Streaming media

Wow, I’m sorry and surprised to hear of the poor experience with the Cisco products. That is a shame. On the chance that your experience could have been more of an exception, I thought I’d share my experience as well, as it could not have been more different.
I purchased the Cisco Wireless Audio Premier Kit, which includes the wireless touch-screen Controller, the Extender (for connecting to an AV Receiver or other self-powered device), and the self-powered Director. It also includes a free year of Rhapsody service for a limited time – a nice bonus, I would later find. My wireless router is the WTR610N and I have a Vista laptop.
I didn’t bother with the manual setup and instead went straight to the CD, which based on the previous review sounds like is the way to go. It proceeded to load all of the setup software without issue. After a few minutes it then provides a prompt to begin setting up the individual devices. You simply select the radio button next to the device you would like to setup. It asks you to do a hardline connect to start, then to plug the power in, then hit Next. PRESTO, in a matter of minutes the device was up and running. The software did a quick check to make sure it is available wirelessly (asking me to disconnect the hardline in the process), provided the option to name the “zone” it will be in, and I was done.
At this point the software asks if you would like to connect additional devices, and it took me through the same set of steps for each device. The only difference is the touchscreen controller, which requires a usb connection to a PC or laptop. It also asked me for my account information for online services such as Rhapsody.
As soon as I had completed the setup of the three devices, I placed them in each of their respective rooms, connected them to my audio system or individual speakers as appropriate, and off I went. First, I familiarized myself with the wireless control, which I found to be pretty intuitive. The GUI is nice, but I did find that the touch screen could be a little more sensitive, as it did not always recognize my finger initially. It seems to prefer a slightly longer press, although not annoyingly so, just a fraction of a second longer than expected. It also provides the same functions with the spin wheel on the side, which was a nice feature and what I find myself using the majority of the time. In any case, seven choices are given on the first screen:

Settings – for accessing network options, screen appearance and button options, and changing “zones”
Rhapsody – access to the Rhapsody service
All Libraries – access to your personal music libraries on devices that are on your home network
Radiotime – access to the Radiotime service – live, online streaming of radio stations across the world.
Now Playing Queue – what is currently in your queue to play.
Play To – option to synchronize zones to play the same music without any delay.
Favorites – 10 assignable slots for your top songs, playlists, artists, etc. from any of the above music sources.

I first went into All Libraries, where the controller was able to immediately identify my laptop and found all of my music, organizing it all as you would expect – by artist, album, genre, etc. It also provides a search by function and allows you to simply peruse individual folders on the computer. I am happy to say that this worked flawlessly for me, and I was able to listen to my music without issue.

Radiotime is a free service that streams radio broadcasts from around the globe over the internet. It is organized by talk, sports, music, etc. and further by genre. It even recognizes your local stations. It is a feature that I enjoyed a lot. A handful of the radio stations, however, do not seem to be compatible with the players. They are few and far between, but still a bit frustrating when you come across one, as you’d expect this service to work the same for all sources.

The ultimate, though is the Rhapsody service. Not only did it work without any issues at all, the quality of the broadcasts was a terrific surprise. I have a high end home theater system that can be picky with substandard material, but with this service it came through full and rich sounding, with all of the dynamics you would expect from a CD. Needless to say, having access to a digital pantheon of music of this quality, either that I can search or that is streamed to me through “channels” was a great experience that worked for me without a single hiccup after I signed up for the service.

Use of the Now Playing Queue require a quick read of the Controller User Guide, as features such as repeat and shuffle are not immediately obvious (a right click of the spin wheel brings up the available playback features, which vary depending on the source). However, once I became familiar with these features, playing the music in the queue in the manor I wanted worked as expected. Overall, I found the playback functionality to be uneventful - which is a good thing.

There are, of course, a few areas that need improvement. For one, trying to use the Director without either the included IR remote or touch screen controller is not pleasant. As explained in the previous review, there are two variable function buttons on either side of the screen (4 total) and their functions are not always displayed on the screen, so you have to remember what each one does. It can be annoying to work with the director like this. I found that just using the IR remote was simpler and easier, and of course it can be controlled with the touch screen controller just like the Extender. The touch screen controller’s battery life is not long enough – an hour or so of heavy use at which point it needs to be plugged in to either an electrical outlet or usb port. And the touch screen itself could be a bit more sensitive, as explained previously. I would also like to see more support for different audio files, such as the lossless versions from Apple and Microsoft.

Overall, the setup and use of this system has exceeded my expectations. For me, the setup process worked exactly as expected and without any hiccups. I was up and running in 30 minutes or so. Access to content, be it on my laptop, Radiotime, or Rhapsody was similarly easy and painless, and quite intuitive. The quality of music is a wonderful surprise and gives me confidence that my CD purchasing expenses will start to decrease dramatically. Despite a couple of quirks with the UI, this system is providing to be a sound investment and providing a lot of enjoyment.