Netgear NTV550 Network Audio/Video Player

This box was plugged in and the supplied CD was run on the computer I wished to stream video files to the HD TV. Choose your folders you wish to access at this stage carefully, as once chosen, to re-select them requires a re-install of the CD. This aspect could be improved. I use an HDMI switch for the set-top box and the Netgear box, it would have been nice if a switch could have been integrated in to the 550. You can access you tube and one or two sites on the web, but, having gone this far, why didn't Netgear put in a simple browser?
It works perfectly at streaming over my m2ts video files to the TV via the hdmi socket and this was anyway what I wanted it for. It's certainly better having video files on the PC and not have to plug in the camcorder, which is what prompted me to get the 550. You browse through your folders as they appear on the TV screen and select the file you want. So, some room for improvement but does exactly what it says on the tin, so good product.

The product works well but has some significant limitations, particularly in support for videos. Currently it does not appear to be able to play YouTube videos. I raised this as an issue with Netgear support, but they were unable to help so I raised this with Amazon customer support who were told by Netgear that there is currently a problem with playing YouTube videos and they are working on a fix. It also could not play a digital copy of "Knight & Day" provided with the DVD, which was playable through iTunes on my laptop.

I've owned about 15 Netgear products and still use them heavily. They range from modems, routers, switches to wireless access points and NAS units. All very good.

I was replacing an old Zensonic Media Player and looked at the market. I saw the NTV550 and thought it looked very decent. So - I purchased one.

First impressions - good. Support for the right formats, nice form factor, good inputs and outputs, known brand, etc.

Next impressions - average. The interface is quite nasty. It's a bit geeky in terms of navigating folders, etc. Certainly not like an iTunes, etc. The playback was fine, but the whole interface left something to be desired.

Later impressions - rotten! Firstly, the unit stopped outputting video. Or, it would output it, but garbled. No audio either. The Netgear support team are kind and polite, but pretty useless. They ask lots of silly and irrelevant questions and as soon as there's anything slightly unusual, they home in on that. It's almost like - "Is there any other electrical device plugged in in the house?" If you answer yes, they'll suggest unplugging everything because that's likely to be the cause. It's really annoying. Anyway, after many cycles of this stuff, they sent me another unit. Same problem, but same set of questions again. Eventually, they tried a new power-supply (on my suggestion!) and that worked. Well, it KIND of worked. The NTV550 had never properly responded to the menus and would occasionally lock up, requiring a reboot, but not often enough to get rid of it. So - I had a final, almost working unit.

Last impressions - worse! Want a refund. It locks up constantly, won't respond to the remote. Basically unusable. Guess what? They won't refund and they've started with the same set of generic, irrelevant questions again.

Don't buy this. Buy something else! Check the Sumvision Cyclone Nano, for example...