NETGEAR Wireless Digital Music Player Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Now that I have this set up it does exactly what I wanted it to very well -- that is, in a wired network environment, it streams all the mp3 files that I have on my PC's hard drive through my traditional two-channel audio setup. It has a number of limitations: it doesn't support Internet radio, except for a paid service, and it doesn't support various rights-protected data formats. But it does do the one thing I bought it for extremely well: allowing me to enjoy my entire music collection in an organized, well catalogued way, through my home audio system.
As this whole field of products is still pretty new, I also didn't want to spend more money on one of the more advanced systems -- it seems that the customer feedback on all of these media players remains pretty mixed. So I stuck with something relatively simple, and this little box does what I want for a reasonable price. (Previously I was using my iPod on a docking station, connected to my stereo...for the modest price of this Netgear player I've now liberated the iPod that previously was wired up to my stereo.)
A couple of cautions:
1. A lot of the customer problems cited here at Amazon seem to relate to problems with wireless transmission. I did not even try to set this up in a wireless network; I just hard-wired it into the network port I had installed in my living room. I have had a lot of frustration in my home w/wireless devices so finally just gave up and dropped in wiring for a home network while I was having other electrical work done in my house. I am glad I bit the bullet -- the wired network is saving me a lot of time and trouble. This Netgear product is just one example of the kinds of things that are very happy tethered to a wire that seem to be much more problematic when they are wireless.
2. Throw away the software disk that comes with the hardware -- don't install it!. Instead, download the new software and firmware that is on Netgear's site. I couldn't get this to work at all at first -- tech support advised me to uninstall the provided software, download the software update on their site, and start over. This got more complicated than it sounds because I'd already built a database of songs for the Netgear and I had to hunt down this database file and kill it, too...it got a little bit tricky...so it took me a couple of hours in all to get this fixed. Had I started with the new software posted on Netgear's site, I would have had the whole thing done in 20 minutes. In any case, just go right to netgear's site and download their new software, and don't use the junk they ship with the product.
I also found netgear's tech support to be very, very good -- they answered the phone quickly (on Christmas Eve!) and were extremely helpful and patient.

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NETGEAR's Wireless Digital Music Player lets you enjoy your digital music files stored on your computers and unlimited, worldwide Internet radio with your friends and family throughout your home. It connects your existing home stereo to your home computer network so you can listen to the digital music collection from any PC on your home stereo system. You can also listen to music directly from a 30,000 track digital jukebox using the RHPSODY¿ service (only available in U.S.) or hear thousands of Internet radio stations even when your PCs are turned off. Easy-to-install software on one PC automatically finds all your music files on any networked PC and collects them into one complete database. The remote control and stylish user interface let you sit on the couch and wirelessly stream MP3s or Windows Media format files from any PC on your home network straight to your stereo! The MP101 supports many PC operating systems, not just Windows XP, and the LCD display means you don't need to turn on your TV when you want to listen to music.

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Ultimate Wireless Dos/linux/macmsd/pwr/95/98/w2k/wme/nt Grandtech Review

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(More customer reviews)You would think this would be a good thing. Hook up a box to go between your computer and monitor/speakers, and it wirelessly sends the signal to a receiver hooked up to your computer. But it's not that simple. The glowing reviews you see here were either written by employees of Grandtec, or by people with better luck than me.
First of all, there is a nice passthrough cable for your monitor. One end hooks up to the transmitter, and the other end hooks up to your video card, but you can also hook up your monitor to it, hence the term passthrough. However, having this installed makes your screen blurry, even when the transmitter is off. Second, there is no passthrough for your speakers. You have to reroute your sound to the unit; you cannot hook speakers up. I have an amp hooked up to my soundcard, so I merely hooked the GWB-4000 up through the headphone jack of my amp, so I got the passthrough anyway.
So I got it hooked up on both ends. The first problem I ran into was I got no video. The booklet says it supports 1280x1024. This is a lie. So I went down to 1024x768. I only saw the upper/left 75% of the screen, and that's in zoom-out mode. I had to go down to 800x600 to get it to display right. I can't work in 800x600 with everything blurry! And it worked, but only just barely. There were squiggly vertical lines dancing around the screen, as if the transmission wasn't clear. The transmitter and receiver were 50 feet away, around a corner. The unit operates on 2.4GHz. So does my cordless phone, and the range is much greater than that. I have no doubt the signal was fine. I blame the unit for the errors, possibly for the same reason my screen was blurry.
Testing it, I first started the first Deus Ex game. The intro movie has forced subtitles, which did not display, telling me that I was only looking at the top. It sort of stretched it, and pushed the bottom down. When the game started, the tool belt (bottom of the screen) was gone. I loaded a Divx movie with Ac3 audio, and the sound was terribly quiet. The video resolution was fine, but the aforementioned squiggly lines made the movie unwatchable.
I do not mean to accuse the other reviewers of dishonesty, but this device is no good. I can only guess at why theirs worked. Perhaps a Mac does video differently, or maybe they used a PC with an ATI graphics card. I have a PC with an nVidia graphics card. But I don't think what the computer is running is at issue, I believe the GWB-4000 unit itself is faulty.
As always, Amazon is a brilliant place to shop, they had it here very quickly although I selected the free shipping, and the return process has so far been painless. UPS is picking it up tomorrow or the next day. This has not affected my solid faith in Amazon, only in this product. Potential buyers should note that Best Buy and CompUSA will not stock this item. I originally saw this item on CompUSA's web site. I should have been warned when I learned they would not stock it in their retail stores, only the web site. I am, however, glad I purchased it from Amazon.com and not CompUSA.com.
Bottom line: Avoid it like the plague.

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Royal Machines 29297W WES 600 Wireless Stereo Speaker System Review

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(More customer reviews)My hearing is getting bad and to avoid turning the volume up substantially on my TV set, I wanted to place speakers closer to our sitting stations. Plus, the speakers on the TV leave a lot to be desired anyway.
Initially I was very pleased for ease of hook up, sound etc. However, for the speakers to work as desired, the control volume needed to be turned up to max. volume. In this range the speakers had a distinct background sound (unsure how to describe). I guess this is typical of low wattage speakers when running at max. volume.
They in fact improved the sound volume but the background sound/feedback was more than what we expected. Its not like there not tolerable, to others, this may-not be an issue.
The price is reasonable for the speakers, their size leaves a small footprint and are nice looking for the price. All the necessary accessories/hardware is include to connect (except batteries), each speaker has its own power cord included. I used a separate remote control to power off the speakers rather than to turn off each speaker on/off switch, which are small and difficult to see (on the speaker side).
I didn't want to go the surround-sound route, however I may do so. Debating at this time, if I should return the merchandise.

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