Freecom
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First, a bit about me. I'm an anorak. Which probably shows my age 'cos I don't think us "deeply-committed-to-messing-about-with-computers" hobbyists are called "anoraks" these days. But I have messed about with computers for around 20 years. Add to that I'm a woodworker, car mechanic, house renovator, plumber, electrician, musician, photographer...and so on - and you maybe begin to get the picture (I'm also an avid golfer and sports coach, but that distorts the picture you just formed of me....). In other words, "why buy a bit of kit when you can have the fun of making it yourself for next to nothing" is my philosophy. So, aware that my growing collection of around 5000 music tracks were running out of space on my PCs, and conscious of my wife's complaints that she could never find her DVDs (mainly 'cos she kept putting them back in the wrong box), I had decided the time was ripe to build a media pc. As I've currently got around 35 ageing computers in the workshop (people donate me their old PCs in return for me maintaining or upgrading their systems for free), I thought that should be relatively straightforward. However, multimedia PCs are a bit more demanding in hardware terms than the old kit I had could cope with. And, whatever I built had to look pretty in the TV lounge and not make a noise. None of the PCs in the workshop came close to that, so I looked at what was available in the marketplace.
So - a simple specification - it had to play streamed music and various video formats over my wired LAN, have good quality images output to TV, look pretty, make no or little noise, be remote controlled and not cost a fortune. Digital TV and PVR facilities would have been ideal but cost ruled those out and, in any case, my Sky+ box already provided those, albeit with only partial LAN streaming capability.
Armed with that spec, it didn't take long to narrow down the available products and an in-depth rummage through the Freecom Forum and other internet sites indicated high levels of user satisfaction with the Freecom Media Player. It had some added advantages - it could be used without any PC being powered up (a major plus for my intended application), had both ethernet and USB connections and could be used as a portable external USB drive - ideal for those occasions when I need extra temporary storage. I cut costs further by opting for the "Drive-In" kit (which, oddly, comes without a "Drive-In" - you fit your own drive!) which also gave me the opportunity to fit a 300GB drive which was larger than was then available with the Media Player model supplied with drive fitted.
The Kit
.The kit I received came with the following: the Media Player unit; a small plastic stand; mains power lead; USB lead; Av composite cable; installation & application CD; remote control handheld unit. - all very professional looking and the main unit itself, for want of a better description - was pretty!. You can view pictures of it and access the manufacturer's product specifications on this link.
Installation
I chose initially to try out the Player with no hard drive installed, on the TV, streaming music via wired ethernet from my server to the Player. Once I'd obtained the necessary NDAS software from the Freecom site, installation was pretty straightforward - installed NDAS on my PC, registered the device (using USB) with the code given on a sticker on the base of the Player, replacing the USB connection with the ethernet connection, plug in the power cable and the AV cables to the TV, and I could then access my music, located on my server's hard drive. However, I found I could not stream video files and, attempting to sort the problem, I wrongly chose an incorrect video setting in the setup screen. A few moments of panic ensued, faced with a black TV screen, until I read the manual properly and found that repeated presses of the remote control "video" button restored everything. (Note that I do intend publishing further pages on this site as soon as I get time - dealing with, for example, installation and setup issues, upgrading of Firmware, and matters relating to NDAS - so you might want to check back from time to time).
I still was unable to stream videos until I remembered the "golden rule" I preach to all my "customers" - READ THE MANUAL! There I found the advice that some DVD files might not play over a network but that could be overcome by locating such files on the Player's drive. A drive was duly fitted - again very straightforward - formatted and some test video files transferred. Those played without problem, and with good picture quality. I also found that certain video formats could actually be streamed over the LAN, without problem, although other formats still would not play.
So far so good - I had a working Player, which was streaming music across my LAN in all directions (ie - I could simultaneously play different music tracks, stored on the Player's drive, on 3 other pcs on my LAN), I could stream some small video files (certain video formats only, however ) from my server to the Player and view them on TV, and I could stream all video files (various formats - none failed) from the Player's drive and play them on any PC. Now - initial tests over, it was time to set up the Player to do exactly what I wanted.
Playing Music
My plan was to copy all my music files (around 20GB) from my server's hard drive to the Player's hard drive, retaining the original on my server as a backup. That was taking so long over the LAN/NDAS connection that I eventually changed to a USB connection, which was much faster. Once on the Player, I intended playing music via the TV (with no PCs powered up) and via any of the PCs on my LAN. That arrangement certainly works, but there are some frustrations.
First, the Player's built-in music programme is much too basic for my needs and I can't say it's particularly user-friendly or intuitive in operation. I have my music arranged in folders - one for each Artist, with subfolders for that artist's Albums, and individual (MP3) tracks within the relevant subfolder. I often like to play all my tracks in completely random order. I could not get the Player to do that. It could play all tracks from each individual album in random order but that was not what I wanted. Playlists also proved a major problem. I found that, with difficulty and some manual editing, I could create playlists of around 150 tracks (using PC-based music programmes, not the Player's own playlist facility which is extremely limited) which would play randomly, but any greater number caused the Player to hang.
As regards menu operation, I find the selection of individual tracks via the TV screen is cumbersome and tiresome, not helped by a remote control which is best described as "temperamental" (more of that later!). However, as my primary purpose was to use the Player as a music storage server, and to stream my music to PCs in other rooms, using Windows/Linux-based music player programmes on those PCs, the Player served my needs perfectly in that regard.
Sometime (hopefully in the near future) I'll publish more pages on this site, dealing with issues such as improved Firmware for the Player, how to get playlists and random play working better, and various music-related matters. There are a number of people on various Internet Forums who have been successful in getting random play and playlists to operate satisfactorily, so I'll passs on their tips as soon as I get time.
Playing Video
This bit is not going to be of much use to you at the moment- sorry! I did carry out a brief initial test, where I satisfied myself that I could stream small video files (but only in certain formats) across the LAN, to the Player, for viewing on TV. But shortly after that test, I made the mistake of loading on the entire series (200GB!) of a particular TV programme, which I'd ripped from my DVD boxed set. This was to convince my wife that buying the Player had been of benefit to her as well as me! She was initially sceptical, but soon found the arrangement was so convenient, that she basically has commandeered the use of the Player, as she works her way through the entire series. As a consequence, I have not been able to do much in the way of further testing the Player's video playing capabilities. The Video Player programme certainly does a good job of playing the ripped-DVDs currently in use, in terms of good picture & sound quality. As with the Music Player, the selection menu is cumbersome and quirky but my wife's demands of it are simple and her minor frustrations with the menu operation are outweighed by the fact that, once she gets her chosen programme going, it runs without problem and certainly more conveniently than going to find the DVD..
There's quite a bit of information generated on the Freecom Forum by users who have found better ways to do things, resolved problems with various video formats, found things that just can't be made to work - so far - and offer suggestions for improvements. I do intend to start publishing further pages on this site dealing with these matters as soon as I can find time. So check back in a week or two and see if anything's been added.
Remote Control
The Remote Control handheld unit initially supplied was faulty, with some buttons working, others not. Freecom supplied, very promptly, a replacement, which sadly did not work at all! A third remote was then supplied by Freecom (again, very promptly) and, although I can't claim it does not work, I have to say it's not very good. I find buttons have to be pressed very firmly and even then, sometimes have to be pressed more than once. Add to that that certain functions have a slightly longer time delay before they are implemented and - yes, as you might guess - having pressed what you think is an unresponsive button two or three times,you then find yourself in part of the programme you did not intend visiting and you have to back out and start again - very frustrating! To be fair, that may be because the room we use the remote in is a very large one and we sit quite some distance - about 16 feet - away from the Player, so that may be a factor. You also have to spend some time committing to memory the various functions of the remote and, for the functions I use infrequently, I find I have forgotten them when I need to use them. Added to that, it's yet another remote control in my TV lounge, where I'm already snowed under with half a dozen remotes for the various bits of audio/visual kit I have!. That of course is not Freecom's fault, but I suspect I will be investing in an "all-in-one" remote at some stage. I've heard good stories about certain alternative remote controllers which I'll publish on this site in due course.
Summary
This as a very pretty, and extremely reasonably-priced, bit of kit, which certainly does everything Freecom claims it can do. While you can't fault the Music-playing function when it's actually playing a track, nor the video-playing function when it's delivering a video to your TV, in my view the in-built software lets it down a bit- the operating menu & programmes really are not very good when compared with PC-based music and video playing software programmes - perhaps a somewhat unfair comparison, but understandable if you bear in mind that I'm an enthusiast who thinks that building it yourself is always better! Yes, I could have built something which better suited my precise requirements, but it would have cost me more and certainly would not have looked so pretty, nor been noiseless. But, no doubt lots of people will be much less demanding than I and there is no question the Player does have a lot going for it. Overall, I'm more than pleased with it and, yes, I probably would buy another....!
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The Techie from Sneckie