Bescor MP101 WIRELESS DIGITAL MUSIC PLAYER; 802.11B

Reviewed by: tahan02

Duration of ownership:

Strengths: Very sleek looking, Setup is not complicated - including encrypted networks, Headphone jack for personal listening

Weaknesses: Must use the remote control to operate player, Best if your music is organized with ID3 tags, No optical ouput

Overall Evaluation: The Netgear MP101 is a very intuitive device. The first thing you must do before operating the player is to install a small program that compiles all of your mp3 (and wma) files. It makes a kind of database for them which allows the wireless media player to display the songs and play them in an organized way. Then, you power on the the player. Even though I hand an encrypted wireless network and even mac address filtering, it didn't take too long before the MP101 was playing my mp3 files. I'd say the whole setup lasted less than 20 minutes. The music quality is really good, especially on your home speakers. Some of the weaknesses I mentioned, I'll go into a little bit. There are no buttons on the actual media player box, which forces the user to use the remote control that is included. This means if you regualrly lose your remote control, rethink buying this. Also, when the media player is playing your music, it tries to organize it by artist name, track title, and so on. So if you have a lot of mp3s that are tagged "Unknown Artist" or "Unknown Title" or anything that makes it hard to distinguish what the song is, it will be hard to play these tracks. And finally, for the avid music listener, there is no optical output. This is pretty self explanatory. But still, this is a very useful device for someone who just wants to play their mp3 files somewhere in their house other that their computer. It's the best price compared to other companies that make similar products. I would recommend this player.