A while back the good folks at D-Link saw fit to send me a review unit of their recently release HD Media Center Extender the DSM-750. I had the opportunity to play with it for about a week before shipping it back. Unfortunately I got really busy at work and never got a chance to put down my thoughts of the device before now. So here goes.
The design of the device has a clean look that fits in well in any home entertainment system. The HD content works great over the wired connections, but wireless even on N was hit and miss. It was good from the N D-Link wireless router they sent but with my N Buffalo router I currently use for most things it stuttered a lot. My Linksys G router did adequate with only minor glitches with regular definition content and streaming music. For the most reliable and best quality you should wire it in if at all possible. If you are planning on streaming HD content I would recommend you go with a D-Link N gaming router placed as close as possible.
Setup and connecting to any of the routers I tried was extremely easy and I had no issues. I found that I got better speed at lower encryption levels, as one would expect. The included media center remote suffers from the same hang ups I have with all media center remotes with the lack of simple functions like a “back” or “last” button that (Tip: the OK buttons does this, but if you aren’t familiar with Media Center that doesn’t help you). I would also like to see them ship a remote that has the ability to program additional devices from the remote.
Overall the device functioned great at almost everything I threw at it. If you are in the market for an HD Media Center extender and want a true 1080 picture this is a great way to go. I think its biggest hang up will be the price which is currently running at $299.00 from the D-Link site.
Posted
Nov 11 2008, 06:46 PM
by
Josh Phillips
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