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Internet radio, with the radio stations from back home plus a trail of Rhapsody.Only for $179. Installed the NP1100 on my Marantz receiver and finally can listen to all my music files on my PC. Thanks
Second, i can listen online and internet radio music. Third, I also found it is really cool to control my music that i have in my notebook from just pointing the remote control to the player itself.I don't need to control the music from teh notebook itself or turn on my PC for the internet radio. Very cool. This player is really cool. First of all, I don't need to chuck my own hifi away in able to enjoy the digital music. Love it.
It's all PC related stuff and not to do with the device itself which worked well. Hooking it up to my router was simple. However, it sounds like a cool way to get access to new music.The big, black and white display is a bit chunky close up, but quite visible from across the room. to work with the NP1100.
It would be nice if a slicker colour version is in the future, but the the back and white does the job.In terms of sound quality, I'm sure this has more to do with the recording quality of the content and my stereo than the device itself. On top of that, I had to configure my firewall etc.
The streaming from the PC is a bit trickier in that I had to configure my PC for sharing. None the less, the user manual (once I looked at it) helped me through it quite well.
Start early with the user manual for this part and you should be fine.I haven't had the chance to play with the Rhapsody on-line service feature yet. I really like having internet radio away from PC on a proper sound system.
The sharing feature of Windows Media player is not an obvious button to click. search, select my network, enter my WEP key and it was working right away.The selection of stations is excellent.
Any time I miss a show on NPR or CBC (public radio) I can usually find it again in another time zone. So far everything sounds good to me on it.Overall, the device worked well and I'm happy to have internet radio freed from my PC with a small simple device.
Since most music lovers use iTunes (going by Apple's market-share due to iPod sales), one has to wonder what Philips were thinking with this release. Don't lose it.The Apple Airport Express does the same thing for much less, albeit without the screen/remote, but has more uses such as wireless printing support, bridging modes etc.
It was a pain to set up, failing to detect my WPA network, the screen is absolutely horrendous, with the refresh rate on par with the Earth's rotation around the sun. You're then stuck with the aforementioned Windows Media Player and this Streamium, a device that randomly locks up (needing a plug-pull from the wall), and, aside from the power button, all the controls are on the included remote.
Style-wise, this is actually quite a nifty-looking product. I really don't recommend this device unless you're a Rhapsody subscriber.
But the praise ends there. The box tells you that it works with "any" Windows Media Player, but apparently this only means Windows Media Player 11.
It's simply not worth it.
The installation was pretty straightforward and I got the thing working almost instantly. I mainly use internet radio and I love Rhapsody so I hardly use it to listen to my own music from my PC. A friend of mine has a Squeezebox which is nice but a bit too expensive and complicated for me (at least that is what I experienced when I was playing with that one). I just bought myself a second Streamium NP1100 after I used my first one for two weeks. I now have one in my living room and one in my study. For me this Philips products does what it says and does it well.
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