Dr Gadget - Gadget Shop - D-Link DSM-330 DivX Connected Wireless HD Media Player

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List Price:
Our Price: £99.99
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Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Manufacturer: D-Link Systems, Inc.
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Average Customer Rating:     

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Batteries Included: 0 Binding: Electronics Brand: D-Link EAN: 0790069310065 Is Autographed: 0 Is Fragile: 0 Is Memorabilia: 0 Label: D-Link Systems, Inc. Manufacturer: D-Link Systems, Inc. Model: DSM-330 Publisher: D-Link Systems, Inc. Release Date: 2007-11-30 Studio: D-Link Systems, Inc.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:      Summary: Impressed Comment: I bought this to replace the DSM-320 and it is worlds better. The user interface is great - and faster. Playback was an issue with the 320 - on the 330 its smooth as silk and the quality is much better too. I'm impressed - and for £99 this is a bargain. The only surprise was that its not UPnP compatible - but DivX Connected software works just fine.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Just what I've been looking for Comment: I can only echo the other positive reviews for this device. The user interface is great, it even reminds me a little of the Tivo which also had a very good ui. All my videos, music and photos are now easily accessible via my TV.
The way this device works is that the main software runs on a PC. All the DSM-330 has to do is show or playback the media being sent to it, which includes the user interface. Since the device is relatively simple and has no hard drives etc., it has the great advantage that it needs no fans so it is completely silent! I did consider buying an Xbox as an alternative, which apparantly also makes a very good media streamer, but the main thing that put me off (apart from the extra cost, although obviously the Xbox also does a lot more than the DSM-330) was that from what I read the Xbox is quite noisy.
The main disadvantage with this product is that you need a reasonably good PC running all the time while you use the DSM-330. For me that was no problem, but I could imagine that for some that would be an issue.
The DSM-330 can only natively play back Divx or Xvid video (these are both based on MPEG4). However, the following link shows a simple way to support many more formats:
http://www.kamiwa.de/node/11
This works by having the host PC decode and then re-encode into Divx on the fly. I have tried this and I can confirm that it works remarkably well (I'm using a PC with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz and running Windows Vista as the host PC).
I have also been very impressed with the quality of the wireless connection. I did buy some ethernet cable at the same time that I bought this device, since I assumed that video over wireless would be problematic, but so far I've seen no problems with anything I've tried to play back, so I may not bother installing the wired connection. (I'm using a BT Home Hub wireless router.)
The only problem I did encounter was when I first tried to connect to my wireless network. I had a 32 character WPA key, and despite taking great care and entering it about half a dozen times (which gets very tedious, I can tell you!) it would not connect. I changed the WPA key on the router so that it just had 16 characters, and it connected first time. I therefore suspect the DSM-330 may have a problem with longer WPA keys. In the end, not a serious problem, but it was annoying that it wasted quite a lot of time and I then had to go round all my other wireless devices and change the WPA key.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Unimpressed except for the interface. Comment: I bought the DSM-300 because I wanted a wireless media player, unfortunately I couldn't get the wireless to work at a satisfactory speed even though I've got XBMC working fine on the same network. With network cable from laptop it worked flawlessly but the whole idea was to use it wirelessly hence only two stars from me.
Also the USB port is for maintenance only, so you can not play movies from it which is a wasted opportunity in my opinion.
Customer Rating:      Summary: Great bit of kit Comment: Yes it does take a little fiddling to set it up correctly, but once that has happened its flawless, and has great quality for both audio and visual media. Definately worth purchasing!
Customer Rating:      Summary: Essential bit of kit Comment: I've had this for a month now. The first couple of weeks were a struggle. Wireless didn't work, calls to customer support were polite but they can't go off the script. I tried a power line network hook up which also didn't work very fast, I thought it was my far-below spec PC (an Athlon 1.24ghz) which was making it unworkable. However, I moved the PC and connected it direct and it worked like a dream. Then my broadband provider changed so I got a new router and POW, wireless streaming worked perfectly. Once I press play the video streams within 3 seconds, the picture quality is perfect. FF and RWD is better than Sky+, up to 300 times. All in all a fantastic piece of gadgetry, essential if you have a lot of films or TV progs on your hard drive. Customer support will do their best but ultimately you will have to go it alone on a very worthwhile journey. Top marks.
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Editorial Reviews:
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