[firedog]

Anyone got one of these? The STREAMIUM SL300i by phillips?

If so, does it perform with video ok?

My pc is upstairs, connected to the router in next room via a wireless adapter, and this streamer will be downstairs - will video play perfectly ok?

Is the server software also good?

[Chris Frost]

I have an SL300i. You'll need to make sure your router is fully UPnP compliant before the SL300i will work correctly. Once I changed my original Belkin wireless router for a Netgear 834DSG (?) I got a good reliable connection.

The bottleneck is the speed of your wireless network connection. Wired is much, much faster. Music will be fine, as will VCD and MPEG1 type resolution video over wireless. I never got smooth playback of ripped DVD files over wireless.

The Streamium server software is a bit glitchy. There's more info on this and advice on alternatives at the Streamium Cafe community board

Regards

[firedog]

Hi Chris, thank you.

Im sure my netgear is compliant, on the specs it says Compliant Standards: CE, UPnP, FCC, UPnP

I have a netgear dg834g router, and a wg111 wireless adapter. You think even though my router aint wired into my pc, itl be fine?

I will be using the streamer for divx videos, and music.

The software - if I use something else, will menus look different on the sl300i, or is it the same menus regardless of what i use?

Whats the best software to use for this that has internet apps like the philips software does? Or is the Philips software perfectly fine?

Thanks

[Chris Frost]

The wireless connection from laptop to router to SL300i will be fine for MP3 music. I don't think you'll get the DivX to work, not unless the file sizes are really small.

The OSD from the SL300i will look the same regardless of what server software you run. The server software is one thing, the SL300i OSD is something separate.

I'd suggest you have a look at that link I provided. It's a while since I used my SL300i.

[mediafriendly]

Philips have never really put any effort into Streamium. When I first bought it, there were high quality music services on there from Virgin Digital and Yahoo Music, both of which have since closed. So all you are left with is Bluebeat, and a range of internet radio stations - but the interface is way behind its competitors now, so you aren't even given track and artist information. I haven't used it for video for ages, but in my recollection it was pretty ropey. Hope you got it cheap on ebay!

[firedog]

I got it fairly cheap, not received it yet. It's not a laptop I have, I have:

PC Upstairs with wireless adapter > Router in spare room

So basically, I've made a mistake?

From what I can see, you do see artist/title info when playing one of your mp3 files.

Why on earth in the instruction manual does it show the streamium working wirelessly even my a pc connected to router via a wireless adapter then?!

[Chris Frost]

The SL300i has the video codes to deal with MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, playback DivX, and XviD.

The________big________stumbling________block________is________the________speed________of________wireless________networking!!!!



Do you really believe that you're getting the max transmission rate of your 802.11g wireless router all the time?


g is rated at 54 Mbits/s but I seriously doubt your getting anywhere near that transmission rate. Here's just some of the things that will slow it down:

building construction
distance
microwave interference
cordless dect phone interference
other wireless devices, e.g. baby monitors, wireless cctv cams, other wireless routers (Sky broadband)


I'd be surprised if you're getting 1/4 of the published data rate on a consistent basis.

Next, consider the hidden disconnects that happen every so often. Ever seen the "Wireless now connected" icon on the tool bar pop up every now and then. That's your wireless falling over and picking itself up. It's not a problem if your surfing the net, but when you are streaming bandwidth hungry content for live replay it's a different matter altogether.

If you want to play DivX files from your laptop then for god sake just plug the bl**dy laptop into the back of the SL300i and stop bug**ring around with trying to make wireless do something it's not good at.

Internet radio, streamed music, picture files - they'll all work fine wirelessly.

BTW - your music tracks will show you artist and title details as long as the tracks are tagged correctly. For internet radio, if there's a track playing that you like then you can press a button on the remote to get an email with artist, title, CD, year of release, disc jockeys inside leg measurement, name of the producers dog, pizza place phone number across from recording studio, weather conditions on the day of recording you get the drift.

[firedog]

Ok, i dont have a laptop to plug into the back of the player.

Why then does the player promote itself to be wireless? Perhaps then it would work better with the 108mbps netgear router, however, i have a 54mbps router.

have you ever tried the player wirelessly chris?

also, video streaming would probably only use around 4mbps anyway.

[Chris Frost]

Quote:

Originally Posted by firedog

Why then does the player promote itself to be wireless?

Because it is a wireless device.

As long as the data rate of the signal you want to play can be accommodated by your wireless router and maintained consistently then the Streamium will play the file (and obviously the file format needs to be one of those supported.)

The thing is - the streamium can't play smoothly when there's big_____gaps______in______the_______data______stream.

It's not the player's fault if the info isn't there. So it's wireless within the constraints of how your wireless gear works in your house with all the wireless hash and noise in your area. It's all very personal to each user.

Quote:

Originally Posted by firedog

have you ever tried the player wirelessly chris?

Yep, why do you think I'm sat at my kb at 11.30pm typing out long ass replies

My system is similar to yours. PC upstairs, mine wired to the router also upstairs (DG834G), SL300i downstairs on a wireless connection.

I ripped some bits of dvd's to disc to test. They never worked reliably.

I edited some DV camcorder footage to a lower res file format and that played well.

Music and internet radio worked without a hitch.


Look, you're just going to have to try it when the SL300i arrives.

Good luck

[firedog]

ahhh thats it, you ripped DVD - bitrate will be too high thats why.

normal divx files with much lower bitrate than dvds will play fine.

[firedog]

p.s. not bein funny, but i never asked you to reply so i have no idea why you are making out im keeping you up at your pc til 11.30!!

[kev]

I've found wireless can support streaming video fine, provided the signal is strong enough - hey, if my KISS DP-1600 can manage it (not exactly a well renowned player!) then it is possible, and that's streaming DVD quality MPEGs from my NAS across 54g WiFi.

Buffalo Linkstation (Ethernet) Draytek Vigor 2800 (WiFi) Linksys KISS DP-1600

(And that test was done while downloading and streaming MP3 radio from the internet).

[firedog]

thanks kev for your useful response.