Roku SoundBridge M1000/M1001 Network Music System

I've had my Roku for about a month now. I have a huge collection of songs - none of it Itunes DRM I should add (perish the thought) - and was looking for a solution. The Roku does exactly what you think it will - with a few bells and whistles.

Setup is easy. I'm running a older "b" wireless network, over about 50 feet, through 1 wall and I've only ever had 1 problem (and I think that was a bad mp3 file). It does all it's buffering before it starts to play - brings in a slight delay if you're watching it, but nothing noticeable if you're sitting back listening. It can now connect using WAP or WEP security and getting it to do so was easy.

I've been running it using ITunes on the host PC. Bit of a pain in that ITunes has to be running on that PC, but I'm looking to either move the files to a NAS or maybe try Media Player (I don't think that has to be running).

The updated Internet Radio tuning - you don't need to have your PC on - is pretty good (I found a few stations from back home I can listen to!) and there seems to be good functionality for finding more.

The only quibble I have - which stopped it getting 5 stars - is that you can't save your "playlist" you create on it. Other than that, this is "the business".

I received a Soundbridge for Christmas and love the features it has to offer. Setup is easy and straight forward. Once on the network, the product auto detects available music servers and offers relativaly easy navigation throught the archive. With Rhapsody, I've had the player streaming subscription media without issue.

I do have to echo the complaint of other reviewers. The WiFi reception is poor. I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that the Soundbridge runs 802.11b and that I have old plaster walls in my house. My laptop connecting on 802.11g has no problem at the same distance. I'll have to resort to running a wire instead.

Roku soundbridge is a great product. It works great and is fairly easy to set up.

My son and I set it up on Christmas day with little problem - in 15 minutes. We are both in non computer sales and are fairly good with computers but we are not IT professionals.

the only thing we had trouble with was the shareing our files on the computer side. The directions could have been a little clearer here - windows media connectk! And, you have to have your music-MP3s in my-docs and my-music - i did not so, i had to move them there so the soundbridge could find them.

setting up an account on radioroku.com is a great feature of this product too. by doing this you can control the soundbridge play and pause on your computer rather than the remote control. the internet radio stations are great also.

seriously folks, this thing is easy to set up and run - we luv it so much we have bought a second on for my son. He can not wait to get is as it is a pain to hook an ipod into his stereo system

Endless Variety canceled the order with no explanation. I was counting on giving this as a present.

SB1001 plays great, but sounds even GREATER when connected via optical out to my external DAC.

The problem however is that when you turn the Soundbridge off, the digital out (red light) stays ON so it's constantly sending an output signal. This prevents my DAC from ever going into standby mode! Roku user forum on their website has a post on this problem from back in 2005 and it's yet to be corrected.

Other posts on the forum indicate a lack of support for enhancements and bug fixes (frustration) from quite a few other owners.

Buyer beware!