- Instantly stream movies, music, videos from Amazon Instant Video, Netflix, YouTube, Pandora, Hulu Plus, and more
- Enjoy music, photos and video via front USB slot (compatible with USB thumbdrives and external hard drives); DLNA compatible
- Built-in Wireless-N Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g/n) plus Ethernet for wired connection
- Connections: 1 HDMI, 1 component, 1 composite, 1 Ethernet, 1 optical digital audio output, 1 USB
- Includes remote control; can also be controlled via free app for iPhone/iPod touch and select Android phones
Purchased this box 2 months ago, and it always works great. Using it wireless with a Zyxel X-550 and I can stream 20M from my pc full hd and 5:1 dolby from a dvd I converted for testing the DLNA support. Video and music from windows 7 works great. Just need to setup the videos and music in windows media player and they all show up on the SMP-N100.
Internet video works flawless also. I use it with Netflix and Huluplus. I have a 15M cable connection so bandwith isn't an issue. I canceled my cable after getting this working. I can get news, etc over the air, everything else over the internet.
I also picked up a Roku XD/S. The Roku is much easier/nicer to fast forward and rewind. I like the Netflix browse list on the Sony over the Roku, it shows 18 selections rather than the 5 on the Roku. The interface is quite a bit better for Hulu with the Roku, the Sony is pretty crude. There are other small advantages in one interface over another.
As for the hardware, there is no question which one is on top. The Sony is much better built, with a full component, composite, optical audio and hdmi jacks. The Roku you need to buy there cable for component support which is a pretty low grade cable. I need component support cause I'm not ready to give up my DLP tv. I like the projection screen rather than looking into a light bulb. The HDMI connections work well on both units when connected to my LCD tv.
The remote for the sony is excellent. Put the code in for the tv and it runs both the box and tv great.
The video quality on both units is very nice. Better than what I use to get on cable.
The main reason I gave it 4 stars is the lack of software updates and I suspect it won't get much if any attention in the future.
Buy Sony SMP-N100 Streaming Player with Wi-Fi Now
This is a review as well as a comparison with other similar products out there.I've done extensive research in digital media players and have tried the following models:
a) Roku XDS, b) WD V Live Plus, c) Sony network media player SMP N100, 4) Apple TV and Boxee software on the laptop.
I really wanted to like Roku and was super excited to set is up and have it connected to the internet and was installing apps within minutes. After few days I realized that the hassle of entering a code for every app and then registering on the app providers is too much of a hassle. Even if I wanted to play the content thru USB, it was a hassle with private channels. Another issue with this is that Roku is not DLNA certified so it doesn't work with your other machines on the network. You would need to jump thru the hoops of creating private channels or some elaborate setup to achieve that. If you install too many apps, it runs out of memory and you'd need to uninstall some.
Apple TV has the best interface and the most intuitive one. The only issue is that it only streams via iTunes so sharing thru anything else is a problem. Some people have installed Boxee on AppleTV sort of expands its capabilities in terms of the network support.
WD TV Live Plus is the best so far in my research and trials. It pretty much plays any content you throw at it and it recognizes the formats. There are not a lot of widgets (compared to Roku and Boxee) so you might feel limited in terms of what can be achieved, but if you install a TVersity server on one of the machines on your network then you can pretty much stream any content to the box. Installing TVersity is a snap (and free). This is also a DLNA certified device so it sees all the other windows devices on your network and you can play them on the box wirelessly. I've streamed 1080p thru a wireless laptop on the device and it worked without any hitch. This also support "Play to" in the media player according to the book, but I've not had success with it. I had my 1TB external USB drive connected to it and it was a sweet set up in terms of access to all my media. Since it's a DLNA device, I could also access my external 1TB disk on the network to copy/move data around and it didn't need a computer to do it.
Boxee software on the laptop works great but I haven't tried the hardware box as it's around the double the price of its compititiors. There are just too many apps on it so it becomes difficult to find what you want to play and then it has memory limitation as well. The interface is user configurable so you can get skins downloaded for your preferences.
Sony network media player is also a DLNA certified device but I came across the following issues: a) when I connect a external usb drive which has two partitions, it only recognizes the first partition and doesn't show the second one. While WD TV Live Plus shows both as hard disks. b) It recognizes the Windows 7 machine quickly as a media repository but only sees the directories which are marked as 'Library' in the Windows Media Player on the machine. You would have to add more directories to the library if you want its content to show up on the Sony device. WD TV Live Plus also recognizes the device as a network share so you are free to browse all the folders. You just need to set the 'source' in the settings as the root level folder then everything is visible. c) 'Play To' from the windows machine of Windows Media Player tries to contact the Sony device but always gives an error of "unsupported format" even though the same file plays fine directly from the Sony device. Never been able to use "Play To" successfully. d) For some widgets like Hulu/Netflix etc you would need to register at a sony url from the computer before you can use it. e) The on-screen keyboard is like a 'phone keypad' where the alphabets on keys 0-9 so you would either need to press the same button multiple times to enter a character or use the arraw buttons to go the right key, in which case it's easy to overshoot. Would have been nice to have a full screen keyboard like WD TV Live plus.. although Boxee device has a complete keyboard on the remote which would be even better to enter the words for search etc. f) It won't see many file formats since the support is not as wide as WD TV Live Plus. g) on the positive side, the dolby/dts sound from the device sounds much better than others, but if you are directing the HDMI thru a receiver then you don't care about it. h) also has composite and component out which makes it more flexible compared to hdmi only.
Overall, if you are interested in just using the online services like Hulu Plus, Netflix, or Amazon VoD then you can get Apple TV for the easiest interface. Although Apple TV specifically does not support Hulu officially but there are hacks available. If your inner 'geek' wants to make it a central device where you can add your own hard disks with it or stream content from any device in your home or stream any content from the internet using TVersity etc or play any format of audio or video, then get the WD TV Live Plus.
*** Update after more than a year March 2012***
Been pretty happy with WDTV Live Plus and it has worked as a network storage as well as a DLNA media player for all formats since most TVs (including my Panasonic Viera) don't support many formats.
Read Best Reviews of Sony SMP-N100 Streaming Player with Wi-Fi Here
It's an impressive device for accessing Internet content (movies, music, etc.), seems to work flawlessly over my wired network, and it was easy to set up. Pandora and Slacker Internet Radio and On-demand Internet videos from Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, and many others work great. For those functions it meets or exceeds my expectations.However, I also bought the SMP-N100 to play music from my home library stored on a Windows Vista PC and it's disappointing in that area. It did not recognize Windows Media Player 11 or Tversity as valid DLNA servers. I had to buy Twonky for it to recognize my home library through DLNA. But the worst shortcoming is that when you attempt to play a group of music files (based on artist, album, genre, etc.), you can only play them in alphabetical order. There is no shuffle. And there is also no concept of a play queue. So you cannot play songs from one artist and then add songs from another. These are very basic features needed for audio playback and hopefully will be added by Sony with the next firmware upgrade. Otherwise, it's not really usable as a digital audio player.
Want Sony SMP-N100 Streaming Player with Wi-Fi Discount?
I have been looking to replace my WD HD Live for months now. The Western Digital was very slow to recognize my Western Digital hard drive and scrolling through my music collection was very slow. Also, the WD had problems with Hulu. My guess is that the WD is underpowered.The Sony beats it in all ways that I have found. It looks better, produces better results and is easier to use. As a matter of fact, I just bought a second media player for an older upstairs TV set. Here are some things that I like.
1. Picture quality is outstanding for Internet TV. I use both Hulu Plus and Netflix over Verizon FIOS in full 1080P. Images are crystal clear and razor sharp. An A+ here.
2. It supports Anynet+, which means my Samsung TV remote can control the Sony Media Player. It makes it seem like the media player is built into the set. This is really great because my wife does hate more than one remote. Grade A
3. Another reviewer commented that the unit did not recognize his WD hard drive. I get the same message, however, the files are all there and are playable. I discovered that the issue is that the WD drive has a non-standard partition reserved for WD software -something to do with automatic backups. When the unit sees that partition, it does not recognize it. But, it does recognize the NFTS drive with all my music and video. No worries at all -except for that annoying pop-up. Grade: B+, reduced for the pop-up.
4. Faster retrieval from my hard drive. Much quicker at searching and scrolling than my WD drive. Grade A
5. The Sony media player unit is very solidly built and connects well with my Samsung LED TV. Looks nice, not plasticy. Grade A+
So, all in all, I was very happy with the purchase at Costco and recommend the unit.
My big wish? I wish it had XM Radio internet support. That would be sweet.
Video
AVCHDLPCM or MP2 audio
DivX HDAC3 or MP3 audio
H.264AAC audio
MP4AAC audio
MPEG-1 & 2MP2 audio
VOBAC3, DTS, LPCM or MP2 audio
WMV9(VC-1)WMA9.2 audio
Music
AAC(M4A)
MP3
WAV
WMA
Photo
JPEG
It has built-in wireless: 2.4GHz N band
On the back it has: ethernet, HDMI, composite, component, optical and analog
It can output: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
So far I'm happy with it. One word of caution though, make sure to turn off the device before plugging or unplugging a USB device.
UPDATE 10/15/10: Qriosity works. The player does not support ISO files and the only video you can stream is DivX, WMV and MPEG. I was able to get WMV and MPEG to stream with TVMOBiLi by changing the extension to .divx . PlayOn and WMP 11 also works for streaming.
UPDATE 12/15/11: The player is still working great, I use it almost everyday. CinemaNow is now available.
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