Buffalo LinkTheater Hi Def Media Player PC-P3LWG/DVD

by BUFFALO

Product Details

Product Manual [1.31mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 17 x 11 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.5 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007MGEOC
• Item model number: PC-P3LWG/DVD
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,577 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 28, 2004

Product Description

Buffalo Technology (PC-P3LWG/DVD) LinkTheater Hi-Def MediaPlayer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The best available, August 15, 2005

By 

Brian Carroll "atticus27" (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buffalo LinkTheater Hi Def Media Player PC-P3LWG/DVD (Personal Computers)

The LinkTheater certainly isn't perfect, but the other reviews I see here seem way harsh. This is the best media player you can buy.

Actual problems: (1) The remote is quirky. Sometimes the fast-forward button seems to lock up, going past where you wanted. Going back, it then does the same thing. (2) Some menus are clumsy, and navigating them takes more pushes of buttons on the remote than it should. (3) No digital video output; component video is the best output available.

On the other hand, the LinkTheater plays all of my media files: mp3's, divX, high-def, windows DRM, you name it, it plays them all. Any kind of disk, or directly from any computer in my network. It plays them easily, and they look great on my big-screen and sound great over my stereo.

I certainly hope that Buffalo continues to improve this product, but just as it is, this is head and shoulders above any other media player you can buy (I've also used Belkin's and two different Linksys products). It's even gorgeous, looking great in my media stack. Nothing else works anywhere near as well.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Less frustrating if you leave it switched off....., April 8, 2006

By 

Conan Thomas (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Buffalo LinkTheater Hi Def Media Player PC-P3LWG/DVD (Personal Computers)

I have my Buffalo LinkTheatre about 18 months and I've diliegently been checking for upgrades to the firmware or software because - IT REALLY NEEDS IT - but they don't come.

I took the time one morning to write a long email to support and to sales at Buffalo explaining that rather than simply write a review I'd share my thoughts of good and bad, that's fair - right? Well I got nothing, no reply at all.

Buyer beware! When you know of a company that ignores its customers you're empowered to avoid them like the plague.

So I won't go on and on about the box, it feels like a beta because it is a beta, the browser based interface will actually stop you wanting to use technology, (and I work for a NY based Software company!) How such a capable box ended up with such a terrible user interface I do not know, but it is worse than any badly written website - pretty pathetic Buffalo.

In summary: if you want a box like this as I did just wait a little bit longer, everything out there is 1st generation. They didn't remember people will want to use them. I hope Buffalo catches on Quickly. It's a real shame, it showed so much promise...

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the best media players out there, December 20, 2006

By 

Someone (Mountain view, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buffalo LinkTheater Hi Def Media Player PC-P3LWG/DVD (Personal Computers)

Pros:
+ easy to setup. Handled WEP encryption in my network without any problems.
+ Plays a wide range of video formats (Divx, Wmv, VCDs, decrypted DVDs.. to name a few).
+ USB port to directly plugin external hard disks.
+ functions as advertised.
+ Excellent video/photo player. (Mp3/Internet browsing could be improved)

Cons:
- documentation/manual could be improved. For example, it was not mentioned in the manual that the wireless settings need to be entered manually (There is a menu item in linktheater menu to auto-detect wireless networks and it doesn't work).
- No support for external hard disks with NTFS file systems. External hard drives with FAT32 file systems worked fine without any glitches
- No interactive menu support for playing backed-up dvds. You have to play the individual VOB files.
- playlist support for MP3 could be improved.
- Web browser needs improvement. The browser doesn't play embedded videos in web pages (you have to download them to your PC/Ext HD before you can view them). The included remote is not well suited for browsing web pages.


* Overall, an excellent media player for its price range (< $250 at frys).