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D-Link MediaLounge High-Definition Media Player (DSM-510) | List Price: $239.99
Discount Price: $94.99
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Brand: D-Link
Binding: Electronics
Features: - Access from your PC a wide variety of videos, music, photos, and online media and play them through your home entertainment system
- High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) connection for high quality digital video and audio
- Take advantage of the benefits of Intel Viiv technology including access to a wide variety of global, on-demand entertainment services
- Stylish and compact design looks at home in your living room setup
- Included USB 2.0 port on front panel for instant access to music, movies, and photos stored on flash drives
Simple Solution Compared to Alternatives [Posted on 2008-02-25]
I've been wanting to do the full PC to TV thing for a while now so that I could watch my Divx movies from Bittorrent, but never had the cash or time to set up the entire rig. I also wanted to run my music through my surround that is set up on my TV. Both of these things I have done before with my computer with the S-Video out on my Video card and a 40ft stereo cable running from one room to the other. The TV out is always blurry (better with full screen movies), and the cable hook up for the music is a mess and a pain because I have to go into the other room to change the music.
Now onto the review for the DSM 510-
I plugged the DSM into my TV and turned it on, it found my router and I was updating the software in about 3 mins. I was surprised that the networking wasn't an issue because I always seem to have issues with my wireless. Anyways, after reading the other reviews here I was ready to settle in for a night of trying to get everything to work between my computer and the DSM. Well, after the brief question session it runs you through to see what system you are running (2 or 3 questions) I was looking at the server option which had already located everything in my shared directory on my computer. WOW. I only had the Microsoft prepackaged junk in there (Alanis Morrisette musta made a killing off of Micro$oft). But after a quick drag and drop of all of my music and a few of the movies I've just downloaded into the shared directory I was up and running. In a little over an hour I was streaming "There Will Be Blood" from my computer in the bedroom to the TV in my living room with surround sound.
That's the good, Here's the bad-
The menus on the DSM are a little clunky, by that I mean that they are not TiVo standards or as intuitive as I'd like. I would like for the titles of the songs to have the cover of the song or video, they are there if they are attached to the song originally (like with Apple music purchases) but it doesn't pull them from the web. Also, the music playback go by directories or playlists. So, you can't just pick a bunch of songs on the fly to play. It does separate them by genre and artist etc etc, but the description attached to the song has to be correct. My remote has a range of about 15 feet, I don't know if that's because of the batteries or not- but if it is they were packaged with dead batteries.
All in All, I think this will be a perfect solution for what I wanted, a clean way to get my videos and music from my computer to where I will be able to enjoy them. I've also been reading up on how to capture shows with a video capture card and how well it works with this system and a program called TVersity. With that and some better folder management I think I will be able to have a system that I will be pretty happy with here soon.
Nice Addition to the Home [Posted on 2008-03-27]
I just purchased this unit after much consideration and reading online. The mixed reviews are completely understandable; this is not a device for the low-tech individual. If you know enough to get a home network up and running, then you'll be fine, I promise.
The unit itself is very nice looking and well built. A lot of people prefer the larger devices that are more consistent with your stereo, DVD, etc but I personally prefer saving space and giving components some elbow room. The remote is small and feels a little on the cheap side, but it does its job well.
Wireless setup was a little troublesome. I added the settings for my router and was prompted to reboot the DSM-510. Each time I rebooted the DSM-510 the network would still not connect. I finally upgraded the firmware on the DSM-510 to 1.07. I also enabled ssid broadcast on my router, which I typically turn off. I'm not sure which change fixed the issue, but after I did these two things the DSM-510 has been able to connect without problems.
The easiest way to set this up is to get either Windows Media Player 11 (and enable sharing), or get TVersity; both of these are free products. If you're only interested in playing your music and photos, then definitely do Windows Media Player, it's a "set and forget" operation. Just install it, and then enable media sharing. It should pop up as soon as you get the DSM-510 online and ask you if you want to allow it to see your content... just say yes and that's it.
TVersity also works very well with the DSM-510, I am actually using it for video and Media Player 11 for audio and photos. TVersity supports video feeds and streaming audio, which really takes the DSM-510 to a whole new level. The integration between the two is flawless so far. I did have to modify the profile for the DSM-510 in TVersity before it would play video. Now it plays everything I throw at it without so much as a hiccup.
With the 1.07 firmware, I have not experienced any lag, freezing, or other performance problems. I'm seriously considering dropping cable TV altogether if things keep going well!
DLink's support can be pretty rough. I wanted to try the "Viiv Zone" so I enabled Viiv on my PC... and the Viiv Zone page on the DSM-510 just showed up blank. I contacted DLink by email, and although they were very prompt in responding it was pretty obvious that they weren't very interested in helping get the issue resolved. The first response said my computer didn't support Viiv and when I responded to the contrary they directed me to a 1.08 firmware that was just published; the 1.08 firmware states that it only works for the A1 model, and mine is A2. In reading the details for the 1.08, it turns out that the Viiv Zone and the Viiv setup are removed from the unit... that pretty much tells you all you need to know about Viiv support. I was more curious about Viiv than anything, but I really wouldn't bother, especially with the two superior options above.
Update 4/5/2008:
DLink actually published a firmware update (1.08) that removes the Viiv Zone from the home screen and also removes the Viiv wizard from device setup. Apparently I wasn't the only one having trouble with Viiv.
We also started noticing video freezes during playback when other devices were on the wireless network. A wired connection solves the problem, but I did contact DLink again and this time they were quite helpful in giving me some tips to try and resolve the issue. The wired connection is definitely much more reliable.
My only real complaint is that if you forget to switch your TV input to the DSM HDMI connection before you start the unit, then it switches to the analog video connection automatically and you have to restart it again to get the video to come up. Mildy annoying...
Don't Bother [Posted on 2008-06-11]
I have a large movie and music and photo collection stored on a ReadyNAS and I hoped to use this usint to play the media through the network onto my TV. My needs are simple so I thought that this unit might be for me. I had no trouble getting the unit set up and working but during playback the unit stutters sporadically and then locks up. The only way to recover is to do a cold start by unplugging the unit.
Another user said that using an external harddrive solved this problem but my collection is too large for this solution so bak to Amazon it goes.
I have since tried several other units including the Popcorn Hour A-100, Netgear EVA8000, TVIX 6500A, and the SageTV media extender. Each of these units are somewhat more expensive than the DSM-510 and each has its quirks but at least they work. In my opinion if you want a media player device spend the extra money and buy a good one. Otherwise you will just be frustrated.
It has its quirks but I love it [Posted on 2008-07-06]
Ok, I will agree with some of the people here that this thing does have its problem, but with a little tweaking it works well. I have my connected through a Netgear MIMO router to a Vista (boo) machine. I bought this from my brother in law who went full scale media center pc. I am running .jpgs, .mpeg and .avi. Mostly .avi files. It streams great with no skips or problems over wireless on both the unit and the computer. The biggest problem that I found is that the .avi support often finds files that "aren't compatible format." It took me a couple of hours to figure it out but I finally got it.
If you have this unit or are going to buy it here is what you need to know to play .avi files successfully. The file needs to have a "packed bitstream" and a "FourCC" of "XVID"
These can be changed on existing files with two different programs and it takes about 2 minutes for a standard length movie.
first run it through MpegModifier and then through Nic's Mini AviC FourCC Changer. Hope this helps all of you.
It is wonderful [Posted on 2008-09-09]
It works like a charm. Easy setup..use TVersity for everything.
My system:
computer: Dell I530 quad 2.4(not a VIIV!). Install TVersity.
Router: Verizon MI424-WR. Connection: wireless.
TV: Sceptre X42, connected by HDMI.
Smooth run, no stuttering. Have not figured out continuous run for files in a video album yet......
BTW, I didnt buy it from Amazon..it was from CC, on sale about $52 bucks.
Click here for more details and discount information...
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