Linksys WMA11b

My Experiences and Opinions...
I got one of these boxes for Xmas ‘05. Here’s why...

Well I looked at a few £100 or less Media Boxes:
  -> 1. Netgear MP101 - Music only.
  -> 2. Linksys WMA11b - Music and Photos.
  -> 3. D-Link DSM320 - Music, Photos and Video.

A bit of research showed that all these boxes have strengths and weaknesses. One particular weakness is video... Not all boxes support all codecs, and a hardwired connection is recommended - even 802.11g WiFi has insufficient bandwidth to always guarantee smooth playback!

A hardwired connection to my network was not an option from where my HiFi was, so I decided to ignore video... Scratch the DSM320.

Then along came an offer: £17 + p&p for a WMA11b... WOW! WMA11b it is then!

Installation
Physical installation was easy. The box has a composite & left + right output that went straight into my video recorder.

I have a Win2003 Server in the loft, so the server software was going on it if at all possible. Well the software installed but it did not work. It complained about the Dot-Net Framework during installation and refused to run once installed. Seems it likes Dot-Net v1.0 only - it did not even recognise the Dot-Net v1.1 I had... After a bit of digging, I found a WinXP SP2 Dot-Net patch in the Linksys knowledge base. Despite it being an XP patch, I installed it on Win2003 Server and it fixed the problem!

In Use...

So far, so good!

+ I have a 45Gb+ MP3 (mostly 192kbps VBR compression) collection. It is easy to navigate and plays superbly, although until I upgraded the Server RAM, from 256MB to 1GB, there was an annoying delay of up to 30 seconds (it felt longer) when I tried to access the MP3 folder for the first time. Obviously this was a Server side delay since I cured it by throwing more memory at it. I may even upgrade the Server memory further, to 2GB - “Hello Crucial!”.

+/- Usually the WMA11b output volume has to be reduced otherwise there is clipping and audio distortion can be heard.

- I have found that my laptop IR port can interfere with the WMA11b and cause it to reset. My laptop IR port also interferes with other boxes too!

- I have found that it does not Play WMA’s as well as it could. I am still investigating, but the one 320Kb CBR WMA I have tried does not play at all.

- The WMA11b only supports WiFi 802.11b - 5mb/s maximum sustained data transfer rate. Fine for MP3’s.

- The WMA11b only support 64bit or 128bit WEP encryption. No WPA secure encryption here!