Get More Out of Your Wireless Network (Part 2) on Media Player

If music alone isn’t enough for you, some players can stream video and show pictures thru wireless connection as well. These multimedia boxes let you send almost any video or still images that are stored on your PC to your TV set without needing to run cables in between. In this post, we will look at devices that able to progressive-scan DVD as well, so they can replace a regular DVD player in your home theater setup.

D-Link DSM-320RD

A step up from the audio-only DSM-120, the DSM-320RD has excellent audio quality and supports a broad range of music formats, including Live365 and Radio@AOL. It also has a 5-in-1 card reader. But the photo and video playback quality was mixed, mainly due to the inherent limitations of a TV screen versus a PC monitor.

Unless you have an HDTV set and an HD-capable streamer like the Buffalo unit, your digital photos will be reduced in resolution to about 720 by 480, and their edges might be cropped. That said, navigating to photo folder and selecting pictures for display via the player was simple, and a slide show-creation feature lets you choose accompanying background music.

Video files don’t share the transfer troubles of still images. Most standard-format videos that you might store on your PC are already in the right aspect ratio and resolution for your TV, and the D-Link’s playback quality was similar to system monitor. Its major drawback for video is its lack of high-definition output. Also, as with the DSM-120, the remote control is small and overly sensitive buttons.

Buffalo LinkTheater

The Buffalo LinkTheater audio quality was excellent, and the product’s ability to display album artwork embedded in MP3 files was good too. On the video side, the player supports the popular DivX format. Finally, if you have an HDTV, the unit’s high-def mode delivers higherquality photo and video playback than the DSM-320RD, a big plus.

However, the LinkTheater’s lack of HDMI or DVI connectors, given that it supports HDTV. The model could benefit from WPA support as well, which the DSM-320RD has.

Slingbox and TiVoToGo

If you want to watch TV on your PC in another room, check out Sling Media’s Slingbox or TiVo’s TiVoToGo. With the free TiVo Desktop software, the TiVoToGo feature lets Series 2 TiVo owners use a $50 USB 802.11g adapter to pull shows from the TiVo to any PC on their network. You can also burn programs to DVD, or save them to your laptop to watch on the road.

The Slingbox goes even further, letting you send video from almost any source ; including cable, satellite, DVD, VCR, and TiVo or another digital video recorder directly to your computer. What’s more, your PC can be in the next room, or anywhere it can access the Internet, say, in a Bangkok hotel room.

You have to add a standard 802.11g Wi-Fi ethernet bridge to make the Slingbox wireless and image quality is less than what you’ll get on a TV. But you can view both live and recorded video from afar in real time.