Recommended Devices List
Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2011 5:35 pm
Recommended Devices
We're always being asked which devices work well with Twonky software. Purchasing the right device, and your Connected Home experience is often very good. Purchase the wrong device, and your experience could be one of great frustration.
In addition to the devices here, we've attached a list of other DMRs to the bottom of this post. Although these have not been tested, there is a good chance that some of these will work as well.
Apple TV (2nd and 3rd Generation)
Twonky Mobile, Twonky Beam (formerly known as Twonky Beam Browser) and Twonky Video
What We Like
- The only device that can display a beamed photo slideshow without displaying a colored screen in-between every photo.
- Very affordable ($99)
- You can beam music, photos and video to this device from an Android device running Twonky Mobile
- Fast seeking, quick buffering
- Very compact
- One of the few media players which support QuickTime
What Could Be Improved
- Not DLNA-certified or UPnP-compliant. Only works with devices that support AirPlay
- Very limited remote control
- Only supports five media formats (H.264 (mp4/m4v), MPEG-4 (mp4/m4v), AAC, MP3, JPEG). MPEG-4
- Doesn’t support BMP, GIF, PNG, FLAC, DivX, WMA, MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Xvid, WMV, WMV9 and many more popular formats.
- When it encounters an error, you must press the menu button on the Apple remote
Buffalo LinkTheatre (LT-H9x and others)
What We Like
- Supports many formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.264, WMV9, MPEG-4, Xvid, AAC, HE-AAC, MP3, WMA, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG)
- Capable of supporting DTCP-IP
- This device can pull music, photos or video from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- Does not currently support beaming
- More expensive than most other network media players ($200-300)
Denon Receivers (AVR-3311 and others)
What We Like
- You can beam music and photos to this device
- Works well with music playlists
- Supports FLAC in addition to other standard audio formats (MP3, AAC, WAV, WMA)
- Can pull music from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- More expensive than other stand-alone music players. However lower street pricing and refurbished units are available online.
- Seeking with Twonky software is currently not working
- Like most receivers, external control of volume is not supported
- Older Denon receivers do not have photo support
- Sometimes disappears from the network and needs to be rebooted.
Onkyo TX-NR807
What We Like
- You can beam music to this device
- Works well with music playlists
- Requires a firmware upgrade to fix a stuttering problem
- Can also pull music from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- Like most receivers, volume is not supported
- You cannot seek in a track
- This model is discontinued, but newer models are available
- No photo support
I/O DATA AVeL Link Player (AV-LS700)
What We Like
- You can beam music, photos and video to it
- One of the few devices available in Japan that you can beam media to
- Supports many media formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.264, WMV9, MPEG-4, Xvid, AAC, LPCM, MP3, WMA, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF)
- Reasonable price: $150-200
- Capable of supporting DTCP-IP
- Can also pull media from TwonkyServer
- One of only a few devices available in Japan that you can push media to
What Could Be Improved
- Does currently support beaming of YouTube contents
- Not available in all countries
Philips Streamium Players
(NP2500, NP2900, NP3300, NP3500, NP3900, NP3700, MCi298, MCi730, MCi900, MCi8080)
What We Like
- You can beam music and photos to this device
- Plays a wide range of audio formats (MP3, WMA, WMA lossless, PCM, RealAudio, AAC, FLAC, OGG Vorbis)
- Bundled with Philips Media Browser software (powered by TwonkyManager)
- Some of these devices have built-in speakers (e.g. NP2900)
- This device can also pull music or photos from TwonkyServer
- A firmware update may be required on older units to enable photo support or push support for music
What Could Be Improved
- Seeking not supported
- Not available in all countries
Samsung TVs
What We Like
- You can beam music and photos and video to this device
- One of the few TVs to play YouTube videos
- Reasonably priced
- Can also pull music or photos from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- 2010 and newer Samsung TVs display a black screen in-between photos when you pull them using the Samsung remote. 2009 Samsung TVs did not do this.
- Not all MP4 videos play (.264 YouTube videos don’t play)
- Does not auto-scale photos
- Does not support .MOV files
- Displays “Rendering from device name….†between every picture.
- Doesn’t display photos or videos as fast as some other media players
Sonos Zone Player
What We Like
- You can beam music to this device
- Very reliable (never needs to be reset)
- Very good playlist support
- Good sound quality, optical out
What Could Be Improved
- More expensive than other music players
- Cannot pull music from TwonkyServer
- Appears on the network as a media server even when Sonos media sharing software is not installed
- UPnP AV implementation could be better - Very chatty (transmits unnecessary amounts of UPnP data on the network)
Sonos S5/Play:3/Play:5 Powered Speakers
What We Like
- You can beam music to this device
- This is a powered speaker and networked music player in one
- Very reliable (never needs to be reset)
- Good playlist support
- Decent sound quality
- Can operate two of these in a special stereo mode
What Could Be Improved
- Expensive
- Cannot pull music from TwonkyServer
- Appears on the network as a media server even when Sonos media sharing software is not installed
- UPnP AV implementation could be better - Very chatty (transmits unnecessary amounts of UPnP data on the network)
Sony PS3
What We Like
- Game console and media player
- Very good photo player
- Can manually skip to the next photo
-- Can zoom in and zoom out on photos
-- Can play a music playlist and photo slideshow at the same time
- Has built-in Wi-Fi (all except the original 20GB PS3)
- Available with up to 160GB storage
- Good music player
- Has support for premium protected content (DTCP-IP) (Version 3.00 firmware or later)
- Can play 3GP video from mobile phones like the T-Mobile myTouch 4G
- Can play Blu-ray discs
- Displays video thumbnails
What Could Be Improved
- You cannot beam media to this device using Twonky software
- Doesn’t support some popular formats including FLAC
- More expensive than some other media players
- Has buffering issues with some Internet media (YouTube, SHOUTcast, etc)
Sony Bravia TVs (Various models)
What We Like
- Very high quality display panels, color accuracy
- You can beam music, photos and video to it
- Can also pull music, photos and video from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- Models earlier than 2011, has limited video format support (MPEG-2, AVCHD, HDV, MPEG2-PS, MP3 and JPG only). No support for DivX, AVI, QuickTime or WMV. Some older Sony TVs were only certified to stream music or photos. Video and in some cases MP3 streaming was not supported.
- Bravia TVs before 2011 had problems accepting media beamed from some Internet sites like YouTube
- Automatically filters and hides unplayable videos.
- Not possible to select background music for slideshow
Sony Blu-ray Players (S370/S470/S570/S770)
What We Like
- The only devices we’ve seen that support Wake on LAN – Can turn on a PC that is powered down and show you when Twonky software is ready to share media
- Good photo player.
-- Nice user-selectable transitions in-between photos in a slideshow (e.g. Fade, Wipe, or Split)
-- Can start a slideshow and manually skip to the next photo.
- Can play a music playlist and photo slideshow at the same time.
- Can also pull music, photos and video from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- You cannot currently beam media to this device
- Limited video format support - Can't play DivX or 1920x1080 MPEG-2 video.
- No photo thumbnails are displayed
- No album art displayed on music navigation tree
- Automatically filters and hides unplayable videos.
- Takes longer to skip between photos than the Sony PS3 - A small spinning cursor appears on the right-side of the screen when scaling the next photo
- Long boot time when quick boot setting is not enabled
TEAC WAP-4500
What We Like
- You can beam music to it
- Has a Sonos-style wireless remote control with complete control and display
- One of the few devices with OGG support
- Can also pull music from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- Sometimes there are delays when beaming music to it
- No AAC support, just MP3, OGG, WMA and WAV
- Cheap look and feel for the price
- Somewhat complicated user-interface
Western Digital WDTV Live
What We Like
- You can beam music, photos and video to it
- Very affordable ($99)
- Supports many media formats (.MKV, MP4, MOV, etc.)
- One of the few media players which you can beam YouTube videos to
- Plays some 3GP videos taken on mobile phones
- Can decode Dolby Digital videos
- Can also pull media from TwonkyServer
- One of the only players with full MKV compatibility where chapters are concerned.
What Could Be Improved
- Sometimes slow to respond - Very large photos sometimes take 7-8 seconds to appear
- No album art is displayed when you beam music to it
- When you beam to it, the interface doesn't show anything to indicate that it is preparing to play
- No optical output
- Audio sometimes starts playing before the first few frames of video are shown
WD TV Live Hub
What We Like
- Built-in 1TB hard drive
- Has TwonkyServer 5.1 built-in
- You can beam music, photos and video to it
- Very affordable ($99)
- Supports many media formats (.MKV, MP4, MOV, etc.)
- One of the few media players you can beam YouTube videos to
- Plays some 3GP videos taken on mobile phones
- Can decode Dolby Digital videos
- Has component video outputs (needed for older TVs) and a digital out
- Works with most USB Wi-Fi adapters
- Can also pull media from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- More expensive then some other media players ($200)
- Sometimes slow to respond - Very large photos sometimes take 7-8 seconds to appear
- No album art is displayed when you beam music to it
- When you beam to it, the interface doesn't show anything to indicate that it is preparing to play
- Audio starts playing before the first few frames of video are shown
Written by Rick Schwartz. With important contributions from Angela Scheller, Florian Tack, Jim Pfeifer and Osama Alshaykh.
This article contains opinions of the author that do not necessarily reflect those of PacketVideo.
Copyright 2011-2012 by Rick Schwartz and PacketVideo. All rights reserved. Please do not publish this elsewhere without permission. Linking to this list is encouraged.
We're always being asked which devices work well with Twonky software. Purchasing the right device, and your Connected Home experience is often very good. Purchase the wrong device, and your experience could be one of great frustration.
In addition to the devices here, we've attached a list of other DMRs to the bottom of this post. Although these have not been tested, there is a good chance that some of these will work as well.
Apple TV (2nd and 3rd Generation)
Twonky Mobile, Twonky Beam (formerly known as Twonky Beam Browser) and Twonky Video
What We Like
- The only device that can display a beamed photo slideshow without displaying a colored screen in-between every photo.
- Very affordable ($99)
- You can beam music, photos and video to this device from an Android device running Twonky Mobile
- Fast seeking, quick buffering
- Very compact
- One of the few media players which support QuickTime
What Could Be Improved
- Not DLNA-certified or UPnP-compliant. Only works with devices that support AirPlay
- Very limited remote control
- Only supports five media formats (H.264 (mp4/m4v), MPEG-4 (mp4/m4v), AAC, MP3, JPEG). MPEG-4
- Doesn’t support BMP, GIF, PNG, FLAC, DivX, WMA, MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Xvid, WMV, WMV9 and many more popular formats.
- When it encounters an error, you must press the menu button on the Apple remote
Buffalo LinkTheatre (LT-H9x and others)
What We Like
- Supports many formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.264, WMV9, MPEG-4, Xvid, AAC, HE-AAC, MP3, WMA, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG)
- Capable of supporting DTCP-IP
- This device can pull music, photos or video from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- Does not currently support beaming
- More expensive than most other network media players ($200-300)
Denon Receivers (AVR-3311 and others)
What We Like
- You can beam music and photos to this device
- Works well with music playlists
- Supports FLAC in addition to other standard audio formats (MP3, AAC, WAV, WMA)
- Can pull music from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- More expensive than other stand-alone music players. However lower street pricing and refurbished units are available online.
- Seeking with Twonky software is currently not working
- Like most receivers, external control of volume is not supported
- Older Denon receivers do not have photo support
- Sometimes disappears from the network and needs to be rebooted.
Onkyo TX-NR807
What We Like
- You can beam music to this device
- Works well with music playlists
- Requires a firmware upgrade to fix a stuttering problem
- Can also pull music from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- Like most receivers, volume is not supported
- You cannot seek in a track
- This model is discontinued, but newer models are available
- No photo support
I/O DATA AVeL Link Player (AV-LS700)
What We Like
- You can beam music, photos and video to it
- One of the few devices available in Japan that you can beam media to
- Supports many media formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, H.264, WMV9, MPEG-4, Xvid, AAC, LPCM, MP3, WMA, JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF)
- Reasonable price: $150-200
- Capable of supporting DTCP-IP
- Can also pull media from TwonkyServer
- One of only a few devices available in Japan that you can push media to
What Could Be Improved
- Does currently support beaming of YouTube contents
- Not available in all countries
Philips Streamium Players
(NP2500, NP2900, NP3300, NP3500, NP3900, NP3700, MCi298, MCi730, MCi900, MCi8080)
What We Like
- You can beam music and photos to this device
- Plays a wide range of audio formats (MP3, WMA, WMA lossless, PCM, RealAudio, AAC, FLAC, OGG Vorbis)
- Bundled with Philips Media Browser software (powered by TwonkyManager)
- Some of these devices have built-in speakers (e.g. NP2900)
- This device can also pull music or photos from TwonkyServer
- A firmware update may be required on older units to enable photo support or push support for music
What Could Be Improved
- Seeking not supported
- Not available in all countries
Samsung TVs
What We Like
- You can beam music and photos and video to this device
- One of the few TVs to play YouTube videos
- Reasonably priced
- Can also pull music or photos from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- 2010 and newer Samsung TVs display a black screen in-between photos when you pull them using the Samsung remote. 2009 Samsung TVs did not do this.
- Not all MP4 videos play (.264 YouTube videos don’t play)
- Does not auto-scale photos
- Does not support .MOV files
- Displays “Rendering from device name….†between every picture.
- Doesn’t display photos or videos as fast as some other media players
Sonos Zone Player
What We Like
- You can beam music to this device
- Very reliable (never needs to be reset)
- Very good playlist support
- Good sound quality, optical out
What Could Be Improved
- More expensive than other music players
- Cannot pull music from TwonkyServer
- Appears on the network as a media server even when Sonos media sharing software is not installed
- UPnP AV implementation could be better - Very chatty (transmits unnecessary amounts of UPnP data on the network)
Sonos S5/Play:3/Play:5 Powered Speakers
What We Like
- You can beam music to this device
- This is a powered speaker and networked music player in one
- Very reliable (never needs to be reset)
- Good playlist support
- Decent sound quality
- Can operate two of these in a special stereo mode
What Could Be Improved
- Expensive
- Cannot pull music from TwonkyServer
- Appears on the network as a media server even when Sonos media sharing software is not installed
- UPnP AV implementation could be better - Very chatty (transmits unnecessary amounts of UPnP data on the network)
Sony PS3
What We Like
- Game console and media player
- Very good photo player
- Can manually skip to the next photo
-- Can zoom in and zoom out on photos
-- Can play a music playlist and photo slideshow at the same time
- Has built-in Wi-Fi (all except the original 20GB PS3)
- Available with up to 160GB storage
- Good music player
- Has support for premium protected content (DTCP-IP) (Version 3.00 firmware or later)
- Can play 3GP video from mobile phones like the T-Mobile myTouch 4G
- Can play Blu-ray discs
- Displays video thumbnails
What Could Be Improved
- You cannot beam media to this device using Twonky software
- Doesn’t support some popular formats including FLAC
- More expensive than some other media players
- Has buffering issues with some Internet media (YouTube, SHOUTcast, etc)
Sony Bravia TVs (Various models)
What We Like
- Very high quality display panels, color accuracy
- You can beam music, photos and video to it
- Can also pull music, photos and video from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- Models earlier than 2011, has limited video format support (MPEG-2, AVCHD, HDV, MPEG2-PS, MP3 and JPG only). No support for DivX, AVI, QuickTime or WMV. Some older Sony TVs were only certified to stream music or photos. Video and in some cases MP3 streaming was not supported.
- Bravia TVs before 2011 had problems accepting media beamed from some Internet sites like YouTube
- Automatically filters and hides unplayable videos.
- Not possible to select background music for slideshow
Sony Blu-ray Players (S370/S470/S570/S770)
What We Like
- The only devices we’ve seen that support Wake on LAN – Can turn on a PC that is powered down and show you when Twonky software is ready to share media
- Good photo player.
-- Nice user-selectable transitions in-between photos in a slideshow (e.g. Fade, Wipe, or Split)
-- Can start a slideshow and manually skip to the next photo.
- Can play a music playlist and photo slideshow at the same time.
- Can also pull music, photos and video from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- You cannot currently beam media to this device
- Limited video format support - Can't play DivX or 1920x1080 MPEG-2 video.
- No photo thumbnails are displayed
- No album art displayed on music navigation tree
- Automatically filters and hides unplayable videos.
- Takes longer to skip between photos than the Sony PS3 - A small spinning cursor appears on the right-side of the screen when scaling the next photo
- Long boot time when quick boot setting is not enabled
TEAC WAP-4500
What We Like
- You can beam music to it
- Has a Sonos-style wireless remote control with complete control and display
- One of the few devices with OGG support
- Can also pull music from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- Sometimes there are delays when beaming music to it
- No AAC support, just MP3, OGG, WMA and WAV
- Cheap look and feel for the price
- Somewhat complicated user-interface
Western Digital WDTV Live
What We Like
- You can beam music, photos and video to it
- Very affordable ($99)
- Supports many media formats (.MKV, MP4, MOV, etc.)
- One of the few media players which you can beam YouTube videos to
- Plays some 3GP videos taken on mobile phones
- Can decode Dolby Digital videos
- Can also pull media from TwonkyServer
- One of the only players with full MKV compatibility where chapters are concerned.
What Could Be Improved
- Sometimes slow to respond - Very large photos sometimes take 7-8 seconds to appear
- No album art is displayed when you beam music to it
- When you beam to it, the interface doesn't show anything to indicate that it is preparing to play
- No optical output
- Audio sometimes starts playing before the first few frames of video are shown
WD TV Live Hub
What We Like
- Built-in 1TB hard drive
- Has TwonkyServer 5.1 built-in
- You can beam music, photos and video to it
- Very affordable ($99)
- Supports many media formats (.MKV, MP4, MOV, etc.)
- One of the few media players you can beam YouTube videos to
- Plays some 3GP videos taken on mobile phones
- Can decode Dolby Digital videos
- Has component video outputs (needed for older TVs) and a digital out
- Works with most USB Wi-Fi adapters
- Can also pull media from TwonkyServer
What Could Be Improved
- More expensive then some other media players ($200)
- Sometimes slow to respond - Very large photos sometimes take 7-8 seconds to appear
- No album art is displayed when you beam music to it
- When you beam to it, the interface doesn't show anything to indicate that it is preparing to play
- Audio starts playing before the first few frames of video are shown
Written by Rick Schwartz. With important contributions from Angela Scheller, Florian Tack, Jim Pfeifer and Osama Alshaykh.
This article contains opinions of the author that do not necessarily reflect those of PacketVideo.
Copyright 2011-2012 by Rick Schwartz and PacketVideo. All rights reserved. Please do not publish this elsewhere without permission. Linking to this list is encouraged.