D-Link DSM-320 Wireless Media Player, Audio/Photo/Video, 802.11g

Average customer rating: 3.0

Works well for me
Arghh!!!!
What a piece of crap!!!
Junk
Cutting out

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Digital Media Lab Essentials

D-Link DSM-320 Wireless Media Player, Audio/Photo/Video, 802.11g

Manufacturer: D-Link Systems, Inc.
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B0001WXTF0

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Product Description

D-Link DSM-320 Wireless Media Player - The Wireless Media Player from D-Link merges your abundant digital entertainment collection on your PC, with the comfort and convenience of your living room. It's slim design fits into entertainment centers easily, and once attached to your TV, you can wirelessly stream your audio, photo, and video files. Navigation of your content is easy with D-Link's intuitive user interface and included remote control! Audio Compatibility - MP3, WMA, WAV, & Radio AOL Video Compatibility - MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, QuickTime, & XviD Image Compatibility - JPEG, JPEG2000, TIFF, GIF, BMP, & PNG

Customer Reviews:

Works well for me.......2007-05-11

I've playing around with this player for a few days and found it works actually pretty well if you set up everything right. So I would like to share my experience with others.

My wireless setup includes Buffalo router and two high gain antennas (one on router and the other on the player). The router is in the room upstairs and the player is in the family room downstairs. This setup gives me 56 percent strength. Not that great, but does not seem has any effect on the video playing.

The first thing I did is to upgrade the firmware to version 1.09. I use Tversity and Twonky server instead of its own server, as other posters recommended. I've also installed all the codecs necessary (easily found on tversity's website).

I use this player primarily for playing animation movies in rmvb format for my kid. It did good job to transcode the video on the fly. The xivid/divx support is good (my tv is not high definition, so I cannot comment its performance on those tv's) and no stutters at all. I haven't tried the photo and audio function since I have SMC EZ-Stream music adapter to stream the audio.

My only complaint is that although Tversity does support more formats than twonky (sometimes twonky cannot see many files), it does not support fast forward very well (it is often a hit or miss). The DSM server and twonky support fast forward better. I haven't found a way to make the internet video to work with tversity. Maybe someone can share his/her know-how about this function. I'd love to see some tips.

Overall, my goal has been achieved: to wirelessly watch the video files on my hard drive without converting or burning dvd, which save me many hassles because converting often times causes picture and audio out of sync. If you do not expect a lot more (such as high definition video, etc.), you will be happy with the $90 purchase.

Arghh!!!!.......2007-05-02

I bought the DSM-320 to wirelessly stream my large collection of DVD files from my media PC downstairs in the living room, to my TV in my master bedroom. The ripped files are in VOB format, with each movie at around 5 GB of material in size.

First, it's well known that the DSM doesn't like to be far from the wireless router. In order to get a stable connection, I literally ended up placing the router on top of the DSM, WITH THE ANTENNAS TOUCHING. This gave me a consistent "100" in signal strength, so I know any problems in streaming were not due to low strength, at least in the DSM-to-router connection.

I also added a wireless repeater to boost the strength from the router to the downstairs media PC, because obviously the stream first had to get to the router unimpinged.

With all of the little pieces getting ample signal, the DSM was easily able to communicate with it's media server application (installed on the downstairs Media PC) It presented my list of movies by title, as they're organized on the hard drives. Unfortunately, you can't select a movie's name and click "enter" on the remote. You need to drill down to the first .VTS file, and then, press "enter". Nope, just kidding. Pressing "enter" makes the player run just that one .VTS file, and there are around a half dozen in a feature length movie. So, to get a seamless movie, press "play" on the remote at the top VTS file. Then they all run in sequence to the end. Nothing from D-Link will help you figure this out; I had to scour the forums.

However, having to drill down one level isn't the slickest thing in the world, but it works. The movie plays, and in full quality with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

The DSM-320 is so frustratingly close to being what it should be. That is, it will play a movie perfectly and jitter-free for around a minute or so. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Sometimes a movie that started jittery will play the next time as fine, and then get jittery in a different spots. Sometimes it can't find its server. Occasionally it will trick you by playing a movie fine for awhile. Then, when you try another movie to be sure everything is really working...nope. Sometimes you can go back to the movie that worked well and it'll work well again. Or not. The problem with all this is, there are several dozen variables to manage, between the wireless elements and the quirks of the servers, so that just when you think you've figured it out...WRONG.

This leads me to conclude that the DSM-320 simply can't consistently stream video in a way that makes it watchable for any length of time. If that's what you need it for, save yourself a couple of lost weekends and look elsewhere.

As for servers, I tried the D-Link Media Server, the TVersity server, and my TVedia server. With some fiddling (Tversity needed some codecs)I was able to get all of them to play the videos, but nothing could overcome the jitters.

My verdict: the DSM-320 can't stream video wirelessly. It would probably benefit from a healthy internal buffer... like the kind you'd find in a ten year old portable CD player. Also, it needs to have a lot more sensitivity in the wireless department.

What a piece of crap!!!.......2007-04-05

Not very happy with this product.
The software on the pc side doesn't work well at all.
Won't list all my files and I can't get it to update changes or new folders.

This bugger has way to big of a foot print.

The remote needs a skip function to fast foward through movies.
Hey I have a Xbox with XBMC on it. Get a clue, and copy some of it's functionality. It continues to blow away any of the media players I have purchased.

Junk.......2007-03-23

The idea is great. The implementation is terrible.

To start with, the remote shouldn't really be called a remote since you have to be within 5 feet for it to work. It doesn't play correctly. The software that you have to run on your computer is clumsy. Everything about this product is wrong.

This thing is a total piece of [...]. D-Link normally produces nice products but they completely missed with this one.

Cutting out.......2007-03-13

The system was easy to hook up and get running. I wanted something to stream music
and run a slide show at the same time. I wasn't really interested in video streaming.

It seems to work ok for the most part. It does like to cut out from time to time while
streaming music. Almost to the point of being annoying. I've also got a Roku soundbridge
but I've never noticed the music cutting out like the D-Link does.

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