[djbradster]

Hooray! I finally received my DSM320...after only 3 months of being backordered. So far, I'm very impressed. I've tried it in 2 different rooms, both times connecting to a 802.11G access point. Works great. I've streamed AVI's, MPG's, MP3's and photos (JPG's) so far without problems. The server software allows you to select network shares, so if your files are on more then one computer you don't have to load different copies of the server software.


The remote is a little "klunky". I intend to program it into my Harmony soon. Hopefully that'll help a bit on that front.


Anyway...only had it a day, but so far I'm very happy with it. Any ?'s? I'll try to run some more intensive tests and keep everyone posted.


Got it from the D-Link site for $139, although now it's going for $199. I guess I got in there before it went up --- but I did have to wait impatiently for 3 months. I've seen it advertised for $179 elsewhere, but not yet in stock.


Bradser

 

[sushifishman]

Does the PC or the DSM320 do the processing (encoding/decoding) of files?


It effects performance if the PC is dependant on this

 

[NickChicago]

what is the music GUI like?

 

[Jeraden]

Is there a maximum bitrate it can handle for video files?

 

[GimmeMP3]

Does the music section do Artist, Album and Genre from ID3 tags? Did you get a PDF version of the user manual? If so, can you post it?

 

[djbradster]

I didn't get as much time to play with the unit today as I would have liked, but I did get to test a few things. First off...it's not perfect. It doesn't seem to put much strain on the computer, but it does take a big toll on the wireless network. Not sure of wired...haven't tried that. If the wireless network is doing anything else, it pretty much makes playing video unwatchable. Lots of stutters and stops and restarts. Once the network is freed up, though...it plays like a champ.


It doesn't appear to do any transcoding of files...I think it streams them directly. I may be wrong, but if I am it is very efficient. I'm able to use the computer for other things (non-network things) without a slowdown while streaming a movie.


Not sure what the maximum bitrate is. It choked on a 2 hour DiVX AVI file but had no problem on a 45 minute clip (E.R.). I know that has nothing to with the bitrate, though. Video quality on E.R. was excellent (file was recorded from an HD tuner and played back with near-HD quality in my opinion.


The music section does do artist, title, genre and much more. ID3 tags are displayed and you can sort by folder and album (as well as all the others). If you have a large library, the network needs to be fairly idle for it to download the database.


The manual is on the CD that comes with it in PDF form. I believe it's also on the website. I can post it for you if you can't find it there.


Again...so far I'm impressed. A little less impressed then I was yesterday, but still impressed. I'm trying to figure out why one AVI doesn't play when others do. The main reason I got this thing is to play movies downloaded from the net, so it's gotta be able to do those. I think I'll be buying a couple more for the bedrooms, unless this goes bad or somethin'.


Anyway...I'll keep ya posted and try to answer your ?'s.


Bradster

 

[Toolman Tim]

I just bought mine today, and I'm not that impressed, so far my biggest things is there is no rewind for movie playback so lame. There is a rewind button but it doesn't do a damn thing, since I come from tivo land a 30 second skip would be so nice, but there is no such thing. I guess it does what it does, just nothing that is revolutionary, it does however seem very early in it's life, so maybe better things are on the way, but I was hoping for a better remote, doesn't seem like it's rf, and the remote is pretty bad, pretty cheapy it's not the worst remote, see wintv-hd for that prize. I did download the latest firmware, but I don't know what changes it made, so I haven't seen the previous firmware, (it asked me right away if I wanted the new one and I said yes). I hope they support this and make it really good product it does have potential.



Toolman

 

[chasby]

My number 1 requirement for a media server is that it must provide high definition 1080i slideshows of my JPEG images. Looking at everything I've found out about the DSM-320 it appears that it is a standard definition machine: 480i NTSC only!!!

Have I missed something???

Chasby

 

[GimmeMP3]

I can find no product manual on the DLink site or anywhere else. I'm sure many of us would appreciate it if someone would post a manual. Thanks!

 

[chasby]

Got my answer from a D-Link tech rep today!!

Unit provides only up to 640X480 pixel resolution.

So I'm still searching for a HDTV capable server.

Chasby

 

[mchristsen]

chasby


I think the only think right now that does HD of any kind is the Roku HD-1000. Picture slide shows are reported to be great, but video is alpha/beta stage.


Mike

 

[HookedOnTV]

Quote:

Originally posted by chasby Got my answer from a D-Link tech rep today!! Unit provides only up to 640X480 pixel resolution. So I'm still searching for a HDTV capable server. Chasby

Server? Do you mean client? Only true HD capable box is the Roku.

 

[dennya]

The Roku HD1000 doesn't do video, though. If you're going to drop $300 on that, might as well just spend $600 and put together a Biostar iDEQ PC box with a HDTV-capable ATI card and a wireless network card.

 

[jbarr]

Go here for the product page:
http://dlink.com/products/?pid=318


Go here for the Quick Installation Manual:
http://dlink.com/products/support.as...kInstallGuides


Go here for the full user manual:
ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Medialounge/DSM3...manual_100.zip

 

[jbarr]

Some questions:


How is the MP3 management?


How does it handle large quantities of MP3 files?

I have a few thousand MP3 files that I would like to serve up, and if the interface is decent, I'll even consider ripping 100 or so of my other CD's. Most of my ID3 tags are cleaned up (still need to spend some time on the rest, though.)


If I do a lot of "prep" work on the PC side (correcting ID3 tags, organizing them into folders, etc.) Will this help?


Also, will it handle playlists?


Sorry to bombard you with questions, but the bottom line is that I'm looking for a solid networked appliance that will let me tap into my MP3 collection and play it through my home stereo. It has to have a remote control, and if it will play other things like videos and photo slideshows through my TV, that would be a bonus, but not necessary. The DSM-300, at under $200, seems very viable.

 

[jbarr]

One more question: (Sorry for the barrage of questions, but you got me on a roll!)


This may be obvious, but is it compatible with Belkin network equipment?


I have a home 802.11g wireless network consisting of three bridged Belkin F5D7230-4 routers, and it works very well. I have full broadband access and can stream ReplayTV files to my PC and vice versa, so the bandwidth is decent. Is the D-Link DSM-300 compatible? I assume it is given that it's 802.11g compliant.

 

[djbradster]

Quote:

Originally posted by jbarr Some questions: How is the MP3 management?

It does an OK job from what I can tell. It allows you to sort by many thing, including folders, artists, genre, etc.

Quote:

How does it handle large quantities of MP3 files? I have a few thousand MP3 files that I would like to serve up, and if the interface is decent, I'll even consider ripping 100 or so of my other CD's. Most of my ID3 tags are cleaned up (still need to spend some time on the rest, though.)

It takes it awhile to load the database. Each time you add new media (video or audio), you have to either add it to the database by dropping it in a "watch folder", or have the server software re-scan the directory the media is in. I have had it "lock up" a couple times, but this appears to be a network issue.

Quote:

If I do a lot of "prep" work on the PC side (correcting ID3 tags, organizing them into folders, etc.) Will this help?

Might make it look cleaner on the display, but probably won't affect how it functions. There is a character limit on what it displays on the TV set -- anything over the limit (sorry---don't know what it is off hand) won't be displayed...just trails off screen. Short titles are the key here I think

Quote:

Also, will it handle playlists?

Not sure...haven't tried yet....



Bradster

 

[djbradster]

Quote:

Originally posted by jbarr One more question: (Sorry for the barrage of questions, but you got me on a roll!) This may be obvious, but is it compatible with Belkin network equipment? I have a home 802.11g wireless network consisting of three bridged Belkin F5D7230-4 routers, and it works very well. I have full broadband access and can stream ReplayTV files to my PC and vice versa, so the bandwidth is decent. Is the D-Link DSM-300 compatible? I assume it is given that it's 802.11g compliant.

I can't imagine why it wouldn't work with Belkin. I use an unknown (to me anyway) brand of 802.11g access poing (Airlink), and it works fine. If you're only streaming audio there shouldn't be a problem. If you do video, the system will start to stutter if the network is being used for much else. With little or no network activity, though, (at least through the AP) it rocks.


Brad

 

[jbarr]

Well, I just downloaded the manual and, and after reading through it, I thought I'd post some interesting items I found:


Music

1. Maximum MP3 quality: 192kbps

2. Will play .m3u and .pls playlists. Playlists must be created on the PC.

3. Allows standard Play, Pause, Stop, Next, Previous, FF, and Reverse functions

4. You can define 1-9 "preset" songs corresponding to the keypad buttons, but it doesn't look like you can define a playlist as a preset.

5. Songs within playlists can be played in playlist order, shuffled, and optionally repeated.

6. According to a screenshot, current track information displays when a song is playing, and it also displays the next song in the queue.


Photos

1. Only presets can be played while viewing photos, and they must be manually selected, one-at-a-time.

2. Folders of photos define "Albums"

3. Slideshow control includes Play, Pause, Stop, Next, and Previous, and the delay between slides is user-definable from 1 second to 2 minutes.

4. You can optionally display information about the photo being displayed.


Video

1. Playback controls include Play, Volume +/-, Mute, FF, Display, and Repeat. There seems to be no reverse, frame-step, slow motion, or positional jump functions.

2. I am very interested if the DSM-320 could play downloaded "raw" ReplayTV MPEG-2 files.


Online Media

1. The only online media service is [email protected], requiring an AOL account. An AOL free trial is available.


Search

1. Looks like it can only search titles, not artist, genre, etc.


Remote

1. The FAQ says that the DSM-320 remote is not compatable with universal remotes. Given that the remote is the ONLY way to control the SM-320, maybe a learning remote as abckup would be prudent.


Other

1. Copy protected files cannot be played on the DSM-320

2. Windows .WMV video files are not supported. Presumably, you could use something like TMPGenc or something to convert to MPEG.

3. There is no storage on the DSM-320, so you must have the media server software installed on at least on networked PC to server media files.

4. [email protected] requires only an AOL account and a broadband connection. No PC-side software is required.


Mind you, these are items taken right out of the manual. I have never actually used a DSM-320.


For $200, this looks like a pretty decent box. I'm interested to hear from users what they think. I'm not sure if this will fit my desires, but it certainly looks like a great start!

 

[lsarver]

Quote:

For $200, this looks like a pretty decent box.

Limitations such as the following (from manual/post) are ridiculous and unacceptable:


1. Maximum MP3 quality: 192kbps

2. Playlists must be created on the PC.

3. The only online media service is [email protected], requiring an AOL account.

4. Looks like it can only search titles, not artist, genre, etc.

5. The . . . DSM-320 remote is not compatable with universal remotes.

6. Copy protected files cannot be played on the DSM-320


At least for playing music, this thing is completely outclassed by the now three-year old AudioTron, which BTW, costs the same $200 (if you can find it).