D-Link DSM 320

The D-Link DSM 320 is arguably one of the most attractive and well-constructed digital media streaming systems on the market. It is relatively compact, although its external aerial protrudes several inches above it.

Video, photos and music can be transferred from your PC to your television or stereo via a wired or wireless network connection. D-Link has managed to keep the cost of the DSM 320 to a minimum by not including a wireless adapter card for your PC, so you'll need to buy one or use an extra long network cable.

The DSM 320 can be configured fairly easily thanks to a set-up wizard, so most of the work is done for you. We'd still recommend brushing up on your knowledge of wireless networks before attempting installation though, as the terminology may prove quite baffling to beginners.

The DSM 320 supports various audio and video formats including MP3, WMA, MPEG4 and JPG, but there is no support for Windows Media Video (WMV) files, or audio purchased from Apple's iTunes music store.

Unlike many devices of this type, however, it supports Windows Media Audio files bought from Napster. Unfortunately, the bundled Media Server software is incompatible with this, so you'l have to download Microsoft's own Media Connect software to enable this feature. 

Our experience with the DSM 320 was mixed. It transfers audio from your PC to your TV or stereo comfortably, but was rather hit and miss when it came to video streaming.

Some video appeared jerky and blocky and, even when playback was smooth, the video occasionally became desynchronised with the audio. In other words, it made some of our films look like badly dubbed foreign movies.

These occasional glitches can prove frustrating, but one positive aspect of the device is that it can automatically upgrade itself with software fixes to (hopefully) alleviate some of its idiosyncrasies. It is far from perfect, but if you want a cheap way of getting into wireless media streaming it could be ideal.

See also:

LaCie Silverscreen

Simple media streaming  14 Apr 2005

Pinnacle Showcenter 1000g

Easy streaming of multimedia around the home  24 Mar 2005

Philips Streamium SL400i

A smart box that will play media files on TV  16 Feb 2005

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