Review: Freecom Network Media Player media streaming device

We’ve seen a fair few products recently that stream media files from PC to TV or hi-fi, but very few have performed particularly well.

Freecom’s Network Media Player is one such device, and one that offers a range of ways to connect.

The unit houses a 3.5in hard disk, and can be bought either on its own (no disk) or with a disk supplied.

Though you can view content directly from the internal disk or by plugging in a USB storage device, most will want to use the Media Player to stream content across a wired or wireless network.

Provided you have some basic experience in this area you’ll find setup quite straightforward: it's a case of configuring the box with the wireless network settings, using a menu that appears on the TV screen.

To access content that's stored on the PC it's necessary to share the folders containing compatible media (using Windows Explorer). The player can be hooked up to the television using its composite, component or s-video outputs.

The most impressive aspect of Freecom’s player is the streaming performance, the single biggest issue that has let rival products down in the past. In the case of both wired and wireless operation we were able to play, fast forward, rewind and pause video with ease, with no loss of signal, no frustrating pauses while the box buffered content and no drops in quality.

The company's claims that it’s ideal for high-definition (HD) content are ambitious, as performance wasn’t as good with HD encoded video files, but considering the lack of competition in this area we can’t judge it too harshly.

It’s also adaptable in terms of formats: almost everything we tried worked first time. When you throw in support for HD 1080i/720p signal quality through the component output you’ve got a pretty powerful media box on your hands. If we have any qualms at all it’s that the user has very little control over the navigation used to browse files.