Gateway ADC-320 Connected DVD Player with Wireless 802.11g Card

by Gateway

Product Details

Product Manual [5.22mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 10 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0001Z84G6
• Item model number: 2520659
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #225,848 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Gateway's connected DVD player merges plug-and-play networking capabilities with the latest in home-theater technology so you can stream your music, photo, and video files from a Windows-based PC in the study right to your living-room entertainment system. The progressive-scan-capable player is fully compatible with DVD-Video, CD, VCD/SVCD, Kodak Picture CD, and recordable discs full of JPEG, MP3, or WMA (Windows Media Audio) files, so you can still enjoy its authoritative features even if you're not inclined to use the networking feature just yet.

Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the Gateway player stands ready to deliver the full potential of your DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.

Gateway's connected DVD player merges plug-and-play networking capabilities with the latest in home-theater technology so you can stream your music, photo, and video files from a Windows-based PC in the study right to your living-room entertainment system. The progressive-scan-capable player is fully compatible with DVD-Video, CD, VCD/SVCD, Kodak Picture CD, and recordable discs full of JPEG, MP3, or WMA (Windows Media Audio) files, so you can still enjoy its authoritative features even if you're not inclined to use the networking feature just yet.

Whether your living room is currently home to an HDTV or you're merely thinking of "someday," the Gateway player stands ready to deliver the full potential of your DVDs. Progressive scanning, referred to as 480p for the number of horizontal lines that compose the video image, creates a picture using twice the scan lines of a conventional DVD picture, giving you higher resolution and sharper images while eliminating nearly all motion artifacts.

The player's rear panel sports a single PC Card slot (also referred to as PCMCIA) for wired or wireless access to a Windows-based home network. Basic networking requirements consist of a computer with a 700 MHz or faster Pentium processor running Microsoft Windows 98 SE or higher with a network connection, 20 MB free hard-drive space, 128 MB RAM, and Gateway's specially made 802.11g DVD card, which can be used in either a wired or a wireless configuration. The 802.11g DVD card, which comes with the DVD player, uses the 54 Mbps wireless networking standard, making it nearly five times faster than the widely used wireless-B products found in homes, businesses, and public wireless hotspots around the country. Far more convenient but a little more complicated to configure is a wireless setup, which lets you place your hardware in separate rooms without need for lengthy cable runs. This option requires the additional purchase of a wireless networking device (a router if you'll have multiple network users or an access point for a single connection) to relay data between your PC and the DVD player's card.

Access your Windows-based home network wirelessly via the ADC-320's PC Card slot and included 802.11g DVD card.

Once you've established your network, you can put a connected DVD player in every room with a TV or stereo to connect wirelessly to your PC library. In your PC, you can then create a library of music, photo, and digital video to enjoy anywhere you have a connected DVD player and a television and/or audio system.

Front-panel menu buttons grant full operation, even without the supplied remote control. The player lets you import M3U (MusicMatch) or the PLS (WinAmp) playlists and create custom digital slideshows of PC-based JPEG images. The player also supports playback of recorded video from MPEG4 video and Microsoft Media Center computers.

If you're inclined to go in for a little karaoke entertainment, this player's got you covered: the stylish front panel also offers two .25-inch microphone inputs governed by single volume and echo-effect control.

The ADC-320's digital-audio outputs enable connection to a full-featured A/V receiver so you can experience Dolby Digital/DTS 5.1-channel surround sound.

A set of left/right analog-audio outputs channel audio to Dolby Pro Logic receivers and stereo televisions. Both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1-channel surround-sound signals can be routed through the player's digital-audio outputs (one each of RCA coaxial and Toslink optical) for direct connection to a full-featured audio/video receiver, and if you're using an older surround amp with multichannel analog inputs but no onboard processing, you're in luck: Gateway's model happens to decode both Dolby Digital and surround formats, outputting multichannel analog signals as well as digital. Top-of-the-line component-video outputs (switchable between progressive and interlaced, depending on your television) help minimize digital and line-scan artifacts on compatible advanced televisions, while composite- and S-video outputs bring compatibility with nearly any television. What's in the Box DVD player, 802.11g DVD card, remote control, remote batteries, user's manual, stereo analog audio interconnect/composite-video cable, and an installation CD.

Product Description

Experience the media you love in a whole new way. The Gateway Connected DVD Player merges plug-and-play capabilities with the latest in home theater technology. Stream your music, photo and video files from the PC in the home office to the home entertainment system in the living room through your wireless network. Or just use it to play DVDs and CDs. A remote control is included to make it all easily accessible! Or just watch movies. The unit¿s progressive-scan DVD technology delivers higher picture resolution and twice the image quality of regular television when playing DVDs. And, it supports playback of recorded video from a Media Center and MPEG4 and Divx formats.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All DVD players should come connected, August 26, 2004

By 

B. Chapin (Sunnyvale, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gateway ADC-320 Connected DVD Player with Wireless 802.11g Card (Electronics)

Lot of DVD players have the capability of playing MP3s, but having to burn to a CD isn't the most ideal for me since I don't want to have to burn before listening and I have such a varied taste in music. Having the ability to stream music from my PC where all of my MP3s are stored to my home stereo wirelessly made this unit almost worth it solely by itself. One is able to select albums, artists, or playlists. The on screen display is pretty basic and boring (i.e. a few colors with straight lines and square boxes).

With recent firmware upgrades you can even have a picture slideshow (also streamed and one can specify the delay rate and this can occur while playing streaming MP3s).

This unit is basically the same as the ADC-220 from gateway, except it has a newer 802.11g vs. 802.11b network card) -- this helps with the problems people experienced in the past since the bandwidth of 802.11g is about 5x as much as 802.11b (11mb vs 54mb) and 802.11g router/access points are very inexpensive nowadays.

This unit is very similar to the GoVideo D2730 since they both use Digital5 as the PC client software. Current firmware is similar to the new standard for home networking UPnP, but I wasn't able to get MusicMatch's UPnP to work as of yet.

The device supports PAL and NTSC TV formats, so taking advantage of one the of best un-documented and un-supported feature I can play DVDs from the UK (and other regions) that I couldn't on other DVD machines (SETR9). Of course this also plays videos downloaded from the internet or homemovies that are archived on your PC. UK's BBC is starting to provide arhived video that should be supported since this player supports MPEG 1/2/4 and others (Microsoft Media Center, AVI). I haven't used the microphone inputs, but this is a solid DVD performer with 5.1 surround with optical out, component video, etc.

The only negatives are you can't fast forward PC based movies (you can forward to a time, but not like a standard DVD search where the screen speeds through while you watch, of course DVDs with this player search like any other on the market), the remote isn't as sleek as it should be (it's colorful and not very ergonomic -- looks like it was made for the Asian market).

The ADC-320 is about a 1/3 less than the GoVideo one (plus Gateway's comes with the 802.11g card, I believe GoVideo's is a wired version -- they have a new D2740 which has 802.11g). The Philips Streamium looks pretty nice too and that's fully UPnP supportable, but Gateway is still half the price of that one, if not more. This is a solid deal and I am just as happy with it as I was when I bought it about 6 months ago.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good player, but discontinued - beware!, January 20, 2005

By 

Harrison Bergeron (New Hampshire, The Free State) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gateway ADC-320 Connected DVD Player with Wireless 802.11g Card (Electronics)

This player does more or less what it says it's supposed to do, but potential buyers should be aware that this is a "rebranded" product. That is, Gateway does not manufacture it (they don't manufacture anything but PC's as far as I know). It has now been "end of life'd", so the ones on sale are just what's left in the supply chain, no more new ones are being made and Gateway does not sell this item anymore. It has been abandonded by Gateway, so there will be no more software or firmware upgrades. They also don't have any more parts for it, so if you lose your remote control (as I did), it's impossible to get a new one. I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be to get service on it if it breaks.

There are a number of drawbacks to all this, but in the end it's pretty cheap, and even if the "connected" part of it stops working at some point, it's a pretty good plain old DVD player, so if you're thinking of getting a player in the same price range, you may want to spend a few dollars more for the "connected" feature - even if something goes wrong with it, you still have a perfectly good DVD player and haven't lost much money.

But good luck trying to get ANY service or support from Gateway - they just don't want to know about it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Please be careful, August 25, 2004

By 

R. Autz "Cant watch movies" (SF, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gateway ADC-320 Connected DVD Player with Wireless 802.11g Card (Electronics)

Although it is a great concept if it worked, I and others who have bought it have spent all of our time trying to get it fixed. Replaced wireless card, changed IP addresses, and found out it needed software update and now have to send it in because it freezes movies. Since it is past 15 days it is my dime to get it fixed even though it has never worked and I have been calling since day one. Anyway, you make the call, but I think it really needs more time in development - the price you pay for being an early adopter!