Customer Reviews

NETGEAR Wireless Digital Music Player

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Now that I have this set up it does exactly what I wanted it to very well -- that is, in a wired network environment, it streams all the mp3 files that I have on my PC's hard drive through my traditional two-channel audio setup. It has a number of limitations: it doesn't support Internet radio, except for a paid service, and it doesn't support various rights-protected data formats. But it does do the one thing I bought it for extremely well: allowing me to enjoy my entire music collection in an organized, well catalogued way, through my home audio system.

As this whole field of products is still pretty new, I also didn't want to spend more money on one of the more advanced systems -- it seems that the customer feedback on all of these media players remains pretty mixed. So I stuck with something relatively simple, and this little box does what I want for a reasonable price. (Previously I was using my iPod on a docking station, connected to my stereo...for the modest price of this Netgear player I've now liberated the iPod that previously was wired up to my stereo.)

A couple of cautions:

1. A lot of the customer problems cited here at Amazon seem to relate to problems with wireless transmission. I did not even try to set this up in a wireless network; I just hard-wired it into the network port I had installed in my living room. I have had a lot of frustration in my home w/wireless devices so finally just gave up and dropped in wiring for a home network while I was having other electrical work done in my house. I am glad I bit the bullet -- the wired network is saving me a lot of time and trouble. This Netgear product is just one example of the kinds of things that are very happy tethered to a wire that seem to be much more problematic when they are wireless.

2. Throw away the software disk that comes with the hardware -- don't install it!. Instead, download the new software and firmware that is on Netgear's site. I couldn't get this to work at all at first -- tech support advised me to uninstall the provided software, download the software update on their site, and start over. This got more complicated than it sounds because I'd already built a database of songs for the Netgear and I had to hunt down this database file and kill it, too...it got a little bit tricky...so it took me a couple of hours in all to get this fixed. Had I started with the new software posted on Netgear's site, I would have had the whole thing done in 20 minutes. In any case, just go right to netgear's site and download their new software, and don't use the junk they ship with the product.

I also found netgear's tech support to be very, very good -- they answered the phone quickly (on Christmas Eve!) and were extremely helpful and patient.

I'm a bit of an audiophile and I was disappointed in the MP101, it lacks digital outputs and doesn't support any lossless compression formats (I've got tracks in FLAC, WAV, AIFF and now Apple's new Lossless format). The software is a joke and the product was really hard to set up. Plus, the LCD display was hard to read at a distance.

While the MP101 is a bit cheaper, it's a poor imitation of the product that I ended up with, which was Squeezebox. It's got both optical and coax digital outputs, supports tons of audio formats including uncompressed, automatically imports from iTunes (so my playlists on my iPod are the same on my stereo).

I purchased this product to use with Rhapsody, as it is recommended by the service. It's very simple to set up for a wireless network - I simply entered my WEP settings and rebooted the device. Unfortunately, it loses wireless connectivity way too often to be practical. One "feature" of the player is that it reboots whenever it loses its wireless connection. As each reboot takes a couple of minutes, I got very frustrated getting dropped from the network multiple times in a row while simply browsing my playlists. I don't know if there was some sort of conflict between the player and my Access Point (a Linksys WAP11), but this sort of wireless performance is simply unacceptable. None of my other wireless devices have any connectivity issues. I didn't try the wired network connection, so I don't know how it performs. Hopefully, it doesn't have the same connectivity issues as the wireless mode.

The included software is functional, but limited. It functions as a server applet to which the MP101 connects. It allows you to catalog all of the MP3 or WMA files on your local drive, but it does not have a way to catalog files on network drives from what I could tell. For a networking product, I found this odd. I was also disappointed that you could not control the unit via software. I have a multi-room audio setup and was hoping to be able to play my Rhapsody playlists through it using this product. Unfortunately, you can only control the unit through the supplied remote control.

With firmware improvements, this could be a much better product. Hopefully, NETGEAR will address the problems in the near future. As for me, I'm going to purchase a Slim Devices Squeezebox like the reviewer below did - it has much more robust software, digital outputs and support for Rhapsody (via plugin) as well.

Good that is if you want a fancy looking paper-weight or a $100+ piñata, this is the way to go. After 20+ hours trying to get it to work I almost hit it with a baseball bat.

Like many of the bad reviews, I encountered frequent (like every 15 minutes) loss of server contact, box locks up and needs to be unplugged to re-boot, remote is unresponsive once the system crashes, using the remote while playing a song will sometimes crash it, and even when it does reboot it rarely finds the network again. The server software locked up my computer numerous times and now I get this stupid "wjveiw" error every time I boot up. It would reliably ping from my computer for hours, but somehow the mp101 would always say it lost server contact or lock up.

This will be returned, I think the only people making money on this product are the delivery companies. I should of bought it at a local store, now I have to pay $20+ for round trip shipping ,since I was so excited to get it I paid for 2'nd day air, big mistake. I think Amazon should credit that at least.

Went out and bought the linksys WMLS11b at Walmart for $149. It rocks, comes with it's own speakers and external jacks, even an optical, if you want to use your own stereo. So far no major problems. Loads 100's of internet radio stations automatically (I'm listening to my old college station right now, pretty cool). News, international, and plenty of music genres. You can even can listen to air traffic controllers and police scanners where available. Yes I know, internet radio is available with out the server, but it makes it 100 times more convenient than searching on your computer.

Some minor problems with the linksys, are the shuffle function is not working (I'll call tech support see if they can help), the vertical and horizontal footprint is larger than the mp101. Remote looks like it should operate a 1980's betamax player.

Set up time was about an hour. I have no idea how people got the mp101 to work reliably, esp. with rhapsody (yes, the upnp was enabled). The firmware and server upgrades did not improve the quality.

Sorry to bash a product, but this is a stinker! I lost 20 hours of my life and $20+ in shipping. If you want to try it out I suggest buying it somewhere that it can be quickly and easily returned without cost. OK, no more thinking about this product, I'm done venting.

FYI: My System; 1.8 ghz, win XP, wireless netgear 11.b network, internet 3Mb connection.

Good: The unit is attractive and solid, the sound is great. The unit's interface is surprisingly easy to navigate with the remote. If you have cataloged your MP3 music properly (playlists or MP3 tags), you will have no problem navigating a large library. Cataloging is not an issue using Rhapsody because it's automatic.

Bad: The wireless mode fails to connect, even though my dhcp server (linksys wireless router with all default settings) says an IP address was provided. As a network professional, I recommend against wireless if wired is an option for reasons mentioned in earlier reviews. As far as I can tell, it's mandate if you are not using a netgear hub.

The included media server is so bad that it's almost inoperable. It fails to operate as a service, requiring PC login elsewhere on the network. I was hoping that the unit could directly connect to Rhapsody, but that also requires a login to a PC. To get around the deficiencies of the media server, I manage all cataloging and playlists through Real Player.

Ugly: It cannot play internet radio. For that there is no workaround, and I almost returned the unit. I can only hope that one day Real Player can integrate with the unit.

Many of the problems that are being mentioned have to do with the server that netgear provides with the package. Don't bother to use the CD. Don't even bother to download the new version from the netgear website because it has issues.

The MP101 is a client that supports the UPNP protocol for streaming music. You can use any other software that can be installed as a server as long as it supports the UPNP. Two good examples are TwonkyMedia and Windows Media Player 11.

Specifically, windows media player 11 (that comes with Vista) has a built-in UPNP server. So when you have both the MP101 and the Windows Media Player (WMP) 11 on, the WMP will recognize the client and start streaming music to it. Then you go to the MP101 and acccept the WMP11 as a server. The interface is much better that the default server that netgear provides, since you can instantly see now whatever you have imported in the WMP library, including the fact that you can browse the music directories directly!

Users with Windows XP can also download WMP11 to enjoy these features.

Given this setup, I connected the MP101 wired to my router and using WMP11 I never had any problems browsing and playing my music. It also worked perfectly with my Rhapsody account.

Great Idea, Wireless network set up OK, loaded software and scanned for MP3 files. Everything working fine, couldn't be happier.

Then I started loading more of my CD's and LP's into MP3 format for use with the system. Problems, each time I added more music the software "broke" and the browse music function stopped working. Each time I tried to select by Artist I could only get half way through the "B"s before the list would loop back. Any attempt to search by starting letter would produce a "Search Failed" message.

Deleting the music and loading from scratch did not solve the problem. Neither did restarting either the computer or the MP101

So far the only thing that has worked is un-installing and then re-installing the software, complete with rescanning for music. Not a viable options for each time I add more music.

As for customer support ? I'm still waiting for a response.

This unit is not perfect, but for $90 what did you think you were going to get. As other posts have indicated you need to get the upgraded software from the Netgear Website. It helps to have a fast router (802 11G or better). It also helps if all parts are made by Netgear - they make a super G 108 mbs router that will likely enhance performance. If you are going wireless it helps to have ripped MP3 files on a local hard drive (server) that is physically attached to the router (this allows the router to send songs to the stereo most efficiently, If you have songs stored on another computer (laptop) you will use additional bandwidth retrieving them from the laptop to the router and then sending them to the stereo - when on a local hard drive you only have 1 way transmission of wireless data.

I was able to get the unit to work wirelessly and had good results. I had a few 'dropouts' when sending files from my laptop to my router equiped desktop and then on to my stereo, but the sound was still pretty good.

The other posts on this product must be using 802 11B routers which only have 11 mbs throughput. 802 11G is up to 54 mbs, and the best case would be a super G router at 108 mbs.

Adding this product to your existing setup is like adding a print server - it takes a couple of tries but when you are done it is worth the effort. the MP101 is solid, and works well enough - I get a lot more utility out of this at $90 then I would out of an I-pod at $429.

It does require some effort to get going, but given the right wireless setup you will enjoy the results ...

As one who always buys the latest gadget, I could'nt resist this one but wish I had. I have a rather large library of mp3's but bought this mainly for the Rhapsody service. I connected wireless the first day only because I needed a slightly longer cable to reach my netgear router. I did experence one dropout in the first hour but otherwise I was really impressed with the sound quility with Rhapsody. Was able to listen to complete albums just by highlighting the album title and pressing play. Trouble started the next day when I bought a new longer cable and tried the wired connection to the unit. Everything appeared to be fine till I tried to play a complete album through Rhapsody. It would play one song and stop. When I tried to play the next song , it would say "Server Not Respounding" and it would reconnect taking a about 2 or 3 minutes to complete. This happens everytime now-- very frustrating. I tried going back to wireless but with same results. Tried the reset but nothing seems to fix this problem. I called Netgear tech support and the guy could barely speak Englsh but he put me on hold while he tried his unit and said the same thing was happening to him and that he would call me the next day with a fix for it. Needless to say he never called. This problem only happens with Rhapsody. My mp3's play fine though a little flat sounding. Also would like to add that the Rhapsody radio stations play ok. In closing I would like to say that I think Netgear sent this product to market before it was ready. Sometimes when giving commands with the remote , the unit just hangs till you get frustrated and reset it. Maybe future upgrades will fix these issues but until then I can't reccomend this product.

If you have hundreds of CD's, it is certainly attractive to manage and play your music from your computer. This player gets you partially there.
Pro's
1. Obviously provides all the + and - of mp3's. Sound is pretty decent at 192 kbs sampling.
2. Server side library management & import software is good.
3. Ability to play and search music on the mp101 is good.
4. Radio1234 streaming service is worth the $20 to me. Other radio stations can be streamed, with some work, through Twonky.
5. Extremely low cost vis-a-vis buying a 60 gbyte mp3 player
Con's
1. Virtually/entirely useless as a wireless device with the 2 routers I have tried, however I have not tried w/ Netgear router
2. Unconscionable bugs and shortcomings on the client. As I added music to the server, the artist list was truncated on the client - bad news for listening to Yo La Tengo & Zakir Hussein. So the primary reason to use this device is partially defeated. Why are firmware programmers so sloppy?
3. Can't get Live365 to work regardless of online documentation.

Not being able to access my entire music library on the client makes this a "no-buy." Maybe future firmware upgrades will address this.