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D-Link DSM-320RD Wireless Media Player, PS DVD, 5-in-1 Card Reader, 802.11g, 54Mbps

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Brand: D-Link
Category: CE

List Price: ~~$299.99~~
Buy New: $139.95
You Save: $160.04 (53%)

New (3) Used (3) from $100.00

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

27 reviews
Sales Rank: 29602

Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 11
Dimensions (in): 16 x 19.7 x 3
Legal Disclaimer: Warranty does not cover misuse of product.

MPN: DSM-320RD
Model: DSM-320RD
UPC: 790069270413
EAN: 0790069270413
ASIN: B0007A6P2K

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: New, factory sealed, upc removed, fast shipping

Features:

•	An on-screen Wizard guides you step-by-step through the process. With support for Windows Connect Now, configuring the wireless settings is easier than ever before! Simply run the Wireless Network Setup Wizard from Windows XP Service Pack 2 and transfer the wireless settings to the DSM-320RD using a USB thumbdrive
•	Universal Plug-&-Play AV
•	Power Source - 110-220 VAC 50/60Hz, 0.5A max
•	Dimensions - L = 16.75 inches / W = 11.25 inches / H = 1.5 inches
•	D-Link 1-Year Warranty

Accessories:

•	D-Link i2Eye DVC-1000 10/100TX Broadband VideoPhone
•	D-Link DBT-120 Wireless Bluetooth 2.0 USB Adapter
•	D-Link WIRELESS MUSIC PLAYER 2.5 ( DSM-120 )
•	D-Link DCS-5300 10/100TX Internet Camera, Pan/Tilt, Built-in Microphone
•	D-Link DCM-202 DOCSIS 2.0 USB/Ethernet Cable Modem

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•	D-Link DSM-520 MediaLounge Wireless HD Media Player
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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
The DSM-320RD is a gatway that connects your home entertainment center to an existing network, allowing you to wirelessly stream music, photos and videos from your Windows PC to your television and stereo system, all without running cables through your home. Using 802.11g wireless technology, the DSM-320RD streams media content at a maximum wireless signal rate of up to 54Mbps. You can also stream media content via Ethernet at speeds of up to 100Mbps. The DSM-320RD integrates seamlessly with your existing wired or wireless network. Using progressive scan technology, you can watch your favorite DVDs in high resolution (for high-definition and HD-ready TVs) with theatre-like sound. In addition to DVDs, this DVD Player will also play SVCD, CD-R, CD-RW, CD, and MP3 discs. The DSM-320RD also features a built-in 5-in-1 card reader, which provides a fast and convenient way to view and share digital photos, music, and videos stored on a memory card. Insert the memory card into the card reader and your media content becomes just a click away. Popular memory cards, including XD Card, SD, Memory Stick, SmartMedia, and Compact Flash (Type I and II) are supported. Get access to thousands of songs right from your living room. D-Link has partnered with premium online service providers such as AOL, Napster, and Rhapsody to bring you a large collection of CD-quality, commercial-free radio stations and PC music downloads. And now, with support for Windows Media Connect (WMC), all Windows Media Digital Rights Management (WMDRM) protected files can be seamlessly streamed from your PC to your living room.

Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

5 Stars for Value (Update -2 stars for mediocre software) January 5, 2007
Ronald Ih (Los Altos, CA United States)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

Is it perfect? No. However, for just over $200 it's hard for me to complain about this device since it does exactly what I need it to do and integrates a lot of features. It gets my media files off my PC and plays it on my stereo and TV in my living room. It has an integrated DVD player that works quite well and the software works pretty well.

After my first day of use, here are my comments. I'll write a followup in a few days after playing around with it more.

Setup:
Install the server software on your PC FIRST.

I have a D-Link Wireless G router so that may be part of the reason why it was pretty easy for me to setup, but it was pretty straightforward right out of the box. I put the CD in my PC, ran the setup software. Then plugged in the DSM, followed the directions, it found my system and all my stuff and I was done in about 10 minutes. I am using WPA-PSK encryption and that worked just fine as well.

The on-screen navigation was a little odd at times and the remote is rather busy with a myriad of buttons, but I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get going. Finding music files and such isn't so easy with the limited navigation you can do with a handheld remote and TiVo like TV interface as opposed to a mouse and keyboard. However, that is largely my fault since my media collection is about as well organized as laundry in a duffle bag at the moment. Playlists are key and I'm in the process of getting that all sorted out now. I just wanted to make sure it worked before I went through the trouble of getting organized.

Features:
One of the main reasons why I went with this unit is because it is one of the few Media Players out there that supports WPA-PSK encryption. Because of better security and WEP compatibility issues with other devices on my network, I have to use WPA. I put in my key clicked OK and it connected to my network just fine.

The single disc DVD player actually is really useful for me. I have a 400 disc DVD changer which is great for discs I own, but discs that I borrow or rent and need to take in and out, it's a pain. Now I can just use the DSM to play discs that I have temporarily.

CF and SD card readers are nice, but I'm not sure how often I'll use them since I'll likely dump pictures on my PC server and then get it over the network.

Auto software and firmware updates are nice and when I first power cycled the system it automatically updated itself to the latest firmware.

The server software is a little techy but being an engineer, it was easy for me to deal with. The server software scans the directories on your PC that you want to make accessible to the DSM which reads the scan file when it starts up. Note that if you make changes to your media files, i.e. add new files, change playlists, etc., you have to update the server before you will see the changes on your DSM. A small inconvenience, but I can see that you don't want the DSM using the network all the time checking the files when most of the time things aren't changing.

I can't comment on the progressive scan since I don't have a progressive scan TV (yet).

PROS:
Relatively inexpensive and lots of features
Setup was easy (at least with other D-Link gear)
Nice looking on screen display

CONS:
Does not recognize MOV files
Remote control buttons feel pretty mushy (ok, that's a nitpick)

In summary, I think ease of installation is largely luck of the draw with regards to whatever else is on your network. Sometimes things play well together, sometimes they don't. In my case, they played well together. It's not audiophile/videophile level performance, but if that's what you want, what are you doing buying a $200 gizmo and listening to MP3s anyways? For the price, the performance and value is hard to beat. I'll see how things go over the next few days, but so far so good.

May 5, 2007 Update:
Ok, I'm going to have to take away 2 stars because after using this for some time, the software really keeps this thing from reaching its full potential. Fairly often, when I power it up, it just hangs and I have to restart it. On occasion, several times. Other times, it will just randomly hang in the middle of a song. It doesn't do it very often, but enough that it gets annoying. Also, the audio still does skip every now and then. You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to put in a 3-4 second buffer to deal with sporadic network interruptions. Geez, $30 CD players have buffers. Memory is cheap guys.

It pains me to write this since this device really does have some nice features. I like being able to put up slide shows of my family and then go and select from my music collection to play it in the background while it goes through the images.

On a high level, it works and does cool things. It's just some of the finer details of the software robustness and user interface that make me shake my head and say, "Another *almost* great product..."

5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic March 29, 2006
Grant Thompson (Bainbridge Island, WA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

We wanted a DVD player and a way to view our photos and videos from our PC in a small space and without running wires everywhere. THis device is really very good.

Setup took only a few minutes (plugged in the box and turned it on). I decided not to use their software since it support Windows Media Connect. That was available free for download and setup also was easy.

I have a secure wireless network and it connects to it fine (though entering the key took a minute using the on-screen keyboard).

My only disappointments are:
1. Streaming video doesn't work well over 802.11B. I also have 802.11A but the device doesn;t support it. I may try 802.11G, which it does support. Otherwise I will hardwire it to my LAN because the features are so cool.
2. I really wanted a device that would wirelessly transmit video and audio to the TV from various devices so that I would not have had to run wiring for my TV (other than power). While this device doesn;t do that what it does is very cool.

5 out of 5 stars

Great Product January 12, 2008
Steven C. Thomas
At first I was skeptical about this product because I purchased a similar product a couple years back and was disappointed. When I first hooked the system up to my Sharp LCD 720p TV and JVC audio receiver I was not impressed. The picture wasn't sharp and the audio had a lot of distortion. I hooked up the system using the supplied audio and video cables. I packed up the system and never used it for a week thinking I would sell it. However, I decided give the system another shot by hooking it up using component video cables and an optical audio cable to my receiver. After doing that I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with the system. The sound is CD quality with no distortion, the picture on my television is just as it looks on my computer LCD monitor. The interface was very easy to navigate and the overall setup only took about 5 minutes. I highly recommend this system and it does everything it says it should do.

4 out of 5 stars

Good product and easy setup. May 10, 2006
Kamran Shah (Manassas, Va)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I was skeptical about buying this product and made sure the return policy would allow me to easily return it if it turned out to be a dud. I have been looking at other products of this type including the DLink DSM-320, DLink DSM-520, Buffalo Technologies LinkTheater PC-P3LWG/DVD.

1) DSM-320: Had many negative reviews and no dvd player.
2) DSM-520: Very new. High Definition player, but no DVD.
3) Buffalo Technologies LinkTheater: Many negative reviews but has HD and a dvd player, also supports wmv and divx.

Initially I had been leaning towards the Buffalo unit. It supports WMV, WMV HD, DivX, DivX HD and had a progressive scan DVD player built in and supported HD output. 2 reasons I did not buy it were 1) the many bad reviews and 2) it was not available to pick up locally and I was worried that if it really did not function properly I would have to go through a lot of hassle to get it returned.

I chose the DSM-320RD mainly because I suspected that my old DVD player (which is really not old, bought it on Black Friday last year) was having trouble playing the discs I burned. I figured I would like a player with an integrated dvd player so I could save some space and have a decent player.

I have a Netgear 802.11g/a wireless router and I actually went ahead and installed the media lounge software that came with the unit onto my Windows XP based PC. When I fired up the unit and followed the configuration steps, I was pleasantly surprised to see I had no issues detecting the network and that it detected the server easily.

One thing that I worried about was wether the unit would support WPA-PSK wireless security as that is what I use on my network. Luckily it did and after using the onscreen keyboard to enter the information it worked fine.

I have it set up to use the component video output (progressive scan) and 16:9 on my HDTV. The picture quality is great. I started off by watching a couple episodes of Supernatural that I had recorded with my TV tuner card on the PC. They played very smoothly except for a few places that caused the video to start stuttering. Since it always seems to do it at the same part, I am not sure if it is a case where the variable bit rate on the videos gets too high and the player is not able to keep up with the decoding or the bandwidth of the wireless connection becomes saturated. The video catches up afterwards though and things move along. I am going to try a wired connection at some point to test wether it is the player or the wireless that causes this.

My one big problem with this player is that the reverse function on streamed videos does not work well at all. You are almost better off starting over from the beginning and fast forwarding (which seems to work ok) to the part you want. Another problem I had was that at one point when I was trying to reverse a video it froze up for a little while at which point I hit "Stop". It then lost connection to the server and was not able to find it again until I restard the PC where the server was running. I am thinking maybe using the Windows Media Connect software that people have mentioned might be a way to avoid this. Also, this only happened once and it has worked fine beyond that.

The DVD player on this thing works great! All those old discs that caused my old player to choke work like a charm on this one. Very happy about that.

This player does not support wmv's which is a disappointment but not a showstopper for me since I am most interested in the DivX support. Overall this player is great and I don't know how I lived without one of these things.

Summary:

Pros:

Wireless Streaming works like a charm.
Very nice full featured remote control.
Easy setup.
Very good dvd player, handles burned discs well.
Progressive Scan output.
Good number of inputs/outputs (composite, S-Video, Component)

Cons:

Seems to choke a little when the bit rate gets high on VBR videos.
No support for WMV.
Really bad at trying to reverse through a streamed video.
Seemed to disconnect from the server at one point and required the PC to be restarted before it found it again.

Beyond that I have not experienced any of the crashing some of the other folks here have mentioned. Perhaps because my player was shipped with a later firmware revision? Overall I would recommend this although I wonder if the Buffalo Technologies LinkTheater would have been a better buy.

4 out of 5 stars

Does exactly what it says on the tin!!! May 23, 2006
Mr. Robert Duffy (Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful

I'm not usually one to leave reviews, but I think this little system has been getting a lot of bad press, some of which could be justified, but mostly as people could be expecting too much from a piece of kit that costs less than a good night out!

Being the other side of the pond, you can base this on the EU (European) model, although I would think the only difference is the Scart socket for AV connections, and a PAL signal as opposed to NTSC for all you 60Hz fans.

The system is well put together, as good as any other DVD type component this side of $500.00. If you want to be really picky, the remote isn't the best in the world, but it does the job as as long as you don't have big sausage fingers or beat the hell out of it.

I am running a basic home wireless network through a Belkin router. Using Windows Media Connect it worked straight out of the box. I had actually set myself up for a nightmare of a installation, but couldn't believe just how easy it was. I'm no IT expert either, believe me if it can go wrong in my house it normally does. This didn't though, took under 5-mins to be browsing through the contents of my desktops' pics, music and vids from the comfort of my sofa.

Music quality and streaming seem just fine. I have a pretty good home set up using a mix of Arcam and NAD through Mission speakers (no i'm not a audiophile, they just had a sale on at the Hi-Fi store) and well, it sounds pretty damn good to me. For those that are searching for pure listening excellence what are you doing buying one of these anyway? Go get yourself a $10000 turntable mounted in rock, have your home acoustically engineered and sit back and enjoy. Personally for me, I'd rather stick this on for a saturday night and enjoy the rest of my time playing cards and drinking vodka rather than worrying about my sofa affecting the resonance of my room.

Likewise, video seems perfectly acceptable too. Okay, it's not going to win any awards, and it won't become the new benchmark for excellence, but it does work, it is watchable and its a whole lot easier than trying to sit your entire family around a 17" monitor. Same can be said for the picture viewing too, it just works... rather well. Couldn't get the thumbnail funtion to work, but I'm sure that's operator error more than anything else.

DVD player is fine, again, it's not the most feature rich in the world, but it's not going to be is it? It does have progressive scan, the picture is bright and clear,with no noticeable digital artifacts and I'll be honest, I can't tell the difference between the D-Link and my rather more expensive NAD one (sorry NAD it is a lovely DVD player, but I can't.. honestly).

I'm sure as technology moves on so will the wireless media arena. It's early days yet chaps, and for not-much-money D-Link have done a pretty good job at making something which is going to make your already busy lives just a little bit easier.

My advice is go and get one. Okay, we all know in 2-years time something bigger and better with even more blue LED lights will be out and we'll all be rushing off with stars in our eyes, and a lump on our Mastercard to get one, but until then this will do just fine and dandy. It works, it works well, an idiot like me can install it, and its a breeze to use. Ask yourselves, for a few hundred bucks what are you expecting?

Oh, why the 4-stars? Well, it would have been 5* if you could drive the unit from the laptop, and not have to use the remote, but hey ho.. its a minor thing, and I'm sure some bright young whiz-kid out there will write a software patch soon.

There ya go, enjoy and hope you find it as useful as I did.