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1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 Sent it back Dec 23, 2008
Only good feature of this device is it's stylish appearance; nice to have the visual panel. Sent this back after 2 weeks of attempting to get it to work; software is horrible, difficult to install, quirky with OS, very poorly documented, and unstable at best as a music server. During day one, the installation of the software stalled due to a link on the "firewall settings" portion of the installation directing me to a japanese-only website that had no link to English. After a few hours tinkering with my zonealarm firewall settings manually, the device did recognize the network, but never streamed more than half a song without stopping. Wireless signal strength was never the problem, but "no response" errors were constant with little troubleshooting help included with the software or on-line. After a week of tinkering which included complete shutdown of all firewalls and re-installation of software, Sony "Help" recommended a firmware upgrade which turned out to be a .bin with directions that used settings/buttons that don't exist on the unit, remote or software....after 2 weeks, I give up and am returning the unit. I'll be looking for a better unit and won't likely choose anything Sony that includes software as their software designers seem to be from the Win 3.1 era.....
Warning for Vista 64 bit users Nov 27, 2008
If you are thinking of this, be aware that although the requirements listed on the box say it works with Vista, it only works with the 32-bit version. The M-Crew server software Sony ships with this unit is NOT compatible with the Vista 64 bit OS. As of mid-November '08 Sony online support declined to respond as to whether they intend to upgrade the software to work with 64-bit operating systems in the future. (Instead, Sony tech support sent me a link to Sony's press release website and suggested I search there for an answer.) Can't comment on the functionality of the unit, since without the software it's a ....paperweight. Looks nice, though.
 Major limitations Nov 07, 2008
I bought this unit to stream PC music and internet radio through my Sony home theatre system. First, problem was it would not connect fully with my PC. I realized it needed a firmware upgrade to ensure compatability with Vista, however Sony's firmware installation instructions call for pressing a button on the remote control that literally does not exist (the "suspend" button). After 2 months of calls to Sony I had to send the unit to a Sony service centre for the firmware upgrade. That allowed me to connect to my PC and wow, I could play my PC music. However, I still can't play internet radio stations, even when I manage to find the station url's that end with the asx prefix which is the only type the Sony unit will (supposedly) play.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Not as cool as it looks Mar 06, 2008
I bought this so i could stream my iTunes to my entertainment system, while i work during the day. My Sony home theatre has a DigitalMedia Port, so it all seemed like the perfect fit.
Here are the problems:
- Its tiny! Too small to read the display from my sofa 5ft away. Plus the display is not bright enough, and there is no brightness control.
- Does not work when my laptop has the Cisco VPN service running. I use VPN's all day for work, so this means i couldn't use this product while working.
- Doesn't work with iTunes despite what the website claims. Sure, it can find your songs in the iTunes directory, but you have to install a clunky Sony M-server software to manage your music (eg. create your playlists over again)... and i hate having to do things twice. I thought it would let iTunes stream to it, like you can do with appleTV or Apple airPort. But that is not the case... it DOESN'T work WITH iTunes (just alongside it).
- Wireless was not stable. Seems like my internet connectivity dropped out anytime i tried to have it connect to my router. Big pain. Spent 2 days trying to make it all work together.
- Not good support from the Sony support team. The regular support people don't know anything about it (since its mostly WiFi problems), and will refer you to the special team for it... but they only work in the mornings Eastern Time, which is not really convenient when UPS bring it to you on a Pacific Time afternoon.
I returned this item, and have since bought an appleTV, which is super easy to setup, and much nicer display (actually displays on your TV screen). Plus the apple TV can also cache music, movies etc, so i don't have to worry about VPN problems.
Don't but this... get an appleTV instead. Or maybe even the iPod dock for the Sony DMP... might work better than trying to stream from your laptop.
Leaves a lot to be desired Feb 16, 2008
I purchased this with high hopes and a generally good perception of Sony products. Its very disappointing. I thought the software and networking setup was difficult at best, and I do that stuff for a living. I did get it to work after playing around some, only to discover that not all of my music would work on it as is. The older MP3 recordings that I have play fine, but lately I have been ripping in WMA at 192kbps (I think thats the default in Windows MediaPlayer). All of the music I have in WMA format skips every 3 seconds, and it does not appear to be a network bandwidth problem. Still waiting to hear back from Sony via email, but dont know if I will get an answer: you have to enter a model number as a required field on the Sony support site when you ask a question, and this item did not appear in any of the lists that I can find. Not a good experience. Will revise review upward a little if they correct my problem.
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