- Stream digital music from your PC
- Listen to hundreds of free Internet radio stations
- Large 3" B&W screen displays track and artist information
- Remote control included
SETUP
The NP1100 is basically a wireless access point bundled with a simple on-screen user interface and a remote control. Setup was unbelievably easy I plugged the NP1100 into my A/V receiver, powered it up, and off it went. It automatically detected my wireless home network and once I supplied my WPA security key, it connected itself with no problem. The unit also includes an ethernet port if you prefer a wired connection.
Once connected, it automatically updated its own software, which is good but it was a minor nuisance that I then had to re-enter all of initial settings after the update.
You'll also want to register the unit by supplying the NP1100 with your email address. This sends you a link to set up a Club Philips online account. From this online account, you can manage the various sources of media that the NP1100 accesses, which is much faster when using a full-size keyboard vs. the player's remote. Registering this way also saves you from the hassle of reading the teeny-tiny serial numbers on the bottom of the unit.
PERFORMANCE
I planned on trying three distinct media sources with the Streamium, with pretty varied results: Internet radio, my own PCs media library, and my separate Sirius online subscription.
First, Internet radio. After connecting to your network, a pre-loaded catalog of Internet radio stations becomes available. You can organize this catalog by content (talk vs. music), music genre, country of origin, language, etc. Five minutes out of the box, I was catching up with the latest ambient music from France, local artists from Argentina, news headlines from Japan (just because I could it's not like I speak Japanese!), and even the online home of the greatest radio station ever (The Future of Rock n Roll WOXY 97X, Oxford, OH). The amazing variety of offerings makes for a pretty big 'wow' factor.
But the variety can also be overwhelming. Fortunately, the NP1100 has a "Favorites" functionality for bookmarking your preferred sources. This favorites list makes finding your top choices very easy.
Next, I decided to tackle my own digital media library. Unfortunately, the NP1100 requires Windows Media Player 11 (WMP) as its interface to your PC. I much prefer the iTunes interface to catalog my digital music, but there's no option to use it with the NP1100. So, I had to reinstall WMP on my PC (it's included on the CD that comes with this player) and then configure it to manage a parallel library of my music. WMP is simply awful to use rigid installation that overwrites most of your existing media preferences (e.g. it's always resetting itself as my default player for all formats), clunky visual interface, and also a stubborn determination to not accept anything that's not Microsoft-endorsed. For example, almost my entire library is in AAC file format; however, Microsoft backs MP3. So when I first tried to access my library from the Streamium, only the tiny fraction of MP3s appeared no AAC files at all. I eventually found a WMP plug-in that makes AACs appear in its library, but I still have trouble getting them to completely function. This isn't a flaw with the Streamium per se, but their exclusive choice of partner makes the user perform a lot of runaround to meet their specifications.
Once you do get your library set up, the content functions very well. Just as with Internet radio sources, you can access your PC's media by artist, album, genre, etc. You can also send playlists to the Streamium, which is very useful for party mixes.
Lastly, I wanted to see if the Streamium could access my online Sirius subscription. I tried several different variations on the Sirius player's online address, but nothing worked. Again, the player seems handcuffed by Philips' exclusive business arrangements out of the box, the Streamium player comes ready to work with a Rhapsody online music subscription. However, that didn't interest me and it seems that other competing services aren't allowed.
Playback quality is good of course digital music files transmitted wirelessly aren't going satisfy any serious audiophile, but that's not the point of this device.
ERGONOMICS
The NP1100 is roughly the size of a paperback novel on its side. It has a retro-Scandanvian look with its silver housing and a clear window that encases it black-and white display. The display itself is bit disappointing. First, it's only a small portion of the unit's face most of what you see in the picture is a black frame that surrounds the screen. Second, it's difficult to read at any appreciable angle. Since the Streamium's base doesn't allow you to tilt, you basically have to place it wherever it'll be eye-level most frequently. Third, its font sizes are all wrong and can't be changed. You can guess that they tried to accommodate people who keep the player close at hand and those who'll put it across the room, but unfortunately, the characters are difficult to read in either case.
The remote is a total throwaway. Small buttons with microscopic labels, no backlighting, etc. However, I was able to program my Logitech Harmony pretty easily to mimic it.
CONCLUSION
The NP1100 excels at delivering your digital media with convenience and flexibility. Its out-of-the-box simplicity make it a great idea for even the technologically-challenged. And its affordable price mean that finally you can enjoy your music where you really want to without being tied down to your PC.
PROS
Simple setup, even with wireless networking
Comes packaged with an amazing set of streaming content offerings
Good sound quality
CONS
Being forced to use WMP for your media library
Screen display should be bigger and easier to read
Throwaway remote control
Buy Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player with 3.0" B&W Display Now
UPDATE: This device WILL play downloaded AAC/MPEG-4 files if you have the capability to access them outside of WMP11, like on an UPnP Network Attached Storage Device. After 10 days in use, the Streamium finally recognized my networked NAS and offers full accessibility to all of my music files. However, the website interface is still unavailable to me so navigation with the remote control is the only option and extremely time consuming. As of the current date (Aug. 2008)Technical support personnel (I have spoken to five different TSR's) are extremely pleasant and outwardly dedicated yet tend to give me the impression they have limited exposure to this newer device and are ill-prepared to respond to any inquiries that are beyond the scope of the user manual already available to the owner. END UPDATEOr consciousness?
One thing about the Philips Streamium NP1100, it pretty much defines its' own network name frustration. Get a cup of coffee, grab a donut and sit back because I'm going to be here for a spell.
It started out like any other day when a new piece of electronic equipment arrives: tear off the packaging, get out the quick start manual, plop the software CD in the drive and connect the hardware to the appropriate peripherals. So far so good, I had this box up and running within 20 minutes and I hadn't even thought about accessing the online user manual. I could tell there were a few quirks that might prove nettlesome down the road but for price of this little toy I could live with them... or so I thought. First of all, it's marketed as a streaming music device and doesn't have video output slots (assuming the digital output connection does not support video at this time) so the fact that both video and picture files within Windows Media Player are accessible via the menuing system but will not open is a minor curiosity, not a negative against this unit. I know Philips has two other streaming devices in the same family but whether they support video is another investigation that will have to wait. And that menu system... it is not very intuitive, reminiscent of cell phone key pads and data entry methodology from 10 years ago. Highly annoying under any parameters but particularly if your network security code is 63 characters. I know this device is touted as UPnP but that only applies if your network is wide open. The NP1100 is not WPS ready so there is no way to get around entering the code...and as it turned out, entering the code multiple times, but I get ahead of myself. I even tried Ad Hoc enabling but the device would not access the internet or local music libraries.
I'm not certain at this juncture but it seems as though this device can only access your personal music library if Windows Media Player 11 running on your CPU which seems like a waste of resources. MY hesitation derives from the mixed results I have experienced in keeping the wireless network up and assuring that the lack of connectivity is a network issue rather than a problem with this hardware. Additionally, I'm not sure any essential Philips proprietary software is on the CD. The only thing I can see that was installed was another version of WMP11, and the instructions indicate that step can be skipped if the user already has that version. Unfortunately (or not) I didn't notice that until after I had re-installed WMP11. Seems rather innocuous doesn't it? Well, now I have another unindentified device recognized on my network with a separate MAC address that appears to be another media Player. But...another desktop on my network, an older box running XPPro with WMP11 did not recognize this device until I ran this software on that unit...and I lost communication with the device on my primary CPU where Vista Premium is employed as the operating system...I decided to let my laptop subsist without any attempt to interface with this streaming unit. What would be my point, the overwhelming majority of my music files reside on a Network Storage Device that is not recognized by the NP1100 regardless of whether I use wired or wireless connectivity. Oh yeah, I got so tired of trying to keep this thing online, I decided to use an Ethernet connection just to make sure the darn thing could be kept active. About the only thing I haven't tried is the coaxial digital connection but my daily dose of masochism only extends so far. I'll save that for next week. The signal recognition capability of this device is largely unimpressive. I have bridge/access points on positioned on the upper and lower levels of my house and this unit was placed in a family room in between but signal strength was mediocre, a problem not duplicated with my wireless PC . Only after sitting this unit in a room less than three feet from the router was I able to maintain a strong signal (802.11n from a Netgear WNR 834b by the way, backward compatible with "g").
Anyway, all appeared fine until I attempted to register this box. Yeah, I'm the one who immediately registers everything. I received a few Philips products in the past but naturally, I have forgotten whatever absurdly complicated password I submitted but no problem, Philips has been papering my inbox with offers so getting my password sent out shouldn't be an issue. Except now my email address, the same one they use to tell me what a valued customer I happen to be is not valid. Who cares? Just establish a new account with a new password and register this item...done. However, the registration process requires entry of a Product Identification number that can be found in the menu of the device and the device serial number. Well, the menu navigation seems designed to assure you never find anything you're searching for but the website also indicated more information on obtaining the Product ID can be found in that online user manual I was so proud I didn't have to refer to. Hmmm, nothing in the table contents about a Product ID, so run a search of the PDF...nothing. Wait, why not register via the device, an option discovered while attempting to find the Product ID. Another five minutes on the remote trying to key in my email address. And presto, a confirmation email has been sent to my inbox...instructing me to log on to the website to continue the registration process and enter my Product ID and serial number, except the password I have entered does not match the system's records, so send me another email with my password...same password I just entered 30 minutes ago. This just isn't worth the effort, forget registration, let's investigate the box some more. Lo and behold, how did I get here? Is that the "DEVICE ID" I've stumbled across? Back to the website...sorry, the Serial Number you have entered is invalid...please try again. Hey, that font is pretty hard to distinguish, maybe that zero is an "O." Maybe that "1" is an "L." There are only 14 characters, how many possible combinations could there be? Wait a minute, I can locate both these codes by displaying properties on my PC. And neither ID matches what is in the menu or on the label...and the system generated serial number looks suspiciously like the MAC address which does not begin with alpha characters and will not be accepted as a valid ID at the website... I resign...And why is the digital display blank again. I've reset the date and time at least five times within the last five hours.
Back to the menu, let's start from the beginning...tomorrow.
Read Best Reviews of Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player with 3.0" B&W Display Here
Well, this product seems so futuristic Streaming audio from PC, Internet Radio, Rhapsody ..., yet the shortcomings in some of these features make this unit not up to the mark. I have reviewed each functionality below so that you may decide to buy/not buy the product depending on which feature you would like to use.Target use for this unit: Connectivity to home stereo/theatre
=====================
This unit DOES NOT HAVE inbuilt speakers actually this device designed to be used with your home theatre/home stereo system or a set of speakers.
Setup and connectivity to Internet: Good
=======================
The setup is pretty easy, just like you would connect to your laptop to the secure/unsecured wireless internet/wired internet the only pain point is typing in the wireless security password with the remote, my internet password contains numbers and it took me almost 30 mins to just to type in my password with this remote !! How did I figure it out eventually enter any number/letter on the remote and then keep pressing the up/down arrow keys till it comes to the right letter/number.
Audio Quality: Excellent
=========
Audio quality is superb if you are listening on a set of speakers, headphones or your home theatre it sounds very clear and crisp.
Streaming audio from PC/network drive: Poor
=============================
Installation & Usability : It was not an easy job to setup the streaming. I had some troubles configuring it to work with my PC (Dell running windows XP with SP2 + media player 11) finally figured out that it was my router which was causing the issue, changed the router and finally started working.
Functionality: Limited cannot organize songs by folders/albums ...
You need to have windows media player version 11 on your PC or any network drive/software that support audio streaming. Once you have the PC/network drive setup to stream music, the device will appear on your Philips streamium which you can select.
Internet Radio : Excellent
==========
Installation :
No additional installation required
Usability :
East to browse through stations, radio stations categorized by Genre, Language, Country ..., you can even search for internet radio stations.
Audio quality:
Very good audio quality, way better than your regular FM or satellite channels.
Rhapsody: Good
======
Installation :
No additional installation required
Usability : Easy to use, well organized channels, but searching for channels is very pain, let us say that you are searching for '80s', the search functionality will not even finish typing 80s, as soon as you start typing 8, it will go into a search mode ok, that is good and bad. Good that it started off quickly and displays everything, but bad if you are let us say searching for something like 'hits', then you will get every channel that had the letter 'h' in its name !!
There are a few things that really need to improve in this unit:
=======================================================
* While streaming music from PC/network drive this unit should have let us organize music by folders, genre, artist, album
* The unit should have been designed not just for plugging into a home theatre, but also as a independent unit with small built in speakers to that I could have used it next to my bed
* When I am paying $ for this unit, It would not have cost philips too much of $s to include a FM tuner so that I could turn to this one unit for all my music needs
* The unit comes with a very pretty digital clock which switches on when the music is not playing, I wish if philips had included an alarm clock so that I could have used this next to my bed.
* The unit does not have even a basic battery backup, so if you unplug the power, it loses all the settings, even your internet connectivity information so you spend atleast 30 more minutes configuring this. THIS IS NOT GOOD.
Summary
=======
Overall, the unit is overpriced at $ at this price, it should have packed more features
Want Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player with 3.0" B&W Display Discount?
First of all the NP1100 caught my eye because of the attractive price and what it promised to do.It did not take me a lot of effort to unpack the materials and connect it to my HiFi. I connected it via the digital output (great) and started up the device. I followed the menu and after following a few simple steps and entering my network settings I was up and running. I did not time it, but it must have been less than 2 minutes.
I already have Windows Mediaplayer 11 on my PC so did not need to install any software and the device could see my PC content immediately. Streaming was easy as well as navigating my music. I even can do it sitting more than 10feet away from my set due to the large fonts on the display (actually looks bigger than 3")
The next best thing for me was Internet Radio, I am Dutch and living outside of the Netherlands and now I can finally listen again to my favorite radio stations from home. After searching for them I immediately stored them in my favorite folder and now every time I startup the device they are waiting for me there to stream.
As a bonus I also have the 30 day Rhapsody trial and I must say that this is really interesting. I did not know about it, but using it now for a couple of days, I am really getting used to switching channels to reflect the mood I am in, check out what is the latest and greatest on the charts. Their is a fair chance that I will be hooked to this and go for a real subscription once the trial is over.
All in all a great solution for a very good price.
Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player with 3.0" B&W Display
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The Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player is a promising product which tries to deliver on a really great concept. The idea of streaming music over a computer network, from the Internet and from a home PC or NAS music collection is far from new. This form of digital music delivery has been offered by devices like the Logitech Squeezebox, the Roku SoundBridge and the Sonos ZonePlayer. In fact, Philips has produced other Streamium wireless music systems as well but the NP1100/37 promises many abilities of the higher priced systems from Philips and their competitors, while carrying a price tag that is much more affordable for the average consumer. Although I am an extreme gadget geek I have not been willing to spend several hundred dollars so that I could stream my family's digital music collection throughout the house. After all, we have several computers in the house (all networked) and everyone in my family has their own MP3 music player. When I found the Philips NP1100/37 Streamium player, which was priced well under two hundred dollars, I was ready to move into the wireless streaming age of digital music.The unit is packaged very well, and comes with all of the basic essentials the typical user will need to begin streaming digital music in their home. The box contains the Streamium NP1100/37 digital music player, a basic remote control (batteries included), a power supply/cable (wall wart type), a set of RCA audio patch cables, a quick start manual and a CD (containing Windows Media Player 11, tutorials and an in-depth operation manual). After installing the batteries in the remote control I decided to watch the tutorials on the included CD. The videos were easy to understand and explained the basics of connecting the unit and streaming music from the Internet. However, owners will definitely need to consult the complete operation manual (on the CD) in order to determine how to access all of the features of the Streamium NP1100/37. Connecting the streaming music player to my home stereo receiver was effortless and I was finally ready to power up the unit for the first time.
The NP1100 powered up in "Demo Mode," but a push of the settings button, on the remote control, quickly brought me to the settings menu so I could set the date, time, and configure the wireless network settings. Each new user will quickly find that keying in all of the required alphanumeric information, via the remote control, will certainly prove to be a tedious and somewhat frustrating task. Entering in a 128-bit WEP security code (for my wireless router) was very time consuming. For those that have MAC address filtering enabled on their wireless routers, you can find the MAC address of your NP1100 on a sticker, located on the rear of the music player. Once I had all of the Wi-Fi settings in place, the Philips music player immediately connected to my wireless router and reported that it was connecting to the Internet. It soon notified me that a firmware update was available and asked if I wanted to download it. Of course I told it to proceed and within 10 minutes the new firmware was installed and the NP1100 rebooted itself. By installing the upgrade all of my previous settings had been replaced by factory settings, so I had to start over from scratch again. However, I must admit that the new firmware definitely added a couple of additional settings and seemed to improve the responsiveness of the device overall. Once I re-entered all of the needed settings I was up and running and ready to begin testing the music streaming features of this product.
I was easily able to stream music via the Internet Radio feature. Everything worked as advertised and I couldn't wait to begin trying the Rhapsody music streaming service and to access my family's MP3 music collection from our home network. The Philips Streamium NP1100 comes with a free 30 day trial of Rhapsody, so each user can try before they buy. However, I am already a Rhapsody subscriber so I was able to enter my membership information, via the remote control, and connect directly to my Rhapsody Unlimited account. I was able to access my Rhapsody music library and all of my playlists but I soon found that I was not able to select my songs directly. Once you access a playlist the Philips device shows all of the music tracks in the order they are listed on Rhapsody. There is no way to sort by artist, genre or by song title. If you want the tracks listed differently, you would have to reorganize your tracks in your Rhapsody playlist. There is a 10 to 15 second delay, once you select a music track, before the Streamium begins playing the song. This is because the NP1100 has to buffer a certain amount of data into its memory before it can begin playing each song. This can be fairly frustrating if you jump around from track to track. I have managed to get used to the delays though and overall I am fairly pleased with the ability I have to access my Rhapsody playlists. Finding new songs (not already in your library or playlists) on Rhapsody becomes a very frustrating task. You must enter in artist names, song names or album names via the remote control. For those that enjoy sending text messages with a cell phone may not find this task to be much of a challenge, but for those of us not into that kind of time wasting it becomes a real source of anger. If Philips had provided the ability to connect a keyboard then this task wouldn't be so cumbersome. But having to enter every character in from the remote control (standard alphanumeric like a typical telephone keypad) is just plain silly. I have learned to use my computer to search for songs in Rhapsody. If I want to listen to new songs on the NP1100 I make sure to add the songs to my playlist in Rhapsody, from my computer, ahead of time. Not really the most convenient way to access and listen to music.
Setting up the device to access my NAS home network drive was equally tricky. My D-Link NAS already had UPnP enabled, so the Philips NP1100 was able to find it on my home network right away. However, I had to access the NAS settings from my computer's web browser) to identify what primary folder my family's music collection was in. The Philips player could then see my music collection but it was mixing all of the songs together, showing them in alphabetical order. For some reason it would not see the individual subfolders for each of my family members. This meant that my daughter's R&B music and my wife's Country music was mixed in with my Big Band and Classical music. I spent several hours fidgeting with my NAS settings and the Philips NP1100 before I finally got the network music player to see the individual folders. I am now able to access all music by artist, genre, album and song name. Since every family member has their own music folder, we can each access our own folder and then play the songs in alphabetical order or shuffle them. Of course we can scroll through the list and select the exact song (or artist) that we want to listen to as well. What started out as a huge obstacle eventually produced an easy way to access our entire family music collection.
The pros of this system are obvious. The Philips Streamium NP110/37 is a low cost network streaming music player; allowing you to access Internet Radio, the Rhapsody music service and even your own personal music collection stored on a computer or NAS drive on your home network. The system can be connected via Ethernet cable or by Wi-Fi. As other reviewers have also noted, getting this device to work on your wireless network can be a bit of a challenge, but I was able to get my NP1100 player to access my Wi-Fi router without any serious problems. Connecting to your personal music collection will require a computer, with Windows Media Player 11 installed, or a NAS drive that has an UPnP media server feature enabled. Accessing the Internet Radio stations is fairly painless and setting up a new or accessing an existing Rhapsody account (a 30 day free trial is included with the Philips NP1100/37 system) is pretty straightforward. Accessing your personal music collection can be a little challenging for anyone that is not very computer literate but it is definitely doable.
The cons of this system are pretty strong. My biggest complaint is regarding the need to use the simplistic remote control to enter alphanumeric characters, in order to setup the system, enter account and network settings, and to search for songs and artists. This is extremely time consuming and Philips should have either included a remote control with a QWERTY keypad or at least should have included a USB or PS2 port, allowing the connection of a keyboard for data entry. Also, even though the music output of this player is quite good, it really needs a user adjustable equalizer. Some of the tracks lack lows and/or highs and could use a boost in these areas. The 3" black and while display is adequate in size but the scrolling of text on the display is painfully slow, with no way to adjust the scrolling speed. This may be something that Philips can fix with a future firmware upgrade. That would be a HUGE improvement in my opinion. This player also suffers from a time lag during remote commands. When scrolling through song listings, the display sometimes seems to lock up for a few seconds every now and then. The time it takes to buffer online music is also somewhat excessive. I also think Philips should have considered giving this unit a Li-Ion rechargeable battery, allowing the device to be easily transferred to different rooms of the house.
Overall I find the Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player to be a solid device with a few strong shortcomings. For the price I think it provides a pretty good method of accessing music via the Internet and from a home computer network. However, it seems as though Philips cut a few too many corners when developing this product and should consider some firmware upgrades and a revised remote control to fix the worst of these issues. I have been pulling my hair out about whether to give this device a 3 or 4 star rating but have decided that 3 stars is the highest I can go. Even though I now have my unit setup and working quite well for my needs, I feel that the frustration and complexity of setup should be reflected in my overall score of this device. As mentioned above, for anyone not familiar with computers and computer networking may find this device very difficult to setup correctly. I therefore nick the score by one star for the setup complexity. I also nick it a star for the shortcomings of the feature set, as well as the lack of a better method of data input (poorly designed remote control and lack of input for keyboard). I give this device a solid three stars and recommend it for anyone that is familiar with basic computer networking and is willing to accept a unit that doesn't have all of the bells and whistles of the high end (and higher priced) streaming music players on the market. The Philips NP110/37 is a very nice entry level music streaming device and I'm sure my family will continue to enjoy it for years to come.
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