NetGear Wireless Digital Music Player MP101 Review
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Have you ever wanted to listen to your MP3 collection – comfortably located on your computer's hard drive – on your surround sound speakers...in another room? Today we’re going to go over a new product from NetGear which allows you to do just that. Say hello to the Wireless Digital Music Player MP101.
What's in the box
- The player, which includes a bright four-line LCD screen
- A remote control
- 2 AA batteries
- Power adapter
- Ethernet cable
- RCA stereo audio cable. (I found these to be too short.)
- Installation guide
- Resource CD
- Warranty/Support information card for 1 year’s worth of warranty.
- 30 free days of Rhapsody (RealNetworks' new music service with over 630,000 songs)
Requirements
- A network, either wired or wireless
- Windows 98SE, 2000, ME, or XP
- At least 500 MHz, 128mb of memory and 20mb of free disk space (At least 1 PC)
- Network speeds of 1,2, 5.5, and 11 Mbps when being used wirelessly
- When being used wired, it supports 10/100 Mbps
Now, before we get started, keep in mind that this is purely a music player; it does not stream any videos or images. Broadband Internet service is recommended by NetGear for the use of this device and, frankly, you’ll need it.
Rhapsody
As I mentioned before, included with the package is a 30 day subscription to Rhapsody, RealNetworks’ downloadable/streaming music service. I found Rhapsody very difficult to access and it’s of no use unless you have an account with them, which requires a monthly fee. When installing Rhapsody, it requires a credit card to register it, and at that point you can just put the coupon code that is included with the MP101 to get your month free.
(It should be noted that Rhapsody is only available to U.S. users. For those of you interested, you can find more details about Rhapsody at http://www.rhapsody.com.)
Without the coupon, Rhapsody costs $9.95 a month or you can pay $24.95 quarterly; this gives you streaming access to Rhapsody's tracks and Internet radio stations. The bit-rate limitation of 128Kbps may affect your decision on choosing to pay for the service.
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