Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player with 3.0" B&W Display

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Good ! Hope Philips makes devices with color screen too and over also Servers in the US (I saw something like a MCi500H being available in Europe).

Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player with 3.0" B&W Display

...

the date format, the time format, set the date, set the time, and then I choose the Wireless option to set up connection with my home wifi router.

The device quickly detected my wifi router, as well as my neighbors' routers. I picked my router, entered my WPA key using the remote control (which is similar to typing sms on mobile phone, but I must say that if it has intelligent input like auto-completion of word, it would be very nice), and click through a few options which are default settings. The whole thing took me a couple of minutes and it is pretty straight forward.

Next I tried to play the music from my PC. Since I already have the Windows Media Player version 11 running on my Windows XP, I just follow the instruction on the user manual to set up the Media Player. It took in my case about 15 seconds for the network player to see my PC music. It plays my PC music quite well on my home audio. Most of my MP3 music are ripped at 192 kbps. There is no distortion and so far I have not experienced any hiccup on the music playback.

Next I tried the Internet Radio. I was surprised that I was asked to do software upgrade. I accepted the upgrade and the device restarted itself. So it is quite nice that I can get software upgrade automatically. I give it try again to listen to the Internet Radio and it worked this time. The menu is a bit cumbersome and a lot of choices, which I guess it is good and also bad - the choice is many but it took me a while to find out how to go to desired station. After using this device for a while, I found that the number of radio stations offered is huge and I especially liked the fact that those are free and I can really listen to radio from abroad - French stations, Japanese stations etc.

For the Rhapsody, it is also quite nice. So far I haven't decided if I'd subscribe to the service (as I'm still enjoying the 30 days free trial) but the selection of music is indeed a lot. Most often now I just pick an editor pick and play the music.

Is the device perfect. Sorry, Philips, it is not. The display at close distance is definitely not nice, but after using it for a while the large display at a distance does help. I placed this network player on top of my home audio and I can see quite clearly the screen from a distance, which is about 7 ft away from my sofa. I can go through my collection of MP3 music on my PC or go through the large selection of Internet Radio stations quite easily from the player. But I think Philips should really improve on the scrolling speed as it would be better that I can see the whole song name without waiting for the song to scroll across the screen, slowly.

Things to improve - surely I really like to see the scrolling and display quality be improved for day to day use. Having said so, overall, I found this little device do the job nicely. It is easier to setup than what I have expected. The sound quality is really nice. And it does play my MP3 music from my notebook PC on my home audio without needing to worry about wiring. I'm happy that I can listen my music without needing to either play them out from my study room's PC speakers, or transfer them to my mp3 players in order to listen to them.

Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player with 3.0" B&W Display

...

the date format, the time format, set the date, set the time, and then I choose the Wireless option to set up connection with my home wifi router.



The device quickly detected my wifi router, as well as my neighbors' routers. I picked my router, entered my WPA key using the remote control (which is similar to typing sms on mobile phone, but I must say that if it has intelligent input like auto-completion of word, it would be very nice), and click through a few options which are default settings. The whole thing took me a couple of minutes and it is pretty straight forward.



Next I tried to play the music from my PC. Since I already have the Windows Media Player version 11 running on my Windows XP, I just follow the instruction on the user manual to set up the Media Player. It took in my case about 15 seconds for the network player to see my PC music. It plays my PC music quite well on my home audio. Most of my MP3 music are ripped at 192 kbps. There is no distortion and so far I have not experienced any hiccup on the music playback.



Next I tried the Internet Radio. I was surprised that I was asked to do software upgrade. I accepted the upgrade and the device restarted itself. So it is quite nice that I can get software upgrade automatically. I give it try again to listen to the Internet Radio and it worked this time. The menu is a bit cumbersome and a lot of choices, which I guess it is good and also bad - the choice is many but it took me a while to find out how to go to desired station. After using this device for a while, I found that the number of radio stations offered is huge and I especially liked the fact that those are free and I can really listen to radio from abroad - French stations, Japanese stations etc.



For the Rhapsody, it is also quite nice. So far I haven't decided if I'd subscribe to the service (as I'm still enjoying the 30 days free trial) but the selection of music is indeed a lot. Most often now I just pick an editor pick and play the music.



Is the device perfect. Sorry, Philips, it is not. The display at close distance is definitely not nice, but after using it for a while the large display at a distance does help. I placed this network player on top of my home audio and I can see quite clearly the screen from a distance, which is about 7 ft away from my sofa. I can go through my collection of MP3 music on my PC or go through the large selection of Internet Radio stations quite easily from the player. But I think Philips should really improve on the scrolling speed as it would be better that I can see the whole song name without waiting for the song to scroll across the screen, slowly.



Things to improve - surely I really like to see the scrolling and display quality be improved for day to day use. Having said so, overall, I found this little device do the job nicely. It is easier to setup than what I have expected. The sound quality is really nice. And it does play my MP3 music from my notebook PC on my home audio without needing to worry about wiring. I'm happy that I can listen my music without needing to either play them out from my study room's PC speakers, or transfer them to my mp3 players in order to listen to them.