Buffalo LinkTheater Wireless A&G Network Media Player PC-P4LWAG

Other products by Buffalo

Product Details

• Item Weight: 6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000M8MWGU
• Item model number: PC-P4LWAG
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 8, 2007

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

The Buffalo LinkTheater Wireless-A&G Network Media Player lets you stream multimedia from a Windows-based PC, a LinkStation Home Server, a TeraStation Home Server, USB storage devices, or any DLNA-certified media server device to your home theater.

The LinkTheater includes 802.11a/g wireless networking, digital 5.1 audio outputs, a USB port, S-video and component video outputs. By using 802.11g wireless networking, you enable your files to move at 54 Mbps, the Ethernet port enables 100-Mbps wired connections, and the digital audio outputs enable Dolby 5.1 and DTS-compatible audio connections. Universal Plug and Play is supported for easy installation. You can control all your files from the comfort of your sofa by using the included remote control.

The Buffalo LinkTheater Media Player natively handles any of the latest audio/video formats, including: for video, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, XviD, WMV, H.264 (480i, 480p, and 720p); for audio, MP3, WAV, WMA, W4A (AAC), LPCM, AC3; for images, JPG, BMP, PNG.

The Buffalo LinkTheater is an Intel Viiv Technology-Verified media player and is backed by a 1-year warranty.

What's in the Box
LinkTheater media player, two wireless antennas, remote control with batteries, AC power adapter, standard A/V cable, D4/Component Video cable, LinkTheater CD-ROM, and user's manual.

Product Description

Buffalo Technology manufactures and provides wireless, broadband, and LAN networking solutions for the SMB, SOHO, and home and is one of the largest wireless networking hardware vendors in the world. Buffalo's strong international industry alliances have allowed the company to continue to lead the industry in the development of the latest technologies into practical, easy-to-use tools for business and home.PRODUCT FEATURES:Play back from any Windows PC, Intel Viiv PC, Buffalo Home Server, DLNA Media Server, UPnP Server or USB storage device;Video formats: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, XviD, WMV, H.264 (MPEG4 AVC);Audio formats: MP3, WAV, WMA, M4A (AAC), LPCM, AC3;Image formats: JPG, BMP, PNG;Analog (Composite) Audio/Video Connectors;D4/Component Video Connectors;Optical Audio Connectors.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It's great ..., April 24, 2007

By	not too happy (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

if and when it works.

I must say there is a lot of work that needs to be done with this player in terms of firmware update. I've been told by Buffalo's tech support that there is no software update for this media player at this time.

The player is very buggy and crashes frequently. I have a matching Buffalo router to go with this player, but AOSS never worked. So I manually configure the player when it crashes, which is as frequent as few times a week.

The server software that comes with the player is very simple. It's very annoying because it does not refresh the files shown on your TV after you have deleted on your PC, which makes it confusing because you think the file is there but it doesn't play. Pressing the refresh button on your remote does no work either.

This player does not support streaming of HD files. I found 640x480 to be the best format to stream. Divx plays well, but not avi.

I purchased this player so I can stream video/music files wirelessly. The player is slow to respond to commands and almost always is buffering for a minute or so before a file starts playing.

Overall, I hope Buffalo fixes many of these quirks because their router is really good.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better than the competition, but terrible remote, May 3, 2007

By	Surya Yalamanchili "Surge" (Endicott, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've had this Network Media Player for over 3 months now. Media Players are still evolving, so none of them are perfect yet. This one included.

I decided to post feedback after reading the other review posted. I don't have the issues he/she mentions, but have a different setup, which may be the reason. I was very surprised though that he/she had no mention of the remote.

The remote is not only laid out poorly, but more importantly doesn't transmit well. I believe it's because the IR transmitter on the remote is recessed too much. But basically, it only works if pointed directly at the unit, and the unit is directly facing you. If you're at an angle to it, it's range is like 4 feet!

Outside of this, it does what I need it to. It plays the formats it says it does. When I play large movie files, it buffers just a couple of seconds before playing (unlike the other post which described it as a minute). My router is located a couple of rooms away as well, so I'm not positive what the other poster's issue is. Perhaps he has a Wireless-B router? Mine is a Linksys Wireless-G router. With Wireless-B I would expect a much longer buffering time.

As far as the other posts mention of filename refreshing...that is an issue with any media player. It doesn't pertain to me, because of my setup, but for most users it will.

Any media player comes with software that you would need to load on one PC on the network (preferably one connected by LAN to the router, but could be wireless as well). This software then creates a filelist of compatible files (either a manual list or can automatically scan all your drives) and communicates them to your media player. When a file is changed, added, or deleted, this will only get refreshed periodically.

This doesn't pertain to me because I have a Buffalo Home Server (basically a NAS...network attached storage) with DLNA. Since both my home server and my media player have DLNA, I did not load the software on a PC. Basically, my NAS has the software built-in. Apparently this refreshes constantly...as any changes I make to files...appears immediately on my media player.

That's it. I think the media player performs exactly as I expected it to with the exception of the remote. Hopefully they will have an improved remote at some point so I can replace mine...but I've learned to live with it in the meantime.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good - Some Bugs, October 30, 2007

By	Greg F. - See all my reviews

I purchased this product because I wanted something that could play media files off of my computer onto my HDTV without having to physically connect my computer to the tv. This product does just that, although with some annoying flaws (but nothing anyone can't handle and eventually ignore).

Flaw 1. The software included is not compatible with Vista. Having just bought a Vista computer, I was disappointed. But there is an answer. Windows Media Player 11 has UPnP Support built in, as long as the files are in your library and you turn on Media Sharing (Network and Sharing Center) you can streams files.

Although, Media Player 11 is terrible at updating the listing to the LinkTheater. This is most likely why many people who use this method never gets their newer files to show up instantly.

The answer is FUPPES. An opensource UPnP Server that is very configurable, runs on several OSes, including Vista. And you can force updating of the media files list to the LinkTheater whenever you want. That means instant access to new files.

Flaw 2. Terrible character input. Setting up wireless is a PAIN. Thankfully, you only need to do it once, but entering in a long WEP key or a WPA password is annoying. Plus LinkTheater doesn't play well with non-broadcasting SSIDs.

Flaw 3. Locking up instead of quitting. If you have a file that is even remotely corrupt, 50% of the time LinkTheater will just not play it. The other 50% is spent with you getting a paperclip to press the reset button because the system froze. On any given week, I reset the LinkTheater atleast once a day.

Flaw 4. No standard Component cables. The back of the unit has standard plugs for Composite Video and Audio, but a proprietary plug for the component cable. You are forced to use their cables to get a HD signal. Something happens to those cables and you're stuck with Low-Def. HDMI would have been nice too, but component is fine with me. The picture is very crisp, but the colors seem to be a little too bright, especially when watching animations.

Flaw 5. Image output is terrible. Images look horrible, that's all I have to say.

Flaw 6. The most horrible offense of them all. No continuous play. If you play a file, it stops. You need to select a new file and press play to get it going again. I have no idea why they wouldn't just have it play all files down through the directory listing.

All in all, I would recommend this player. It does have some annoying features, but it does exactly what it's suppose to do, play video and audio files. It does that with very good image and sound quality.