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We had it all set up in about 25-30 minutes. I have been looking for a product like this for a long time. But with the Soundbridge receiver, it pulls in all the stations with no interference (like we had with FM radio) as well as those from around the world, with no additional monthly fee. The insruction manual is easy to understand. I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves to listen to static-free radio. As long as you have a wireless network set up, this unit receives the signal from your router, and the computer doesn't even have to be on to hear the radio stations.
After you set up those, you can use your remote to scroll down to your choices, and select the station you want. We live on the fringe area of Chicago, and many of the stations I love, we could only get occasionally, if we were lucky. The RadioRoku.com website is a great advantage, because there you can set up a free account, and then choose your Favorites and Presets from a vast array of stations. The unit arrived in about 1 week with regular shipping, and it was easy to setup. All we had to do was connect it to our speakers thru our stereo system, it recognized our router, we entered our password, and it was ready to use. You can also right click the station on the website, and choose to play it on your PC, or you can change the station playing on the Soundbridge from your PC.
Next, I'll probably get one for the bedroom.
It plays all of the songs in my library and licensed tracks as well.The sound quality is great. I love it so much that I have three of them: One M1001 and two M500s. I absolutely love the Roku SoundBridge. It's actually much, much better than connecting my PC to my stereo (either using RCA cables or digital optical/coax).I've also had absolutely no hiccups or stutters either using wired ethernet or wi-fi. They're pretty much the same except for the display.The Soundbridge is absolutely fantastic. I've used it with Windows Media Connect, the server built into Windows Media Player, with Rhapsody, and with Yahoo Music. It blows the SlimDevices Squeezebox I used to have completely out of the water.What else is there to say. there are third party applications out there that let you control the soundbridge from your PC or mobile device and use the display for other purposes.Minor complaints would be that the navigation is not as intuitive as it should be and it would be nice to have more hierarchical navigation so that you could easily go 'back' to the last thing you were doing instead of going back to the root menu.
Neither Roku has any problem talking to a Linksys Wireless router (WRT54G) and the farthest unit is a good 50 feet and four walls away. Enjoyed it so much at the main music system that I purchased a second for the Master BR that also feeds outdoor speakers. When the workhorse Sony CD jukebox died in 2006, I went looking for a PC-based solution and found the M1000. At times, both run simultaneously.The one drawback, as mentioned in other reviews, is the 2-line display. Server software of choice is WMP11 running on a small dedicated shuttle box, accessible via Remote Desktop from the main computer. I prefer this since it doesn't require my main computer and monitor to be on to listen to music.Reports of network troubles are surprising. I would love to see a future version with a composite video out that could provide a scrolling display on a monitor - along with now playing info.Except for needing an occasional reboot, they have worked flawlessly. Would not be without these two units.
I think even my mom could use this once it's setup (and while I love her dearly, programming a VCR would be a stretch for her).As a soundbridge I simply installed and fired up iTunes on my PC on the network and after setting a few windows settings as the manual suggests, the soundbridge played all the songs without any problems.The software in this thing rocks. My FM radio is useless now.
All I did was enter my WEP code (security code for my wi-fi network that you get off the router setup page) it connected right away and started streaming internet radio. I hadn't even powered up the PC on the network yet.
This was my first Wi-Fi radio, and I didn't know quite what to expect. Just for the radio part this thing is worth it.
It has a huge assortment of internet radio stations available by searching or even browsing by genre from the remote that stream in very good quality (128Kbps MP3 or WMA). I never would have believed internet radio was this easy.
The quality is better and the selection is out of this world (or at least out of this country ;-).I can play African bongo music or rock from Russia without even firing up the PC. Obviously their goal was to get it to work as seemlessly and easily as possible and I have to say it doesn't get any easier than this.Amazing.
This is a great product for anyone who wants internet radio without a computer. It looks good; it's easy to install (at least, with a Linksys wrt54g router); and it's easy to use. I would say I'm reasonably network/PC savvy, but I'm certainly no geek.My only concern is that in standby mode it gets quite hot, even with pretty good airflow. As an energy conscious person, I dislike things that still use electricity even when they're not in use.
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