Entered CNET Catalog: 01/11/2003
SKU: 0098226027307
Manufacturer: Go-Video
Manufacturer description
The GoVideo Networked DVD Player is a high end, slim-line Progressive Scan DVD player, and is the first player of its kind to be able to stream video files through a wireless network to a consumer electronics component. The Networked DVD Player works with either a wired PCMCIA Ethernet Adapter (included) or an optional PCMCIA 802.11b Wireless Network Card. The D2730 can also stream MP3 and WMA audio files and JPEG image files, as well as MPEG1 and MPEG2 video files.Product summary
The good: Streams PC-based digital audio, video, and photos over your home network; wireless- and Ethernet-compatible; progressive-scan DVD playback; user-friendly interface; upgradable firmware.
The bad: Doesn't support many popular video file formats; so-so remote; poor anamorphic downconversion.
The bottom line: GoVideo's groundbreaking D2730 is a superior networked multimedia device wrapped around a DVD player.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 07/15/2003
The D2730's nondescript appearance belies the host of features under the hood. The brushed-steel face is punctuated by the seven standard disc-transport buttons, a five-way rocker switch for menu navigation, and even a 1/4-inch headphone jack with a dedicated volume control. The fairly large front display glows with the same blue light that illuminates the circumference of the rocker pad.
The remote's poor layout makes menu and media navigation difficult. A rarely seen telephone-style number keypad dominates the body, while disc and file controls are jammed toward the top. Additional buttons hide under a flip-down door.
A CD-ROM provides a small media-server program; you must install and configure it on whichever computers will host the photos, the music, and the videos. Sorry, Mac fans--the D2730 currently supports only Windows. The application scours either your entire hard drive or user-specified directories for compatible media. After initial setup, it retreats to the system tray and lives there unobtrusively. One minor annoyance is that all the files you want to share must reside on internal hard drives; the software can't access any external, optical, or flash drives.
Your PC-based media are accessible via the remote's Network button. Because the interface replicates a PC's file and folder listings, navigating photos, videos, and music will be clean and intuitive for anyone familiar with Windows file trees.
The D2730's killer feature is the built-in PCMCIA slot. When it's hosting the included Ethernet network card, it enables the player to browse much of the digital media on properly configured Windows PCs within your home network. Wireless network access requires an 802.11b network card. Gateway's player, by comparison, is available in separate Ethernet and wireless-ready versions.
Before you envision a digital Valhalla where you can take all your Kazaa-acquired favorites to the big screen, take note: The D2730 supports a limited number of file formats. While MP3, WMA, and JPEG-photo compatibility will satisfy most music and photography fans, film buffs will have to make do with MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 playback. Such mainstream standards as QuickTime, AVI, Real, ASF, and WMV are excluded. The D2730 does have upgradable firmware, however, and GoVideo tells us to expect DivX and MPEG-4 support in the near future.
As a regular DVD player, the D2730 includes slightly better-than-average connectivity options. In addition to composite-video and S-Video connections, the unit features a single set of component-video jacks, which can be switched between interlaced and progressive-scan output at the touch of a button on the remote. Analog stereo, coaxial and optical digital, and dedicated 5.1-channel analog outputs provide maximum connectivity.
The player had no trouble handling a variety of DVD-Rs, DVD+Rs, VCDs, CD-R/RWs, MP3 CD-R/RWs, and photo CDs. DVD+RWs and -RWs were a no-go, however.
Wired Ethernet setup was simple, and the routine for our 802.11b wireless home network required only a couple more steps. With both the D-Link DWL-900AP+ and the newer Netgear WGR614, the D2730 immediately recognized our access point. After that, we needed only to key in our WEP security code on the remote. As we had already installed and run the server software, we were ready to access our files.
As a living-room client for accessing PC-based digital media, the D2730 lived up to the hype. Getting to our entire collection of MP3 and WMA music, including PLS and M3U playlists, was easy. Streaming-music playback was silky smooth, and we enjoyed pumping our MP3 files through our big home-theater speakers. Photo viewing was similarly effortless, and the server software even lets you create playlistlike photo albums, each with a background MP3 song. The only thing missing is the ability to rotate off-angle photos.
But the D2730 really impressed us with its video streaming. Our doubts about video quality over the relatively low bandwidth of 802.11b quickly evaporated as the player spooled one MPEG clip after another with barely a snag. File size wasn't an issue; one 75MB Bugs Bunny cartoon played back without a hitch. Results will depend on your source material and network integrity, of course, so don't expect a 160x120-pixel video broadcasting at 8 percent signal strength to look like a Superbit DVD. That said, almost all our MPEG files looked just as good on the TV as they did maximized on the computer screen, and sound and synchronization were fine. The D2730 does not support the faster 802.11a and 802.11g standards, but with this degree of video-streaming quality, we can't complain.
With the exception of some stair-stepping on the video-based waving flag from the Genesis/Faroudja test disc, progressive-scan DVD playback was comparable to that of other inexpensive players. The machine's 3:2 pull-down engaged quickly to reduce artifacts in 24-frame film sources. While the factory sharpness level is noticeably high, it and several other video settings can be adjusted--albeit coarsely--from the remote. People using the D2730 on most non-wide-screen sets may notice the subpar anamorphic downconversion, which caused serious jaggies in Enhanced For Widescreen DVD video.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16out of 16 user reviews
Never burn a disk again
Pros: Stream a great varity of media types from a networked PC to the player.
Cons: Has Mpeg4 issues, but work arounds are possible, see www.media-servers.com
out of 16 user reviews
Great feature set
Pros: Supports a good mixture of media formats. Upgradable code to me means no forklift upgrade as new standards come out. Networking feature is a huge plus to me. I can teach my spouse to put content on the peecee and let the media server index it and deliv
Cons: Some MPEG-4 formats have not been compatible. Support has been so-so in helping me with this. Indexing by the media server seems to work slow.
out of 16 user reviews
Solves the problem
Pros: Great way to display jpgs and other formats on the TV and listen to downloaded or ripped music on the stereo. We amaze our guests. We use 802.11b. Pictures look great, music is suprisingly good. I could rip my entire CD library to hard disk. Also, the 273
Cons: It's often hard to get a DHCP address into the 2730 so it can read the server's hard disk. And the server software slows down the computer boot cycle too much. GoVideo needs to work on the code, the TV GUI and the file system.
out of 16 user reviews
Love it, works wonders
Pros: Works great, IF you upgrade The Firewall issue can be solved by allowing ALL traffic from the MAC address of the DVD player, then you can keep your fireall up and running protecting your system
Cons:
out of 16 user reviews
Great value for the usefulness
Pros: Great value for the price; decent video streaming quality.
Cons: Doesn't support streaming .WMV video; doesn't support normal discs containing video files; UI is frustratingly limited.
out of 16 user reviews
Great for what it does
Pros: Plays Replay videos over wired lan. Allows me to play JPGs, MP3, video from PC storage. Worked great out of the box with my existing PC, internet Firewall and LAN, though I suspect that it might have problems with a software firewall. (No tweeking require
Cons: Doesn't play raw video files from DVDs, they need to be in DVD movie format instead of just data files. PC side software maintains database, but doesn't notice if files are deleted or moved, so if the database files are being managed outside of the databa
out of 16 user reviews
Just Fine!
Pros: It simply does what it says it can do. I was watching a slideshow of my digital photographs while listening to mp3's. All while lounging on my couch. Having a 4.1 MP digital camera helps with the picture quality on a 30+ inch TV. I enjoy the simplicity of
Cons: None yet.
out of 16 user reviews
Fantastic convergence device
Pros: Price ($135 shipped) Streaming music - Rhapsody and Shoutcast (get the winamp twonkyvision plugin), also works with musicmatch (and any UPNP server, really) Allows for easy slideshows of pictures on your network to your tv Plays mpeg4 and divx vids Easily
Cons: Out of the box you have to flash the firmware to the latest version (takes about 5 min, but requires you to get the ISO on a cd - you could wait for govideo to send you the upgrade, too) Has a learning curve when selecting media servers - dvd2730 does com
out of 16 user reviews
Good maybe the best for NOW
Pros: Good dvd/cd player Media receiver plays mp3s jpeg divix play back okay best bang for the buck
Cons: GUI needs upgrading, make it more interactive add more features.
out of 16 user reviews
Thank the lord!
Pros: I've been acting like a PA in the studio trying to get media off my PC and into the living room for over a year! The ugly bundle of stuff that has been my "fix" can go back to the studio finally!
Cons: DIVx etc formats HAVE to get support asap
out of 16 user reviews
Updated firmware is a must!
Pros: As mentioned before, this unit is a very capable DVD/CD player. Now that the firmware supports Divx and better playlists, there are not many other multimedia servers in its class. The Build quality and finish are top-notch....compare the weight of this un
Cons: The remote is pretty bad, but I "learned" it to my receivers remote and put it in the drawer.
out of 16 user reviews
Promising product, not there yet.
Pros: No problem playing mp3 or mpgs. I guess as long as you use it as a standard dvd plyer is ok.
Cons: I have a three computers network. I've installed the server on each computer. It didn't like having all servers up and running. One at a time was ok. Scanning for media files was fine (support for divx format would be appreciated). Later on I added more f
out of 16 user reviews
No Random play
Pros: Reliable, plays MP3's and MPEGS with no hiccups. Nice looking, well built. Great idea combining DVD player with network sypport.
Cons: No random play, slow TV navigation, tech support not very familiar with features. What good is having hundreds of songs if you cannot shuffle/randomize the order?
out of 16 user reviews
takes work, but worth it
Pros: Here's the thing. I t is absolutely criminal that the company does not allow you to play mp3s other than alphabetically. BUT--with a simple program, you can batch edit your mp3s so that the trrack number is the first part of the title. Problem solved. Als
Cons:
out of 16 user reviews
Follow up to my other post
Pros: Go Video support staff answered phone promptly, each of 3 times I called.
Cons: They never figured out that my "buffering" problem (see my earlier post) was due to interference from my firewall software--I had to figure that out on my own. (Instead of asking if I had a firewall, they had me delete the database that took over 12 hour
out of 16 user reviews
Standalone features good, networking features bad
Pros: Fine CD, DVD and MP3-CD playback. Supports nearly every kind of audio/video connection, including component video and coaxial digital audio--sound qual of DVDs and MP3-CDs using the coax to my receiver was GREAT, and progressive scan component video look
Cons: Wouldn't play more than 10 seconds of MP3 over network--it would stop, say "buffering," and then give up. (This could be a problem unique to me, I assume they wouldn't ship the unit if they couldn't get it to work over WiFi. So take my complaint with a
