Philips SL50i - £50-£80

Now replaced by the SL5520 (review soon), the SL50i was Philips first device in this market

Aimed to compete with the sometimes unreliable Netgear MP101, this small device was an excellent first attempt

The reliability problems of the Netgear are not present in this device, although, like the Netgear, the suppied software is poor. Fortunately it also works with the excellent Twonkyvison.

A small, attractive box, it can be kept in the smallest of spaces and includes a large, easy to use remote

Setup is straight forward and the unit tells you what it is doing (automated voice)

The real drawback is the small screen which is not backlit, so navigating tracks is impossible unless sitting next to it

	Rating	Notes
Price		PC World were selling excess stock at £50 which was a bargain, original rrp was much higher.
Sound Quality		Perfectly acceptable, but won't blow you away.
Ease of Use		Easy to use/navigate, but screen is too small and lacks a backlight which makes navigation difficult
Compatibility		Supplied software is poor and heavy on resources, but can be used with Twonkyvision which is reliable, quick and runs on many NAS devices
Looks		Looks good, small footprint, but quite plastic. Screen is a let down though
Audio Formats		MP3 only, very restrictive
Reliability		With twonkyvision, extremely reliable, with the supplied software, much less so.
Networking Support		802.11b only WEP 128-bit Ethernet Port No WPA
Overall		Potentially an excellent player, let down by the poor screen and supplied software.

Pro's

• Size
• Price
• Internet radio
• Good remote

Con's

• No backlight on screen
• Small screen
• Lack of audio formats
• Supplied software

Supported hardware/software

Name	Compatible
Twonkyvision
Slimserver
Musicmatch Jukebox
Windows Media Connect
iTunes
Netgear
Philips MediaManager
Sonos
Any Network Share

Name	Compatible	Instructions
Qnap TS-101		Pre-Installed
Buffalo Linkstation
Buffalo Terrastation
Infrant ReadyNAS
Linksys NSLU2		Here
Lacie Ethernet Disk
Maxtor Shared Storage Plus		Here
Kuro Box
Freecom FSG-3

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