24-MAY-2006

I bought one of these network media player thingies. You install a "server" software in your computer, you plug the media player hardware to your TV and then the server software streams music, videos and photos to the player and your TV.

The DSM-320 is a discontinued model and my local hardware store was getting rid of their last one 79 euros.

I was also considering a discontinued Pinnacle media player with similar features and price, but knowing the size of Pinnacle's software, I decided to go for the lesser bloatware of the two.

It works well for music and photos, but video was a bit jittery - and not because of the network connection.

I had been hoping I would be able to install the server software in my remote server and place the player in a different apartment - in other words to stream over the internet from an external server and not just over local network. Streaming beyond the local home network does not seem to be possible, however, as the D-Link, like many other similar devices, uses Intel's UPNP AV standard (Intel Networked Media Product Requirements INMPR). The player simply scans the local network for an exposed media server and if it can't find one, you are out of luck - there is no option for specifying a server/IP manually.