Xtreamer, No More Issues
I’ve noticed over the weekend that since I fitted the add-on cooler to the Xtreamer I have not been having any issues as I had described when I first purchased the little media streamer. This is quite awesome as I did start to wonder if I had just wasted £109 on a new heater.
The only issue I have come across is when I replaced the router with my D-Link Dir-655 as the old router had started to randomly drop the connection to the Internet. The dir-655 was setup as an access point for the Xtreamer on Wireless-N to get the best speed streaming downstairs to the TV. When I came to swap the routers I completely reset the d-link to factory settings. I suspect I didn’t setup the wireless on the same settings as before as now the Xtreamer fails to connect to the Wireless-N network and get an IP address. However the old router which is Wireless-G still has some life in it to act as a access-point for the Xtreamer. The laptops are on the Wireless-N network which keeps the airways clear enough for the Xtreamer to stream HD surprisingly!
One day I’ll end up fixing it as it was connected to the d-link but if it isn’t broken don’t fix it. Right?
Fitted The Xtreamer Cooler
I fitted the Xtreamer cooler the other night. I was a little concerned how easy the how-to made the whole process look, nothing is easy. To be fair though once I’d got the side panel off, which must have been stuck down with the worlds strongest double-sided tape the whole thing was a breeze to complete. It even looks good as an end product with the cooler attached. On a plus note it worked afterwards. I hadn’t slipped and ploughed a screwdriver across the chipset.
I haven’t however watched it enough since to see if the cooler actually works but reading around others seem to think so. Its also stopped acting up. After a little playing around after my previous post, here. It turned out the Windows Home Server wasn’t 100% happy with the Xtreamer on the network. Its fine now, the problem was the WHS, at idle spun down the hard drives when they were not in use and when the Xtreamer started to stream a file there was a delay while the hard-drives spin back up. This is ok when your streaming to Boxee, a PC etc as there is about a 2 second delay the Xtreamer however seems to get confused. I think I’ll file a bug report when I can test this more.
On a similar note the Xtreamer with its HDMI output is pushing me towards getting a HD TV. I’ve been watching the new series Life on BBC/iPlayer and the awesome shots they have in HD are just amazing but I’m stuck watching it on my PC monitor… for now.. any recommendations?
The Xtreamer Cooler Has Arrived
So my Xtreamer cooler has arrived and I thought I’d take this time you tell you and upload a picture from my iphone. Will have to fit this tomorrow but hopefully this will kill some of the annoyances with it when it starts to over heat!
The Xtreamer
So I got a new gizmo a while ago. I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while. An Xtreamer, It streams video and music to the TV downstairs from the WHS. Its a good little product and works well. When it works, when it doesn’t its a little frustrating. I think last night it took 10 minutes to navigate the menus and sometimes it decides not to even play a file.
I have mine set-up on the Wireless N router (D-Link DIR-655) which doesn’t cause any problems at all. I wasn’t sure how well the wireless would work, as I don’t have the option to hook it up to a real connection, but no complaints with the wireless. One annoying point is the cooling fan inside the device. Its whinny even on the lowest of the low settings, sound a bit like a fly buzzing around. However you can turn it off but as I found out the other night after about 4 hours of streaming or being turned on its performance starts to get affected by it over heating. A new head sink add-on has just been released but still it shouldn’t really over heat.
Although when it works its a really good little device. The navigating the menus are quick but sometimes there is a little delay from the remote. I hope a firmware update maybe fixes of these issues when it arrived it needed updating so maybe another one is in the wind. I should ask google.
This is not suppose to be a rant or a review of it I’m just saying. I’ll keep this updated. I think I’ll get this heat sink and with a firmware update then maybe all these problems with go away!
