Roku Soundbridge M1000 review

Roku's Soundbridge M1000 is a network music player which can connect to your home network using either an Ethernet cable or wireless connection and, when connected to a set of speakers or amplifier, plays iTunes playlists from any Mac on the network.

A great deal of thought has obviously been put into the design of the Soundbridge. Its silver and black case won't look out of place in your living room or study, and the green LED screen can be read easily from a couple of metres away (if you want a version that can be read from longer distances, the MD2000 has a larger screen and bigger characters). Cable connectors are tucked away behind plastic covers on each side of the unit, so cables are less likely to become tangled.

We tested a unit which arrived with a wireless card pre-installed, and as soon as it powered up, it recognised the shared iTunes libraries on our network. However, despite the fact that the Roku could see the libraries, it wouldn't connect to them. A bit of hunting around and excellent help from a Roku engineer on its supoprt forums sorted it out.

Setting it up at home was more problematic because our wireless router, the Netgear WG614, is not compatible with the MD1000. So much for wireless networking standards. If you have an Apple AirPort BaseStation, you will be pleased to know that this has been tested and is compatible.

Once we got it up and running, the MD1000 was a joy to use. It can be connected to any stereo system, amplifier or home cinema receiver that has either phono or optical audio inputs, and a phono to mini-jack cable is included for connection to systems with a line-in socket.

Navigating through playlists is easy, and a neat feature allows you to jump to playlists starting with a specific letter of the alphabet. So if you have a playlist entitled Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, you can scroll through the large letters on the right of the display until you reach 'Z' rather than having to navigate through a couple of hundred playlists. All the functions of the MD1000 can be controlled using the supplied infra-red remote control.

The Roku MD1000 is well-designed and will allow you to play your iTunes music over a wired or wireless network. It won't, like every other third-party device, play protected AAC files downloaded from the iTunes Music Store, and it's fussy about which wireless networks it talks to. But if you've got an Ethernet network or Airport BaseStation, the MD1000 will add a new dimension to your iTunes listening.