO, this one is the best out there. I've returned a Hauppauge MVP and a Prismiq because they were just too unreliable. The DLINK works consistantly. Power it up, it finds the network, finds the server, and works everytime. I've had no network problems, meaning that it streams my previously recorded video files (recorded using a Hauppage WinTV PVR USB2)with no problems. Sure, there is the lack of DivX support, but that may change with future Firmware upgrades. The AOLRadio options is excellent (if you already have an AOL account). If you do not have an AOL account, simply build an internet-based radio station playlist in WinAmp. The user interface is very simplistic (even a little unimpressive for my taste) and "wife-friendly" (as mine is not very technical). I will keep this one and will remain hopefully optimistic that DLink will provide continued support and development to improve the interface and file support. Oh, one last thing, the remote control only functions in a "straight line of site" fashion.
40 POS
This is the worst piece of electronics I have ever bought. The install is not easy. It couldn't play my MP3's without breaking up. It tried to download a firmware update and locked up.
Don't waste your money!!!
41 New Firmware solves Problems
I first had this media player from D-Link a month or so ago. I've seen, I believe, two firmware upgrades and they both solved some small things, and I heard there is a big one coming soon. So updates will always be made to this media player with very little interaction by you, the user. Basically it updates automatically, you just say Yes, as long as it is connected to the Internet. Which you usually have setup by default because you want the Radio@AOL features right?
I really enjoy the features and abilities of this device. Surround sound, Component video, S-Video, networkable, plays digital music, video, photos, etc. It looks nice in my entertainment center, has a cool remote, and it works.
Well with most features it does. At least all the important ones.
I'd get it if I didn't have it even with the knowledge I have now, just because it will be upgraded. I've bought several networking products through out the years from D-Link and they seem to get better and better with product updates and firmware fixes. This product still gets 5 stars from me, because of who makes it and what it can do.
42 5 Stars for Effort and Innovation
I have to give this product 5 stars because of what it can do, not a lower score because of what it can't do.
Yes there are quirks that need to be worked out. But if you look at this product with an overall view and compare it to other products out on the market like it, this D-Link Wireless Media Player, DSM-320, beats them all hands down.
I can watch my downloaded movies, MP3 files (along with the few other format music files I have), DVD VOB files if I want, all of my digital photos from my Nikon CoolPix camera, and listen to Radio@AOL for free. The Radio@AOL has been great for those times when I look through my music collection and just can't decide because I've heard it all millions of times. Know what I mean?
I have little fits when I can't rewind a certain movie or play a weird encoded video file, but again, overall I am very impressed and pleased with this product.
I'd like to Thank D-Link for this reasonably priced product that I am sure will get more TLC with new firmware, which updates automatically BTW. :)
43 Very Easy to use and Setup
I was able to set this up in about 10 minutes. Plus it in to the TV like a VCR, or DVD Player and install the software on your PC and your done. Enabling the DSM-320 to view and read my files (video, pictures, music, and even online content) was very easy. I can now listen to my MP3 collection on our home entertaiment center with surround sound. It is very nice. All this with the ease of a remote control, which doesn't get the best signal, but I have used worse remotes.
There are little things like scrolling through long lists of songs that gets annoying, but I've solved that by making playlists on my PC of the groups of songs I like most. Then I just play those playlists.
Some downloaded movies I have play without a hitch, but some have a weird codec so the media player doesn't play them. But then I got a new firmware upgrade and now they play fine. The firmware upgrade was very easy to get. In fact all I had to do was say OK to the firmware upgrade and the DSM-320 went out on the Internet, found the newest version and installed it itself and rebooted itself too.
I like this wireless media player and hope others can find the good in it that I do.
44 Great concept. Poor implementation.
The D-Link DSM-320 is a great product in theory. However, the actual product leaves much to be desired. Basically, this is just a confirmation of what everyone else here has been saying. The remote buttons are barely responsive, it is unable to play 90% of the files of each of the formats that it claims to play, shuffle is useless without setting up a playlist, and other "basic" functions are missing. This product was definately released to early. An as an early adopter, I got burned this time. I will be returning this thing tomorrow.
45 There is alot to like despite...
...some of the poor reviews and some of the very real issues.
Bottom line I like the unit. I think the biggest problem I am seeing is a remote control that is very difficult to operate. It really is cheap and can be very unresponsive. They goofed on this. Probably a result of not researching and testing it out before getting the unit out the door. If I keep this unit I hope I can get an upgraded remote control if they ever (and I am sure they will) release a better one (the play button on this, for instance, is very small with a dark green arrow on it that you have to HUNT for in a dim living room or not so dim for that matter). Most of the buttons on the remote are half the size of the Red Hot candies you get from ferrara pan.
I have a dlink 108 xtreme wireless hub and it streams everything well from all areas of my home (expcept one). I am streaming XVID rips and they are generally pretty good streams.
I have had no problems with detecting the wireless network and the media server software. I have had no problems with the files I have been playing (I have been playing mpg-1's, some vob's, and some mpeg-4 xvids and of course jpg photo files.
I did upgrade the firmware first thing...
I wish there was a status display that showed what kind of connection 9quality -wise0 you are experiencing with your hub. Also it would have been cool to have some info upfront onhow to increase your range since this unit will find its place many times far away from your system. It comes with ONE antenna at the back of the unit...it would have been nice to have an optional extension cable or even to give you some options for an antenna booster.
46 A solid 20 hrs to get running
My expectations were fairly low after having read all the other reviews, but I really liked the option that you get from adding a home media drive from D-Link to this set-up (DSM 602H/4H). I've been waiting for a media server that doesn't require me to keep my PC running in my bedroom 24/7. The network drive from D-Link and this media server looked like an awesome combination.
In an effort not to repeat everything that's already been said ... here are the things I believe haven't been mentioned yet ... first and foremost, don't expect to spend any less than a solid weekend getting this up and running .. and even after you do I expect multiple hours will be spent updating firmware etc. over the next few months (at least I hope there are firmware updates coming)
The physical connection was easy and intuitive, but getting the player up and running and connected to my wireless network was a royal pain. I tried to use my media drive as it is advertised by D-link, but apparantly that's not possible without a firmware update. Of course, that firmware update is still in beta release ... do I need to say more. It actually royally p*sses me off that D-Link advertise the combination of the media home drive and the media server, before they can actually deliver that option. I wrote a glowing review of the home media drive, but that was before I updated the firmware to enable use with the media server ... after the firmware was updated, I can't access the management interface for the drive for more than one or two pages before the device has to be restarted (read pull power plug and re-insert) .. the drive doesn't seem to stream the media evenly, so every single song comes across with large gaps where nothing is playing ... pictures don't come across in the right format and shows up on the screen in some oddly twisted aspect ratio ... the media server software that's resident in the media drive firmware update apparantly doesn't read ID3 tags correctly either; it doesn't pick up genres, and artist and album data isn't alphabitized
On a slight possitive note, the media server software running off my PC works much better. It streams evenly, ID3 tags seem correct and pictures are correctly formatted. I still haven't been able to stream a single movie across the media server, but that's personally less of an issue for me personally.
Oh, and although I didn't want to repeat other reviewers .. I have to say this ... THE REMOTE CONTROL ABSOLUTELY STINKS ... worst piece of hardware I've ever held in my hand ... period ... and that includes all those awefull Sony-Ericson phones I've tried over the years ;-)
47 Time and Money Wasted
Only supports Quicktime version 4 files, not versions 5 or 6. Who would release a product that is two years out of date? Apparently, D-Link. "AVI" support limited. Suppports XVID video but not any of the three most common companion audio formats. Plays DVD formats in a half-assed fashion again with severe limitations. Often crashes when loading MP-3 collections. When it does play a movie, playback is usually out of synch and jittery, indicating some kind codec mismatch. Let me emphasize that I'm speaking of movies that play perfectly well in a half dozen different players. These are movies which look and sound perfectly good when I connect my TV to the PC playing the film. D-Link's Technical support dor this product is very poor. I wasted ny time and money. Don't you waste yours.
48 Work Still in Progress
I have never been a big fan of companies sending a product to market and consumers being the beta testers. I think that is the case with this device. We are beta testing the item but with the full purchase price. I like the concept. I really like the Radio@AOL feature (which is why I purchased it). The issues at hand for me:
1. wireless connection doen not maintain
2. plays only a single mp3 file (not album) unless you create a playlist manually (c'mon, be real!)
3. slide show does not work as described
4. screen saver does not kick in while platin the Radio@AOL
The two stars are for "upside", but this is like drafting a high school star into the NBA....it might work out but there is tremendous "upside". Unfortuanely we all know how many "busts" there have been.
The product should not have been released until it was ready and this was a faux pas by someone in marketing for D-Link. Hopefully the firmware fixed will come fast and furious to help us all out. Otherwise I will need to buy an access point and hard wire into the device and avoud the wireless component altogether.
49 THIS PRODUCT IS A JOKE!
Everybody else hit the nail on the head. DLINK is selling a product that is apparantely still in development. I have been unable to get a single MPG or VOB file to play more than 13 minutes into the file. At that point it locks up. Dlink takes 1 week to offer back lame responses. I'm on the latest 1.02 firmware, and the server software is still at 1.0 -- definately, definately, definately AVOID this expensive nonworking product.
50 Late to market and still broken
I just received my Dlink DSM-320. I was initially excited about the product, but after attempting to use it I quickly realised that it needed another 3 or 4 months to be ready for prime-time. Let's start with the big issues:
1. Component out is broken.
I tried this on 3 different TVs with component out (Sony Wega, JVC IArt and Pioneer SD-643-HD5) and each time the picture was displayed with a severe blue cast (everything was shades of blue). I tried another DSM-320 and the same problem existed, even AFTER the firmware upgrade. How something like this could slip by Quality Control I have no idea.
2. Wireless compatibility is pathetic.
I have been using wireless networks since they came out. I am somewhat familiar with configuring them. My entire wireless network is DLink AirPlus XtremeG running at 108Mbs, with compatibility for 54Mbs and 11Mbs hardware. This worked because I had people connect their laptops to my network for printing and browsing the web. I, of course, had SSID Broadcast disabled so I typed in the SSID into the DSM-320 along with my other network information and it refused to find my network. After turning down my network speed and broadcasting my SSID it connected, but then refused to download the firmware update. It was stuck at zero. The machine froze and I had to pull the plug to reset the machine. Playing videos started well, but 2 minutes in the machine would freeze with no network activity and the plug would have to be pulled. In short, the wireless functionality was terrible, and I like DLink stuff.
3. Does not maintain the aspect ratio.
I bought this planning to use my machine as a video jukebox. I have a dedicated TV card (Hauppauge PVR-250) and schedule my TV recordings over the internet. The DSM-320 was going to allow my to watch these videos on a TV instead of the computer. Also, I have a large hard drive that serves as a movie jukebox. The movies are kept in their original widescreen aspect ratios (16:9 or 2.35:1). I was very surprised to notice that the DSM-320 did not display the black bars required to make the picture look normal. It filled the screen with the picture and made everyone look tall and skinny.
Those are the big problems, it is also plagued by the slow menus and horrible server software mentioned in other reviews. I guess the biggest compliment I can give it is that when connected to a wired network, and while using s-video, it worked great. Even the wife could navigate the menus (slowly), play music (provided I had setup the M3U playlist for her on the server computer), look at pictures and play videos. Unfortunately, there are other products that will do those things better and cost $100 less. Do I think the DSM-320 has potential? Yes, but it needs several firmware upgrades to fix those big problems I outlined. I'm not waiting for that though, I'm sending mine back.
7-16-04
51 Lot's of potential, but not ready for prime time yet
I just bought this device, and it's definately got a lot going for it in the "wow, cool!" factor. Unfortunately . . . it really isn't ready for public release yet. D-link insists that most of the known issues will be worked out with software fixes . . . but the units on shelves now are just a buggy mess.
Most of the problems have already been described in other reviews, but I'm unable to get a solid wireless signal to the device and have no desire to run a hard-wired line to my living room at the moment. I've tried a new router, replacement antenna, and moving the equipment around as much as conceivably possible . . . to no effect. Video and Audio still skip too much.
Also, for what video I could actually get to play, much of it is in widescreen and the device has no options for adjusting aspect ratio, so the picture's just stretched vertically over the whole screen. A letterboxing option on the remote would be a nice addition.
52 Shame, Shame, Shame! Shame on you Dlink!
Great potential, reasonable price but not ready for prime time. I agree with most of the previous reviews. In addition, the rewind button on the the remote does not work. Fast forward is far from fast. You cannot play all music or video files in a folder automatically and allow sequential or shuffle play. You must create a playlist, save to shared drive/folder, and rescan that drive/folder in order play. Does not play AVI files as claimed. I check daily for software/firmware updates. On the plus side, sleek looks, easy setup. When and IF it is finished, it will be great!!!
53 Not Usable In Its Current Form
The DSM-320 is not ready for consumer use and I'd wait for D-Link to update the server software before I would even consider purchasing one. The current version lacks even the most basic media player functionality and really doesn't do justice to what appears to be an exception device from a hardware standpoint. Current problems with the D-Link DSM-320 include:
1. Unable to play more than one song in a row. The player stops after each song on an album. Must build custom playlists for each album in your collection.
2. Repeated "Unsupported file format" on standard MP3 files. These same files play on every other mp3 player I own.
3. Unresponsive remote - have to hit each button 2-3 times before the entry will register.
4. No Divx support.
54 I was expecting more from D-Link
I've had the product for a couple days now and I am not sure I am keeping it. Being D-Link was late to the market with this device at least from the music and photo end I expected a lot more. The devices feels like it doesn't have enough processor speed in it. Menus are sluggish. The music is stripped and play at 190mps even if you have 320's. Firmware needs some work. I've been using the Linksys WMA11B and thought I would be upgrading. Not at all...... The menu's in this device are restrictive and are close to only allowing one song to be played at a time. You have to dump all your music into one folder or build play list if you want to play folders or multiple folders. I am use to selecting a whole tree of folders and allowing the device to play and shuffle if desired. Not on this device. Many of the Music files I play on the linksys show as not supported on this device. I rip them from the original CD... Plus if you are a internet share ware user many of the songs I've acquired do not play on this device.... Linksys doesn't have a problem.... I was expecting good things from the G signal ...Not at all.... Music pauses and sometimes freezes. It does not display signal . I know it is good being my Linksys show 89% at the same point. As for video. It does not support file you create on film maker WMV.... and many MPG file I have created come up as not supported. Those that play seem to play very slow and stall if they are large files.. Over a couple of meg. I sense the buffer if not large enough..... One last comment the Linksys version allowed you to play music and picture screen shows at the same time. You can't on this device... Calling D-Link support after doing all the checks there was nothing I could do to fix it... For for reference I running WinXP Home. On a 3.3 P4 Hyper-Thread . 2 Gig Mem. Two Maxtor 200g ATA133. on the latest a Linksys G Router with all the latest code updates.... Bottom line ... I do not recommend spending the money on this device... And I plan to return it to Amazon for my money back...
55 DSM-320 Multimedia Failure
Has great features if they worked. I've been researching for just such a device to play all my multimedia files in the comfort of my family room without the restrictions of a computer monitor or small speaker sound.
Unfortunatly, most of the features DLink advertises for this product do not work or work slugishly or not without major annoyances. I'm an IT professional working for more than 18 years in the industry and must say this product was released much too early to the consumer before addressing bug issues. All the advertised file formats do not always work. I've seen errors from "file not found" (even though it shows the file name on the media center, "file type unknown", and the list goes on. I still haven't been able to get playlists to work and the only way I could get it to work with one of my computers is to map it from another computer and stream through two computer to get to the living room. I keep hearing that DLink is going to address the software and firmware issues, but have yet to have any of my emails returned from DLink's tech support concerning my problems. If all the features worked, this would be one nice addition to your home multimedia experience. As of now, it's mostly a pretty piece of electronics that will rest turned off on my stereo shelf until DLink figures out how to address all their bugs.
56 ...4 or 5 stars to come...
*** UPDATE - 9/23/04 ***
New firmware version was released yesterday (1.03), fixing some of the main issues that people like myself have had with this product. It's still got a long way to go before it's close to perfect, but this latest firmware (also server software, by the way) release is a good sign that it will continue to improve. For specifics on what was fixed, see D-Link's support site.
*** UPDATE - 8/4/04 ***
Despite my initial excitment about this device, I've since grown weary of its shortcomings. Basically, there are waaaaaaay too many of them. Though Amazon won't let me change the number of stars I've given this item, if I could I would drop it to a 3 or possibly a 2. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that many if not all of this product's shortcoming are addressed with future firmware releases. Until then, this thing is getting only minimal amounts of use, and when it does it just leaves me feeling frustrated.
Find more info at - http://p214.ezboard.com/bdsm320
[Original Review Follows]
-----------------------------
First off, if you have experience setting up a wireless network, you know that it can be a harrowing experience (whether or not you work with computers or have a background in networking, which I do). Wireless is still a new technology, and lots of companies are still working to get their products working correctly, not to mention getting their techs trained.
That being said, the DSM-320 was an absolute breeze to get up and running. I'm running it against a LinkSys 802.11g router, SSID brodcast disabled, 128 bit WEP, and DHCP. *WOW* ~ it grabbed on IP adress and I was off and running on the first try. That's definitely a first (including with other D-Link products I've previously tried and returned).
As far as the unit itself, you need to keep a couple things in mind if you're considering purchasing one. Mainly and most importantly, this is D-Link's first foray into this product category, and this unit has only been available for a couple months (mine was backordered for 1.5 months). One of the key selling points for me was free firmware updates. In fact, when I got mine fired up, it immediately queried D-Link's site, found a new firmware version (1.01) and asked me if it should download and install it. It took about two minutes to get the new firmware in place. You can disable auto-update if you want to (but you don't, read on...).
The current firmware for the DSM-320 is lacking many 'features', to say the least. BUT, these features will be addressed in future firmware releases (the next major one in July '04). You can find lots of disucssion of this product (as well as some posts by a D-Link Tech) at broadbandreports.com. Grievences that folks have with this device are listed ad nauseum over there, but I'll list a couple main ones here:
1. Songs must be properly ID3 tagged in order for song info to be displayed (though this is common these days, as with iTunes, so not a big deal). Previous reviewer said player wouldn't display his song info...this is why.
2. You have to force the software on your PC (from your PC) to rescan folders after adding new media to them in order for it to be "seen" by the media player (this is to be fixed in a future software update)
3. You must create songlists (i.e. m3u) in order to play a whole album or to skip from one song to the next. This is *ridiculous*, of course, but is rumoured to be addressed in July's firmware release.
4. Online content (ie internet radio) is limited to AOL. You get a free trial through the end of August. I personally hate all things AOL (because of all the mailings...STOP!), but it looks to me like D-Link left itself the option to add more online content with future releases (at least based on how the menus are laid out).
5. FF and RW don't work for music. Again, ridiculous ~ but will be addressed with next firmware release.
6. Remote is a little touchy. Some users have reported really poor performance. Make ***SURE*** to remove the protective plastic sticker which is placed over the unit's display when it's shipped! This of course made a huge difference once I discovered it.
...and some of what I do like about the device:
1. Setup was a breeze
2. Digital outs for audio (optical or coax)
3. Component and S-Video outs for video
4. Nice design
5. Simple server software (incidentally, upgrades to come here, as well)
6. So far, audio playback has been perfect (haven't tried vid yet)
7. Browsing photos and setting up/viewing slide shows is a breeze
8. This is the first device of this type (DMR - "Digital Media Receiver") that I've owned, so the "Wow, Cool!" factor is pretty high. Finally, access to my 30 gigs of mp3s on my home theater system!
Bottom line? The outstanding issues with this device are all fixable via firmware/software releases (which D-Link is known for being good with). If you don't mind the fact that you'll have to work around a few issues while waiting for this thing to get closer to "perfect", then by all means buy one, I'm certainly happy with mine! The price is great compared to similar units on the market (esp. ones that offer the same level of media formats and output options). If you're waiting for a DMR that doesn't have issues, keep waiting ~ it's going to be a while. As I said, this is new technology and some speedbumps are to be expected. For this price though (got mine shipped for one hundred fifty five bones) I won't mind buying another one a couple of years (and technology generations) down the road. But for now?...this device leaves me with a nice warm fuzzy feeling and eagerly anticipating future improvements.
57 Not ready yet
I am very disappointed im this product so far. I have all DLind equipment, and it recognized my network perfectly. However, it has lots of other problems and badly needs a firmware upgrade. It has frozen several times, requiring that I unplug it to restart. It occassionally stops in the middle of a song. Most disappointing is that it cannot seem to read artist or album info on most of my music (mp3 or wma), and cannot play more than one song at a time. I called tech support and they told me that is the best the server can do right now (contrary to adverstisments and the manual). The shuffle and repeat buttons never work. Wait til they fix all this before you buy, this is an awful failure so far.
