D-Link DSM 330

[multiply]

Originally posted my first thoughts on the HiDef TV Hardware section, but thought it might be more appropriate here.

Well, I got my DSM-330 yesterday, and I can say with complete confidence that it was absolutely worth the wait!!!

Setting up was simplicity itself (I only needed to refer to the pull-out sheet 'Quick Setup Guide'. In fact the Wizards are so clean that I haven't even glanced at the full manual yet (supplied as a pdf, by the way).
The on-screen interface is absolutely wonderful - thumbnails of each movie/TV show are generated so all navigation is done graphically. Also, similar to iTunes, the music library is populated by your album cover illustrations.
SCREENSHOT1 (http://www.avforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67454&d=1196848642) SCREENSHOT2 (http://www.avforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67455&d=1196848656) SCREENSHOT3 (http://www.avforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=67456&d=1196848668)
Sorry about the PQ, but I was in a rush and just wanted to give a 'taster'.

The streaming itself? Well, I'm using a wireless connection (via BT Home Hub) and it's clean as a whistle. Hi-def comes through perfectly and - my own acid test - FF and RW are as smooth as DVD.

By the way, if anyone is using a Harmony programmable, then the DSM-330 remote is identical to the DSM-500.

For comparison, I had been using a Snazzio to stream my content. Connection was erratic at best and 75% of the time I wanted to FF anything, it would freeze and I would have to start the show/movie again from scratch! This D-Link is a beaut. My first impressions are great (as you can tell), but I will update in a week or so when the Honeymoon period is over!
In the meantime, I would recommend this unreservedly!

Please feel free to ask questions, although I may be unable to respond right away.

[willo]

Good summary multiply. I do like the GUI, alot better than the standard menus that most streamers offer. Can you tell me if this can handle mkv files? If it can I may well be joining the DSM-330 club.

[dodgyd]

According to ftp://ftp.dlink.eu/datasheets/DSM-330.pdf , it's got different PC specifications depending on if you're viewing Divx or Divx HD, that would indicate to me that the PC is doing the transcoding? Meaning this unit is not compatible with NAS? Can it play ripped DVDs?

The menus look nice.

Dave.

[jerryq7777]

Does this work with Vista ? Spec sheet sheet says XP but no mention of Vista.

[Broadsword]

I take it this can stream .iso files?

And can it stream .mkv etc?

Also does this need the PC to actually decode the files etc or is the stremer doing the work?

[rhubarbe]

No, I don;t think it plays anything except DivX, XVid and WMVHD (only if transcoded to that format by a connected PC).

Frankly, I don;t see the point of this device, but then I don't rip to DivX or XVid.

[multiply]

Sorry for the delayed response - been busy!

Willo: Well, I tried an mkv file last night (S2e11 of Heroes in HD) and it didn't work, sadly. Not even when I changed the extension to avi (well, you have to try!). ;)
However, I hope that Matroska will be supported with the next firmware revision.

DodgyD - This doesn't incorporate a DVD player. However, it will play any Divx file you throw at it (apparently). I think you're right about the PC doing the transcoding though. The software installation seemed quite comprehensive and installed a bunch of Divx codecs, etc.

Jerryq7777: Sorry, Jerry. my main PC only uses XP. However, it does have 'Vista' plastered all over the box so I would guess it works fine.

Broadsword: Not sure about iso files - I'll have a go tonight. Please see above for your other questions (sorry, I'm not much help there, though)

Rhubarbe: The 'point' is that if you have all your media content stuffed away on a remote PC (as I have) and you don't want to burn DVDs every time you watch or listen to something, then this media streamer is VERY useful indeed. Also, it copes with MP3s as well as video files, and it's so intuitively presented that even my wife can use it... which is my personal acid-test!! :smashin:

[rhubarbe]

Rhubarbe: The 'point' is that if you have all your media content stuffed away on a remote PC (as I have) and you don't want to burn DVDs every time you watch or listen to something, then this media streamer is VERY useful indeed. Also, it copes with MP3s as well as video files, and it's so intuitively presented that even my wife can use it... which is my personal acid-test!! :smashin:
I know what a media player is and does. I have had at least eight of them over the last three years.

I just don't see the 'point' of a media player that only plays DivX and XVid.

What about iso, vob, mpeg2, mpeg4, .ts........??

[Broadsword]

Its no improvement over the showcenter by the looks of it, in fact its worse as the pc needs to do the decoding.

Im a little bemused by the point of this aswell to be honest.

For someone just starting out on a divx xvid library then its a good option but I cant see anyway it could be viewed as an upgrade.

Im still waiting for the DSM750 to materialise.

[multiply]

I get your point, but I'm *hoping* firmware upgrades will address other formats (assuming they are not already supported - I haven't really experimented that much).
No, the main reason I'm so pleased with this is:
1) The interface and menu system is a joy to work with. After coping with clunky, unfriendly systems for so long it's good to see someone investing proper effort in making a good and attractive interface

2) The streaming itself is smooth. I have used 3 earlier iterations of network streamers over my wireless system and have been plagued with stuttering playbacks, crashes and awful shuttling (FF/RW).

As I qualified in my original post, this is still my 'honeymoon period' and so I should have a less rose-tinted opinion after living with it for a week or so. I stand by these first impressions though.

[bladesew]

I have one of these sitting at home waiting to be taken out of the box, so will see for myself this evening - as the OP has said, the ease of use is the draw for this. I recently killed my XBMC and wanted something a bit simpler and less of a hack - i.e. you can switch it on from the remote and operate it like any other piece of kit, HD out of the box rather than an EEPROM flash, girlfriend-friendly, HDMI connection, etc.

Also, the availability of SDK for plugins means that there will hopefully be lots of XBMC-style extensions for internet services (youtube, etc.)

Multiply - what plugins come with the current software and have you tried them (Stage6, etc.)?

[multiply]

Ugh. You have me there, Bladesew. I'm afraid all I have managed to do so far is switch on and view/listen. To be honest, the actual User Manual (a PDF on the install CD) is fairly sparse, but I haven't really taken a good look at that either. I will have a deeper dig over the weekend, but by then, I'm sure you will have discovered a lot more than me!

Wish I could be of more help, but I just haven't really had the time to 'play'...

[KevinFP]

I am seriously thinking of buying one of these and have been waiting for the reviews to start coming through! as I said in an earlier posting, I have my music and photo's stored on an external hard drive (drive G) connected to my PC.
Will I be able to access these files on my television through a D-Link DSM 330 via a wireless network connection?
(in other words will the D-Link DSM 330 be able to access these files, from the external hard drive via the PC over the wireless network?)

Many Thanks

[multiply]

I am seriously thinking of buying one of these and have been waiting for the reviews to start coming through! as I said in an earlier posting, I have my music and photo's stored on an external hard drive (drive G) connected to my PC.
Will I be able to access these files on my television through a D-Link DSM 330 via a wireless network connection?
(in other words will the D-Link DSM 330 be able to access these files, from the external hard drive via the PC over the wireless network?)

Many Thanks

Yeah, I'm sure you can. Once the software is installed on your PC you are prompted to add files/folders which you want accessible by the 330. Provided your harddrive shows up in your normal directories, then no problem.
In fact, my photos are stored on an external drive and I access those, so the short answer is 'Yes!'. :thumbsup:

[jerryq7777]

Ive ordered one it sounds perfect for my needs.Was going to get a TVIX unit w/out HD but the linksy has wireless,scart and Hdmi plus its £20 cheaper.

[akane_1984]

does this streamer work with NAS? (QNAP).

[bladesew]

does this streamer work with NAS? (QNAP).

No it doesn't - it is a very thin client and all the processing is done by your PC.

Ok - I got mine setup last night and managed to have a quick go. These are my initial impressions. [NB: unit is wired to router - laptop is upstairs connected via wireless. HDMI connection to HDready TV. 20Mb Virgin broadband]

Box - nice and small, about the size and weight of standard freeview box.

Connections - this unit does not have component, which is advertised on some sites for some reason. It does have HDMI, SCART and composite. Also separate digital audio outs.

Remote - smallish and reasonably responsive, but feels a bit cheap and too much give in the rubbery buttons. Decent layout and functionality.

Display - nice menus which uses thumbnails from your content. As the actual menu is generated by the PC, then sent to the box over the network it can be a little slow (but no more so than some PVR interfaces). I set mine to output at 720p. At 1080i I had a red line down the far right handside.

Streaming from PC - works a treat. I had no pauses, FF/RWD works great. Even compressed divx looks good upscaled to 720p over HDMI. I also found that 720p HD Divx played with no pausing or other problems. Music also worked with no problems and sounded great.

Streaming from net (via PC) - obviously depends on the performance of the website and your broadband connection. I found Stage6 a little slow and had some pausing on SD divx videos. HD had problems which I had expected. I don't think this will stream HD over the net very well but think that's not the units problem.

Plugins and services - I installed the plugins on the divx website. At present most of these are interfaces to videos which are also present through the Stage6 website, but may be hosted elsewhere as I found the streaming to be better. I didn't get the chance to try Google Maps or flickr. There appears to be a problem with Stage6 using this box - when you select "download" rather than play (this will download to your PC for later playback) the progress indicator freezes after about 30 secs - I didn't have the patience to test whether the file was still downloading and cancelled.

Misc - I noticed that some .srt-based subtitles worked and some did not.
After you install the software on the PC it immediately prompts you to download a newer version.
I couldn't get the software to install on my girlfriend's vista laptop.

Overall - quite impressed. With a few bugs ironed out and some creative work done on plugins this will work a treat for me.

Any questions?

[multiply]

Seen on the Divx Labs technical forum:
Is there support for matroska (.mkv) container format?

No. Possibly in the future with a server software update.

Sooner rather than later, I hope!

[1979crazy]

Seen on the Divx Labs technical forum:


Sooner rather than later, I hope!

Sooner by the looks of things!

http://www.mpcclub.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=416

Ed

[multiply]

Cool! I think I'll try this out over the weekend.

[multiply]

Just tried out the above and followed all instructions to the letter (I think).

The mkv file plays fine now on the Divx Player on my PC, but still won't recognise the format on the D-Link device. I'm sure it will be something I'm doing wrong, but I think I'll have to wait for the 'official' patch. :(

[lazrhog]

Hi, I just got my DSM-330, and am having a few problems with it going online. The Stage 6 bit works OK, but the "online" button doesn't do anything. Does yours ?

As a sidenote, I got the plugins working nicely. Google maps is very cool on the HD panel. Especially the hybrid and satellite views. Also very very responsive. I will enjoy that very much

[jerryq7777]

Got the DSM-330 today and it doesnt work ! Not with Vista anyway.No sign of vista logos on my box only XP :mad:
The software installs and the d-link finds the server and connects but thats as far as it gets as the software freezes and stops responding.

[Daveace1]

I wondered if anyone here can help. I have been using MediaMonkey on my PC for a while now and am getting on with it quite well. I have over 80Gb of music ripped from CD to my PC now.

when I rip a CD I will download the appropriate album art from Amazon and then attach it to the tags of each track. Well, I think that's what it's doing.

When I browse my albums via the dsm-330 most of the albums dont appear to have album art and if they do it doesnt seem to be attached to all the tracks. just the album name which is quite annoying because I just get a musical note on the screen where the album are is supposed to be displayed.

Does anyone know how the dsm-300 reads the metadata attached to the tracks and what I'd need to do to get all tracks to display album art?

:lease:

[5ummer5]

The DSM 330 isnt on thier website. I have found a DSM-510 and DSM-520.

The 520 is HD and the 510 isnt.

They both support

• WMV9
• MPEG 1
• MPEG 2
• MPEG 4**
• Xvid
• AVI (MPEG-4 Layer Only)
• DVR-MS

Worth the extra £50, i think so.

What do u guys reckon?

[jerryq7777]

Got this thing working with XP but my videos avi's are tinged green on skin and light colours.Im connected via HDMI and have the latest version of DIVX.Didnt have this problem when i burned the vids to dvd.Anyone else came across this problem ?

[Autopilot]

Thanks for the info. If i was to buy right now it would be this.

[jerryq7777]

The DSM 330 isnt on thier website. I have found a DSM-510 and DSM-520.

DSM 330 on the D-LINK (http://www.dlink.co.uk/?go=jN7uAYLx/oIJaWVUDLYZU93ygJVYLelXSNvhLPG3yV3oWIp6gqltbNlwaaR p5jUtAmu5j3cf/YELBtf33KHnK0cYs+/QbQ==) website.

[5ummer5]

DSM 330 on the D-LINK (http://www.dlink.co.uk/?go=jN7uAYLx/oIJaWVUDLYZU93ygJVYLelXSNvhLPG3yV3oWIp6gqltbNlwaaR p5jUtAmu5j3cf/YELBtf33KHnK0cYs+/QbQ==) website.

How the bloody hell did i miss that!

This is where i was looking
http://www.dlink.com/products/category.asp?cid=75&sec=1

I think i might wait for the DSM-750, any ideas on the release dates? Im getting increasingly confused about which one of the media streamers to choose tho!

[jerryq7777]

Fixed the green problem ditched the HDMI and connected via scart works ok now.

[slightlyoffbeat]

Hey everyone. Sorry for the long post, but I was reading through it and have some answers to a few of your questions:

Q: Is MKV/ISO/etc supported?

A: not out of the box, but check this out: http://connunity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10 (connunity is a user-run website for connected)


Q: Does it work with Vista?

A: Yes, it has been tested and approved w/ vista and vista 64 bit. If you are having a hard time getting it to work, email connectedfeedback at divx dot com and they will work with you to solve the problem


Q: What plug-ins are there?

A: Check out labs.divx.com/connected. There is a plug-ins page there, as well as a connected community if you would like to be more involved.


Q: Why doesn't stage6 work?

A: Stage6 changed their back-end recently. A fix is going out this evening that fixes Stage6 playback.


Q: How do I edit the meta data?

A: If you go into the server, you can go to the files and edit the metadata. You can also edit the metadata for multiple files at once.


Q: it supports component right?

[I]A: Yes it does. You will need a SCART to component cable.

Sorry the post is so long! I just thought I'd chime in to answer some of the questions floating around. If you having any more, I can try my best to answer them.

[dan]

[PLAzmA247]

To find more mods and how to unlock the connected box to play more than just Divx have a look at:

http://www.connunity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10

[Bonker99]

Hi all.

I'm seriously considering buying a DSM-330 but need answers to some questions first.

First of all, here's my current setup:

PC: Intel Core 2 Duo x6850 @ 3.0ghz, 2GB RAM, 2.5TB HD, Win XP Pro (up 24/7).

Networking: 20MB/768KB Virgin cable broadband, 4 port 10/100 router, pair of 85Mbps Homeplug powerline plugs.

Media Player: Freecom MediaPlayer-35.

TV: Samsung LE46F86 LCD 1080p HDMI1.3 24fps TV (new!).


So far, I've been recoding my enormous collection of DVDs down to XVID AVI's with usually AC3, or sometimes MP3 audio, and streaming them very nicely from shared folders on the PC through the MediaPlayer-35 (with terrific upscaling to 720p! :p) via the 85Mbps Homeplugs and it's all been working great.

However, I've just bought the TV above and now it's time to get serious with some HD content!

There's safety in numbers so I imagine I'll be going with the pack with re-encoding HD stuff down to X264/H.264 with, typically I guess, DTS audio and an MKV container with 1080p resolution, 24fps etc.

So, lots of questions then.

1/ Is it a given that all of my old SD XVID stuff will stream as before glitch-free and it will upscale to 720p/1080p across the HDMI?

2/ With the new stuff (HD-DVD/Blu Ray) that I'll be re-encoding, can I also take it for granted that using X264/H.264 and DTS audio (or whatever other types of audio may be available - DD5.1/AC3/MP3/whatever) in an MKV container will present no problems to the DSM-330?

3/ Given that H.264 stuff will be being transcoded to DIVX on my PC before appearing on my TV - what effect will this have on the quality of the picture? If the transcoding is 'lossless' (I doubt it??) then great but by definition, any changes made to the original frame will be a degradation of picture quality, will it not??


I have particular concerns over 1080p stuff as I note in the FAQ over at the 'connunity' that stuff above 6-8Mbps may not work (which is basically gonna be everything as that's about half the bitrate of typical 1080p stuff AFAIK?!). Is that a networking limit? A transcoding limit on the PC? (I assume not as I would hope my PC pretty much capable of hacking anything thrown at it!) Or an inherent limit within the DSM-330? (I hope not - that would seem a bit short-sighted!!)

Upgrading my router to gigabit and the Homeplugs to 200Mbps is not an issue and I expect to need to do this - it's all in the budget lol.

Sorry for the long post but finding out HARD answers to questions about any media player on the market is practically impossible but the whole media centre extender concept of the DSM-330 seems made to measure for me given my beefy PC and enormous library of media plus the configurability of codecs on the PC side for max future-proofing SHOULD be ace, so I'm really hopeful it can deliver the goods.

Cheers.

Bonker.

PS: I couldn't give a flying **** about the rest of the functionality in the DSM-330: MP3 playing, "Stage6" (***???), Google Maps etc. This bad boy needs to stream HD movies in the commonly used HD codecs/containers to perfection(ish) - end of!

[mike sinfield]

hi i got a dsm 330 for christmas and ive set it up and played downloaded films fine, but i would like to know is there a way of streaming a film from one of the film sites (joox etc) straight to my telly without waiting for it to download, so what i am seeing on my computer screen appears on the tv via the dsm 330, can anyone please help:lease:

[ccherbert]

Can anyone find out if this streamer support m4a itunes music, my wife has lots of files from itunes that i'd like to stream, they arnt drm protected so i dont need to worry about that jind of streaming, thanks

[Baldwhoosh]

Hi,
Hope somone can help. I purchased one of these machines today and after the initial set up it worked perfectly .
Its connected to my PC via wireless with an encryption key - however if i turn the box off and then back on the box doesn;t automatically connect to the same wireless network.
I have to reconfigure the wireless network and re-enter the encryption key.
This is a bit of a pain - any one know what i need to do (other than leave the box on permanently!)

Thanks in advance.

[Ginsoakedboy]

Can anyone confirm that they have got Matroska support working on a DSM-330?

Right now the lack of support for MKV is the only thing stopping me from buying one of these - otherwise it looks perfect for me.

many thanks in advance,

GSB

[Ginsoakedboy]

No answers.. does that mean no one has tried or no one has suceeded?

GSB

[jerryq7777]

I couldnt get it to work but some claim to have got them working.

http://connunity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=25

[barrboy89]

I think you can use NAS, what you do is right click on my computer, then click map network drive and then follow the instructions, then add the newly created drive to the divx connected software. I havent tried it specifically with NAS but it works for accessing a shared network folder.

Also i have got mine to play mkv, also mp4, m4a, aac etc so its defo a worthwhile purchase!

[boborfrank]

Hi Multiply

I would be grateful if you could explain roughly how the D-Link DSM 330 works this 71 year old brain can not quite grasp the idea

the way I see it one connects the D-Link DSM 330 by wire to my computer which in turn transmits as signal to a receiver which I have to connect my Plasma TV. Provided I keep the computer switched on I can view most information I have srored on my hard drive
Thanks in advance

Bob