Philips Streamium MX6000i

CNET editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Design : 6.0
  Features : 8.0
  Performance : 7.0
  Overall score: 7.0 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Nathaniel Wilkins
• Edited by:
  David Katzmaier
• Reviewed on: 12/20/2004

A new member of Philips's Streamium line, the MX6000i is one of the first home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) systems capable of wirelessly streaming audio, video, and digital photos into your living room from networked PCs and the Internet. In addition to its innovative attributes, the $800 MX6000i packs a complete assortment of more standard HTIB features, including an integrated five-disc DVD/CD/MP3 CD changer, an AM/FM tuner, and surround-sound speakers. Although the system's network media features enhance an already solid home-theater system, the MX6000i's lack of some step-up features--such as video inputs and WMA support--will have power users opting for separate home-theater and network media devices.Measuring 17.1 inches wide, 14.6 inches deep, and only 3.8 inches tall, the MX6000i's main unit will easily fit in most home entertainment furniture. The nicely styled silver unit sports two front-panel dials: a volume control and a source selector. Although the source selector is excessively sensitive, that's not a big drawback since you're more likely to use the remote control anyway.

In comparison to many of the digital media receivers I've tested, one nice thing about the MX6000i is that it includes both a TV-based user interface and a four-line front-panel display, allowing you to navigate music even when the TV is off. The underwhelming but decent remote control doesn't include Page Up and Page Down buttons, so you'll have to use the alphanumeric keys to skip around in track lists.

The MX6000i includes two stereo analog audio inputs, a coaxial digital audio input, a coaxial digital audio output, and an analog line output. Composite, S-Video, and component video outputs provide ample options for connecting the system to virtually any TV. While those connections should be adequate for most users, the system's lack of video inputs means your cable or satellite box will have to be connected directly to the TV. Although some other HTIBs have the same limitation, not being able to pull up the MX6000i's onscreen configuration menus while watching a cable or satellite source gets annoying.

The system includes a center-channel speaker, two surrounds, two front speakers, and front speaker stands that double as passive subwoofers. The speaker cabinets are silver plastic, but the bass pipe segments of the speaker stands are metal. With the front speakers attached to the attractive but nonadjustable silver stands, the tweeters are nearly four feet off the ground, which, depending on your seating, may be a bit too high for ideal sound.

The MX6000i's onscreen menus are clean and well designed. In most instances, the screen is split into two panes, one providing a list of folders on the current level, and the other giving you a glimpse of the currently selected folder's contents. Menu navigation is easily executed using the remote's four-way keypad.

The five-disc changer offers Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, and DTS surround processing. The system handles DVDs, CDs, and MP3 CDs, but DVD-Audio and SACD discs aren't supported. Strangely enough, this network-connected device can't retrieve album information, such as track titles, from the Internet when an audio CD is played, and it doesn't display CD artwork. Unfortunately, MP3 and MP3Pro are the only compressed audio formats supported.

JPEG, BMP, and GIF image files as well as MPEG-1, -2, and -4, and DivX (versions 4.0 and 5.03) video files can be played over your network. In terms of format support, the main drawback is that neither Windows Media audio nor video files are compatible with the MX6000i. Digital photo slide-show enthusiasts will also be disappointed by the device's inability to accompany the slide shows with music, but Philips says a future firmware upgrade may correct that limitation. To enable playing PC-based media files over the MX6000i, the PC where the files are stored must be on the same network as the MX6000i, and the computer must be running the included Philips Media Manager application.

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Reviews from around the WebPowered by alaTest

• alaTest.com

  Editors' rating: 79

  Summary: alaTest has collected and analyzed 24 reviews of Philips Streamium MX6000i from international magazines and websites. Experts rate this product 83/100 and users 39/100. Comparing these reviews to 35634 other Home Theater Systems reviews gives this product an overall alaScore™ 79/100 = Good.

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• techradar.com

  Editors' rating: 80

  Summary: This is the key to the MX6000i's flexibility, although an internal Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11b/g) transceiver is included as a wireless alternative. The internet settings are entered via a menu system before use and thankfully, DHCP is supported for ease of ...

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• Active Home

  Editors' rating: 100

  Summary: An ideal solution for anyone who is looking to bring their living room into the digital age

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