PRISMIQ MediaPlayer

by Prismiq

Product Details

Product Manual [816kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0000V1IZU
• Item model number: 505-0277
• Batteries: 2 AAA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)

Product Description

Amazon Product Description

Digital Entertainment the Way You Want It
Play digital audio and video files, view photos, stream Internet radio, chat with friends, and browse the Web--all from the comfort of your home entertainment center. PRISMIQ brings the networked entertainment home of tomorrow to you today.

What It Does Designed to leverage and extend the capabilities of the Internet-connected home network, the PRISMIQ MediaPlayer sits atop a television, stereo, or entertainment center anywhere in the house with a wireless or Ethernet connection to any computer on the home network. How It Works The PRISMIQ MediaPlayer communicates over your home network with PRISMIQ's Windows-compatible MediaManager software, which runs on the networked PC to detect suitable PC and Internet files anywhere on the network. These PC and Internet files are served by the MediaManager software to the MediaPlayer set-top box, to be played on your TV or stereo.

See a detailed diagram of how the PRISMIQ MediaPlayer works with your existing wireless network.

Video	Photo	Wired or wireless The PRISMIQ MediaPlayer includes an Ethernet jack for wired connectivity, as well as a PCMCIA/CardBus slot so that you can easily add a wireless card to stream your media files to the MediaPlayer. No Service Fees, Free Software Upgrades Designed with a flexible architecture, the PRISMIQ MediaPlayer is software upgradeable, providing future features and enhanced functionality at no additional charge. Optional Wireless Keyboard The optional wireless PRISMIQ keyboard offers all of the features and functionality of the standard PRISMIQ keyboard remote control, plus it allows you to more easily enter text while surfing the Web and chatting online with friends. Full Functionality Play DVD-quality video in MPEG-1/2/4, Motion-JPEG, and AVI formats Play CD-quality audio Stream a personal library of PC-stored MP3, WMA, and WAV audio files Play Internet radio and commercial music services on your stereo Display digital photos stored on your home computer on your TV Browse the Web on your TV Display live, personalized news and information on your TV Instant message with friends and family on your TV
Web	Music
The PRISMIQ MediaPlayer offers you a multitude of home entertainment options with just a few clicks of your remote control.

Product Description

"Product of the Year from PC Magazine, CNET, TechTV, Computer Shopper magazine, Electronic House magazine, and the Consumer Electronics Association So you've got a PC *filled* with digital entertainment media- hours of MP3s, PVR recordings of your favorite TV shows, digital pictures, home movies... How else were you going to fill up that 80GB hard drive? Wouldn't it be nice if you could watch those videos on your big screen TV, instead of on your 17" PC monitor? Wouldn't those MP3s sound better played through your home stereo? Wouldnt you rather show off your latest digital pictures in your living room lounging on your couch rather than huddled around your PC in the home office? How about listening to your favorite Internet radio stations or music service on the stereo or surround system? The PRISMIQ MediaPlayer makes it easy to enjoy all this media to its fullest, by bringing it all to your home A/V system through your home network, wired or wireless! PRISMIQ transports the world of Internet and computer entertainment to where you need it when you want it. The PRISMIQ MediaPlayer is a snap to setup, and easy to use. With its remote control (and/or optional keyboard, which makes Web-on-TV and IM-on-TV easier) you have complete access to digital media files stored on ALL your home computers (over your home network).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good , but not perfect, product, July 4, 2004

By 

UofM Tiger "uofmtiger" (Bartlett, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: PRISMIQ MediaPlayer (Electronics)

I already have a linksys wet11 hooked to a router in my living room for XBOX and my PS2. Therefore, I cannot comment on the wireless card problems that people are having. With my setup the unit was plug and play with no problems.

1. Audio Navigation - I have an assortment of MP3, Ogg, and FLAC files on my computer with a total of about 18,000 music files in total. The native interface has some problems that have already been mentioned. My main problem was the lack of FLAC support. I decided to download a product called "slimserver" from the internet that works as a server for Ogg, FLAC, MP3, etc... files. It has a much better interface and works with the Prismiq's web interface (see Prismiq's forum for installation instructions). The only problem would be the fact that the built in web server on the Prismiq is slow. However, once it is up and running, songs can be added to your playlist on the fly and the sorting (genre, artist, album, etc.. is great). It even adds the ability to add Moodlogic (which I have tested)and Itunes (which I haven't tested) playlists.
2. Rhapsody support - This is great for addicts of the service. I wasn't interested until Prismiq offered a 30 day trial. With a selection of over 600,000 songs, it has allowed me to dig deep into many artist's portfolios before wasting money on a CD. As of now, Rhapsody will not play through the Prismiq digital outputs.
3. Pictures - The ability to get your digital photos on your TV is a great feature. It allows you to create a a slide show with a specific folder and also allows you to play a specified song whenever the slideshow is being seen. It will also allow the slideshow (without an audio file attached) to run while you listen to the internet radio or your music files. The pictures are not the quality of Roku's HD device, but they are good enough on my 57 inch HDTV through the S-video output.
4. Movies - I have a Tivo, so this doesn't get a lot of use on my Prismiq. I do have a few home movies that look great on the device. I am also able to take advantage of the widescreen format of my movies.
5. Web interface - If you have DSL or a cable modem, you will not want to use this device for web surfing. It is very slow. However, I have bookmarks setup for slimserver, internet radio, and my email. Without the web interface, I would not be able to use slimserver and the product would not get nearly as much use. Therefore, I am happy that they have included the ability.
6. Other features - News stories, local weather, screensaver (you can customize with your own picture), chat (I have never used).

Overall, I am happy with this device. It does have some flaws and if you have a lot of files, you will not be happy unless you have the slimserver setup. It is not the last device that I will buy because I will upgrade with a HD device that plays FLAC files natively sometime in the future. However, for now, it has provided me with a lot of fun!

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Check the prismiq.org forums before spending money on this, April 6, 2004

By 

Surge (Ga) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PRISMIQ MediaPlayer (Electronics)

This product has great potential but the people at Prismiq constantly ignore its users.
Check out www.prismiq.org
These forums are hosted by Prismiq but they simply ignore most of the postings. The main issue you'll encounter is the dreadful way you navigate your MP3 collection. This is the #1 complaint in the boards and has been for quite sometime. They've recently released an update but it added Rhapsody support and didn't even touch on the MP3 navigation problems. I bought this in December when it was $250 and now it is $200. I knew there were problems but Prismiq support was very active and assured everyone they would be fixed. Now that the XMas rush is over, support has disappeared and they ignore the numorous request for enhancement. They also fail to address this as a major problem with their device.
My advice to anyone considering this product is to look for something better. If you decide you want this despite my warnings, checkout out prismiq.org and read the user comments and notice the lack of Prismiq responses to those comments.
Oh, one thing they did do with all the complaints, they created a Complaints section and moved them in there.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great product, but beware if you have wireless-B, December 28, 2003

By 

weapon_h "weapon_h" (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: PRISMIQ MediaPlayer (Electronics)

OK, starting with the bad - if you intend to use the wireless aspects, you pretty much must have a wireless-G network. This is not only so that you can stream video (as pointed out on the PRISMIQ website) but also because the set of wireless-B cards that PRISMIQ now supports/recommends is a hodgepodge of discontinued or difficult to find cards. Found out the hard way that my Linksys WPC11 card (probably the most widely available B card out there) is not supported (even though the documentation enclosed said it was :X) So, I was essentially forced to upgrade to a wireless-G network (at least PRISMIQ supports the most commonly available Linksys G card).

Once I got past that hurdle....all smiles. What a great product. Beats the pants off of any similar device in terms of breadth of functionality (audio, video, images, web, IM) but also in terms of connectivity (S-video & coax digital audio outs). Quibbles:
1. Browser stinks (same as in most hotel on-TV browsers - weird resolution, no cookies, no javascript, no activeX - so basically almost unusable, but that's OK, not why I bought it)
2. UI for audio tracks a bit cumbersome in that the listing is not artist-album but simply a flat album listing, meaning if you have 400+ CD's like me it can take a loooong time to scroll to find your desired album. Hopefully this will get worked out in a future software update.

Otherwise, a really great product. Sound quality is excellent & video quality is very good. Setup is a snap (provided you have the right card ;)), though it helps to set it up using a TV next to your PC to save you round trips.