ZyXEL ZyXEL DMA-1000 Digital Media Theater

Though the remote control fits well in your hand, little thought seems to have gone into button placement. The bottom, hard-to-reach section of the remote holds 20 identical-looking small buttons, including Play, Pause, Video, Music, and Rotate. Trying to pause or rewind quickly can be a pain; by the time I found the right buttons, the moment I wanted to reexamine would be long gone. The remote control does have one very appealing touch: a Tools button that behaves like the right-mouse button in Windows. If you are watching a video, listening to music, or watching a slide show, clicking the Tools button will bring up a small, activity-appropriate menu in the upper-left corner. For instance, if you hit the Tools button while examining photos, the ZyXel will display a menu of slide-show options, so you can pick the background music and the length of time each picture will be displayed.

The ZyXel DMA-1000 delivered pleasing video, despite its slight pixelation of difficult-to-render movements, such as dissolves and swirling fog.

Despite nice video and a low price, the DMA-1000 is our least favorite streamer in this group, mostly due to its lack of Wi-Fi and its average sound.

Lincoln Spector