Buffalo LinkTheater High Definition Wireless Media Player

Pros: Unit looks to be well built, and looks nice. Display looks awesome, easy to use.

Cons: No WPA support, will not share my Samba linux share for some reason.

Summary: I recently decided to catch my home entertainment system up to date. Like one of the other viewers this is my first night, but since there are only a few reviews, I thought I would toss mine in.

Initial setup was easy, I consider myself pretty good with computers and networks. So like any true tech I opened the box, and hooked it up. (using the manual when all else fails) I have this connected to a Sony XBR 34" HD television via component connection. Ar first I had no video but changing video mode via the TV Mode button on the remote resolved this. I set it to 1080i and all was well and looked sweet!

My biggest complaint is the lack of WPA support for WIFI. So for now I have it connected via a twisted pair cable from my switch 30 feet away.

The remote seems "okay". I guess I'm used to my old Zenith remote which you could point any direction almost ant it would operate the TV. I wont put all the blame here as it can easily be the infrared receiver on the LinkTheater itself. Navigating the menu's seems a bit non-intuitive at times. But you get used to it quick.

The first thing I did was pop in a Linkin Park DVD, it looked very nice indeed, and the sound was very good through just the TV set itself. (Reciever and 7.1 speakers coming UPS). I could not say if the progressive scan made it look any better than my old Panasonic DVD player. I'm a bit of a newbie as far as a Home Theater nut.

I then installed the server software on my PC, it installed w/o a hitch, the software could be a bit better as for setting up certain folders to be "served". And as mentioend above I could not access any Samba shares, which for me is a big deal, but since the basic user doesn't run a linux server I didn't let this affect my rating, as I do love this device, and hope they will fix this issue.

After this I tried a bit of internet surfing. The built in browser might be okay for some real basic browising, but I think I'll stick with Firefox on my laptop. It displayed pages well enough to read, navigate. But the remote is not made for browsing.

Next I played some MP3's all which sounded good, the ability to set custom slideshows for each folder is a nice touch.

I then tried a bit of the streaming content, just a few statiions, both tuned in just fine, and sounded good. Knowing this is just streaming content, I really wont use it much at the current time. I know rhaposdy support would be liked by many people.

I also plugged a LEXAR Media 1 gig USB Thumbdrive in, it detected it fine, and played the couple songs I had on it.

After 4 hours there is 0 heat build up on top of the device. So placiing this under my reciever when I get it tomorrow, will not worry me about adding more heat to it.

After looking at similar items from Dlink, Linksys, Roku, Philips, and Netgear I feel I've made the right decision, this thing rocks.

It's a bit pricey, I paied $309 from buy.com. But since I needed a newer DVD player it was worth every penny. I think if they sold a cheaper model without the DVD player they would sell many more. Or one with DVD changer

Another nice touch is the screen saver if you walk away. I look forward to seeing updates to the software as it can hopefully only get better!