Media Link: Many shortcomings, but great for MP3 internet radio streams
Written: Jan 12 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Playing MP3 streams throughout your home
Cons: Lack of portability, MusicMatch Software, ability to play MP3s, No WMA/RA streams
The Bottom Line: If you can get this for $80-90 and love listening to MP3 streams online, do it, otherwise, hope Linksys comes out with something better.
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| smoothjazz's Full Review: Linksys WMLS11B Wireless-B (802.11b) Music System |
When I first heard word of the Linksys Wireless-B Media Link WMLS11B, my mind wandered about the possibilities. I am a technology loser, so that happens. But to think of playing internet radio streams or my MP3 collection anywhere in the house without having to drag around the laptop is such a novel idea. I listen to internet radio all the time and in fact have my own internet radio station, so this obviously piqued my interest. I received the item as a Christmas gift, and went to work. Unfortunately, like most things in its ilk, the WMLS11B failed to perform up to its full potential, but it does have some use:
THE OVERALL UNIT
The first thing you'll notice is you can't really take it around the house. It runs on electrical power, and has a ton of wires in the back, despite its relatively small size. The included speakers it comes with I've found are decent. One would probably to prefer to hook it up to their stereo system, however. It looks neat, and I've found the Wireless Reception from the external antenna to be solid.
INSTALLATION
Installation is fairly simple to an extent. Make sure the firmware on your router or wireless access point is up to date, however. And I am not positive if this works with non-Linksys wireless routers or access points (mine is). The first thing you'll have to do is directly connect the WMLS11B to your computer. MAKE SURE you change the WMLS11B from "Wireless" to "Wired" in its configuration to do this. Otherwise, you'll spend 45 minutes of your Christmas like I did scratching my head. Configure it, and make sure you get the local network IP address of it. That'll be important later.
PLAYING YOUR MP3 FILES
Where things got frustrating is setting up the software to allow your MP3 collection to be played on the WMLS11B. The software is MusicMatch Jukebox, which if I may say is absolutely GODAWFUL. It is the absolute worst MP3/music managing software I have ever used, and many times completely screws over your computer. After installing it, and going through about 35 offers to PURCHASE a newer version of MusicMatch, it finally loaded and I was able to access my MP3 collection. However, some files played and some didn't. Overall, the usefulness of playing MP3s on it is poor due to the overall performance of the unit as well as the MusicMatch software.
PLAYING INTERNET RADIO
My disappointment with this is the fact it only plays MP3 streams, not Windows Media or RealAudio streams, which most of the big internet streams use. However, it plays MP3 streams flawlessly. You can configure your favorite MP3 streams and saving them in the WMLS11B by going to the IP address of it on your network.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 129.99
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Epinions.com ID:
smoothjazz
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Reviews written: 1
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