written by ljh on 02/03/2013
I was looking for a Media Player that 1. accessed my videos, misic and photos stored on my NAS easily 2. was simplicity itself to set up 3. had a really easy to use user interface 4. gave me access to a wide range of media-related apps. Sadly this has failed on every single one of these. 1. Access to the NAS took 2 days to sort out - as the WD simply didn't see it. It transpires that despite my other PCs, tablets, etc. being able to access my NAS directly without any special settings, this box needs to be specifically permitted through the NAS firewall (whereas nothing else needs that). 2. I had to delve into NAS firewalls, IP addresses and the like to get this box to see the NAS. Then I needed to set it up to see the relevent media folders. Like most people I store my music in one folder structure, photos in another, etc...). However this box can only be pointed at one, and one folder structure only. So I have to navigate to the correct folder for the relevant media every time. 3. The menu structure is bizarre. It's a horizontal ribbon that only allows you to see 3 menu options at a time. Add that they're not in any logical sequence and it means you're forever scrolling left or right to find the right menu option. Then once you've found the right option you delve into the sub-menu options. Once you select an app, the button logic is not consistently applied. To make things worse, it is highly sensitive to the network speed. I have it connected using my wireless LAN in the house and to get it to work even passably well I have to stop just about everything else running. And even then most of the time it will display thumbnails of my photos in under a second and then refuse to show full-screen images of 5Meg pictures.... 4. The range of media apps is very disappointing and almost all of them (other than BBC iPlayer) are US-centric. IF you're thinking that this will give you a "Samsung Smart TV" style then forget it. Disappointed doesn't begin to describe how I feel about this...
Do you have a question about this product or company? Simply type it in the box below and one of our community will give you an answer
Once we've checked over your question we will put it live on the site and our strong community of experts will hopefully give you some great answers that you find useful.
We will email you when the question is on the site