as title cheap and wireless thanks.
Can I recommend the netgear MP101, retails at around £80, can be a beast to set up, but I had no problems with mine (give it a static IP, no WEP encryption, name the SSID of your network and replace Norton security products if you use them) I used one for several months before acquiring a squeezebox...... S
how far can you read the screen from as it looks kinda small? an how many songs do you have in your libary? is it easy to browse thanks alot.
The screen is a three row dot matrix, which isn't as good as the SB, but it can be read across a room. My song collection is fairly modest, some 300 or so CD's. It is documented that the shipped server software stumbles with big collections. However "Twonkyvision" do a media server which is OK with large libraries. Browsing is easy and quite quick, you can go by genre, artist, album etc, search facilities are OK. and you can cobble together playlists. Downsides are that you cannot control it from a web interface, it does not import exisitng playlists (apparently a bug to be corrected, don't hold your breath), and the formats playable are limited compared to the SB. The SB win on features by many leagues, but is three times the price. If you have a look on the netgear forum its full of horror stories, I don't know what these people did to have such a bad time. I did the things above, was up and running in 10 minutes, gave the player to my brother in law and set it up for him in 10 minutes also. You may be able to pick one up for half retail (£40) if you keep your eyes peeled, apparently PC world were doing a special on them earlier on in the year. As an entry level streamer I can't fault it, sound was more than acceptable and it stopped the vermin that call themselves "guests" damaging my CD's of a friday night Hope this helps S
Have a look at the Terratec Noxon, they might be dropping in price now the Noxon 2 is out. The screen is larger and easier to read than the netgear and I also found it more reliable. The philips streamium sl50 isn't a bad player, but the screen is tiny and not backlit so isn't any good from any distance. The squeezebox is still the best, but the others are good cheap alternatives, I would say the terratec is the best of the cheaper models (I have a Noxon, SL50 and MP101 as well as the SB2 and the Noxon gets the most use after the SB2)
