Buffalo LinkTheatre HD High Definition Wireld Digital Media Player
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 at
9:46 am
- System: n. spezifiziert
- Sprache: D
- Garantie: 24
Buffalo LinkTheater HD Media Player HDMI Schnittstelle, 720p/1080i, RJ-45 10/100, Front USB, dlna zertifiziert, inkl. Fernbedienung… more >>
Rating: 
(out of 2 reviews)
>>Other details about Buffalo LinkTheatre HD High Definition Wireld Digital Media Player
Tagged with: Buffalo • Definition • Digital • High • http://my.vision.edu/waikiki/weblog/rss/ • LinkTheatre • Media • Player • Wireld
Review by Sakari for Buffalo LinkTheatre HD High Definition Wireld Digital Media Player
Rating:
Idea in this unit is the right stuff. Implementation is the usual Buffalo quality, not quite there.
My review is based on the “big brother” of this very same product, the NFinity model that is exacty the same, but with integrated WLAN NIC.
Device casing is sleek and stylish. It features on USB port to the front neatly hidden behind easy-access lid. Remote is reasonable atleast, perhpas even good.
Then the bad stuff starts. My unit reboots random number of times before stabilizing and becoming usable after startup. Technical support forum in Buffalo site (alledgedly containing their technical staff) will not even respond or comment if it’s known issue or not. Reseller (not Amazon though) seems to have taken the stand that it’s not a problem and it is “supposed” to do that.
Unit checks net for firmware update, which there wasn’t one when it was a brand new, and there has never been one for a very long time, although I see alot of need for fixes, like many of the Buffalo tech forum posters…
Unit does not have a power switch and will consume your electricity constantly even in the stand-by mode. You will notice this by the heat(!) it generates even during this time.
Software has the most peculiar quircks; You will be unable to playback XViD video with sounds, if it is packed with AC3 (which is a VERY common combination, might I add). However, AC3 seems to be played back just OK with the other video codecs I have tried…
Software also “loses” sources, such as USB sticks/HDDs or even networked shares and sometimes just going back and forth in the menu’s help, but sometimes you have to reboot (power button won’t do it – unplug it) the whole unit to get into the resource.
Amazingly the product does NOT have subtitle support of any kind. It has been requested in Buffalo tech forums, but as usual, not even acknowledgement for the request has been given by staff.
Also, the product refuses to work with my projector (something about how the security/encryption handshake is managed, I have been lead to believe). Nevertheless, it’s an issue that I (and potentially you) cannot address, as it would require firmware update. Projector works with all other 6 video sources I have at my disposal and all my 3 other display devices show Linktheather image just fine. They just don’t work together…
Finally… The product has insufficient CPU for decoding and showing HD video. Something I found completely unacceptable for a product that is advertised as HD device. While it will give out HD signal, the unit falls short of being able to give HD resolution video… much short. Infact, occasionally it is struggling to decode and show even lowresolution without frame skipping and postprocessing skips if there is lots and lots of action in the stream (gun fight, chase, etc.). Your desktop PC will decode and display the same files ALOT better!
Those should cover the most important grievances. I won’t make a complete list of the problems, as it would make this review monstrously large and no one would even bother reading this.
I sincerely recommend that you drop this product from your list of candidates. And based on my many experiences with Buffalo products (they’re so affordable, aren’t they?) I would even go as far as recommend not buying this brand at all, until it has made some real efforts in product quality. I surely have now taken that policy.
Review by John Edwards for Buffalo LinkTheatre HD High Definition Wireld Digital Media Player
Rating:
After 5 years of trying to find an update for my Roku HD1000 I came across this product. Strange that just as I found it the power supply failed on my Roku, not bad for 7 years service. So this has been installed in its place and can do everything the Roku did and a little bit more. It connects to my NAS over LAN, connects to the shares on my PC and with HDMI and optical audio it connects with my AV receiver.
I have TwonkyVision on my server and it finds that too.
I don’t need a wireless connection for video media so it was nice to find this was sold without. You can spend many frustrated hours trying to stream HD video across wireless, even with draft N. Don’t even bother just set up a wired network in your house. HomePlug AV units are good for this.
So if you have loads of Media that you like to watch on a big television then buy this it works.
People have said there is a problem that it doesn’t play Divx, well my advice is store your video in MPEG and make copies for people who like Divx. If you keep the master copy in MPEG then you will alway have a format that can be converted to the latest fashionable format in the future.