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Philips SLM5500
Price: £180 inc VAT

Features
Performance
Ease of use
Value for money
Overall

Reviewed By: Andy Shaw

This review updated: 09/12/2006
Featured in magazine:
Issue 147
Manufacturer Contacts:
Supplier: Philips
Tel: 01293 776675
Web Address: www.consumer.philips.com


While TVs hang out in living rooms and PCs are kept in back bedrooms, it'll always be difficult to get digital content on your big screen. However, with a computer's potential to store so many essential photos, videos and music, a simple and effective solution is a must for an increasing number of homes. One option is to use your PC as a server and stream your media directly to where you want it. Philips' range of Streamium devices has been helping people send music around their homes for a few years now. This latest device, the Philips SLM5500, can use a wired or wireless network to send all your media from your home computer to the lounge.

Features
With Philips entrenched in the High Definition (HD) television game, this device comes with connections above and beyond the usual Scart socket – it also has Y Pb Pr sockets for getting the most out of your posh TV, should you have one. Plug it in, install the software, connect it to your network and you've got a handy, high-quality streaming link to your computer. The device uses the popular UPnP (Universal Plug and Play) system to connect to your PC, so if you already use Windows Media Connect or TwonkyVision to stream media, you can use them here too. The device works with most of the open and Windows-based media file types you'll be able to think of.

Performance
Once up and running the device is impressive. If you're going to stream video over a wireless network then something's going to have to give – especially if you're thinking of making the most of its HD capability – because standard wireless networks don't have enough bandwidth to stream all the data you'll need. For music, digital photos and old-fashioned resolution video, there are no such problems. A wired connection worked best for us and kept everything simple to set up and superfast, although you could consider using a HomePlug type network which uses your existing electricity wires and sockets to create a computer network around your home.

Ease of use
When the first wireless streaming products came out – the ones that only let you play digital music through your stereo in a different room to your computer – they were tricky to set up. As time has gone by, the manufacturers seem to have made great strides in simplifying the process. But this model from Philips appears to have taken a step backwards. After stumbling over the initial set-up, it immediately thrust us into the world of gateways, DNS servers and MAC addresses – essential knowledge for understanding the depths of your network to be sure, but over the heads of most people with standard network settings. Thank heavens for the Ethernet port on the back, which lets you plug the device directly into a wired network with no fuss, and is the saving grace for the set-up procedure. Once it's up and running it works well, but wireless users will need to know their routers inside out.

Value for money
Assuming you can avoid the set-up headaches, this is a handy device at a good price. The open UPnP standard it adheres to means there are plenty of ways to use it in your house and to integrate it into your existing set-up. If music streaming is your main area of interest you may be able to find cheaper and more specialised options, but you'll be hard pushed to find something that will handle high-quality video for this kind of price.

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