Digital Trends

Linksys WMA11B April 16th, 2004 | by Jeff Fila

Installation and Setup

Setting up the hardware for the Media Adapter is pretty straightforward. While many competing products offer digital audio outputs, the Media Adapter connects to your stereo with left and right channel RCA connectors only. You have a choice of connecting the Media Adapter up to your display with an S-Video cable or a composite video cable.

The software included with the Media Adapter features the media server package and the hardware configuration tool, and must be installed on the computer you plan on using as the host.

The setup routine first asks you to identify the folders where your images and audio files are stored and allows you to easily add several different folders. It scans each folder for subfolders and adds them to your content library also.

Once you identify the media folders to use, the setup software looks for a Wireless-B Media Adapter. When the Media Adapter is identified, you can then set up your wireless information by entering in your SSID, and any WEP encryption you may have set up. As with other devices we have tested, the WMA11B Adapter does not support WPA encryption, meaning it can not be used on a network with WPA. This is unfortunate as WPA encryption is more secure than WEP and may soon become the standard.

Linksys also offers the ability to set up your Media Adapter by using the remote control and your TV instead of through the host computer, but we highly suggest against this option. Entering your SSID, DHCP information and WPA passwords with the remote and on-screen keyboard is a very tedious and frustrating procedure.

The server application runs as a service in Windows XP and Windows 2000 and by default is automatically started when the computer is powered up.

Once the server software is installed and the Media Adapter is configured, you are presented with an easy-to-navigate main menu on your TV that gives you options for Music, Pictures, or Help.

Testing and Usage

We installed our Media Adapter server application on a Windows XP Professional PC configured with an AMD Athlon 1600+ processor and 512MB of DDR memory. Linksys suggests that the server have a minimum of a 600MHz processor with at least 128MB of RAM. Our test server had no problem multitasking while serving up music and images, but the software may be quite taxing on a lower-end system.

The main page you are presented with when you turn on the Media Adapter is called the ‘Media Navigator Home'. From that menu you can select ‘Music' or ‘Pictures' or go to the help system.

The WMA11B remote control takes some time getting used to

Browsing through and playing your media is all controlled with the infrared remote and right away we were presented with the limitations of this system; there is nothing “instant” about it. The remote control really suffers from latency issues - every page change, item selection or command entered seems to take longer than is reasonably acceptable. We found ourselves instinctively pushing buttons repeatedly in hopes that it would register our command but that just confuses the system.

We must have been spoiled by our use of the SliMP3 and the Squeezebox by SlimDevices, because those devices could not be tripped up as each command entered resulted in an instantaneous response. Besides the slow response on the remote, it also doesn't operate well at extended distances or angles. We tested this with fresh batteries to be sure and it still experienced these problems.