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85%
PROS
Only $200, great photo, video, audio player, web browsing capability, easy to make playlists.
LOWS
Really need Ethernet for the Media Player to work; 802.11b was too slow. Chat function barely worked.
OVERALL
If you don't have the money for a TiVo and it's home media option, this is definitely the way to go.
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There are many ways to view pictures, videos, and music on your TV set. The most well known option is to go ahead and get a TiVo, then purchase the home media option. This can add up. Why not try the PRISMIQ Media Player? It's cheap, and does all of the above plus more.
The PRISMIQ Media Player is a small device that uses your PC through a program called “MediaManager” to broadcast your photos, videos, and music to the PRISMIQ device. The PRISMIQ's software can display these files with its easy to use interface.
After installing the MediaManager software onto my computer, I did a quick “scan” operation. Scan, like the name implies, looks in a given folder for any type of supported media file the PRISMIQ Media Player accepts. Of course, you can edit options so the scan only picks up certain types of files, but I wasn't too specific. I loaded a Beatles album along with a folder of videos and pictures onto the software. Excited, I went to my TV. The PRISMIQ connects to your TV with a simple composite connection and left/right audio or S Video and is connected to your network through 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, or 10/100 Ethernet.
The first test I tried was with the laptop on 802.11b and the Media Player connected to my network through Ethernet. The PRISMIQ team did mention to us that they don't recommend using 802.11b because the data transfer rate is rather low for larger files, but a lot of people have it, so I decided to test it anyway. I turned on my TV and went to the correct video input, and BOOM there was the PRISMIQ software. Looks rather simple from the first screen… just options for music, video, pictures, web, or chat (I will go into the last two later in the review). On the top left corner, there is a circle that indicates whether or not your MediaManager PC is connected. The green colored circle let me know my computer was setup correctly, so I went on to test the audio. I decided to try the music I had uploaded first (as opposed to the radio), and selected the audio option using the Media Player's remote. I was happy to find that my Hard Day's Night album appeared in the PRISMIQ's music options. When I tried to play a file, I got some random error about a network connection. I checked my cables; everything was setup correctly. What could be wrong? Then it hit me; I had to save the files on the MediaManager software. I went back to my laptop, and hit the save button. After 10 minutes or so, the dialog box telling me the software was saving went away. I went back to the TV and tried to play the same file. Success! The MediaManager software is really easy to use, especially since you can scan your entire computer in one shot if you would like. After you have scanned everything, you can delete files in the MediaManager file view to discard of any files you don't need to view on the PRISMIQ. Once you have checked everything and hit save, you are done. In conclusion, on the software side, the PRISMQ Media Player incorporates an easy to use interface that can easily scan through all of your files and stream them to your PRISMIQ device.
I happily sung and danced around the room to Tell Me Why until I started noticing the occasional dropouts and choppiness of the song. I stopped in mid-worm [Ed Note: You can't do the worm… you can't even dance] and went to my laptop. I played Tell Me Why from the computer, and the file was perfect. I navigated to the Media Player “photo” option, and found all of the photos I had saved on the MediaManager software. I scanned through the 20 pages of photos, and noticed the long waiting time switching from page 1 to page 20. I then went to the video option. Once again, all of the video files I had saved with the software appeared. They were all AVI files, the largest running in at about 19 meg. Each one I tried to play resulted in a black screen with a network error. It seems that 802.11b largely affects the performance of the PRISMIQ, considering its lower data transfer rate.
On to the pure Ethernet test. I figured that the sluggishness I experienced in all aspects of the testing was because the laptop was streaming files through an 802.11b connection. I connected the laptop to my network through Ethernet, and re-did all of the tests.
