Philips NP1100/37 Streamium Network Music Player with 3.0" B&W Display

I was looking for a player to use with Mediatomb. I got very irritated with the Logitech squeezebox as it only supported it's own server which is, quite frankly, awful.
Set up was a breeze on this by comparison. I just plugged in. Powered it on. Selected the Mediatomb server and played music. That simple.

I store my music as FLAC files and transcode them to PCM for this player (and the PS3).
It sounds fine. I use the digital-out and use the DAC in my Pioneer 1019 receiver.
Head-to-head comparisons with the Squeezebox did show the DAC in Sqeezebox is superior with
richer fuller sounds. But quite honestly doesn't justify the extra $150.
If you have a good external DAC then I'm sure it'll produce fine sounds.

The screen is a little blocky. The remote is fiddly with small buttons.
It did manage to find some fairly obscure radio stations through the search features.

In all I'm happy with it for a <$100 price tag.

I originally became interested in this device when I was researching ways to be able to listen to music in my living room from music stored on an external hard drive attached to my computer in my office . Before this purchase, in order to accomplish this, I would have to bring a laptop into the living room, turn it on, connect to a wireless network, load Windows Media Player, choose the songs I wanted to play, connect it to my stereo, and find somewhere to stash the laptop. Then I would have to run back and forth whenever I wanted to change songs. Pretty annoying!

The Philips NP1100 was one of several moderately priced devices that I compared when shopping. The Philips name was one of the only recognizable brand names that I came across. I read the reviews and figured it was worth a try. THIS THING HAS EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS! Not only can I easily access thousands of my own songs with the click of the remote, I can also stream flawless internet radio from anywhere in my living room or kitchen. The number of stations is staggering, almost overwhelming. Over 95% of thousands of pre-loaded internet radio stations load and play within seconds. Hardly any commercials. The bandwidth on my 6 Meg DSL is plenty to stream without interruption or buffering. Sound quality is superb.

Setup took less than 15 minutes. I am a PC user and haven't yet converted to Mac, so I already use WMP11 on my office computer. Once I logged on to my secure network, the device was already recognized by WMP and sharing was automatically enabled. You only need to log in once, then the device automatically logs you in whenever you turn it on. When you are not using it, it looks like a modern digital clock. I can also unplug it and take it with me to other rooms in the house that have a stereo with an rca aux-in. I paid less than $90 new. Love it!

I'm a geek, so if you're a fellow geek I suppose you'll find this review particularly very useful.

I had never heard of this device until I was walking through a local store and saw them on a closeout sale. When I walked by it just looked like a neat clock, but when I saw it played internet radio I had to get one.

I trust the Philips brand and before purchasing I looked it up on Amazon to see the reviews and Amazon's price. The store was selling it at a significant discount, and with it having a rating of 4 of 5 stars I knew I couldn't go wrong.

I had this thing set up on my home network in about 5 minutes & was able to pull music from my NAS device which has a UPNP server built in. I then was able to pull up various internet radio streams. Now I don't have to have a wire going to my computer from my speakers, I can just have my Streamium sitting there ready to play.

I went back to the store the next week and saw that they had been marked down an additional $10 (too bad I didn't kepe my receipt). They didn't have it set up to do anything but within 2 minutes I had it connected to the store's wireless network and streaming an internet radio station. I showed it to a friend of mine who bought one on the spot.

I don't have a rhapsody account and have not yet attempted to use that functionality.

Things I Like:
- Has a neat-looking clock (you can disable this if you wish)
- The clock will automatically synchronize the time with internet time servers
- Connects to wireless OR wired networks
- Has an EXTENSIVE list of internet radio stations built in
- You can add other compatible radio stations through a web interface on a Philips Site.
- RCA analog output, headphone output, and Coax Digital output
- When listening to an internet station you can click "favorite" to have that station added to your favorites
- Song/artist data displays on the screen (if the station supports it/your files are tagged poperly)
- Built in volume control (Great since the powered speakers I'm using don't have a remote)
- Brightness of the display is adjustable
- Sleek design
- Easy firmware upgrades right from the device
- With the right UPNP software you can control this device from anywhere in your network. I haven't played with this too extensively yet.

Things I don't like:
- Philips maintains their own list of internet radio stations, which may change. If your favorite station disappears you need to re-add it manually.
- Browsing through your home music collection can be tedious. If you want a device solely for playing your mp3s then there are probably better devices out there. (I like XBMC software on a dedicated box)
- I'm not sure if it's my time zone or the new Daylight Savings Time rules but the clock was 1 hour off after the switch. Once I disabled DST on the clock it started displaying the correct time.
- Song/artist data scrolls extremely slowly
- No Alarm Clock Function

Other things to note:
- The only button on the device is a power button. (Don't lose the remote!)
- Shiny finish will attract fingerprints
- The device seems to depend on a server at Philips for internet radio information. This could mean that if that server were to ever go down that the device would be unable to play internet radio streams. Given that we're dealing with Philips, I don't see that happening but it's something to be aware of.


Conclusion: I've had this thing for about a month now and I love it. I actually bought a second one to put in my kitchen. For the price of a squeezebox you can get one of these and an incredible set of powered PC speakers. It looks as if Philips is no longer producing this model and have migrated towards ones with built in speakers. For those of us who have speaker systems and would like an easy way to get internet radio or our mp3s to play over them without using a computer for that purpose, this is the way to go!

This device is great for non-techies. You might have to help them set it up initially, but after that they should be just fine. I've handed the remote over to plenty of people and they've had little to no trouble navigating the internet radio stations.

If you're like me and never read the manual when setting up a new piece of AV equipment, you'll have no problems. I use this with wired Ethernet but also found it works well with wireless. If you plan to use the Internet streaming audio feature, run, don't walk to the Philips web site and set up an account to manage your Internet radio stations.

The display is black & white at eye level, but at a 15-30 degree angle above the unit takes on a bluish tint. It is large enough to read at least 15 feet away.

The remote has small lettering and is difficult to use to enter text. Remote is not backlit nor does it glow in the dark. I only use it to turn the unit on and off and navigate the menus, so I didn't bother updating my Harmony remote.

I got this from a Lightning Deal for close to fifty of the U.S. dollars, which is a fair price.

I bought this as a Gold Box deal and am very pleased. My hi-fi setup included satellite radio but I did not want to pay the fee. This gives me excellent internet music stations @ no cost! My only beef is that it is not compatible with my Mac for music streaming. I do have other "PCs" that I use with it however.