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Overall Rating

The Streamium of my Tears
UPDATE: This device WILL play downloaded AAC/MPEG-4 files if you have the capability to access them outside of WMP11, like on an UPnP Network Attached Storage Device. After 10 days in use, the Streamium finally recognized my networked NAS and offers full accessibility to all of my music files. However, the website interface is still unavailable to me so navigation with the remote control is the only option and extremely time consuming. As of the current date (Aug. 2008)Technical support personnel (I have spoken to five different TSR’s) are extremely pleasant and outwardly dedicated yet tend to give me the impression they have limited exposure to this newer device and are ill-prepared to respond to any inquiries that are beyond the scope of the user manual already available to the owner. END UPDATE

Or consciousness?

One thing about the Philips Streamium NP1100, it pretty much defines its’ own network name - frustration. Get a cup of coffee, grab a donut and sit back because I’m going to be here for a spell.

It started out like any other day when a new piece of electronic equipment arrives: tear off the packaging, get out the quick start manual, plop the software CD in the drive and connect the hardware to the appropriate peripherals. So far so good, I had this box up and running within 20 minutes and I hadn’t even thought about accessing the online user manual. I could tell there were a few quirks that might prove nettlesome down the road but for price of this little toy I could live with them… or so I thought. First of all, it’s marketed as a streaming music device and doesn’t have video output slots (assuming the digital output connection does not support video at this time) so the fact that both video and picture files within Windows Media Player are accessible via the menuing system but will not open is a minor curiosity, not a negative against this unit. I know Philips has two other streaming devices in the same family but whether they support video is another investigation that will have to wait. And that menu system… it is not very intuitive, reminiscent of cell phone key pads and data entry methodology from 10 years ago. Highly annoying under any parameters but particularly if your network security code is 63 characters. I know this device is touted as UPnP but that only applies if your network is wide open. The NP1100 is not WPS ready so there is no way to get around entering the code…and as it turned out, entering the code multiple times, but I get ahead of myself. I even tried Ad Hoc enabling but the device would not access the internet or local music libraries.

I’m not certain at this juncture but it seems as though this device can only access your personal music library if Windows Media Player 11 running on your CPU which seems like a waste of resources. MY hesitation derives from the mixed results I have experienced in keeping the wireless network up and assuring that the lack of connectivity is a network issue rather than a problem with this hardware. Additionally, I’m not sure any essential Philips proprietary software is on the CD. The only thing I can see that was installed was another version of WMP11, and the instructions indicate that step can be skipped if the user already has that version. Unfortunately (or not) I didn’t notice that until after I had re-installed WMP11. Seems rather innocuous doesn’t it? Well, now I have another unindentified device recognized on my network with a separate MAC address that appears to be another media Player. But…another desktop on my network, an older box running XPPro with WMP11 did not recognize this device until I ran this software on that unit…and I lost communication with the device on my primary CPU where Vista Premium is employed as the operating system…I decided to let my laptop subsist without any attempt to interface with this streaming unit. What would be my point, the overwhelming majority of my music files reside on a Network Storage Device that is not recognized by the NP1100 regardless of whether I use wired or wireless connectivity. Oh yeah, I got so tired of trying to keep this thing online, I decided to use an Ethernet connection just to make sure the darn thing could be kept active. About the only thing I haven’t tried is the coaxial digital connection but my daily dose of masochism only extends so far. I’ll save that for next week. The signal recognition capability of this device is largely unimpressive. I have bridge/access points on positioned on the upper and lower levels of my house and this unit was placed in a family room in between but signal strength was mediocre, a problem not duplicated with my wireless PC . Only after sitting this unit in a room less than three feet from the router was I able to maintain a strong signal (802.11n from a Netgear WNR 834b by the way, backward compatible with “g”).

Anyway, all appeared fine until I attempted to register this box. Yeah, I’m the one who immediately registers everything. I received a few Philips products in the past but naturally, I have forgotten whatever absurdly complicated password I submitted but no problem, Philips has been papering my inbox with offers so getting my password sent out shouldn’t be an issue. Except now my email address, the same one they use to tell me what a valued customer I happen to be is not valid. Who cares? Just establish a new account with a new password and register this item…done. However, the registration process requires entry of a Product Identification number that can be found in the menu of the device and the device serial number. Well, the menu navigation seems designed to assure you never find anything you’re searching for but the website also indicated more information on obtaining the Product ID can be found in that online user manual I was so proud I didn’t have to refer to. Hmmm, nothing in the table contents about a Product ID, so run a search of the PDF…nothing. Wait, why not register via the device, an option discovered while attempting to find the Product ID. Another five minutes on the remote trying to key in my email address. And presto, a confirmation email has been sent to my inbox…instructing me to log on to the website to continue the registration process and enter my Product ID and serial number, except the password I have entered does not match the system’s records, so send me another email with my password…same password I just entered 30 minutes ago. This just isn’t worth the effort, forget registration, let’s investigate the box some more. Lo and behold, how did I get here? Is that the “DEVICE ID” I’ve stumbled across? Back to the website…sorry, the Serial Number you have entered is invalid…please try again. Hey, that font is pretty hard to distinguish, maybe that zero is an “O.” Maybe that “1″ is an “L.” There are only 14 characters, how many possible combinations could there be? Wait a minute, I can locate both these codes by displaying properties on my PC. And neither ID matches what is in the menu or on the label…and the system generated serial number looks suspiciously like the MAC address which does not begin with alpha characters and will not be accepted as a valid ID at the website… I resign…And why is the digital display blank again. I’ve reset the date and time at least five times within the last five hours.

Back to the menu, let’s start from the beginning…tomorrow.