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SMC EzStream SMCWMR-AG Wireless Media Receiver Review

Last week we gave you some guidance on setting up a wireless network featuring a SMC Barricade wireless router. There are many things you can use your wireless network for. Now that you have your wireless network set up and ready to use, a great new option you have is to hook up a wireless media receiver such as the SMC EzStream SMCWMR-AG. With one of these you can stream audio, video, photos, and internet radio out to your home stereo and TV. Are wireless media receivers all they are made out to be? Let's take a look...

Company:

SMC Networks, www.smc.com

Ratings

Price:
Install/Setup:
Usability:
Support:
Average Rating:

Pros:

• SMC equipment isn't expensive, but has decent quality and user interface
• Once set up, very easy to use.
• For the non-computer user in your family, this opens up the world of MP3 usage to them

Cons:

• Setting up the network connection could be difficult if you don't have any experience
• Documentation and web FAQ information is better than the wireless router, but still lacking
• Wireless streaming video was poor

Getting Started

The EzStream is very simple to set up. You plug in the power and hook up the audio/video cable to your tuner or TV or Stereo and the EzStream receiver is ready to go. Before you power it up you will want to install the media server software on a host PC within your wireless network. The host pc can either have a wired or wireless connection to your wireless router. Within the media server software you will share folders and directories or even shared network drives from other devices or PCs on the network that contain the media files you want to stream out to your EzStream.

Once you have your files ready to share, turn on the EzStream. You will want to have the device hooked up to your TV so you can see what is going on and configure the EzStream. The receiver will attempt to connect to the network first. This is where we had our first and really our only problem. Out of the box the EzStream had DHCP turned off. This meant that instead of letting the router pass back an IP address for the receiver to use, the EzStream used a preset IP address. The setup wizard screen tells you the device could not connect to the network and takes you to the network configuration options. Here we added the WEP pass-phrase we set up to secure our wireless network from outsiders a.k.a. your neighbors from using our wireless network. Also, since we have our router configured to handle the passing out of IP addresses to connected PCs and devices, we changed the EzStream settings to use the DHCP option.

After saving our settings changes, the EzStream reboots and tried to again connect to the network. But it failed again. So I once again verified all the network settings on the EzStream. Everything looked perfect. The WEP pass-phrase was entered correctly and it was set to allow the router to hand back an assigned IP address. Yet I still could not connect to the network. So being the man I am I quickly and thoroughly searched the manual (on cd) for the problem. The documentation on the CD and on SMC's web site was exactly the same. And I could not find an answer to my problem. Everything was as it should be, yet no connection to the network.

After several attempts of resetting all the network settings and rebooting the EzStream several times I was at a loss. I figured it had to be something with the router at this point, but several PCs were connected without issue at the same time. Most users at this point would have to call in their kids...or call tech support... or the neighbor who is using your wireless network to download files from the internet. But I was determined to not give up. So I connected to my wireless router from my PC and pulled up the log files. It turns out that the router was trying to pass or offer the EzStream receiver an IP address. However, the EzStream never seemed to accept the IP and formalize the connection to the router. This solved my problem.

Knowing that the EzStream was not accepting the IP address being handed to it told me that something was going on with the DHCP settings on the receiver its self. Or that it was holding onto an IP address already. This is when I remembered that out of the box, the EzStream was set with DHCP turned off with a preset IP address that would not have fit or matched my wireless network IP address range. So in the network settings I turned off the DHCP option and found that I can manually change the preset IP address, which is not mentioned in the instructions anywhere. After changing the IP address to match the IP address I saw my router was trying to hand it (from the log files), I rebooted the EzStream. A few seconds later...a wireless connection from the EzStream receiver to my home wireless network was born!!

It turns out, that changing the network settings from a set IP address to use DHCP did not release the preset IP address the receiver first booted up with. So it could not accept the connection invitation from my router because the IP addresses did not match. The fix was really simple once I found the problem, but most basic users would not have figured this out and would have needed help. After the IP issue was fixed, I change the network settings back to use DHCP and everything still connected fine. The reason I changed it back to use DHCP was because I have my router set to refresh or rotate IP address on connected PCs and devices, so I wanted the router to pass the EzStream its IP address. The question still remains to be seen....that once the IP address gets refreshed, will the EzStream receiver automatically change it's IP address to match or will I once gain have to turn off DHCP and set the IP address manually.

Click on picture to enlarge image

Usability

Once the connection was all set the EzStream quickly found all the shared files from my PC running the media server application. Now I had thousands of MP3 files, family photos, a few movies, and a preset list of internet radio options all at my finger tips. Using the included remote control, it is very simple to browse your tunes by artist, album, genre, and even by playlist. You can quickly flip over to the internet radio and browse the preset list of internet radio options from all over the world. The list included several that appear to be offline, but within the media serer software it is very simple to remove dead links and add your own, or completely customize the whole list to just be your favorites.

Utilizing my blazing fast 802.11g wireless network, playing back music or viewing photos was simple and fast. The receiver did a great job of buffering the data, so you never have any lag or pauses. I wish I could say the same for video files. Streaming video over the wireless network was poor. 802.11g at 54 mbps is just not quite enough to stream a video of much quality and not have lag or pausing in it. However, if you were to utilize the 10/100 network port, I'm sure the receiver would do just fine reading most video files and playing them back from your PC to your TV. But, unless you have a network drop near your TV you are back to the main benefit of the EzStream which is the wireless connection. But even without a great wireless video playback option the EzStream is still a great tool you can utilize on your wireless network. As wireless standards continue to increase connection speads it will not be long until high resolution videos will stream flawlessly from your host PC to your TV.

SMC SMCWMR-AG Wireless Media Receiver Specifications

Adding It All Up

The EzStream is a great tool. Other wireless media receivers on the market are much more expensive than the EzStream which you can pick up online from NewEgg.com for about $135 US. The value for your money is definitely there. Despite the poor performance on the video playback you should still consider this receiver if you have any sort of music collection on your PC and would like to play them on your home stereo without burning CDs. Change your playlist around at will and have it immediately available to play on your stereo.

Despite the difficulties you might have getting the SMC EzStream SMCWMR-AG Wireless Media Receiver connected to your wireless network you will be happy with the performance of this wireless media receiver once it's done. It's easy to navigate your files, search, and play back to your stereo or TV. Because of the great value and great usability, we are awarding the SMC EzStream SMCWMR-AG Wireless Media Receiver the UpgradAdvisor.com Recommended Upgrade Seal of Approval!

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