D-Link DSM-330 DivX Connected Wireless HD Media Player

This is one of the best video, music and photo media streaming devices around. It works with no problems and very very easy to set up to the wifi in your house. So you can keep your computer upstairs with all your musis, video and photos on and this box in your front room under your TV. The connection is flawless, the streaming superb with no jerking, buffering or delays. You can play all your mp3 music with a simply clear list of your folders and songs. However it does no allow you to sort them by genenre so you will have to create folders on your computers if you want to separate them.

The Divx codec is one of the best around, clear with perfect sound. The divx file for standard movie is around 750mb compare this with a DVD which can be almost 3gb !

But ... there are a few issues and downsides.

Unless you have big hard drive in your computer I recommend at least a 500GB external hard drive to keep all you movies, music and files on.

Watching your dvd collection is this is not as easy as it sounds. You have to convert your DVDs into a divx file. They tell you can convert them into a divx file with software included. But you can't as the software only comes with a trial mpeg4 codec and you have to go and buy it. But even then you can't convert your dvd collection as they are copyright protected. However other software convertion programs are around which allow you convert them enabling you can watch your collection on this DSM-330. It does take at least 30-45 minutes to convert a single dvd to a divx file, so if you have a lot of movies this will keep you busy for long time. But once done it makes accessing your collection very easy.

There is a USB point on the unit but its a shame you cant connect an external hard drive or USB stick to it. Its designed just for updates they say, very is mentioned about this in the manual or what it is really for.

Today I learned that Divx have pulled the plug on stage6.com website and from Feb 28th 2008 you can no longer access this content of movie trailers, funny videos and games. Its a terrible loss to the divx community as this was a key feature of the DSM-330 with special button for this on the remote. This only makes you wonder what else they will stop supporting on the unit and it is only been out 6 months which is a concern for sure !

But this aside it is one of the best units for streaming movie content from your computer in the market at the moment and why I give it 4 stars.

As I back-up all my media onto my pc's I was keen to try streaming the content direct to my TV and save having to go and get the physical disk,open the DVD player,insert the DVD and walk back to the settee :-).

After research I bought the Hauuppauge WMVP but found it would not connect wirelessly. It worked OK wired with little folder icons and part of the title displayed (would only show a few characters) but I returned it to Amazon as I wanted the wireless functionality. I then decided to give the D-Link a go and, if the Hauup was a bicycle, the D-Link is a Ferrari!

I switched it on and within 10 secs it gave a list of wireless networks it had found. I entered my SSID (hidden) and it found it,detected the encryption level and asked for the key. Within 20 secs it presented it's menu with colour thumbnails flying onto the screen of videos I had stored.
Selecting the video option then lists all the folders you have set up on the computer (i.e. where you have told the PC software you are keeping the media files),select the required folder and all the files are displayed with a coloured thumbnail and full title,select the file and confirm and the file starts playing. I have played a number of videos and all have been flawless - no judders/lost sync or broken network connection

The music and photo sections also perform excellent and as an added bonus you can go to the DIVX special forum - www.connunity.com - to get plugins, which although few at the moment,have the potential for extra capability.

All in all I can not recommend this highly enough so,look no further,buy this from Amazon and you need never leave the comfort of your settee again.

Received the box this morning and within 20 minutes I was watching movies and listening to music via a wireless connection. The setup is straight-forward if you already have a wireless network in place.
The video and sound quality are first rate, I connected the box to my HD TV via the supplied HDMI cable.
A product I would highly recommend.