Actiontec Wireless Digital Media Player

Reviews: Networking

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Richard Poelling
Kurtis
Actiontec
May. 1, 2005

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Installation

The Digital Media Player is made up of two parts - the receiver, which acts as the interface to the TV or home theater setup, and the Media Buddy software which serves out the digital content, essentially acting as the digital content server. The signal may be picked up either wirelessly or through the hardwired connection.

Software Component

One of the first things to do to begin setup of the Digital Media Player is install the media buddy software onto your computer. This software allows you to choose what content to share with the media player and acts as the gateway for the device. Installation was very easy and went with no problems. I was able to successfully install it on both a Windows XP and a Windows 2000 machine. The software defaults to your "My Documents" folder and interfaces with the "My Music" folder as well. Also, the software creates a folder titled "My Videos", whose purpose should be obvious. Going into the preferences for the software, you can add folders, change defaults and pretty much point to wherever you have your media stashed. If you are using a TV capture card, pointing the Media Buddy to the capture directory will enable you to watch your recorded TV on an actual TV. It's almost like a roundabout DVR setup. Content can be refreshed from the tray icon located in the system tray without having to reopen the program. There is an initial CPU hit when it re-catalogs the media, it all depends on how much you have stashed on your computer.

Hardware Component

To set the receiver up, you first must decide the type of output you wish to use. This will mainly depend on what type of system you will hook it up to. The receiver includes a DVI output for direct connection to a HDTV, as well as optical audio, component and composite video outputs. Since my system is dated to say the least, I decided to use the standard composite RCA style connectors (red, white, and yellow). I hooked these into the front Video3 input on the receiver. Selecting this input sent the audio through my receiver and the video to the TV. This is the same method I use for watching DVD's, Video tapes, and also to listen to MP3's from my MP3 receiver.

Digital Media Player Configuration

To configure the player, you must first install the software which acts as the gateway to it. Once the software is installed, the receiver should locate the computer and configure itself on boot-up. I found that plugging the receiver into the hard-wired network for the initial install made things go a lot smoother, especially since your wireless connection should be secured and will be unreachable until you put your WEP key in. Using an unsecured wireless network would be just as easy as a hardwired connection, but I don't allow those in my home.

If you are using a secure wireless connection, and you should be, you will need to enter in the WEP key for your Access Point. This device only supports the wireless 802.11b protocol and therefore only supports 64 and 128-bit WEP keys. Unlike using the WPA-PSK setting on many newer 802.11g systems, the WEP key requires a hexidecimal passkey. For the 128-bit encryption, that comes to 26 characters you have to enter in by hand using the 9 digit keypad and the caps and num lock keys. It must have taken me a good 10 minutes to get that WEP key entered! Once entered though, the receiver connected to the AP without a problem.

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Page 1: Introduction & First Looks
Page 2: Installation
Page 3: Testing
Page 4: Quality Check & Conclusion

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3 User Comments

1 - Posted by Nick on May 1, 2005 - 8:15 pm

What was the video quality like on the unit? Any of the digital media players that ive worked with had a software component resident on the computer that transcoded the files into a mpeg stream that got sent over the wire. The quality was decent but any motion had some rather unsightly pixellation. Does this player work the same or does it actually play the file right off the computer?

2 - Posted by Rich on May 1, 2005 - 11:16 pm

From the looks of it I would say that it actually decodes it in the player, otherwise a lot more stuff should have worked. The video quality was pretty good, if the source is a good one, there is no reason you shouldn't get a nice picture on your tv. Just make sure you have a hard wired connection. I was really surprised that it 802.11b couldn't handle the stream, but then again, it is 802.11b. I had some video files which had been recorded from either HD or satellite and they looked amazing, even on my crappy TV using component video.

3 - Posted by MaNiAk21 on May 4, 2005 - 2:14 pm

I've got a similar product for my PS2, the GameShark Media Player (http://www.madcatzstore.com/store/viewItem.asp?idP...). Everything runs perfect (wired) as long as the file is encoded correctly, and that has only been a problem on a couple of occasions. Usually, things work just fine straight from download, and it sure beats my S-Video out, and messind with dual-monitor through TV-out is a pain..

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