Freecom Network Mediaplayer 350 WLAN review

This device is a hard disk enclosure, and is available empty or with a hard disk.

It's also a media player with audio and video outputs to connect to your TV so you can play files from the hard disk or streamed across a home network. It's also a NAS device, so you can store files on your network.

The Mediaplayer looks stylish sitting vertically. Lying it on its side isn't an option, as the four-way menu control on the front doesn't adjust according to its orientation. A small remote control is included.

There's a DVI output for connecting to a monitor. It supports standard PC resolutions such as 1,280x1,024, but not widescreen ones such as 1,440x900. There's a component output, too, and both this and DVI support 720p and 1080i. Composite and S-video are present, but there's no SCART socket. Audio is well provided for, though, with phono stereo plus optical and coaxial S/PDIFs.

There's a 10/100 LAN port or 802.11b/g wireless for connecting to a network. It was easy to set up, and we found our server in no time. You don't need streaming software.Just browse shared folders on your PC and select audio, video and photo files as you please. You can also plug USB devices such as digital cameras into a port on the back of the Mediaplayer and access their contents directly.

The 350 can also act as a NAS using the NDAS software, which is easy to set up. This lets you access the hard disk's contents as if it were a local drive on your PC or notebook.

The interface has some chunky text and ugly icons. However, it's easy to navigate and responds quickly to button presses. The remote is easy to understand, with clearly labelled buttons, though its thin design makes it uncomfortable to hold.

Whether accessing files from the hard disk, a USB device or over the network, the interface is identical. You can set up basic playlists for any type of file, it will read ID3 tags for album and artist information, and you can fast-forward or rewind through videos at up to 32x speed.

The Mediaplayer supports a wide range of file formats. These include MPEG2 with support for DVD VOB files, MPEG4 including DivX and XviD, MP3 and WMA supported for audio playback, plus JPEG, BMP and GIF support for photos. One absentee is H.264 video, which is a pity, as it's efficient and increasingly common. Video playback looked good in standard and high definition on the formats we tested, while photos were scaled to fit our TV without creating unsightly artefacts.

Given its versatility, the Mediaplayer is a bargain. If you have an old PATA hard disk going spare, it is cheaper still. But the lack of H.264 support prevents us giving it an award.

Author: Seth Barton