PHILIPS Streamium Network Music Player with 3.0" B&W Display NP1100/37

Pros: Affordable, compact (looks like a radio clock), easy setup with Windows 7, streams music and internet radio through my stereo system.

Cons: Scrolling through a big playlist takes a while, doesn't see my external ethernet drive because it isn't UPnP so I have to have a computer running.

Other Thoughts: I was looking for something simple and affordable to stream music to my stereo system and this thing works perfectly. Setup is really simple, and the sound quality is very good. I'm going to have to invest in a better NAS if I want it to work without a computer involved but that's not a deal breaker, I'm pleased with this device.

Pros: First, Internet Radio is the coolest. Philips has very good software in place to support the avid listener. Also, the NP1100 works well with the Iomega Home Media NAS drive which has a built in DLNA server. Additionally, if you have Comcast Internet, this will allow you to use your Rhapsody account without a PC. Recommended.

Cons: NP1100 wireless adapter makes a weaker connection than a notebook PC. Also, the user must navigate through a few lists to select and play music. One click does not turn on the tunes.

Other Thoughts: I have a Squeezebox too, and it cannot connect into the Iomega NAS drive because it is not DLNA compliant.

Pros: ..

Cons: ..

Other Thoughts: I indicated in my initial review that the internet radio stations weren't user-definable. That isn't quite true. Turns out that it is possible, just somewhat convoluted. Required steps: 1) follow "registration" menu prompts on the device, which basically involves inputting a valid e-mail address; 2) open the confirmation e-mail sent to the indicated account and click on the hyperlink; 3) on the Philips site you're taken to, create a new account (free) USING THE E-MAIL ADDRESS SPECIFIED IN THE DEVICE; 4) agree to various terms and conditions; 5) While logged in to the Philips site, click on "Steamium Management" --> "My Media" to access an interface for adding new streams; 5) after you've added new streams/stations, reboot your device and the manually-added item should appear. Whew.

Pros: Compared to other network music players with wireless capability, it's inexpensive - that's the unit's primary virtue. It has a digital out, so if you have an external DAC or receiver/component with a built-in DAC, you can bypass the internal D/A converter (which is still fine for most purposes). There's built-in support for Rhapsody content (subscription required), which works fairly well with a couple of exceptions (see cons, below). There's also a built-in index of internet radio streams representing various languages/genres, which makes it painless to quickly listen to foreign language stations very quickly/easily, if that's your cup of tea. Handles constant or variable rate mp3 files up to 320 kbs, can handle DRM'd wma files if you use WMP as your server. Uses UPNP network protocols, so you can ditch WMP and use a more full-featured UPNP server option (definitely recommended... I use foobar2000 with the foo_upnp component to serve audio files to this unit, and it works great)

Cons: No support for FLAC or other lossless audio formats. No support for album art, video files, or other frills... this is a just a basic audio renderer. Wireless networking, while nice in theory, proved frustrating with my router (inconsistent / buggy recognition of the player on my network)... so much so that I ultimately gave up on the wireless and resorted to hard-wired ethernet setup. Display is fairly awful.... the metadata layout is not configurable, and the default view is minimal. Only file title is shown by default, and long titles are scrolled with a MIND-NUMBINGLY SLOW scroll speed (not adjustable). With a manual toggle of a button on the remote, the scrolling content switches to Title/Album/Artist... but the scrolling is so slow that you'll give up before artist info is displayed. Rhapsody content access is a nice idea, but implementation suffers due to an inexplicable pause of ~10 seconds between each track. Inability to set/modify the list of internet radio is dumb.

Other Thoughts: For the price, I'd recommend this to somebody interested in a music/audio only solution on the cheap - provided that they were fairly tech savvy. Please note - this device is designed simply to get your media files to a stereo or other device with RCA or digital audio inputs... it has no built-in amp/speakers etc.