SMP-N100 My immediate review and thoughts.

[benn25]

Just bought my SMP-N100. Although happy with the player as I just wanted to be able to watch my films in another room which were on my external hdd instead of watching it on my ps3 or laptop, playing around with it there are a few observations which hopefully Sony will bring for future updates.

1) I have subfiles in main files, for eg, category file named sport and then a sub file either being boxing, football, etc. You can't access the content in the subfiles. What the hell. You have to transfer all the files into the category file. This is not good. Especially when it comes down to organisation. Sony need to update this so you can access subfiles. Even if its a maximum of 3 (catergory file - sub file - sub file) this would be much better. Extremely annoying when i have to move my already well organised files around.

2) The keyboard function via the remote is rubbish. Its slow and combersum (?). Sony need to bring in a proper keyboard function, like you would get on a laptop or just make it easier. For eg, to make things faster i tried to select a letter using the group number. Instead of just the group being highlighted and then you can choose which character you want it chooses the 1st character for you, which you have to delete if its wrong. Terrible keyboard which needs sorting quickly.

3) The player has wireless functionality. Which means I should be able to access ANY web browser I want, not just the ones Sony decide to have. I don't even use any of them already on there. One of my main reasons of buying this player was so I can have Sky via SkyGo in another room. I automatically presumed since it it was wireless compatible it would allow me to access any web browser I want. Very very disappointed with this lack of functionality. THIS IS A MUST!!!!!  If you are going to add wireless you should be able to access any internet content.

4) Network Streaming - Nightmare!!!! Wireless set up - Nightmare!!!!! I don't know how it works but the antenna needs to be alot stronger. My router was literally a metre away and it still took 4 goes to connect. Network streaming. I gave up.

Overall this media player for its price £80 is not great, considering some simple functions are just not up to scratch for 2011/2012. For video and music play its good, but media does now include internet and not having the freedom of the internet is a major drawback which needs to be rectified sooner rather than later. To be fair im glad i didn't pay £130 it was originally priced.

Sort out the internet freedom and ill be able to sleep at night that i just blasted £80 and shut up my friends when they told me to get the Apple version.

I give it 5/10. Major room for improvement unfortunately. As it currently stands i feel slightly cheated.

[Catmambo]

Hi Benn25

Thanks for your summary, I'd like to offer a few comments if I may which may provide a bit of insight as to why some things are as they are.

1. Fair point - subtitle support isn't brilliant unfortunately and its an area which will hopefully improve in future
2. This is a tricky one - there is a free smartphone app for iOS and Android which provides a much better keyboard utilising the touchscreen. This is probably the best solution. The point of the box is that its meant to be a simply gateway to IP services and not feel like a PC. Research has shown that mass market consumers don't like the idea of having a traditional keyboard to control the TV. This may change in future as attitudes change.
3. Just to be clear on the differences between wireless functionality and browser functionality as they are two very different elements. The SMP-N100 doesn't have an integrated browser, although the recently announced replacement SNP-N200 will feature one. But having an integrated browser doesn't necessarily mean that you can access any website. Firstly, devices might not have the necessary DRM and codec support in place to provide a workable secure connection. Secondly as we have seen in the US, aggregators like Fox can simply block access to particualr types of devices such as Google TV if there is no commerical agreement in place. In fact Sky Go is only on 2 or 3 devices to date, Xbox360, Fetch Tv and another STB device. Thus this limitation is not restricted to just Sony devices, no major TV manufacturer yet offers this feature.
4. This is a bit strange. Have you updated the firmware on the device as this might improve things?

As far as comparing this and the Apple TV, frankly I think that the Netbox is a far better proposition compared to iTV in terms of actual functionality. This is the same Apple TV that doesn't offer an open browser either, thus no access to iPlayer and SkyGo. Apple TV is great if all your content is held in iTunes, want to give all your money to Steve or you live in the US, but outside of that, its so limited in terms of functionality. No divx/mkv, no USB slot NTFS support, no DLNA all things that the Netbox does pretty well. My 2c, but in terms of Apple TV is one of the few products that Apple has dropped the ball with I think..

Hope this helps explain things a bit.

thanks