Netgear MP101

[dunlop73]

Does anyone know of a resource for help/support/discusion of the Netgear MP101? I had one delivered last week and when all is well if works fabulously, but I have several issues with the software. It seems to muddle up the albums after a while and only a complete reinstall corrects it. Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Jon

 

[Rob.Screene]

The obvious one is http://kbserver.netgear.com/products_automatic/MP101.asp

Looks under half the price of the slimmp3 similar MP3 wireless squeezebox device http://www.slimp3.co.uk/ or the older wired only slimp3 http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/shopping/pages/buyslimp3.html

What's it sound like then?

This would be nice in the lounge to allow selection and play of music without encouraging the nipper in to the TV cabinet!

cheers,
Rob.

 

[dunlop73]

Thanks - I was having difficulties getting to that site earlier today - apparently they have had a problem with spam but it's working now. I suppose I'll have to wait for some update/bug fix.

To my ears it sounds great (and MUCH better than my laptop linked to the amp). CD's can all go in the loft at last.

Regards

Jon

 

[kingstevo]

Hi Jon,

I've been looking at this gadget for a while but been reluctant because of the server software and the worries over the display being unclear.

Can you confirm what the problems are with the server software? Can the device use a non-Netgear software server, such as the SlimServer?

How does the display look to you? Is each line only 6 pixels high? Can you read it from a distance?

Thanks in advance, Steve

 

[dunlop73]

Hi

The server software is far from perfect. With my library it loses the album information if you search backwards (alphabetically) and requires frequent restarts. On digging about on the net, I found it is posible to use Musicmatch Jukebox and that does seem more stable, but only the track name is displayed (not album, artist and genre) whilst it is playing. I am currently putting up with Musicmatch, but waiting and hoping for a software update or another alternative.

As for the display: It is readable to about 6 feet away if your eyes are good. What I don't like is that if the name is too long to fit on one line (and most are), it scrolls to the left and seems to flash which is distracting.

I don't want to be too negative about this - I think it is a fantastic piece of kit for the money but we really need a software update quickly if Netgear are going to avoid a lot of winging.

Regards

Jon

 

[dunlop73]

Sorry to reply to myself - I meant to say I will check out Slim Server and report back.

Jon

 

[dunlop73]

Can't get Slim Server to find the Netgear or vice versa, so it looks like that's a no.

I'd be very interested if anyone gets any other server softawre working though, also if there's anyway to stream internet radio. It looks like the only way is through a Rhapsody subscription which is not available in the UK.

Jon

 

[kingstevo]

Jon, thanks for your response and your testing. The server software problems are interesting - lets see if anyone comes up with another solution.
To be honest, for £100, it may be worth putting up with!
Steve

 

[Rob.Screene]

A friend mentioned he has a competing product from Linksys. It seems to use TV output over an on-board LCD display, but in future may be enhanced to stream movies off the pc.

http://www.news-wireless.net/articles/030210-DMA.html
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000DG4XK/ref=ase_shopgenie/026-8275871-3592420
(see the amazon customer reviews, for useful comments)

I prefer the thought of simplicity of LCD display over TV integration, but it might be just up someone's street.

regards,
Rob.

 

[dunlop73]

I've just noticed that there is a firmware update on http://kbserver.netgear.com/products_automatic/MP101.asp which adds one or two new features:
alphabetical searching, screen saver and brightness adjuster. Still no software update alas, but they're getting there.

Jon

 

[Rob.Screene]

Hi Jon,
I'd appreciate hearing how you are getting on with the MP101 now.

I'm about to get one for the living room. This is for background music either via the TV speakers or some sub/sats.

There's a good price and a few reveiw comments at http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3Jldmlld3M=&product_uid=58034

regards,
Rob.

 

[dunlop73]

Hi Rob

The server software is more stable now I'm not adding new CD's daily, and the updated firmware has made a huge difference to ease of use. Apparently a new version of the software is coming soon which will add proper internet radio streaming for UK users. See http://www.expansys.com/forum.asp?code=111214
There are still teething troubles but I'm sure you won't regret getting one. Let me know how you get on.

Regards

Jon

 

[Rob.Screene]

The MP101 arrived yeaterday, but I didn't get much time to try it till just before lunchtime today. It looked to have the album search in the standard firmware, although I ran the upgrade anyway.

My wife seemed to like the Artist/Album/Genre search ui via remote control and the 3-line lcd display. We'll wait to see how much it get's used in the living room though.

I only did a quick test of a few tracks via headphones, then plugged it's line-out in to my Denon AVC-A10SE AV amp and bi-amped active Linn Keilidh floorstanders just for testing.

In my usual 'stereo' mode, the analog input to the AV amp will be ADC'd at 20-bit, before 32-bit digital bass management, then pre-outs to the subwoofer and Linn Active Crossover Tunebox, then 4 pre-outs to the bass and treble amps.

Bear in mind the MP101 doesn't have digital oututs unlike it's Roku SoundBridge and Slim squeezebox double priced competitors, so an external DAC isn't a standard option.

I haven't matched levels to what I normally listen at or A/B compared to my normal 24-bit upsampling CD source, I hope to get time for that tonight.

Sound quality is enjoyable, treble is good and clean, bass is ok, certainly as good as I'd hoped and better than I feared it might be. Soundstaging and 'follow-the-tune' were fine.

I'd say the deepest sub-bass fundamentals are a little lacking, but it may just be lower listening levels I used briefly. I do have a rather large active sub, tuned down to 22Hz, so I'm used to a pretty full bottom octave. I'd say it sounded like good bookshelf speakers, as opposed to big floorstanders, let alone big activ floorstanders and a big sub.

I suspect it may be less open an detailed to my normal source, it also sounded quite loud for the 84dB-C average I measured briefly, without as much detail being apparent.

I did notice it skipped one a few older 256Kbps MP3's whereas there was no noticeable skipping any of the variable-bitrate (VBR 210Kbps +/- 25Kbps) --alt-preset standard LAME 3.90.3 encoded MP3 tracks (recommended by hydrogenaudio, and very, very high quality)

I hope to conclude more on it's ultimate sound quality tonight.
cheers,
Rob.

 

[Rob.Screene]

I did a quick search on the developer of the netgear media server:
http://www.digital5.com/solutions_AUDIO.html

Looks like netgear may have adopted an off-the-shelf "UPnP" solution then?
Network Protocols:
UPnP 1.x
Auto connect wired or wireless configuration
TCP/IP (and related protocols)
RTP/RTSP streaming protocol
D5 enhanced quality control – StreamRite™
Multimedia Content Supported :
WMA, MP3, AAC, LPCM
Any other UPnP servers available?

I noticed the netgear server doesn't run as a windows service, so needs a user logged on which isn't normal for our server.

I also noticed amazon.co.uk are now doing the MP101 for £90 delivered.

regards,
Rob.

 

[andrew1810]

I have an MP101 and haven't had any problems with it losing albums etc. and it sounds pretty good.

The only thing is that it has quite a short range but at the price nothing to complain about.

The screen is very large and clear

Hope this helps

Andrew

 

[Rob.Screene]

Originally posted by kingstevo
I've been looking at this gadget for a while but been reluctant because of the server software and the worries over the display being unclear.

Can you confirm what the problems are with the server software? Can the device use a non-Netgear software server, such as the SlimServer?]

The device and server software use the UPnP MediaServer spec, which the slim and roku devices do not. I've downloaded the Intel UPnP tools to use the UPnP spy to troubleshoot why the server is often unavailable.

I noticed the NETGEAR MediaServer when starting and running properly uses about 20% cpu for about 21 cpu seconds (about 2 mins elapsed) during which time it seems to re-check the mp3's in some way. Then returning to unmeasurable cpu and 13MB memory use for my 200-ish albums.

Often the NETGEAR MediaServer starts and sits at 100% cpu and doesn't publish itself as a UPnP server.

Other times the NETGEAR MediaServer starts and sits at 0%cpu with no cpu time used, i.e hangs on startup, probably something to do with the Berkly DB format it uses, aven though I've tried turining the few "sync-to-other DB" type options off.
(probably an error message or something not shown)


I too have put MUSICMATCH on my server, as the UPnP server in that seems reliable. Again, this is started by a windows 2000 scheduled task "on machine startup" and seems to work very reliably. Although, as Jon said, it displays only track name when playing, whereas the NETGEAR MediaServer provides the MP101 with album, artist and genre to display too.

Originally posted by kingstevo
How does the display look to you? Is each line only 6 pixels high? Can you read it from a distance?

Thanks in advance, Steve

It's fine. I need my glasses on more than 6ft away, but I'm a bit short sighted. Using the middle of the 3 brightness settings helps the best.

regards,
Rob.

 

[wizbongre]

Just ordered one of these along with some new wireless networking stuff - will be interesting to see how I get on!

Will report back when its up and running...

 

[shoehorn]

Hi,
I've just got one of these myself and am using Musicmatch as the server (the supplied one kept 'falling-over')
However... and I'm sure it's something very simple.... I can only get it to play one track at a time..... when I want to play the whole album.
So if I press 'OK' when I navigate to the album I want to play, it only plays the first track...
Anyone know what I'm doing wrong...???
Thanks.

 

[Rob.Screene]

I press play, not ok to start an album playing?

cheers,
Rob.

 

[shoehorn]

Thanks for the quick reply Rob, I just tried that, selected the Album Title on the MP101, pressed play (the triangle pointing to the right...) and the first track played...
After which it stopped and showed the Album Title with the Track Names listed below.
I'm using Musicmatch as the server..... any further ideas...??

 

[Rob.Screene]

Try the latest recent server/client upgrade from the netgear.com site?

cheers,
Rob.

 

[shoehorn]

Thanks Rob,

Got it working with the new Netgear Server Software.

Still can't get more than one track to play using Musicmatch 8.20 though...

 

[bown101]

I wonder if someone can help.

I want to buy a MP101, primarily so that I can file all my CD's onto my pc, but also so that I don't have to sit in my home office just to be able to listen to BBC radio programs that are on the internet. Will the MP101 allow me to listen to such radio programs away from my PC?

I have a grasp of IT issues, so I'm sure this piece of kit will pick up the web address of the programs I want to listen to, but I'd just like that fact confirmed before I buy one.

Thanks in advance of any help you can give me.

 

[monopole]

How about the Sounblaster wireless music which I mentioned here:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1109838&postcount=6

The remoter also contains an LCD display by which you navigate your music collection.

 

[Paul Proctor]

Hi All

Have just registered on the forum having used it extensively to gather info and advice about MP3 music players/streamers.

Despite the numerous problems reported with the Netgear MP101, i decided to take the plunge!!

I've had absolutely no problems with it so far - connected immediately to my wireless network, including the MAC filtering security side of things, and the server software immediately recognised all my music files.

I've updated the client and server software and all seems well.

have sympathy for those with problems, but mine's great!!

cheers....