Digital Trends

We really wanted to like this product. We had high hopes for a product that plays both music and images, by the home networking industry leader at a price point of less than $150. We had hoped this would be the product to put networked media devices on the map — it just isn't the device to do it. There are just too many design flaws and performance issues.

While several competing products can play Internet radio stations, uncompressed WAV files and other compressed formats, the WMA11B is limited in the audio files it can play — only WMA and MP3.

Several companies are going the TV-only display route and we think this is a terrible idea. Even if the product interfaces with your TV, we still think there should be some kind of LCD display so you aren't forced to have the TV on while navigating through and listening to music. Lack of an external LCD display aside, the on-screen display is just a bit too “dumbed-down” for serious audiophiles to appreciate.

But the big problem with the Linksys Wireless-B Media Adapter is the way it handles your music. Navigating with the remote control is cumbersome and at times confusing, as well as annoyingly slow. The interface leaves out a lot of items that are usually a given in other media players such as extended ID3 information, track duration and time left, and the ability to view the full name of the song.

Anyone considering purchasing the Media Adapter should go about it thinking of it as a device that displays your digital pictures on your TV, and that also happens to play music. It does an excellent job with images, but we think anyone buying this device specifically for its audio capabilities will be disappointed.