Digital Trends

Linksys WMA11B April 16th, 2004 | by Jeff Fila

Introduction

As we mentioned in our coverage of CES 2004 many major players in the consumer electronics industry already have or plan to introduce a networked media player. Innovation in this market has been led by smaller specialized companies like SlimDevices and Prismiq, but as we said, once the “big boys” get involved, things will get quite interesting.

When it comes to big players in home networking, you can't get much bigger than Linksys, one of the pioneers in SOHO networking and now a subsidiary of Cisco Systems.

Linksys' entry into the networked media device arena is their Wireless-B Media Adapter, also called the WMA11B. The Media Adapter connects to your network wirelessly with 802.11b, or through wired Ethernet if you prefer, and plays back streamed digital audio and images stored on a computer with an interface to your stereo and television.

Front shot of the Linksys Wireless-B Media Adapter

Using the included remote control to navigate through menus on your TV, you can browse through images on your computer by folder, filename or thumbnail. Images can be viewed one at a time or in a slideshow. The Media Adapter supports JPG, GIF, TIF and BMP formatted images. You can also use the remote to browse through your collection of MP3 or WMA audio files and play it through your stereo.