Freecom Media Player
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Speed
I am indebted to someone from the Freecom Forum called "JahLoveInternational" who set me right on something I'd misunderstood for many years! The speed of data transfer across an interface - whether it's USB, LAN, Firewire or WiFi is expressed as "Mbps". I'd always taken this to mean "MegaBYTES per second" when in fact it means "MegaBITS per second". There's a crucial difference! Since 8 BITS are 1 BYTE, 54Mbps (the claimed speed of 801.11g WiFi) results in (theoretically) 6-7megabytes per second (divided by 8...). Similarly, a 100Mbps LAN will (theoretically) operate at 12 megabytes per second whilst USB 2 (480Mpbs) Is supposed to achieve 60 megabytes per second (USB 1 at 12Mbps equals 1-2megabytes per second).
But - very important - those are the maximum, theoretical speeds. You won't get anything like these speeds! So, simple thing to remember, USB is a lot faster than a 100Mb LAN, which in turn is a lot faster than any variety of WiFi. And if you're using NDAS, well the story seems to vary according to different users - I find NDAS faster than WiFi, slower then 100mb ethernet, but I have not tested it to verify that impression. On the other hand, some users find NDAS incredibly slow.....I will do some proper testing someday and report my findings.
Is that important? Well, depends. If you want to stream High Definition media content, then yes it can be important. If you want to play normal everyday mp3 files, then it's not important. Standard definition video files fall somewhere in between - some will play with no difficulty on a slow interface, whilst others won't play at all. And, remember, the speed of your hard drive and the speed of your processor, all play a part.
For info, I transferred 40GB of files across a USB 2 connection to the Player, in approx 40 minutes. That's 17 megabytes per second, which, (multiply by 8) is 140 megabits per second - as you can see, that's nowhere near the claimed 480Mbps speed of USB 2.
So, what does all that mean? Well, if I'm transferring files to the Player, if I'm in a hurry, I'll use USB. More likely, I'll transfer files over the LAN at night when it can take as long as it likes……….
Firmwares
Might as well do this on a separate page, 'cos it's likely to be a bit lengthy and get added to over time. So go here for stuff on firmwares.