GoVideo DVD Player Gets Networked

One of the many benefits of a home network is that your audio and video content does not have to be landlocked within your PC anymore. GoVideo's $299 D2730 Networked DVD Player integrates streaming media support into a standard DVD player, so you can listen to and view your PC-based media on your living-room television. However, my shipping unit demonstrated that merging PC content with an easy-to-use consumer electronics interface can be quite a bit harder than it sounds.

Setting up the slimline unit should be relatively simple: You install a server applet on your PC, connect the D2730 to your TV (like any other consumer player), and then link it to your network via the included ethernet PC Card (wireless users can swap out the included card for their own Wi-Fi version--but the 802.11b variety may not be speedy enough for full-motion video). Network connectivity should proceed automatically; if you run into difficulties--as I did--you may have to resort to accessing a somewhat kludgy network setup screen (often, antivirus and software firewall programs are the culprits).

Once I had the unit up and running, it streamed my music, images, and even random video clips from my PC to my TV quite capably. Out of the box, the D2730 supports a wide array of multimedia formats--MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video, MP3 and WMA audio, and JPEG images--so I never lacked for suitable content.

Unfortunately, the remote control is poorly designed, with tiny, difficult-to-push buttons in all the wrong places. And the interface for accessing the network requires too many clicks for basic tasks such as returning to the main menu.

GoVideo deserves credit for bringing this technology to market (companies such as Gateway are following suit with comparable units), but I'll wait for its next generation before I buy. The next time around, I hope, the GoVideo's interface and remote will be as slick as the current device's technical capabilities.

SUMMARY

GoVideo D2730 Networked DVD Player Price when reviewed: $299 Current prices (if available) A networked DVD player is a great idea, but the execution here needs work.