What's the ultimate HW MediaServer client?

flynn · Post by **flynn** » Wed Jun 13, 2007 8:45 pm

I'm looking for a HW client dedicated for mp3 music (not internet radio) being served by TwonkyVision. I'm mostly interested in the usability of browsing and finding my music(full ID3 tag support is a must, but album art support would be ideal), playing the music (shuffle support and ways to play multiple albums) and general robustness (I want it to behave like a CD player). I'm not interested in other bells and whistles (ie. a PS3 would be overkill, and it takes too long to get up to the point where i'm playing a song, and it has no way to just play all my music).

The Roku units look ok, but is 802.11b good enough? Is it robust? What other units are out there that stand out?

cbhwr · Post by **cbhwr** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 9:10 am

Hi,

I would say that outside of the 11b, I am quite fond of my Roku SoundBridge Radio. Only real beef I've had with it is with remote-controlling it, e.g. from a Nokia N80.

Which is the better of all on the market is hard to tell, but venture down to a HiFi-store and ask

Best Regards, Good luck, and let us know your findings!
/Nc

flynn · Post by **flynn** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:24 pm

cbhwr wrote:I would say that outside of the 11b, I am quite fond of my Roku SoundBridge Radio.

so do you notice that it's using 11b? any skipping or poor performance or is it "good enough"?

w7 · Post by w7 » Thu Jun 14, 2007 7:49 pm

I use 802.11b with a Netgear MP101 and it works just great. The Roku stuff wasn't available back then; I'd prefer the Roku devices today, too.

Note that both Soundbridge models support Wifi and wired connections (http://www.rokulabs.com/products_compare.php). When in doubt and able to supply wires, always use wires. Wireless is less than wires.

cbhwr · Post by **cbhwr** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 2:46 pm

flynn wrote:
cbhwr wrote:I would say that outside of the 11b, I am quite fond of my Roku SoundBridge Radio.
so do you notice that it's using 11b? any skipping or poor performance or is it "good enough"?

Flynn, my issues with it being 11b, is that I am having WiFi related problems and want to move to either an 11g-only or 11g+n network to clear up some band.

The Roku is playing REAL nice, although it does have some problems with remote-controlling as mentioned. I have not experienced any network-related issues or skipping, with the Roku in the same room as the Philips AP.

Mind you, even though I bought my Roky in Europe, it came with a US plug. I eats the 240 volts just fine, but I did have to dig out a travel-adaptor to use it

/Nc

mgillespie · Post by **mgillespie** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:15 pm

I used to have 2xMP101, but they were horrendous.. They regularly dropped their wireless connections, locked up, rebooted and skipped.. On wired it was slightly better, but still tempremental..

I got a full refund from Netgear, and bough 2xNoxon devices, and been very happy. They work brilliantly, the displays are a bit crap (nowhere near as nice as the MP101 in that respect), but functionaility-wise very good.. I get consistent performance from TwonkyMedia out them them, I can't remember a Twonky release that failed to work with them..

If I were buying again, I would buy Noxon2 units.....

Highly recommended.